Storytelling for Grantseekers: The Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising
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- Wiley
More About This Title Storytelling for Grantseekers: The Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising
English
Oftentimes, people charged with the task of writing grant proposals have little or no training in the process, and many actually feel intimidated by the act of writing. In Storytelling for Grantseekers, consultant and trainer Cheryl A. Clarke helps fundraisers overcome these hurdles by presenting an organic approach to proposal writing. Grantseekers who have used this unique process discover that telling the organization's story in narrative form (complete with settings, characters, antagonists, and resolutions), can help them connect with grantmakers and ultimately have greater success with funders.
This fresh and creative guide contains the resources needed to help you craft a persuasive synopsis, package a compelling story, and create a short story approach to the inquiry and cover letters that support the larger proposal. Clarke walks grantseekers through all the phases of developing an effective proposal and highlights the creative elements that link components to each other and unify the entire proposal. Clarke also stresses the need to see proposal writing as part of a larger grantseeking effort, one that emphasizes preparation, working with the entire development staff, and maintaining good relations with funders.
Using the suggestions outlined in Storytelling for Grantseekers, new and seasoned grantseekers will discover how to channel their passion to tell their organization's tale and create winning proposals.
This fresh and creative guide contains the resources needed to help you craft a persuasive synopsis, package a compelling story, and create a short story approach to the inquiry and cover letters that support the larger proposal. Clarke walks grantseekers through all the phases of developing an effective proposal and highlights the creative elements that link components to each other and unify the entire proposal. Clarke also stresses the need to see proposal writing as part of a larger grantseeking effort, one that emphasizes preparation, working with the entire development staff, and maintaining good relations with funders.
Using the suggestions outlined in Storytelling for Grantseekers, new and seasoned grantseekers will discover how to channel their passion to tell their organization's tale and create winning proposals.
English
Cheryl A. Clarke is a fundraising consultant with more than ten years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Clarke is an affiliate consultant and trainer with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services in San Francisco. Vice President of the Golden Gate Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Education, and a former practicing attorney, Clarke has served in senior development positions at the University of San Francisco and University of California, San Francisco. Clarke is also an award-winning writer of short stories.
English
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Introduction: Why Storytelling?
1 First Steps: Getting Ready for Grantseeking.
2 Research: Finding Your Audience.
3 Relationships with Funders: Cultivating Your Audience.
4 The Proposal Narrative: Introducing the Characters and the Place.
5 The Need or Problem: Building Tension and Conflict into Your Story.
6 Goals and Objectives: Finding a Resolution to the Problem.
7 Evaluation and Future Funding: Writing the Epilogue and Planning for a Sequel.
8 The Budget: Translating Your Story from Words to Numbers.
9 The Summary, Titles, and Headings: Preparing Your Marketing Copy.
10 Packaging: Publishing Your Proposal Story.
Afterword.
Index.ix
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Introduction: Why Storytelling?
1 First Steps: Getting Ready for Grantseeking.
2 Research: Finding Your Audience.
3 Relationships with Funders: Cultivating Your Audience.
4 The Proposal Narrative: Introducing the Characters and the Place.
5 The Need or Problem: Building Tension and Conflict into Your Story.
6 Goals and Objectives: Finding a Resolution to the Problem.
7 Evaluation and Future Funding: Writing the Epilogue and Planning for a Sequel.
8 The Budget: Translating Your Story from Words to Numbers.
9 The Summary, Titles, and Headings: Preparing Your Marketing Copy.
10 Packaging: Publishing Your Proposal Story.
Afterword.
Index.ix
English
Many books, articles, and videos about proposal writing crowd our shelves. The good ones provide grantseekers with the building blocks and, more importantly, the confidence for creating a competent proposal. The really good ones also inspire enthusiasm for what is thought by many to be a tedious, albeit necessary, chore. In Storytelling for Grantseekers Cheryl Clarke inspires.
Clarke, a fundraising consultant and trainer, is also a published short story author. She came to realize that fundraising and specifically proposal writing incorporate many of the techniques used in storytelling. A story sets a scene, has characters, and builds tension through a plot. A good proposal should do the same. By approaching the proposal as an opportunity to tell your nonprofit's story, the process becomes more enjoyable for the writer. Storytelling allows the passion to show through the proposal prose, making it more enjoyable for the reader and thus more likely to be funded.
Clarke elaborates on the storytelling metaphor with each chapter. In the proposal narrative you introduce the characters (the agency's clients) and the setting (the catchment area for the agency). The statement of need builds tension and adds conflict to the story. Goals and objectives can be thought of as the resolution to the need or problem described in the statement of need. Evaluation and the plan for future funding are the epilogue and seeds for a sequel, whereas the budget is the story's translation from words to numbers. Clarke uses excerpts from proposals to illustrate these ideas. She also provides summaries of key points for each chapter.
Clarke takes her own advice. I read Storytelling for Grantseekers as a story. Certainly if this technique makes a how-to volume more readable it will work for the far more compelling story that a nonprofit tells. Both new and experienced grantwriters will benefit by using the approach described here. (Jean Johnson Reference Librarian/Technology Specialist Foundation Center San Francisco, CA)"The author of Storytelling for Grantseekers is to be heartily congratulated! It's about time that grantwriting was discussed as a creative process rather than a technical chore. This book is destined to be a classic."
--Bill J. Harrison, CFRE, director of fund development, Blood Systems, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona
Clarke, a fundraising consultant and trainer, is also a published short story author. She came to realize that fundraising and specifically proposal writing incorporate many of the techniques used in storytelling. A story sets a scene, has characters, and builds tension through a plot. A good proposal should do the same. By approaching the proposal as an opportunity to tell your nonprofit's story, the process becomes more enjoyable for the writer. Storytelling allows the passion to show through the proposal prose, making it more enjoyable for the reader and thus more likely to be funded.
Clarke elaborates on the storytelling metaphor with each chapter. In the proposal narrative you introduce the characters (the agency's clients) and the setting (the catchment area for the agency). The statement of need builds tension and adds conflict to the story. Goals and objectives can be thought of as the resolution to the need or problem described in the statement of need. Evaluation and the plan for future funding are the epilogue and seeds for a sequel, whereas the budget is the story's translation from words to numbers. Clarke uses excerpts from proposals to illustrate these ideas. She also provides summaries of key points for each chapter.
Clarke takes her own advice. I read Storytelling for Grantseekers as a story. Certainly if this technique makes a how-to volume more readable it will work for the far more compelling story that a nonprofit tells. Both new and experienced grantwriters will benefit by using the approach described here. (Jean Johnson Reference Librarian/Technology Specialist Foundation Center San Francisco, CA)"The author of Storytelling for Grantseekers is to be heartily congratulated! It's about time that grantwriting was discussed as a creative process rather than a technical chore. This book is destined to be a classic."
--Bill J. Harrison, CFRE, director of fund development, Blood Systems, Inc., Scottsdale, Arizona
"In a lucid and entertaining style which reveals her own accomplishments as a grantwriter and storyteller, Cheryl Clarke takes the reader on the step-by-step adventure of putting together an effective grant proposal."
--Dorotea Reyna, director of corporate and foundation relations, Dominican University, San Rafael, California
"Cheryl Clarke's book sets the bar higher for grantwriters, encouraging them to look at the process of writing grant requests in a new way. As a program officer for several family foundations, I am delighted at the thought of the proposals that will result: powerful stories containing all the information I need."
--Mary Lowrey Gregory, program officer, Pacific Foundation Services, San Francisco, California
