Panelists give advice for institutions seeking funds for their initiatives to help marginalized students
Over the course of the previous three days, Fellows of the Salzburg Global program, in partnership with ETS and the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, had heard of numerous different initiatives aimed at increasing the access and success of marginalized students to and in higher education. But where does the money come to fund such initiatives?
Some initiatives receive public funding, but in many cases, colleges, universities and non-governmental organizations must look to other private or corporate funders.
In a panel comprising of representatives from large private and corporate foundations, as well as funding and support networks, including session sponsor, the Kresge Foundation, Fellows were offered many helpful pieces of advice:
- Don’t send spam applications; form letters are unlikely to garner much attention in the mass of applications.
- Tailor your application; just as you expect a funder to read your proposal, so too should you read all their literature. Just because Kellogg and Kresge fund education programs doesn’t mean you can send them both the exact same proposal and grant request!
- Be innovative – and be sure of it; if you’re claiming your project is cutting edge and original, do the research to be sure of your claim. Funders don’t want to undermine others’ work in the same area.
- Collaborate; if you find that your “original” project isn’t so, don’t be deterred – combine your efforts instead of competing.
- Have a clear email subject line; funders receive dozens if not hundreds of applications – make sure your application stands out and isn’t simply called “RE: Grant Proposal” or “Follow up to application”. “Name your baby!” advised one panelist.
- Don’t assume that silence means “no”; just because your application hasn’t gained a response yet doesn’t mean it has been rejected – the funder might have received more applications than anticipated and is taking longer to respond than expected.
- If it is rejected, don’t give up; find out why your application has been turned down, re-write and re-pitch. You can even ask funders if they know of another organization more likely to support your project.
Advice wasn’t only offered for grant-seekers, but also the grant-givers:
- Donors should have an exit strategy; your grant recipients shouldn’t be panicking in year three of a five-year grant – know how they can continue and sustain the work long after money has run out.
