We often hear from nonprofits who are frustrated by low success rates with grant proposals.
Often the issue isn’t the writing. It’s the targeting.
Here’s a fictional but common, scenario: A nonprofit doing great work in housing and reentry services sees a mental health grant open up. They apply, hoping proximity is enough. But the grantmaker’s priority is mental health innovation in school-based settings. The proposal is rejected—not because the program was weak, but because the alignment wasn’t there.
This happens more often than one might think.
Strong grant writers don’t just write well—they aim well.
At Grants For You, we have a thirteen step process for grant candidate selection. The following is a sample of what we evaluate before a single word is written:
- Faith-friendliness and political alignment – Is there ideological compatibility?
- Application accessibility – Do they accept unsolicited proposals?
- Geographic focus – Do they fund in your region?
- Cause priorities – Are your programs among their top three funding areas?
- Gap logic – Would your absence create a problem they care about?
One key insight: Know as much as you can about the prospective grant foundation. In one view, your job is to help them expand their version of what’s good in the world.
Getting that alignment right—before writing—can save weeks of effort and dramatically improve results.
If your team is preparing proposals this quarter, it may be worth revisiting your targeting framework first.