Episode 18: Looking the Part: What Funders See that Makes Them Decide Not to Fund Your Organization
There are more applicants than there is grant money. Learn what Funders look for to disqualify applicants so you know how to strengthen your chances for funding.
LINK:
NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT: Compassion Prison Project
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learned to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding, impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident Philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey fam it’s your girl, Amber Wynn, and I'm back. And I have been spending the last couple of episodes sharing with you my amazing nonprofit founders and executive directors, resources to help you strengthen your nonprofit. And I'm doing it again today. Why? Because it's important that you understand that there are more applicants than there is funding, right? As a Funder, I can share with you, we would love to fund everyone that's qualified, but at some point the money runs out and it is what it is. But having that knowledge, I wanna share with you, there are certain things that you can do to help move you up in that competition. And one of them is looking the part because here's the truth, a Funder don't know you from Jane, from Eve, from Jack, from Adam. And all they can go by is how you present yourself.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You know how your mom says make a good first impression? It's the same way in the nonprofit sector. If your website is janky, if you know your marketing resources you know is janky, then that's what a funder sees. And that not necessarily means that's who you are, because maybe marketing is not your forte. Maybe writing is not your forte. It is irrelevant when it comes to you applying for funding. So in this episode, I'm gonna talk to you about some resources that's gonna help you look the part. And let's start off with a clip from Google for Nonprofits.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Nonprofits are building a better future for everyone. Whether your organization focuses on bringing clean and safe drinking water to everyone on the planet, or caring for people in your local community. Nonprofits like yours are making a difference every single day. But nonprofits also face a unique set of challenges, how to manage volunteers and operations on a limited budget. How to raise awareness about your organization and mission through storytelling. And how to drive more engagement from donors to fundraise for your nonprofit. We believe that every nonprofit should be able to focus more energy on making an impact. Our mission at Google for Nonprofits is to equip nonprofits with the best of Google tools at no charge in more than 60 countries around the world. Your nonprofit can collaborate and communicate more effectively with smart, secure business apps from Google Workspace. With Gmail, your nonprofit employees and volunteers can send email from your nonprofit's
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Custom domain teams can stay connected from different locations by using Google Meet and Chat. And you can access and collaborate on documents from anywhere with Google Drive. Increase your productivity so you can spend more time serving your cause or community. Through Google for Nonprofits eligible organizations can receive free advertising to run ads on Google search with ad grants. Ad grants enables your organization to appear in ads on Google search. When someone's searching for topics related to your mission. Your nonprofit can receive free advertising to raise awareness, reach donors and recruit volunteers. Tell the story of your organization through video to create an emotional connection to your cause. With YouTube, nonprofits can expand their audience, reach new supporters, and connect viewers to their mission. And finally, imagine that your donors and supporters could see exactly where their donations are making a difference. With Google Earth and Maps, nonprofits can create compelling custom maps that help tell their story to the world. Nonprofits are changing the world. We are here to help. Learn more at google.com/nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
She's right. Nonprofits are changing the world, and it's those nonprofits that are changing the world. You, all of you out there who need support and resources, I am so excited about Google for nonprofits besides the fact that it's free because it will help to elevate your game. The number one issue that I find with nonprofits when they come to me is that they don't understand that how they appear to the outside world, the public facing side of them, is important. They think they can say brighthorizons@gmail.com, and that's fine. And you can't, And I'm gonna explain to you why. It's important that you look the part. Nonprofits should have the .org extension because it stands for nonprofit organization as opposed to a gmail, a yahoo that has a .com extension because it stands for dot company. You're not a company, you are an organization. And that may seem small to you, but when there are more applicants than there is funding, Funders look for legal reasons to put you into the no pile.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
We want you to go into the yes pile. So before you even have an opportunity to demonstrate how amazing you are in your narrative, you get pushed into the no pile. What I'm saying to you is it's important that you look the part. Have a .org, and now you can get that through Google Nonprofits. It's free to you. You can have your organization's name, not only for your url, but also for your emails. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten emails from nonprofit leaders, YogiBear673@gmail.com. That is not professional. That does not work in this world. If you send a Funder an application and your email is unprofessional, you're going into the no pile. We have to find reasons to eliminate applications, and that is a perfectly good one. What are we saying as a Funder? We're saying, Well, this is not a professional organization.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I'm sharing with you insider tricks, tips, traits, and secrets so that you can be ahead of the game so that you can outcompete your competitors. And these are the small things that will keep you from even being considered. S,o if right now your organization has a .com extension or your email is a dot com whether that's Yahoo, Att, whatever, check out Google for Nonprofits and get your organization a .org extension. Also, while you're there, get yourself a Google Voice number, right now, especially for those nonprofits who haven't moved into a physical space, you're just using your cell phone. Set up a free Google number that has an outgoing or incoming message that says, Thank you for reaching out to the Institute for NonProfit Management. We're unable to take your call. Please leave a message. Can you do that on your cell phone? Absolutely. But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
With Google Voice, you can forward your calls to your cell phone so you never miss it. Set up a specific ringtone so that when the call's coming in from your Google Voice, you know that it's for your nonprofit organization. So when you answer the phone, you can say, Hi, Institute for Nonprofit Management. This is Amber. How can I help you? Bam, super duper professional. What I'm trying to do is help you to up your game so that you can look the part, even if you're not there, because you gotta get in the door, or as they say, you gotta get on the court in order for you to play the game. We want you to get inside the door, want you to get inside the field, the stadium or whatever, so that you can compete. So do that. Check out Google for Nonprofits. As you saw, they have plenty of other things that they can do to support you with the Google ads and all of that.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
These two things I want you to take care of right away; your email and URL extension and your telephone line for your organization. The next resource that I wanna share with you, I'm so excited about, it's called Canva. And Canva has been like, How can I describe Canva? It's like Christmas in the summer. It's another free resource that allows you to put on a very professional face as it comes to branding, right? Canva does things like help you create a logo. If you're doing PowerPoint presentations, all kinds of stuff. Let's take a look at the clip right now.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
Design isn't just for designers, it's for everyone. Canva is the free tool that makes designing anything easy. Canva has all my content creation needs covered. It's flexible, fun to use and free with thousands of easy to use and professionally made templates. Canva helps you create, customize, and share your designs all in a few clicks.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
The presentations we design with Canva always impress our clients, plus anyone on our team can make them.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Start designing for free at canva.com.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So I use Canva, and again, this is my litmus test, right? If I can do it and don't break out into tears, then you can feel pretty confident, <laugh> that it's a platform you wanna use. As was stated on the clip, and I started to share with you on Canva you can create things for free. But here's why this is most important, your potential Funder is looking at you and trying to find ways to feel comfortable with your organization. If you have a cousin who is a really great artist and they created your logo, it may very well work, but it may very well not work. So we wanna make sure that that outward face that you're putting out to potential Funders says you're professional. That means consistency in your brand. That means things looking professional. And Canva is this amazing marketing tool that will allow you to do that.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
So I want you to check out Canva and look at it from the perspective of how am I presenting my brand out into the world? We want you to be professional. We want, cuz here's the other thing. Typically, people who are Funders, they come from the business world. So they have expectations, right? Yes, they know that you are a nonprofit, but they also know that they're giving you a hunker chunk of money and they wanna feel comfortable with that. And the best way to ease that discomfort is to look like what they're used to seeing in the professional world. Branded products, services, programs. When you put together a brochure, it needs to be consistent with what your website looks like, right? When you do memes, and all of these other things, it needs to look like it's professionally done by a marketing person. Canva, again, drag and drop.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
So I want you to take a look at Canva because this is gonna help you be more competitive than your other competitors who were not putting forth the effort to be as professional as you are. You only get one time to make a good first impression. Make sure you put your best foot forward in looking the part. All right. So now it is time for you to ask your questions of Amber Wynn, Philanthreprenuer, right? It's time for Ask Amber. Today's question is, what if I'm a startup and don't have programs yet? How do I look the part? And I think I covered this in one of my previous episodes, but you can never hear it too many times. My recommendation actually is for you to volunteer to give two or three workshops, just volunteer. Number one, it's gonna help you with presenting. Get the little butterflies out, work out the kinks, get some visibility.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Cuz if you're doing free workshops, that means you're in front of people. You're potentially in front of Funders. Volunteer to do two workshops, take pictures, get your cell phone, do videos, and then use that to go on your website. Use that to go on your social media. A little clip with you presenting in front of a group, you know can pan in so it looks bigger than what it is, or you can just focus on you as a presenter, but it shows you an action and it allows people to get a feel for your vibe. So volunteer to do two or three workshops, take pictures, videos, this becomes your documented proof. You do two or three of those, make sure you're in a different outfit. You put that on your website because here's the other thing I wanna share with people. There's been a lot of Founders and Executive Directors putting these stock photos up on your website.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
No bueno. You can put some of those things on your social media because that's where it goes. But on your website, your potential Funder is looking to see who you are engaged with. If all your photos on your website are stock photos, who is your target audience? We can't see that. We don't wanna see you standing up there and having your clients with just a certificate of completion. That doesn't give us a picture of who you are and what you do. You should be taking pictures if you're tutoring with the person sitting down there tutoring, if you're teaching them how to debate, have them in action. That's what we wanna see. We wanna see if we were there. So don't just have staged pictures. Do not have your website full of smiling beautiful stock photos. Show us who you're working with. Show us the community you're in.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
If you're giving out food show pictures with one of your volunteers handing a resident a bag of groceries, that's what you need to be showing your Funder. All right. So do that, and then that's gonna help you with looking the part. It's gonna show the impact that you're making and then just focus on all of those things that you can control. Like for example, if you do have a .com right now, go to Google for Nonprofits and change that so that it's a .org. If you have a whack logo, go to Canva. Get yourself a tight logo so that you look professional. Make sure that all of your branding, your color schemes, your font, they're all consistent. Those are the things you can change. You can change right now and with the resources that I've been providing, you can do it for free. All right, so if you're just now joining me, I've been talking to my family about looking the part, right?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I wanna help you outshine your competitors because there's always gonna be more applicants than there is money. And the way that you get put into the yes pile versus the no pile is by looking the part that you are branded consistent. You look professional. And so these are the resources that I've been sharing with you. Google for Nonprofits, Canva. And if you're interested I'd be more than happy to administer a website audit for you. What does that mean? That means through the lens of a Funder. I'll look at your website and I'll say, this is a red flag, this is a red flag, this is a red flag. Change this, add this, remove this. You're probably gonna get a lot of remove this cuz people overshare on their websites. You can turn a Funder off by having the wrong thing on your website. So if you go to my website, go to my store, you can see a website audit. It's something that will help you remove the doubt or guessing; is my website causing me to not be able to get funded? You can remove the guess. I can tell you. Red flag. Red flag. This is amazing. This is great. Do more of this. So go to my website and check that out. Now is the time where I get to do what I love to do, which is to feature nonprofits in the community doing the work. This nonprofit is called The Compassion Prison Project. Let's take a look at the work that they're doing.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
Hi, my name is Frie Horseman, founder of the Compassion Prison Project. Our mission is to transform prisons and communities with compassionate action. We're making a six part series called Trauma Talks; Creating Conversations and bringing awareness about the devastating effects of childhood trauma and bringing healing modalities to the men and women living in prison. And we're asking for your
Speaker 8 (18:12):
Help. We need athletes, celebrities, coaches, politicians, thought leaders, and other game changers to share inspirational quotes and words of encouragement. We need musicians and songwriters to donate music for our production and write songs about childhood trauma. We need healers and meditation teachers to share their wisdom, compassion, and demonstrate skills for resiliency and transformation. And we need fundraisers, pen pals, volunteers, and donors to keep the lights on and move our initiatives forward.
Speaker 7 (18:46):
Together we can shift this paradigm together. We can bring hope and inspiration to the men and women living in prison. And together we can change the world.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Thank you Fritzy and thank you Compassion Prison Project. If you would like to support the work of this amazing organization, you can reach out to them at www.compassionprisonproject.org. All right, so as we start to wrap up, I always have this segment in my episode that talks about a shift in the mindset, right? It's called Mindset Minute. And it's sort of like my soapbox where I share with you things that I'd like for you to consider. And in this segment, I just want you to think about this. Everybody likes a winner right, now does that make it right? It doesn't. I've had people say, Well, that's just the exterior. Nobody knows if you're a winner, If you're a good person, you can. All of that's true. But the reality is, everybody likes a winner. I'm here in LA and you know, you can't say nothing about the Lakers when they have all of their rings and people are like, Oh, Lakers, Lakers, Lakers.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Everybody likes a winner, right? If you are looking to date, you're not looking for somebody who's down and out. You're looking for somebody who is as accomplished as you are because you've worked hard for what you have and you, everybody likes a winner. It's not any different for a Funder. A funder is not looking for an organization that's about to close its doors. A Funder is not looking to invest money in an organization that says, If you don't give me money, I won't be able to deliver services. That's a sinking boat. Why would I attach myself to a sinking boat? And I get the pushback, Well, what am I supposed to do? I need the money. Funders responsibility is not you. It's not keeping your business afloat. That's your responsibility. Funders purpose is to accomplish their mission, their funding goals. They're looking for reputable nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
They're looking for successful nonprofits that they can partner with, that they can invest in to help them accomplish their funding goals. I know a lot of you think the purpose of a funder is to fund a nonprofit. It's not. It's a partnership. And that's why all of the things I'm sharing with you about looking the part is to help you look the part so that a Funder will feel comfortable with giving you their money. So in this Mindset Minute, I want to encourage you when you're talking to a potential donor, not to give them this doom and gloom story. Oh, our kids are amazing, but we need money to serve them without your help. They're gonna continue to … no, no. You wanna inspire your Funders. You wanna say, Oh, the difference between our youth in underserved communities versus youth in affluent communities is just that they're underserved.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
We don't have enough resources. But if we had enough resources, we would have kids who are blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's all about hope. It's all about inspiration. And the other thing is, you wanna come off as if you are doing perfectly fine, do not ask a Funder to give you all of your annual budget. If it costs you $250,000 to run your nonprofit. Do not ask a Funder for $250,000. Ask them for $50,000. That's why it's important that you understand. You're gonna have to diversify your funding streams. You may need to ask five Funders for $50,000 to fund your nonprofit. Why? Because no Funder wants to completely fund a nonprofit. It makes them feel like you're not stable. If they've gotta hold you up, then they're gonna continue to hold you up. They're not looking to take care of a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
They're looking to partner with you. So what I'm trying to say to you is that everybody likes a winner. You've got to come off as if you've got it. And at some point, you'll start to get it so much that you will have it right? But don't come into the conversation with donate, help. Then that makes you look thirsty and you're not thirsty. You're learning that you've gotta put this amazing image forward, one that is saying to people, I'm stable, I'm professional, I got this, and you wanna partner with me. All right? We're gonna talk more about that. But I wanna thank you for joining me today. I hope that you found the resources helpful. Make sure you go back a couple of episodes if you're just now joining me, because I'm sharing with you either free or low cost resources that's gonna help you strengthen your nonprofit. You're doing the work. I'm here to support you. I'm always gonna have your back. I'm your girl. I got you. So until next time, I want you to take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. See you.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoy this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.net/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.
