Nonprofit Grant Development Services

Success in grant development is not about how many grants you write. It's about how many grants you win. We can help you win more grants.

Grant Services

According to the latest Giving USA report, foundations in the U.S. contributed nearly $67 billion in grants to nonprofit organizations, representing approximately 16% of all giving in the country. If properly managed, grants are an important source of income for programs, training, research, scholarships, or partnerships that might otherwise not be possible.

Most nonprofits don’t need a full-time staff person 100% focused on grants. You do, however, need 100% competency. Foundations have very specific interests, processes, and policies, and are highly professionalized in their grant-making. In this highly competitive arena, you need the very best talent you can find to help you maximize and streamline your grant seeking efforts.

That’s where we come in. At DickersonBakker, we have a team of highly skilled and experienced grant professionals who provide a complete spectrum of grant services for nonprofit organizations. Our team has worked on both sides of the table, and have a keen understanding of the way grant-makers award grants.

Why not contact us today to discuss how we can help you win more grants for your organization?

“DickersonBakker’s grant professionals have helped us renew lost relationships, further develop current ones, and discover new funding opportunities. They quickly learned the culture of our organization and connected well with our leadership. We are experiencing significant growth in the number of proposals funded and the dollar amounts of those grants. Their service is outstanding!”George Fisher, Sr. Director of Development and Gift Planning - Wycliffe Bible Translators

Learn more about the specific Grant Development services we offer

Foundation Research and Prospecting

Our firm has access to comprehensive Foundation search tools with detailed information on nearly 100,000 US foundations and corporate donors and over 500,000 key decision makers. We also have a proprietary database that captures our deep well of marketplace knowledge, understanding, and extensive network of contacts. With these tools, our grant professionals will save you time and help you avoid common pitfalls.

Grant Readiness Planning and Strategy

Is your organization grant ready? Far too many organizations are not prepared to receive and steward grant funds. Our team will conduct a full assessment of your organization’s grant readiness and will provide recommendations and assistance to ensure that the right tools, procedures, practices, training, and personnel are in place so that your organization will be able to successfully compete for and win potential grant funding opportunities.

Grant-Writing

Our team will gather data from your program areas, conduct complementary research when needed, and organize and write letters of inquiry, proposals, and reports to submit to potential or current funders. Your proposals, reports, and prospecting materials will be built on careful analysis, professional presentation, thorough research, and will be professionally written and presented in the format requested by each respective foundation, before all deadlines.

Managing Grant Portfolios

As your grant program grows, it will become increasingly more complex to manage as you seek to balance all the different deadlines and requirements. Dickerson, Bakker & Associates will work with you to help manage all current and prospective grant seeking and reporting. Our personnel will track and manage deadlines and will create proposals and reports that are credible and professionally crafted and will stand out against other competing submissions.

Collateral Material Development

These materials are critical to the success of the foundation fundraising process, and include such things as a Case for Support, Executive Summary, and a Project List with budget information and a 1-2 paragraph summary of each project. We can help you write and produce these critical documents, and can also review and improve existing materials to enhance your presentation to sophisticated givers.

Strategic Relationship Management

Just like any other type of fundraising, relationships with foundation staff and stakeholders are critical to getting proposals funded. In many cases we will have previously worked with the staff at the foundation you may be approaching and can leverage our understanding of their needs and interests to help you plan an approach that will significantly increase your likelihood of success.