Ask for money, and you may recieve!

By Louis J. Finkle, PhD

An important part of running a reearch-based business, non-profit organization or research "think tank" is raising money and getting grants. Planning and fundraising should be a high priority in any gathering of people. However, even though there are more funds available than the numbers of people requesting, many groups choose to not engage in writing proposals.

For example, in 2017, the National Science Foundation (NSF) received 49,415 research proposals and funded 11,447. That is approximately 25%. What if each agency wrote four proposals to various foundations? The chances that one or more would be funded is quite predictable. The largest of foundations granting money to groups, do so at only the 5% -10% rate. Smaller foundations and local channels of funding do so at the 30% -40% rate. Over all, the chances of getting funded, after submission of one request, is approximately 15%, especially for “the first time submitter.” The more proposals, the higher the probability of getting funded. It takes four-or-more proposals to be confident of getting funded.

Grants allow small research and service groups to be able to do work that is important. Grants allow groups to provide the services that foundations would like to get accomplished. Grants allow researchers, trainers, teachers and students to pay for resources that meet the needs of both foundations and local communities. It is extremely Important for many groups to apply for grants early and often.

Foundations giving $1 – 10 million funded higher % of proposals than foundations $10 + million who funded lower % of proposals. Interestingly, cold proposals are rejected most of the time (65% - 70%). Of all those submitted, 70% of cold call proposals failed eligibility, mission, geographic & submission requirements. Four % rejected for geographic limitations. The remaining for lack of mission compatibility, alignment and not following instructions. Why?

Most of the cold-call requests arrive unexpectedly. Prior correspondence increases the success of those who seek funding for shared missions. Always send in a letter of inquiry or intention. Approximately six (6) % of large foundations received 1,000+ proposals whereas 40 % of smaller foundations received fewer than 50 proposals. Where smaller foundations funded 38 % of submissions, larger foundations appear lower at 11 % funded proposals.

Overall, it appears that 35 % of all "eligible proposals are funded in the U.S.. Groups that submit two proposals increase the chances of being funded to nearly 50%. Those that generate four-or-more grant proposals per year have an even chance of getting at least one grant.

First time writers seldom (about 10%) get their first grant. Writers submitting several proposals per year generate more money than the cost of having a full-time grant writer. The ratio for research groups and non-profits are returns of 300% to 500%. In other words, it pays to write proposals for funding!

The author is a retired professor and a volunteer trainer of entreprenurs