Hi, I’m Ruth one of the Grants Strategists at Strategic Grants.
Some of you may be wondering “Ok, what does a Grants Strategist do?”
The short answer is we help non-profit organisations with all things grants-related.
What does a Grants Strategist do?
- grant application writing
- grant application critiquing
- training
- industry relevant blogs
- grants strategy
- program design, monitoring and evaluation
- reporting frameworks.
We also help funders and councils with their grants’ strategies!
But that’s not all……
One part of my role, behind the scenes, which really appeals to the secret nerd in me – is helping the Strategic Grants Calendar Team build Customised Grants Calendars for our clients.
Here at Strategic Grants we are fortunate to work with a diverse range of non-profit organisations across New Zealand and Australia, helping to build the capacity of these organisations through their grant programmes. Building Customised Grants Calendars is one of the ways we do this.
Our online grants database GEMS (Grants Expertise Management Systems) includes thousands of funding opportunities from:
- philanthropic trusts and foundations
- government grants
- local councils
- corporate foundations
- public and private funds
When a non-profit organisation signs up to GEM Portal we also build a Customised Grants Calendar unique to them, which includes just the funders whose interests match the activities, projects and services of their organisation.
Building the calendar
Extracting that level of customised information from a huge database of grants including everything across all areas of community need, is an in -depth process. Initially there is a lot of research and consultation involved to get an understanding of the organisation’s work, their purpose, projects, who they are helping and which geographic area they cover.
We then match this information to the grant codes in GEMS, selecting just the grant categories, beneficiaries, geographic location, legal status, grant range and grant types that fit the organisation’s profile.
Then GEM Portal does its magic, automatically selecting all the grants that match that organisation’s profile to include in their grants calendar. The data then gets checked by the SG Calendar Team to make sure there are no grants that should not be there and that relevant ones are not excluded.
Grants History
It is so important for a grants strategy to be effective, to have a record of your organisation’s grants history. That’s why our clients provide a list of their history with funders, so we can include these notes and details in their Customised Grants Calendar to help with their future planning. And of course, for any funded projects, the funder report due dates can also be added to help manage those deadlines too.
Wishlist & Prospect matching
Another part of the grants calendar process is using the client’s wishlist to get them started with some suggestions of funders they can approach as a priority. Having a wishlist of projects, equipment, operational needs or capital items that need funded for the next 6-12 months is a must when planning your grants programme for the coming year.
Before we send out a grants calendar to a client, as with all our client work at Strategic Grants, the calendar and prospect list goes through our internal review process for a final check.
Then finally, the exciting part for me after all that hard work….
It’s time to deliver the calendar to the client, who is always very excited to see how many opportunities there are!
If you want to save hours of research time, allowing you more time to focus on developing relationships with funders, robust project plans and well written grant applications, get in touch. We can show you how a Customised Grants Calendar and GEM Portal subscription can help your organisation.
Be sure to check out the GEM Portal Demo
And if you are a smaller organisation with revenue under $1Million check out GEM Local