Make Friends with Funders

What every grantmaker wants you to know before you push “SUBMIT”!

Make no mistake about it: Grantseeking is a people-driven process. And key to your success is the grantmakers themselves—the people who make the decisions about awards from corporate, foundation, and government sources. But who are these people? How do we connect with them? And what do they want from us, anyway?

Being a grantmaker isn’t as easy as you might think. In this lively session, veteran grantmaker Maryn Boess pulls from her own grantmaking experience (and that of dozens of other private and public program officers, reviewers, and decision-makers) to give you a realistic, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to create funder relationships that are authentic, high-integrity . . . and that work for you.

We’ll pull back the curtain on the realities of life as a grantmaker—and what your proposal is really up against “on the other side.” You’ll learn what grantmakers love, what makes them grumpy—and how you can be sure you’re delivering what they really, really want, every time!

Your Big Takeaways:

• Know what grantmakers really want most of all in the whole wide world—as organizations and as individuals.
• Know what it means to “think through the grantmaker’s eyes”—and understand the reality of challenges that program officers and review teams face in their decision-making.
• Know the “Four Keys to Persuasive Proposals”—and how each connects with the reader’s own personal sense of purpose.
• Through a role-play exercise, learn by first-hand experience how a proposal makes a good or bad first impression in just a few seconds—and why.
• Learn about the three Powerhouse Proposal Sections that must pull their own weight—and then some!—for your proposal to work.
• Understand the principle of limited mental energy and how it applies to the choices we make in crafting our proposals.