6 Funding Tips for Nonprofits

Nathan Mallonee: Sharing missteps with donors builds trust.

Nonprofits are key players in the Springfield business community. The Center for Nonprofit Leadership at Drury University published a comprehensive study last year revealing Springfield’s 1,556 nonprofits employ more than half of the city’s workforce, account for roughly 10 percent of all business entities and represent 38 percent of the city’s gross domestic product.

From big players CoxHealth and Mercy Springfield Communities to churches, charitable trusts and neighborhood groups, nonprofits in the Ozarks are as varied as they are prevalent.

On Oct. 16, Drury held a Nonprofit Communication Conference at the Ramada Plaza Hotel & Oasis Convention Center. According to Dan Prater, the center’s executive director, about 315 attended the annual event – its first held off campus – representing over 100 nonprofits and civic organizations from Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.

The following tips represent a few useful pieces of advice for area nonprofit leaders looking to make the most of their funding opportunities.

Tip 1: Lobbying is worth the money.  
Nonprofits don’t have to be in the business of providing lawmakers with handouts or freebies, but they should be educating legislators about the issues that are most important to them. That’s called advocacy, said Anne Silea, an advocacy facilitator for Lutheran Family & Children’s Services of Missouri in St. Louis.

The bottom line: advocacy’s return on investment was $115 for every $1 spent, said Silea, citing research by the Committee on Responsible Philanthropy.

Due to term limits, legislator turnover often means staff members and lobbyists are the ones in the know when it comes moving a bill or issues that can impact nonprofits.

“That presents an opportunity for nonprofits because you have the ability to be a resource for people,” she said, during her conference session, “Supporting Your Mission and Your Bottom Line.”

Tip 2: Know the foundation before applying for a grant.
Grants can be a holy grail for nonprofits. Knowing where to look on that journey is half the battle, said Keith Morris, a grant administrator with CoxHealth who presented at the conference, “Mining for Gold: Turning Grant Research into Grant Dollars.”

“Securing new grant funding is like going to a job interview; thorough research is key to having a successful first contact,” Morris said.   

It’s important for nonprofits to learn all they can about foundations in order to prepare a thoughtful proposal. Morris said research should include 990 tax returns, foundation websites and third-party information.

Among available resources, he said the Springfield-Greene County Library District offers free access to a database of some 140,000 grant makers the national Foundation Center updates weekly.

 “Nonprofits do well to thoughtfully present their case for funding on the basis of their verifiable success in achieving the mission of the funder,” he said.

Tip 3: Build coalitions for better results.
Don’t go it alone when it comes to advocacy, said Silea, whose works in adoption issues. She pointed to the annual Child Advocacy Day, where representatives from nonprofits statewide converge on Jefferson City to meet with lawmakers. Any group fighting for children’s issues can come, but many choose not to get involved.

“Sometimes even when groups know they can lobby, they feel uncomfortable, and they don’t,” she said. “That doesn’t do anything for the clients. It’s a big disservice.”

Those that get involved and get it right at the state level – groups such as the Missouri Budget Project and Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Silea said – are worth supporting, joining forces or gaining advice. That way, smaller organizations can still have influence.

“What is advocacy? It’s providing a voice for those not heard,” Silea said. “It’s also an effort to shape public perception.”

Tip 4: Be transparent with donors about failures.
Failure is not a dirty word.

“We all know that failures happen,” said Nathan Mallonee, director of program effectiveness for Springfield-based Convoy of Hope, which works with a $105 million annual operating budget. “None of us implements programs that just work the way we think they’re going to work 100 percent of the time.”

During his presentation, “Sharing Your Failures with Donors and Other Fun Ways to Raise More Money,” Mallonee said nonprofits that can be transparent about their failures can earn the trust of donors – and their financial support.

In a 2014 report on Convoy of Hope’s Children’s Feeding Initiative, Mallonee found school-based meals were having more of an impact on overall nutrition in certain countries. Convoy of Hope saw a steady decline in children who were considered undernourished, but in a few, there was either a smaller decline or steady rates of undernourished children. Mallonee was transparent with donors on why he thought the initiative wasn’t as impactful in some countries and what could be done moving forward. For Convoy of Hope, the answer appears to be more nutrition interventions in addition to daily meals.

“Donors value openness,” he said. “And nobody bats a thousand.”

Tip 5: Matching and special funds can overcome fatigue.
Louise Knauer, senior vice president for communications and marketing for Community Foundation of the Ozarks, said the recession and 2011 tornado in Joplin stretched the giving limits of donors. CFO responded by working with key donors to offer matching grants.

“Because local nonprofits were feeling the impact of donor fatigue, perhaps more in the sense of an inability of donors to make gifts due to their own financial circumstances, we started the Community Response Challenge grants, which offered grants that had to be matched one to one, but were for general operating costs, rather than specific programs,” Knauer said by email. “The idea was to help sustain nonprofits through those dark days.”

In the wake of the Joplin tornado, the Joplin Tornado Recovery Fund Grant was established to assist nonprofits impacted by the storm. Awarded grants totaled about $300,000 to nonprofit agencies, schools and churches in Jasper, Newton, Barton and McDonald counties.

Tip 6: Public forums are key vehicles for messaging.
Legislators often can be hard to reach. If public funding or grants are critical to the services a nonprofit provides, then lawmakers should know. At the state level, however, legislators typically have full-time jobs, and their donors and constituents – not to mention their time on the floor – take up much of the remaining time.  

But lawmakers often see value in attending public forums, especially if they believe their constituents are going to be there.

“Legislators care about their constituents because that’s who votes for them,” Silea said, adding board members are a great resource for making event requests.

“We have a lot of people who are committed to the mission of our work that are in different realms in our society. They are not all the do-gooder nonprofit people; they are bank presidents and lawyers and whatever else. And board members love it because it’s a way to help and support the organization without just giving money.”

Plus, forums also serve to let the public know about the cause, even if lawmakers don’t show up.