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Hi, friend!

It's good to be back in your inbox once again!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving break full of food, relaxation, and laughter, it's time to get back into the routine. And that includes working out. 💪

My wife and I have a small workout space in our garage and I typically workout after dropping the kids off at school. The other day, I was riding our bike following an online training session in which the trainer associated each hard push with overcoming common fears or concerns that keep us from reaching our potential.

This (as many things do) got me thinking about grants. 🤔 So here are three common concerns that might be holding you back from writing your first proposal or reaching out to a prospect:

1. I don't have what it takes to write a proposal. Grants are too complicated for me.

I'm not going to lie to you, grant writing is not easy. But it doesn't have to be as daunting as it can sometimes seem. I know it can be scary when you hear terms like impact measurement or logic models and you don't know what it is or how to do it. When that fear hits, I want you to remember two things:

🌟 Everyone starts somewhere.
🌟 You're not in this alone.

There are tools and resources out there that can help you learn to navigate putting a proposal together. This newsletter is one! And, in 2024, I'll be launching some courses that will take you step by step through the grants process, breaking everything down in an easy-to-understand way. In the meantime, I also offer a grant review service where I look at your proposal and offer feedback and coaching.

2. I don't have the time or resources to find grants and write proposals.

Grants don't have to be a time-consuming burden. There are strategies and processes that you can use to save you time. You don't need a ton of resources either. There are discounted tools and services you can access for free. Again, I want to be honest with you. You will need to spend some time and some resources to set up and then maintain your grants system. You can't escape that. But prospecting, proposal writing, and grant management do not have to be major drains on your time and resources. All you need is a system that works for you. ⚙️ It also helps to have someone like me, who can you show you how to build it!

3. What if I get rejected?

Here's another harsh reality for you (I promise this is the last one!): you will get rejected... a lot. The majority of proposals are denied. You can set up your grants system in a way that helps minimize the risk of denial and strengthens your proposals. But the truth is that rejection is a normal part of grants. The important thing to remember is that it does not define your organization's worth.

You need to shift your thinking from seeing rejection as a bad thing to seeing it as an opportunity. Once you've taken a minute to process the loss, reach out to the funder and ask why it was rejected. I once wrote a proposal for around $200,000 that was denied. We reached out to the funder for feedback and then implemented that feedback and resubmitted. We were awarded over $650,000.

Yes. Grants can be challenging. But you can do it! Use the resources, tools, and support (hi!👋) available to you. Set up a grants system that allows you to find opportunities, submit proposals, and manage awards in a way that doesn't take too much of your time and energy. And embrace the ups and downs, learning as you go along.

I can't wait to see where this leads for you!

Kind regards,

Brandon Green, LMSW, GPC
​https://brandongreenconsulting.com​
bgreen@brandongreenconsulting.com

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PS: Know of anyone that could benefit from this newsletter? Please feel free to share it with them and invite them to check out my site and subscribe: https://brandongreenconsulting.com/.