Episode 118: The Truth About Government Grants: So That You Can Make an Informed Decision About Whether or Nor to Apply for Them
Government grants tend to be large, multi-year grants. To the untrained eye, a government grant may seem like a great solution to your funding woes. While large multi-year grants are great there are a lot of compliance issues surrounding government grants that nonprofit leaders should be aware of before they pursue and land one. Learn what they are and if your organization is at the place where it makes sense to pursue them.
----------------------------------------------------
🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿
THERAPEUTIC PLAY FOUNDATION Pt. 2
👉🏿https://www.therapeuticplayfoundation.org/
----------------------------------------------------
🚀 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU RUN A SUCCESSFUL NONPROFIT
The Nonprofit Compliance Checklist https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iaKXLo9gnaM9BlrN6B8nSJij4nRkivwF/view?usp=drive_link
90 Days to a Profitable Nonprofit https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ofgeHJ2CTVS0t8STMiNqfveaVpWfaK7o/view?usp=sharing
----------------------------------------------------
Learn more about my success with helping nonprofits
Visit My Website👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
http://www.amberwynn.net
CONNECT WITH AMBER:
Follow me on Facebook 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://www.facebook.com/amberwynnphilanthrepreneur
Follow me on Instagram 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
https://www.instagram.com/amberwynnphilanthrepreneur
Listen to my Podcast! 👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4G9QNaVAYz8eXTmz48gagl
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Got Questions? "Ask Amber" on any of my social media platforms or email me at amber@amberwynn.net
Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn 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 (00:22):
Hey, welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn. It's your girl Philanthrepreneur . And I'm so excited about today's topic because I cannot tell you how many people approach me regularly saying, Hey Amber, I want to apply for this grant. Do you know a grant writer? Would you write this grant? And it's a government grant. And today we're going to talk about the truth about government grants because unlike foundation grants, government grants are a beast. And not only do they require an enormous amount of time to complete, they require the organization to be at a level where the organization can be responsive to the compliance. That goes with the government grant. It's a lot. So when we get back, that's what we're going to do. We're going to dive into the truth about government grants so that you are able to make an informed decision when we get back.
(01:27):
A nonprofit is a business governed by agencies on the local, state, and federal levels authorized to revoke a nonprofit's tax exempt status for noncompliance. Don't put your funding in jeopardy. Get the nonprofit compliance checklist to make sure you don't forget to file required forms to the agencies that can derail your operations for months. Compliance is 50% of a nonprofit's funding strategy. Getting the grant is half the work, but keeping it and getting it renewed is the other half. Don't spend hours writing grants only to have them rejected because your tax exempt status has been revoked. Keep your organization active and in good standing. Order your copy today. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn, and today we are talking about the truth about government grants. Here's the thing.
(02:17):
To get a government grant, an organization should have the tightest infrastructure ever. You may be an organization that's been around five, 10 years and you think, oh, I need a government grant. Because the benefit of a government grant is that they typically give large amounts and they typically are multiple year grants. And so that is ideal for making sure that your organization is solid. You've got multiple years that you have money coming in, and it's a large amount. The challenge, and it's I really want you to pay close attention to me when I say this is unlike foundation grant. Government grant is very rigorous because it's typically taxpayer money. It's money that has to be accounted for. That's not to say a foundation isn't concerned about accountability. It's to say that a government grant is extremely concerned about accountability to the degree that they have departments that are specifically responsible for ensuring that those tax dollars are being used the way that they were intended.
(03:30):
So when nonprofits come to me and they say, oh, I want to apply for this government grant, I start asking questions like, do you have systems in place to track and monitor your outcomes? Do you have accounting systems in place that can manage the flow of your money? Because if you don't have these basic things in place, you're not ready for a government grant. I would not recommend. I would not suggest, and I'm going to strongly discourage you from applying for government money. I've had people say, well, if I get this amount of money, I can put those things in place. That's the cart before the horse. You want to make sure that when you go in that you're not getting ready, you're going to get caught up. If you don't have systems in place where you can track this receipt or you can track where this money went, or you can capture data about your impact, then you're going to be behind the eight ball and that's not what you want to do.
(04:27):
Because there's this thing with government grants called suspended and disbardless, and if you mismanage government funding, that's what you'll be placed on. Your 501(c)(3) tax exempt status could be revoked because you're mismanaging funds. Something as unintentional as, let's just say you had an individual write you that grant, it got funded and then you paid them out of that government grant. Well, that's called mismanagement of funds. Let's just say there was a gap in between your ability to pay a salary from another grant. So you used money from this government grant to fill that gap because you're going to get this money that's all traceable. And if you do anything, whether you know it, whether you meant it, whether it was an honest mistake, it won't matter because that is government money. And so I say all that to say, if you don't know what you don't know, if you're making things up as you go along, if you've been eking by moving things here, moving things there, you're not ready for a government grant.
(05:43):
A government grant is something that an organization should get when they know what they're doing. And so I just really wanted to put it out there because I know in Los Angeles we have a lot of money that's being invested in the community for second chance individuals, individuals who've been incarcerated. We want them to come out and not return. And in my opinion, it's been done in a way that is setting up our nonprofits for potential failure. So here these nonprofits are, they've been functioning in the community doing the work, but they've not had any government grants. Now all of a sudden, and it's wonderful, they have the opportunity because they've reduced some of the barriers to getting these government grants, but because they've never had one, they don't know all of the compliance that comes along with it. What's going to happen is at the end of this grant period, the government's going to come in and say, okay, now it's time for us to audit your books, what the government does, and these nonprofits are going to be like audit books.
(06:52):
What are you talking about? I spent the money. And then they're going to say, you should have done this. You should have done that, because that's how the government functions. They expect you to know that with this grant comes compliance and here are the things that you're supposed to do in a way that you are supposed to do it that keeps you above board. But our nonprofits don't know that they're out there doing the work, not thinking about mismanagement of funds. They're commingling funds, and it's just going to be a big headache and it could even put some of our nonprofits out of business. So I'm saying to you, if you haven't done the work, if your organization isn't tight, if your infrastructure isn't set up, so where you can track and monitor, if you don't have systems in place, then government grants is not for you.
(07:46):
But no worries if you believe that you're at this point where you want to apply for government grants. I got you. We're going to pause for a minute and I'm going to talk to you about the 90 days to a profitable nonprofit course and it will get you government grant ready. This course will teach you how to set up systems, which systems you need in order to track your impact, your finances, because the course teaches you how to run a viable nonprofit, and that's what you need. In order to have a government grant, you need to have a tightly run ship. It can't be this hodgepodge stuff because it will get you in trouble. So let's take a look at 90 days to a profitable nonprofit, and it's the roadmap to get you to where you want to be. Are you struggling to fund your programs?
(08:40):
Can't get a grant to save your life. Most consultants will share the what of how to start a nonprofit or how to fundraise. They may even share the why, but they don't share the how because that's where they make their money. Now, I'm not hating. I'm a businesswoman too, but I've been where you are trying to make the world a better place, struggling to keep the doors open up to the wee hours of the night writing grants and doing whatever needed to be done. And because I've walked in your shoes, I'm not here to make you spend your wills, waste your time or your hard earned money. We ain't got time for that. The world needs you. I'm here to show you how to transform that pit. You keep dumping your hard earned money into a profitable nonprofit. I take my 30 years of nonprofit experience as a founder, executive director, program developer, grant writer in funder, giving out over $7 million annually in grants, and I save you literally thousands of dollars in hundreds of hours.
(09:43):
I walk you through setting up your nonprofit organization so that you can be generating enough revenue to cover your monthly expenses in just 90 days. How would that feel? Not paying bills from your personal bank account. I share my insider secret tips, tricks of the trade and provide you with a step-by-step roadmap on how to turn your bootstrap organization into a profitable nonprofit. Within six months, you could be generating enough revenue to pay your salary or fully fund your programs. The choice is yours, but you have to get the blueprint, and it took me three years to develop it, but it's here and it's going to change your life. Join my other successful clients who are just like you full of passion and determination, but they had no idea all that it takes to run and fund a successful nonprofit. Now they're winning grants and drawing a salary and they know what it is that they're supposed to be doing to run a successful nonprofit.
(10:44):
They're no longer making it up as they go. They have the roadmap and they're clear about next steps. And I want that for you too. So what do you get in this course? You'll walk away with knowledge, products, processes, and systems, not just a bunch of promises, but exactly what you need to turn your organization into a profitable nonprofit. I promise you don't need grants. What you need is a solid infrastructure, and this course is going to give you all of that and more. And what's more it comes with the money back guarantee. So go ahead, click the link below to register for this course. Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn, and we've been talking about the truth about government grants so that you can make an informed decision before you jump into it. Government grants are perfectly fine. I'm not saying not to pursue them, I'm saying to be ready when you decide to pursue them.
(11:42):
Okay, so now it's time in the episode for me to answer your pressing question with Ask Amber. Today's question comes from Donald who's in Long Beach, and his question says, I have grant money to increase capacity at my organization. I'm undecided between hiring a grant writer, a development director, or communications director. What are your recommendations? Well, your grant should tell you what position you're authorized to hire. Typically, a foundation of funders going to specifically fund something that you've proposed and they're like, okay, great. But if they haven't, then your decision should be determined by your capacity goals. For example, if the goal is to reduce the amount of grants that you yourself write, you're like, I'm tired, I need somebody else to do that, then you would go for a grant writer. If your goal is to increase your visibility in the community so that you can get access to more individual donors, so you can be seen by more funders, then you would hire a communications director.
(12:55):
If you have a grant writer and you want to increase your diversified streams of revenue, then a development specialist might be someone that you can consider. Here's the thing, in any state, but in particular in California, if you don't have a coordinator and a manager, then you don't want to hire a director because then that's misclassification, right? People are so quick to hire these directors. Two things about that. One, a director means that they should be managing a manager, and then a manager should be managing a coordinator. So don't hire a director. Two, when you hire a director, you're hiring at director level salary. So you could break the bank. So think about hiring a grant writer, a development specialist, a communication specialist, not a director unless you have a team that you then want to bring the person over. So it really just depends on what it is that you're trying to increase.
(14:09):
Your capacity of meaning, what are the things that you want to give away so that you're not responsible for doing them. When you have a capacity building grant, it should be to strengthen the organization, and it should be to get rid of some of the responsibilities that fall on you as an executive director so that they can do that and you can focus on overseeing the organization. So I hope that helped. Alright, so next coming up, we have my favorite part of the episode and that's Shine on nonprofit. I've expanded it in prior years. I just focused nonprofits. I've expanded it to also include resources for my nonprofits. So on some of these episodes, you'll see me cover nonprofit consultants so that they can talk about resources that they provide for you because I also want to be a resource, and I'm not the only person out there serving nonprofits. We have some really talented and amazing consultants out there. But we are on the second episode of our feature of the Therapeutic Play Foundation, and we're having an amazing and robust conversation with Nakia Fields, who's the executive director over Therapeutic Play Foundation. So let's continue with our conversation with Therapeutic Play Foundation.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
So let me start with Mommy Matters because I was getting into that a little bit about how that was the impetus for me wanting to really grow the nonprofit and create a legacy of safety for black women in particular, black women and children. Mommy matters does aim at all mothers, but we do have a particular focus on Black mothers because of that. And Mommy Matters is just essentially a program that helps mothers routine build, like focus on what are their self-care practices? What relationships do they have in their life? What food are they putting in their mouth? Where do they live? Are they safe? Do they need resources? And I think Mommy Matters is more of an intensive program rather than going to a therapist in private practice or at another organization. Yes, you can get therapy anywhere, but what Mommy Matters does is it wraps around you as a whole person and it supports you the whole way through meeting you where you are and building community with people who look like you and have experiences like you.
(16:49):
And it's done through art play gardening. We have walking groups, crochet groups, we have pottery groups. We just had one last night. It was so fun. So that was Mommy matters. Then this year we expanded an added daddy count. So now we serve the daddies, and that's been pretty cool. And we have Empowering Wellness, which is serving all communities. So even children get to be in our empowering wellness program with the same idea. They get the routine building, the groups, the community, the case manager, all that good stuff. So we serve the whole family unit through all of our programs. And our final program is outreach and advocacy. So remember I mentioned the Black Mental Health Task Force?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
So Therapeutic Play Foundation has become the backbone agency for the black mental health task force. So we have a lot of collaborative partnerships with community members, outreach and advocacy doesn't have to be coming in and signing up for a program. It can be coming and get some food and resources to find housing.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
We are back. You're on air with Amber Wynn. I'm always excited about my nonprofit spotlights because I get to share with the world all of the amazingness that I get to experience working with nonprofits. And I've had firsthand experience working with Nakia. She's built that organization up from the ground and she's doing some amazing work, as you've heard in the county of Los Angeles, providing access to mental health services, which let's just keep it real. And the times that we live in, we need access to mental health support. So you'll be able to listen to the full interview on my YouTube, and then we still have a couple of more episodes where we get to finish hearing her talk about what she's doing in the community. So thank you so much for joining me this week. Our focus has been the Truth About Government Grants. If you're interested, making sure that you're prepared, I wanted to make sure that you can make an informed decision. So yeah, that's where we are. We're going to wrap up this episode, but be sure to join me next week. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with the neighbor, share it with the friend, make sure you hit subscribe, and as always, take care of yourself, like you take care of your community.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed 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.
