Transparency is the key to getting your application approved. However, if you don't have all the information, be upfront about it, and your grant writer will help you.

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So, let's say that you are an illustrious nonprofit seeking to bring Porta-potties to traveling public fundraisers (PortiPi, Corp). I have never seen a nonprofit Porta-potty company before. However, it seems like a safe example (lest my clients recognize themselves in my story).

The Director of PortiPi, Sally Charmin, collaborates with her Grant Writer on a previously agreed upon grant application.

Grant writer:
"What is this 'general expense' category totaling $206,000 (I have to write a budget narrative around this monstrous figure)?"

Since the total organizational budget is in the vicinity of $300,000, the grant writer knows that any foundation willing to give money wants transparency as to where their funds are going, and this $206,000 chunk will not fly without further specification.

However, Ms. Charmin feels awkward in being confronted:
"Any organization has expenses. I am too busy to deal with this. You have all that you need to write a grant."

True. Technically. However, the success of such a grant proposal (based on a overly generalized 'explanation' of a $206,000 expense) is dubious at best.

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Maybe Miss Charmin felt awkward with being questioned. Perhaps, she didn't know where the money was going, mainly if her organization was a bit disorganized and never planned a (board-approved) proposed budget. Regardless, such an approach does not spell success (in personal nor company finances).

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As a grant writer, I have plenty to do. I don't go digging for your information out of pure, masochistic pleasure. I go searching because I have to fulfill the requirements of a particular grant questionnaire. Each grant application is different. Some are more involved than others. Some can take me hours on end, whereas others only a few. Sometimes I get asked ten million separate questions, reinforcing and repeating information from before. Other times I get asked for longer narratives. The main point is that it's not me asking. It's the foundation that we are applying to for funding.

Think of your grant writer as your best friend. Your grant writer is not a tax collector that is digging through your taxes to collect. Instead, your grant writer needs to be armed with all the information that you have (and if you don't have the information, get assistance in finding it) so that you can construct the best narratives possible. Be transparent with the information you have and don't have so that your grant writer can help you find whatever is necessary.

Narratives that you're most likely to be asked for include

• Mission statement
• Personal/company narrative
• How are you helping the community
• What problems in the community do you target, and what are your demographics
• Project narrative
• Projected annual budget
• Project budget narrative (if your company has multiple projects, we are specifically writing about the project you ask for the funds for). We all know that other projects are crucial to your company and produce much good within the community. However, this is not the space to brag. The purpose of the project budget narrative is for the foundation to understand the financial scope of the project you're proposing).

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Along with narratives, you will provide documents. Some of the most common include
• IRS Nonprofit determination letter 501 (c) 3
• Latest 990 form
• Latest audit
• Board member list/contact, their company affiliations, and professions (sometimes bord/staff demographics)
• board-approved budget for the coming year
• project budget (this is NOT the project budget narrative)
• List of names and amounts contributed by donors/other grants for the project

While This is not an exhaustive list by any means, it is a typical list of the files that you should have ready for your grant writer. Your grant writer will write your narratives, but they cannot invent data (no matter how good their imagination is).

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The moral of my story!
Have a clear purpose in mind and the data/documents to support it.