Speaker 1: Hey hey there. In today's video we are talking about how you can go from 100 plus grants to those that are the best fit for you. We call this the grant writing unicorn method. We are all about using the instrumental database though you will find linked below. We have done research on 10 grant databases which you are welcome to go and peruse through. We've got the pros and cons of all of them. But for today we are going to be talking about the funding funnel and how you you can efficiently prospect. All right, with that, let's hit it. Okay, welcome back. So how does this thing work? So think about it like a funnel where you've got round one, you're finding 100 plus grant opportunities and that's too much, you can't deal with that. that down to about 20 that are worth getting serious about and then we recommend going further to about that 2 to 5 per project or program that you're going to focus on. So we let's basically yeah instrumental is our favorite okay so instrumental is our favorite database because you can more efficiently look at the data you can do your own searching etc and trust me we've looked at them all but why does this whole process matter there is a lot of value in And bringing a systematic approach to finding grants, instead of just being haphazard about it, getting on Google, right? It also helps break the habit of chasing grants haphazardly. So maybe someone in your organization finds out about a grant and emails you, it's due in a week and they ask you to go after it. I mean, it's a cycle of total burnout. It also helps get everyone pulling in the same direction when everyone agrees, okay, These are going to be the five grants we're focusing on over the next 12 months. All right, so let's talk about round one when you find 100 plus grants. So using a grant database, you're going to research grants, find those top 100 to consider. Obviously there's a lot of different types of organizations that you can look for funding, right? But we're really big advocates of, for especially this combination, finding a nonprofit if you're they're not one that you can be partnering with, they can provide fiscal sponsorship, and just finding ways that you can layer on through partnerships, other types of organizations, to maximize the types of funding available to you. Okay, round two is when you're actually taking all of those findings and getting serious about which ones are for you. This is the filter you run them through. What are their giving priorities? Is that what projects are eligible? And what is their funding history? So when you are looking at a funding agency's priorities, here is a quick shot of what that card looks like in instrumental. I want you to not go to that view website link, don't go there, you're staying inside the system so you don't go down a bazillion rabbit holes and just cruise through the overview statements. Does it feel good? Does it feel like there's alignment? And if it doesn't, oust it, don't force it. Next, look at, at quick glance, are you eligible? An eligibility can be a nuanced pain in the booty that takes some time to figure out, but at least let's know at a high level that yet A, you as an applicant type or a partner of yours is eligible and then B, what they actually fund. So if you're trying to get operating costs funded and they definitely don't cover operating costs, then you know, hey, we've got a problem here. As a side note, what we do talk about in the GrantWriting Unicorn Collective, our online grant writing program, is how you can take things like operational costs and reposition them so that they appear more like a project and that opens up a lot more funding opportunities but that is outside the scope of today. So what is the funder's past giving behavior? Gold's mine here. Reviewing 990 tax filing information at Instrumental is amazing. They make these really dense IRS documents super usable. And I want you to look at, okay, is the average grant amount that they give worth your time, what do they fund, and where are they funding? So in this example, you can see, obviously they're funding Alaska overwhelmingly, and if you're in New York, I would not apply for this program. It seems like it would not be a good fit for you. It seems like it would not be a good fit for you. Okay, so now let's bebop over into Instrumental. This is what it looks like when you get here. So we do a way deeper dive on this in the program, but I wanted to just move through things quickly to give you at least a lay of the land. So if you go and select a new project, here I am, I'm selecting myself as a user. You can invite other people on your team as well. Let's do an animal rescue project just because it's a little easy to do. So that's a nonprofit, let's say. A lot of times nonprofits get funding from their city government, so I'm gonna click government entity as well. I think that's the only two I'm gonna select, but it's really fair game if you think you can have a meaningful partnership to select other applicant types. Not going to do them for individuals, but you get the idea. I'm also gonna say no for faith-based organizations, but if that's what you are, then obviously click yes. Okay, then you go into creating the project. Location is important. So let's say this project is in Washington State. state. So, whoops, just selected Wyoming. That's where I'm from. Okay, we're going to say anywhere in Washington, but you can drill down to the county level. Okay, then we are looking at fields of work. So think of fields of work, I really wish they called it keywords, because that's probably more of what you think about. So it's easier to start just typing in words that come to mind. So animal welfare, human-animal interactions in therapy, animal welfare in general, maybe service, no it's probably not a service animal. Community services, that's search and rescue, searching dog, I guess that's not a term. Animal, let's see, community, Community services, it's a community public safety, community services. I think you could call it that. You can have up to 10, don't go 10, you'll get way too many grants. I think five to six is about right, start there. So I'm updating those keywords. This is cool if you're doing environmental based work. You can add plants, you can add animals. So I'm going to go ahead and click, let's say this is a big operation. So we're going to say domestic dogs, I want to add, maybe I'm going to add horses too. Let's say we have some equine therapy in this program. Wow, lots of different types of horses here. Who would have thought? Wow. Okay. We're just going to collect domestic horses. All right. What size grant are you looking for? Whoever set a maximum, I don't know, but minimums are actually pretty reasonable. Otherwise, you can be dinking around with a lot of really small grants. I'm gonna click 10K, just know that this is not perfect. You might say 50K minimum and you'll still see some that are smaller. So what are you going to use this funding for? It's valuable here to click pretty much everything, right? So unless, you know, you're probably, I'm gonna click capital project, which means new construction or a new building because we're thinking broadly here, but you get the, but if that's not what you're doing, then you wouldn't click that one, but I would click pretty much everything else. And then you go save and exit. And then instrumental fairies do their magic, going to do their research, and then they come back and they tell you what they have found. So usually you'll get the kickback here in like a minute. If you don't, because it's a tough project, they'll notify you by email when your search is ready, but the whole thing doesn't take very long. So I actually already prepped one over here. So I'm going to bebop over to keep us moving. So when you do your grant search, they show up in this tab called matches. So these are the matches for what you basically, your project. So let's go ahead and pop through here. This already doesn't look like a fit. Community services I know is a stretch, so I'm gonna click not interested. So remember, what am I looking for? funding priorities and their funding history of giving. So let's look at Care Foundation. Why did I click health and medicine? Seems like a weird one, match based on. That also doesn't really seem like a good fit. Yeah, based on a quick scan, I'm gonna drop that. Wildlife Disease Association, maybe this would be appropriate. It has human-animal interactions and therapy. It has a lot of my keywords that I'd selected plus a couple others. So I can go through here. I'm gonna first see, hey, does this feel like a good fit? They give you some nice examples. Couple interesting things here. The project leader must be an active WDA member, which we're not, you know, this is a hypothetical project. So let's say they are, but then, so yeah, let's say the overview is a good fit. And then I wanna go in and look at their funding history. So this is their 990 report. It's helpful, you can see their total assets, their total giving, their average grant amount. Their total giving is low, $36,000, and it looks like they only have one year of data, and they gave, well, that's confusing, that's their assets. This is what we need, giving. Yeah, so not a lot of giving. Also, doesn't actually show where they, they were all below $5,000, and so they didn't have to provide the location, so a big fat not interested. Let's focus on something that feels like a better fit. Here's one, a privately endowed family foundation to help for the humane treatment of animals. This is a good one, right? So it looks like a really nice fit. They fund things like spay and neuter programs, easing crowded shelters, et cetera. So this feels good. Now I'm gonna go look at the 990 report. Sometimes the 990 information is not in a sexy report and instead it's in the actual IRS format, which is not the easiest to review. I will link in the subsequent video. We have a YouTube video that describes how you actually go through these forms to find the information you're looking for. So you can go watch that. Anyway, feels like a good fit. First round, I'm adding it, adding it to this project. I could add some notes if I want. I'm hitting save. Okay, then here I am, athletes for animals. Like you just go through this process where I'm deciding is this good fit based on what their funding priorities are and is their funding history supportive of, yeah, what we're trying to do. When you save a grant, it goes into grant tracker, right? That's here. So this was actually something, yeah, we did as a sample project. So I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let's go back to the slides real quick and then I'll describe that cycle. Okay, filtering recap on round two, you're confirming, hey, is there alignment with the funder's priorities? Is this project the type going to get what you want to get funded? And has the funder made similar awards to organizations like yours or similar projects? If you have too many grants, be sure to go into editing the project. Usually you need to drop keywords or increase your minimum grant amount. Okay, round three is, of the top 20 grants you've looked at that you think have promise, now we're drilling down further. You're looking at competitiveness, funding guidelines, contacting past applicants, and getting feedback from the funder. I'm not gonna go into all this detail because frankly, it's just a lot. And it's what's actually within, I think this is really truly our secret sauce in the GrantWriting Unicorn Collective. So you're welcome to join to get it all. But here is just a quick version. So here's all this information. We're actually started to do that outreach. Like okay, emailed to the Gray Muzzle Foundation, wanted to figure out how competitive their grant program is. I actually did get an email back hadn't updated that so I could go in and make notes of it and this is helpful as you start to figure out okay like this Rachel Ray save them all grants requires that you're a member well okay what's the membership fee so we can decide if that's worth it right this is where we're starting to filter through that process to get these down to the ones that are the best to pursue all right so I hope that you found that helpful as a really quick and dirty overview of how instrumental works I'm going to link below a discount code so if you did decide that you wanted to have a membership to this tool you can save 50 bucks. Those that join our program actually get a three-week trial instead of two and that extra week goes a really long way you can get a lot done. And if you're trying to figure out how to get basically paid as a grant writer we believe in putting together funding strategies for clients or for your organization and then you can use this tool to figuring out what those best grants are and it's just totally game-changing for increasing your win rate and not burning out in this career. Alright, with that I'll catch you in the next video. See ya.