Grant prospecting is an essential skill to the grant profession. While it's the first skill listed in the Grant Professional Certified competencies, it's one that is never truly mastered. High-performing grant professionals acquire new strategies throughout their careers.

In "How'd You Find that Funder?" I will share six strategies I've used to raise $120 million in grants and donations. You will leave this session with new "methods of locating funding sources" (GPC Competency 1:03) to test in your work.

The session will provide practical information on the following strategies:

1. Research routines. A proactive process is key for grant prospecting. Relying on listservs for information on grants will cost you precious time. This session will provide an example routine for researching grant opportunities.

2. Subscription database services. Grant professionals should be familiar with several commercially available resources for grant prospecting.  During this session, participants will learn search strategies applicable to multiple database services.

3. Competitor analysis.  This method of prospecting involves identifying comparable organizations and studying their financial data.  Participants will learn techniques for conducting and applying this research, in order to find new funding prospects.

4. Place-based prospecting.  Nearby businesses can become a source of support for our organizations.  Participants will learn strategies for identifying the charitable interests of local business owners and corporate neighbors. 

5. Prospecting from program data.  Studying the demographics of those served by our organization can generate ideas of funding prospects.  This session will include examples of data points to consider in the prospecting process. 

6. Field trips.  Grant prospecting can be fun!  Local attractions may reveal grant prospects that you need to cultivate.  The session will include amusing real-life examples.

Presenter:

Jason Adkins is the Director of Development for the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, an education support agency that serves 15 school districts, over 250 schools, and over 155,000 students in North central Kentucky. Since 2008, he has raised over $125 million in grants and donations. In 2017, he earned the Grant Professional Certified (GPC) credential. He is a past president of the Kentucky chapter of the Grant Professionals Association and helped lead the chapter’s 2019 ReWrite Conference. Jason enjoys training grant writers, fundraisers, and other nonprofit professionals through the Center for Nonprofit Excellence and Grant Writing USA.

 
Skill Level:
Mid-Career

Learning Path: 
Prospect Research/Donor Relations

GPC Competencies:
How to research, identify, and match funding resources to meet specific needs