Most funders want a Board of Directors list, complete with contact information (address, phone, email) AND their career affiliations. It's not enough to say "Treasurer" or "President" of the Board. What do or did they do in their careers? And don't list ony: John Smith, Attorney at Law. What firm is/was John Smith working as an attorney? Funders will say they want that information to show that you have a diverse board. Not true. They want to know if you have a competitor

Don’t Name your New 501c3 Organization a Foundation Almost 20% of my client portfolio is made up of Foundations. What were they thinking???? A reviewer sees the word “foundation” and they automatically assume it’s an organization that GIVES money. Folks, please.

I love and respect faith based organizations. But, please……let’s mention God once. Mention God in your Mission Statement or mention God in your narrative. Heck, you can even choose to mention God in your Budget. But do it once. Only once.

Bless your heart. If you’re sharing your time and talents to get a 501c3 up and running, go for it. But, if you’re ready to write grants, you need to add a part time program director or manager into the request. No funder will allocate money to an all - volunteer organizations without the infrastructure to manage money. So, even if you only need a bookkeeper 1 hour a week at $15 per hour, write it into the proposal!

It’s an unspoken rule, but an important one. Funders prefer that you apply for no more than 10% of your organization’s budget and no more than 20% of any program or project budget. For example, if your agency operates on a budget of $100,000 annually, you should not request more than $10,000 for any grant. You may need $75,000 for a new program. So, although you could reasonably request $15,000 (20%) for that program, your organization’s budget would have to be at least $