Jun 22
If you’re familiar with grant writing, you know that no two grant applications are the same. But there are several elements that you can count on being included in every proposal that you write. Sustainability is one of them.
I love writing grant proposals for my clients. It’s exciting for me to research the communities my clients serve and the issues that impact their target populations and using data and success stories to demonstrate how my colleagues are truly making a measurable impact. My heart soars as my fingers fly through the narrative of every question. That is until I get to sustainability. Meh.
As a grant writer, my goal is to make each word of every response as compelling as possible. Yet answering the question of organizational sustainability is often annoyingly mundane. Until recently, it had become as simple (and boring) as copying and pasting of a short paragraph or two describing recent fundraising efforts and funding growth, highlighting major funders, and describing basic plans for future growth. That is until I attended a grant summit presented by the Indiana Youth Institute earlier this year in which a third of the day was dedicated to discussing what sustainability really is. While financial sustainability is a primary focus, there is so much more to sustainability than funding, and that is exciting!
Rather than just focusing on the financial aspect of sustainability, there are four pillars in building a truly sustainable organization: Organizational Stability, Financial Stability, Project Sustainability, and Community Stability.
Organizational Sustainability. Funders are looking for organizations that are strong, well-led, and collaborative. And at the helm of any successful nonprofit organization is a dedicated board of directors that sets the tone and example for the organization’s operations, vision, and values. All board members should play an active role to organization staff by contributing to the organization’s culture, strategic focus, effectiveness, and financial sustainability while also serving as ambassadors and advocates in the community. Let me tell you, I’ve seen very few boards that truly fit this description. I am fortunate to work with a few, but it is rare.
Demonstrating that your staff members are well-trained and well-supported also helps to create a compelling case for organizational sustainability. It’s even more compelling if your organization has a low staff turnover rate. The Society for Human Resource Management reports that the voluntary turnover rate for nonprofit organizations is 19 percent. This is higher than the industry average of the overall labor market (12 percent). On that note, consider whether your nonprofit pays a living wage to every employee. If so, this is where you want to write about that. Preventing team members from feeling overworked, under-resourced, and burnt out starts with creating a more equitable system and paying a living wage. If your organization isn’t doing that, it should be.
I believe lived experience belongs here, too. Having empathy simply doesn’t cut it when we truly want to solve our society’s most pressing problems. People who have been through the trenches know all the nuances of dealing with their unique struggles, including poverty, abuse, substance use disorder, immigration, discrimination, disability, etc. Intentionally hiring and engaging people with lived experience can help prevent your organization from offering misguided solutions that are NOT sustainable. People with lived experience know what works, what doesn’t, and what they wish they would have had to be successful. If your organization intentionally includes board members and staff that have lived experience, you should make the space to write about it.
Financial sustainability. This is where our minds often go when we are writing about sustainability. It’s where “copy and paste” often happens. This is where things can get a little mundane. To make this stand out, be sure to discuss your organization’s work in developing relationships and opportunities for funding. Write about successful fundraising events, donor cultivation, corporate partnerships, growth in grant funding, endowments, and rainy-day funds.
Project sustainability. When you are writing about project sustainability, you will want to look at short-term success and long-term success. In the short-term, how can you demonstrate measurable change and impact in your community and in the lives of the people you serve? What data do you have that can demonstrate your project’s growth over the years? For the long-term, you should refer to your organization’s strategic planning efforts and take a long view of the future of your organization. What steps does your organization plan to take to achieve growth in the coming years? How will staffing, technology, and capital needs evolve? How has your organization laid the foundation for that work so far, and what steps is your organization taking today and what steps will it take in the future to ensure project sustainability?
Community sustainability. Community sustainability is just as important a pillar to build upon as organizational sustainability, financial sustainability, and project sustainability. Throughout the years, many funders are placing added emphasis on community cohesion and collaboration. How are you creating sustainable solutions at a local level? Is your organization being strategic about which local partners it collaborates with? How is your organization tapping into local expertise? How do those partners help meet the needs of those you serve? How long has your organization been working with those strategic partners? How are you gaining buy-in from the community you serve? How do your community partners position your organization for long-term success, and vice versa?
While you will certainly be incorporating these four pillars in the designated sustainability section of your grant proposal, remember that your organization’s story of sustainability will be woven throughout the entire proposal, including organizational history, community collaboration, the project timeline, the budget, letters of support, and even in your supplemental information. Your goal is to demonstrate your organization’s ability and commitment to sustain programming AND impact. Remember, this is about more than just funding. Community cohesion, being deeply rooted in the communities you serve, having your finger on the pulse of the true needs you are trying to meet, being able to pivot as needed while leveraging the right partners at the right time – all of THAT is sustainability.
If you need help sharing your story with grant funders, let’s connect!