Tracks to Success - A Weekly
Primer on Grants Development
Understanding the Philanthropic Landscape by Cynthia M. Adams, CEO, GrantStation
You can't totally understand the philanthropic landscape unless you also consider loans, technical assistance, and rebates as potential revenue streams. Unfortunately, most nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and tribal governments don't readily consider these types of funding when they are seeking support for a specific program, project, or operating expenses. To help everyone expand their pursuit of support, we offer the next three articles, written by Amanda Bales, who has recently developed an entire database of funders supporting infrastructure. We begin with technical assistance.
Technical Assistance: So Much More than Computer Geeks
Part Seven by Amanda Bales, Research Specialist, GrantStation
For me, the term "technical assistance," conjured images of people sitting in endless rows of cubicles answering phones and explaining how to fix computer problems, their voices oozing with smug superiority. That was the technical assistance I was familiar with until I began conducting research for the Washington Infrastructure Database. I realized quickly that the technical assistance offered within the philanthropic landscape rarely has anything to do with computer programming. Technical assistance in this context can include computer assistance, but more often encompasses services ranging from international marketing, to energy efficiency, to geographic surveys.
For instance, in the State of Washington, the Department of Agriculture offers an International Marketing Program that works closely with Washington State's food and agricultural companies to help them export their products. The program aids companies in every step of international trade, from providing a database of food and agriculture suppliers, to providing financing and marketing resources, to documenting and resolving market access problems.
But technical state assistance isn't limited to residents of Washington; assistance is available at the local, state, and federal level, as well as through many private businesses and charitable organizations throughout the United States. The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (SBIC), for instance, operates nationally and seeks to inspire the entire building industry toward higher environmental performance by offering peer reviews and design charrettes (an intense period of collaborative design activity in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem) for the construction of residential buildings, K-12 school buildings, commercial buildings, and federal buildings. If there is a building to be constructed, the SBIC would like to help ensure that it is the safest and most energy efficient building possible.
While computer tech help lines are generally geared toward late-in-the-game emergencies, the technical assistance available to nonprofits is designed to provide services that are particularly helpful for anyone putting together a project or grant proposal.
The importance of having the most up-to-date information available to accurately document the specific problem or need for which your organization seeks technical assistance cannot be stressed enough. In other words, have experts certify that the need exists, and have them do so on a regular basis so that your proposal is current and accurate. Through various technical assistance programs, many of these professional services can be obtained free of charge.
But I don't want to give the impression that technical assistance is only available to new or beginning projects or companies. The U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Industrial Technologies Program works with businesses, industries, universities, and other well-established organizations to increase the use of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. InnovativeFinance, a service of the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials, is a clearinghouse providing information on innovations in all areas of surface transportation finance, a great resource for communities looking for new or better transportation options.
Technical assistance is available for almost any organization at almost every stage of development, expansion, or transition and these services are often provided free of charge through local, state, federal, and private programs. Technical assistance in the philanthropic landscape vaguely resembles the smug, cubicle dwellers of computer help lines in that there are people a phone call away, but these people are engineers, consultants, and government officials whose business is helping others.
Now that we've explored the valuable services that technical assistance programs can offer, next week we'll discuss the benefits that loans can provide in order to further broaden your funding base.
Amanda Bales recently joined the GrantStation staff after completing her Masters of Fine Arts degree. Amanda acted as the lead research specialist in the research and development of the soon-to-be-launched online Infrastructure Database for the state of Washington. In the course of her research, she familiarized herself with the variety of support available to nonprofit organizations through technical assistance, loans, and rebates.
If you’ve missed any of the previous articles in this series, click here.
Tracks to Success is edited by Katy Mulcrone.
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