TargetED Series: Nonprofit Growth and Sustainability

Most nonprofit organizations start with a clear mission and a passion for making a difference in their communities. However, growing and sustaining your nonprofit requires cultivating several critical skills and strategies.

As your organization expands, it's essential to:

• increase your grantwriting capacity and enhance your ability to secure more grants by developing internal or external resources;
• align with potential funders, ensuring your mission and strategies match, by learning to read the 990 tax form;
• budget effectively and present your organization's financial documents clearly by accurately accounting for your organization's indirect costs;
• demonstrate community support by developing a systematic process to document in-kind support;
• develop clear policies for submitting and managing grants; and, 
  evaluate your grantseeking success by creating metrics to evaluate your grants program.

Over six sessions, you’ll learn practical strategies to help your organization manage growth and build sustainability.

TargetEDs are designed for beginners, with each session including 30 minutes of practical teaching and 15 minutes of Q&A. Detailed information about individual sessions can be found below.

Should I Hire a Grant Professional or Do It Myself?*
October 7, 2024

As your grant programs grow, you have an important decision to make: Should you hire an external grant professional or do the work yourself? This isn’t always an easy choice. It can be hard to effectively evaluate both the benefits and drawbacks.

During this TargetED, Alice Ruhnke will help you weigh each option so your organization can move forward with a decision. And even if your organization has already made the decision to move in one direction or another, you’ll still walk away with helpful tips in getting the most out of that decision.

Reading a Funder's 990: How Can It Help Me?
October 21, 2024

Reviewing a funder's tax forms can be an illuminating process.The past informs the present. That’s why understanding the history of a grantmaker’s giving is such a worthwhile task in your grantseeking efforts. But like many tax documents, 990s can be daunting. They often include a lot of information, which can be overwhelming to sift through. During this TargetED, GrantStation’s Research Team will break down the key elements of the Form 990 to help you determine which grantmakers are the most valuable to your organization.

How to Secure Matching Funds
October 28, 2024

It’s always a good idea to have matching funds for your projects or programs—even if a funder doesn’t require it. When you include matching funds, it demonstrates to funders that they are not the only one with “skin in the game.” During this TargetED, Alice Ruhnke will show you how to secure matching funds to increase your success in securing grant awards. You’ll walk away ready to build credibility with funders by demonstrating the diverse support your programs have in your community.

A Layperson's Guide to Indirect Costs
November 18, 2024

Accurately accounting for your indirect costs is crucial in effectively managing your nonprofit organization. While indirect costs can be confusing, understanding what they are and how to calculate them is worth your time and effort because this will help you provide funders with an accurate picture of what it costs to truly run your programs. Join Alice Ruhnke and Megan Tarnow for an insightful TargetED designed to enhance your financial management skills.

Creating Grant Policies and Procedures
December 9, 2024

For a nonprofit organization, having clear and comprehensive grant-related policies is crucial to ensure effective management and compliance. If you don’t have these documents when tensions or problems occur, your nonprofit will need to scramble to put something into place.

During this TargetED session we’ll discuss some key policies such as:

• grant proposal submission policies;
• grant acceptance and compliance policies;
• grant financial management policies;
• grant reporting and closeout policies;
• conflict of interest policies; and,
• grant record retention policies.

Evaluating Grantseeking Success: Metrics and Reporting
December 16, 2024

When developing a grant strategy for your nonprofit organization, establishing success metrics is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of your efforts. During this TargetED, Alice Ruhnke will guide you through the importance of these metrics and show you how they can enhance your overall grant strategy.

*Should I Hire a Grant Professional or Do it Myself? is a free TargetED session. You'll save $20 by joining the full series.