10 Ways to Immediately Strengthen your Proposals
I’ve spent nearly my entire career writing, editing, and reviewing funding proposals, grant applications, and other documents designed to help organizations raise more money. Based on what I’ve seen, I have come up with ten simple and straightforward things to help nonprofit staff shore up their writing skills and maximize their chances of securing funding.
Many of these suggestions may feel like picking nits and mincing words, but I’m a firm believer that every grammatical advantage can help your organization succeed. And I certainly don’t think these suggestions could be limited to just proposals and requests for funding. Where appropriate, I’ve also included examples of what to avoid and what to do instead, using the fictitious organization, Feeding Green Valley.
1. A Passive voice makes for a passive case
Writing passively isn’t simply poor form, but it can dampen your messaging (see #7) and after a while, it becomes tiresome to readers. Swap out those passive sentences to more active ones, which will generate intrigue throughout your proposal and keep readers more interested in what you’re looking to accomplish. In an era where brevity is valued more than ever, converting passive sentences into active ones is a great place to start.
Example
Don’t say this: Nutritious food was received by members of the Green Valley community.
Instead say this: Green Valley community members received nutritious food.
2. POV inconsistencies
Switching back and forth mid-sentence between describing your organization as “Feeding Green Valley” and using words like “we” and “our” may seem like a victimless offense, but it’s poor grammar and should be avoided– at least at the sentence-level. Instead, opt for maintaining a consistent point of view throughout your application or proposal and only switch back and forth if absolutely necessary–and even then, at the paragraph level at minimum.
Example
Don’t say this: Feeding Green Valley accomplished so much in 2024 and we are excited to build on our success in the year ahead.
Instead say this: We accomplished so much in 2024 and are excited to build on our success in the year ahead.
3. “We” is who?
Speaking of we…not to get too existential, but who is “we”? Is “we” the organization? A group of staff members? The field at large? Members of the board? Don’t assume that readers know who you are talking about when using this prevalent pronoun–unless you've made it explicitly clear at the outset of your pitch. Avoid using “we” (and “our” for that matter) if possible, and if not, then make it clear to readers early on who exactly “we” and “our” is.
Example
Don’t say this: After reviewing Feeding Green Valley’s financial situation, we decided to purchase a new truck to expand our reach.
Instead say this: After reviewing Feeding Green Valley’s financial situation, the executive leadership team decided to purchase a new truck to expand the organization’s reach.
4. “Unique” is weak…
I have to give the late author Charles Harrington Elster credit for this one. His book The Verbal Advantage is incredible and, as a lifetime lexicon learner, one of my favorites. In it, he explains that “unique has been used so often as an elegant variation for unusual and uncommon that it is no longer unusual or uncommon, and hardly elegant.” There are plenty of far more elegant variations of this entirely non-unique word–with my personal favorite being “inimitable”. Don’t settle for “unique”; try to find a word that better describes what you’re trying to convey instead.
Example
Don’t say this: Feeding Green Valley’s unique approach to addressing food insecurity ensures that services prioritize those most in need.
Instead say this: Feeding Green Valley’s systematic approach to addressing food insecurity ensures that services prioritize those most in need.
5. …And so are other adjectives
Along with “unique,” there are a slew of other words–many of them adjectives–that have been exploited over the years that they’ve effectively lost all value or meaning. These include “transformative,” “impactful,” “innovative,” “underserved,” and many more. If your grant application starts to read more like a game of ad libs gone wild, ask yourself instead how you could prove that adjective to readers using more objective and straightforward language–what about the program makes it impactful? What about the community makes them underserved? Doing so will provide readers with a high-dose of clarity when reviewing your proposal.
Example
Don’t say this: Our impactful mobile pantry program reaches hundreds of underserved households each month.
Instead say this: Our mobile pantry program provides healthy and nutritious food to hundreds of households each month that would otherwise not be able to afford it.
6. Weak verbs and weak action
This is perhaps the most pervasive thing I see when editing grant applications and proposals. Folks, (myself included) often fall into the habit of using ubiquitous verbs like “helps”, “works” “supports”, “advances”, and others, in conjunction with the base form of stronger, more compelling verbs. This diminishes the impact and influence the organization has–not to mention, it adds unnecessary words to your proposal. Avoid falling into this habit and needlessly hedging the work your organization does and the impact it accomplishes.
Example
Don’t say this: Feeding Green Valley works to address food insecurity by supporting advocacy efforts that provide food assistance vouchers to local residents.
Instead say this: Feeding Green Valley addresses food insecurity by advocating for food assistance vouchers for local residents.
7. Jargon
There’s obvious jargon (think “embodied carbon” and “climate justice” if you’re in the environmental space) and then words that are disguised as non-jargon but are still jargon. These are sneaky things like “capacity-building” and “collaboration” that, without the requisite context, only mean specific things to specific people–and your readers may not be those people. When in doubt about a certain word or phrase, explain it in simpler terms and get specific. What, exactly, are “capacity-building activities” or what does “partner collaboration” actually look like? Don’t overlook these jargony words disguised as innocent terminology.
Example
Don’t say this: Feeding Green Valley will collaborate with strategic partners to develop a program that will provide nutritious snacks to children after school.
Instead say this: Feeding Green Valley will meet with the local school district and members of the PTA once a month to develop a program that will provide nutritious snacks to children after school.
8. Eliminate redundancies
Ooo this is one of my favorites…and I hope you’re not bored yet. Eliminating redundancies in your writing is yet another simple way to create clean and crisp proposals. For some reason, our society seems to have no issue with redundancies, such as “free gift”, “future plans”, “unexpected surprise”, “brief summary”, and so forth. In proposal writing, however, nouns like these–and many, many others–can stand alone without their accompanying adjective (which is implied already by the noun itself). In the ongoing effort to eliminate wordiness from your writing, removing redundancies is a great place to start.
Example
Don’t say this: The programs team at Feeding Green Valley believes that future plans for the mobile pantry project should include locations in close proximity to the senior center.
Instead say this: The programs team at Feeding Green Valley believes that plans for the mobile pantry project should include locations close to the senior center.
9. Speak the reader’s language–and personalize!
Funders and investors often have a certain lexicon that is ingrained in their goals, strategies, and mission statements. Speak that language! If your organization has a building decarbonization (jargon alert) program, but your reader’s mission is to deploy green technologies into homes–talk about your efforts through that lens (to the best you can). Do your due diligence and learn how your reader’s organization talks and describes their interests and goals. Your pitch should be about how to advance their goals just as much as it is about advancing your own. Bonus points for adding personal touches throughout.
10. Know when to stop reviewing
Analysis paralysis is an actual condition that impacts tons of organizations and teams. I recall working on a massive report for a previous organization and our team spent 15 minutes discussing a particular sentence fragment. This to say, know when enough is enough. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good and as long as you have put a hefty dose of time and effort into crafting a compelling pitch (and adhering to the rules above!), you’ve already greatly increased your chances of securing funding.
Recommitting to a Culture of Philanthropy in the Trump 2.0 Era
Every day I open LinkedIn or any other news-sharing website, I see more news of aggrieved attempts by the Trump Administration to claw back federal grants awarded during the Biden presidency. The White House has done a complete 180 when it comes to funding critical subnational work, especially efforts designed to combat climate change and advance environmental causes. A recent attempt by President Trump’s EPA has been to claw back $7 billion awarded under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to help disadvantaged communities adopt solar technologies. How can nonprofit organizations and leaders remain optimistic and true to their values and mission during such a time of upheaval and uncertainty? It begins with a reaffirmation to instill a “culture of philanthropy” within their organizations and acknowledging that while these pains and threats are very much real, there are resources and strategies to help them navigate these tumultuous times.
What exactly is a culture of philanthropy and how can leaders leverage their components to achieve stability? According to a 2015 report commissioned by the Walter and Evelyn Hass, Jr. Fund, a culture of philanthropy is “one in which everyone—board, staff and executive director—has a part to play in raising resources for the organization. It’s about relationships not just money…and it’s a culture in which fund development is a valued and mission-aligned component of everything the organization does.” The report goes on to outline four core components of a culture of philanthropy—a shared responsibility for development, integration and alignment with mission, a focus on fundraising as engagement, and strong donor relationships—each of which are more critical than ever in the Trump 2.0 era.
A Shared Responsibility for Development
To adequately address President Trump’s attacks on the social sector, nonprofit teams don’t need to demonstrate merely a shared responsibility for development – but rather a shared commitment to development. Many organizations are facing shortfalls or deficits that could greatly impact their capacity to deliver their services. And while it is impractical to think that everyone in a nonprofit organization will start picking up the phone to make solicitations, there are proactive actions that every single team member can make to set up the organization for fundraising success. For example, an IT person can help streamline CRM management or a programs staff member can set a goal of meeting with five funders each month. Proactive steps like these can transform nonprofit employees from the mindset of simply supporting development efforts to catalyzing development efforts. Everyone at a nonprofit organization is a fundraiser, in their own distinctive way.
Integral to this shared commitment, especially during these turbulent times, is a commitment from senior leaders within the organization to provide specific and transparent updates on various fundraising successes and challenges the organization is encountering. Sharing information with staff and specific ways that they can advance various fundraising efforts is critical to securing new partnerships—and strengthening existing ones. Best of all, this transparency reinforces the organization’s culture of philanthropy and strengthens the collective commitment staff have towards achieving fundraising success.
Integration and Alignment with Mission
Nonprofit organizations that secured federal grants are having their impact threatened by President Trump’s claw back attempts; less funding equates to less impact, and less progress an organization can make towards achieving its mission. Like nonprofit staff sharing their commitment to development, a culture of philanthropy demands that fundraising efforts be ubiquitous across teams and tied closely to other key pieces of the organization. Effective fundraising follows effective programs, effective branding, and effective leadership—these are the horses that draw the fundraising wagon.
How does this approach look different during the Trump 2.0 era? There is no doubt a greater sense of urgency many nonprofits are facing. Nonprofits and leaders should look to actively remove communications barriers between teams, intentionally increase their accessibility to all staff members, and encourage all staff, not just those on the development team, to share innovative ideas on how to secure support for the mission. Each of these tactics can help organizations achieve fundraising success, while also fostering a more supportive work environment and culture of philanthropy.
A Focus on Fundraising as Engagement
When an organization commits to fostering a culture of philanthropy, fund development is intrinsically woven into engagement efforts with a range of audiences. During President Trump’s first administration, attacks on and the disinvestment from progressive environmental goals and groups—hello, Paris Climate Agreement—had a massive backlash effect. As a result, subnational governments stepped up their commitments to climate significantly, the America is All In coalition was forged, and a commitment to local climate action was reaffirmed.
This time around, there is a sense that for every person working to execute President Trump’s agenda, there are hundreds—if not, thousands—of people fighting back. Nonprofits should do all they can to actively engage these folks with their mission and cause—connecting with them through social media outreach, volunteer opportunities, intimate conversations, and more.
In his book Fundable & Findable, Kevin L. Brown stresses, among many other things, the importance of nonprofits differentiating themselves from other competitors and effectively communicating that difference to their existing and potential constituents. Clearly identifying your different audiences and communicating compelling messages to each one is critical these days, not only because of the current federal landscape, but also because nonprofits are operating within the bounds of an attention-based economy, with a limited amount of time to inspire individuals to care about your mission and cause. It is critical for nonprofits to find creative ways to engage existing supporters of the mission while attracting new ones. By asking the question, How can we engage people with our mission rather than, How can we raise money from people for our mission, all nonprofit staff will feel empowered and inspired to contribute towards development efforts.
Strong Donor Relationships
In a thriving culture of philanthropy, donors are strategic partners, and each one has unique knowledge to offer. An individual donor can share how they learned about your organization and what motivates them most to give (and if enough of them say the same thing, then boom—there’s the value proposition to lean into with this group). A program officer at a foundation can provide unique insight into their future priorities and trends that they’re seeing across their sector—same with community impact staff at a corporation. All this information is critical to nonprofits during any federal landscape they find themselves operating in, but especially so during this time when many organizations have had the rug pulled out from under them and may be struggling to find their footing.
Knowledge sharing certainly isn’t a one-way street; these partners want to learn from you as well, and not just about the impact you’re having but on those less glamorous topics that often get squeezed into the end of conversations—like challenges you’re facing, threats to your work, and your financial situation. During this period of upheaval and uncertainty, leaders and staff should commit to being open and transparent about what is happening to their organization and how they’re managing. These partners will appreciate your insights and knowledge just as much as you appreciate theirs. Counterintuitive as it may seem for many nonprofits and leaders to hear—the primary focus right now needs to be on strengthening engagement with audiences and building stronger relationships with existing donors, rather than just making solicitations.
During these difficult times, nonprofits need to go back to tried-and-true strategies to secure their organization’s financial futures. Many years later, the principles of building a culture of philanthropy are as critical as ever, yet they are certainly not the only tactics that can lead to success. Nonprofit staff and leaders should find reassurance in the impermanence of tumultuous times yet are more than capable of swinging the fundraising pendulum back in their favor themselves.
The 10 Most Important Things I’ve Learned (so far) as a Fundraiser
I’ve always considered myself an introspective person. Which is somewhat odd given how little time I have these days to be just that. Yet a renewed sense of freedom and purpose was bestowed upon me recently when my former employer let me go. These past few weeks have provided me with the much-needed time to reflect on (what I still consider to be) my burgeoning career, and offer some words of wisdom to those who may be just setting off on their fund development journeys.
1. Relationships Rule
When you boil fundraising down to its immutable core, what is left is relationships. Relationships between you and a program officer, marketing executive, trustee, monthly member, etc. Building and fostering these relationships with a strong dose of intentionality–along with all those “other” ones (with colleagues, counterparts, mentors, etc.) will set you up for success and a prosperous career in fundraising.
2. The Experts are Out There
Speaking of mentors…find one. Or find many. There are people that have been in your shoes before and went on to amass a thirty-year-long career in the field who are brimming with knowledge and insights. And my guess is that many of them are willing to share. We can all use strong mentors and folks we look up to at every stage of our career; stand on those shoulders of those who have been there and soak up all the wisdom you possibly can. Bring an open mind too.
3. Keep on KOM’ing (Keeping an Open Mind)
On the topic of an open mind–have one. Many people entering the space (or even those, scarily enough, who have been in the space for a long time) have preconceived notions as to what makes for successful fundraising (like the misguided notion of revenue diversification–see below). Oftentimes, they’re wrong. Fundraising is a skill that needs to be learned, a muscle that needs to be trained. Challenge your preconceptions and look to emerging strategies and tactics that are showing promise.
4. Not Perfect? Perfect
You’re going to make mistakes–and not just when you’re starting out. You are human. You know who loves humans? Other humans. Humans that give, work for corporate foundations, etc. Mistakes make you relatable (dare I say, relationship-able??). Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good and certainly don’t let it be the reason you’re reviewing that prospectus for a 10th time. Don’t lose sleep over mistakes you’ve made. Learn from them and grow.
5. Content, Content Everywhere
That newsletter you wrote that had a significantly higher open rate than your others? Boom–there’s your next series of social media posts. That 10-page grant report you prepared for that one foundation? I’ll bet you dollars to donuts there’s stuff in there your other supporters would love to hear. You rarely ever need to start from scratch with whatever project you’re working on–whether it's content for the upcoming newsletter cycle, an annual report, or a sponsorship prospectus. Repurpose what works–chances are you will be one of only a handful of people who notice.
6. Act on Impact
It can be easy to fall into the weeds of program execution–especially if you’re embracing the learner spirit (see #10 below). But unless you and your VP of Programs are wonking out with a program officer from your biggest foundation contributor, most people won’t be interested in the nuts and bolts of your organization. Many people won’t even be that interested in your organization itself–but rather the end result that is achieved. What they’ll want to know is what impact you’re having and whether or not you’re any closer to fulfilling your mission because of their support. Focus on that instead.
7. Stories Move, Data…is Nice
Stories that communicate impact are the most valuable tools in your toolbox to achieve fundraising success. Don’t rely simply on numbers and metrics to communicate impact–instead, focus on the story behind the numbers. How did that family’s life change as a result of receiving those 20 meals last week? For causes that are inherently difficult to explain a tangible impact of your services (e.g, working to address climate change)--double down on telling the human side of the story. Find community leaders and other stakeholders willing to share the impact that numbers alone cannot explain. Weave stories and data together whenever you can.
8. Superuse your CRM
“Make Salesforce work for you–not the other way around.” These were wise words I heard when I was helping design our CRM architecture at a previous organization. I had become bogged down designing a system that had people painstakingly entering every minutiae of data they could. Design your system to maximize efficiency–not to maximize the amount of information stored within. Inputting data and information into your CRM should not feel like an onerous task but rather something that’s seamlessly integrated into your daily work. Design and use the system in a manner where you know who the real boss is.
9. Diversify your Revenue–the Right Way
Yes, an organization should have a large number of supporters–you should always be working to reach more individuals, foundations, corporations, etc. But you should rarely be looking to diversify across revenue streams in the name of longterm financial sustainability. Instead, embrace an “intradiversification” revenue strategy. If your nonprofit has a robust stream of revenue coming from, say, individuals–that is clear evidence that individual fundraising is what you do best. Don’t pursue other revenue streams at the opportunity cost of growing and expanding existing, successful ones. Imagine Steph Curry waking up one day and saying “You know, I’m really good at basketball. But I need to get better at baseball and football.”
10. Be an Ambassador
You’re not just a fundraiser for your organization–you’re an ambassador and oftentimes the lone point of contact for your corps of supporters. If the phone rings and it's a donor with questions, you should have the answers. Embrace a sponge-like mentality and learn as much as you possibly can about your organization’s programs, finances, operations, etc as well as trends across the field. Get in the weeds and get your colleagues to help you help them (and the organization). Being able to deftly handle questions that give supporters a 360 understanding of the organization–if that’s what they want–will build and solidify relationships that will help you achieve your fundraising goals.
There are, unquestionably, more things I wish I had known, yet these were the ones that have stuck out most in my mind as I navigate these foreign waters. I look forward to sharing more in the future!
All the best,
Drew