Workshop outlines the dos and don’ts of grant writing

NEW YORK — The Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner, a seasoned and successful grant writer, led the informative “Grant Writing for Church and Community Projects” at the Synod of the Northeast’s “Connection to Transformation” conference, held last week at First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica.

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Lindner told the story of her then-three-year-old son swimming in a backyard pool while Lindner played lifeguard, read a book and sipped a glass of lemonade. He asked her for a swig, and she offered him the glass. “Mom, if I drink from this, will I catch your dreams?” he asked her.

“He meant ‘germs,’ of course,” she said. “Even 42 years later, I can still see that retreating back. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could take a sip from my drink and see what kind of person you’ll become? I still believe God invites us to catch the dream for who we’ll become.”

Then Lindner got straight to work. Her first piece of advice is to inventory the stockholders.

“Say we are in Ding-Dong, Pennsylvania, and we’re working [to open] a preschool for children with disabilities,” she said. How many such facilities are there in the community? What about the Ding-Dong Alliance? “They might be allies and assets to your work,” she said.

Draft a precis no longer than two sentences, such as, “We are seeking $45,000 to make capital improvements to First Presbyterian Church of Ding-Dong so we can expand our preschool program. This will allow us to enroll 12 additional children.”

Lindner took those attending the workshop through the process of identifying sources for grants larger than $100,000 and those less than that threshold.

For the former, check with The Chronicle of Philanthropy. “Start reading it. It’s like reading the phone book, but it’s a great resource for what you’ll need,” Lindner said.

“We are Presbyterians. We do things decently and in order. The world of philanthropy is like that.” The Carnegie Corporation cares about kids, communities and international issues, she said. For youth ministry, the Annie E. Casey Foundation “is the one to turn to.” The W.K. Kellogg Foundation “funds interesting programs” to combat food deserts. The Ford Foundation “cares about “the organizational fitness of communities.” The MacArthur Foundation “has the genius grants, so innovation is the word.”

“If you read The Chronicle of Philanthropy, you will see projects like you have in mind,” Lindner said.

A workshop participant asked Lindner: When we take money from anyone, are they going to dictate the terms?

“They will have some influence. It’s their money, after all,” Lindner replied. “You may not be intending a free vaccination day at your daycare, but the state is going to require one.”

While there can be a prohibition in the grant against religious teaching, “If you live in a food desert, who’s to say you can’t have a farmers market in your [church] parking lot? People are welcome to come into the parlor and have a word of prayer with the pastor,” she said, advising those present: “Don’t fight battles you don’t have to fight.”

One church she knew opened a preschool, “a strict sectarian program funded by the school district,” she said. The bulletin boards were on wheels, and so Monday through Friday, “they would turn them around so Jesus was facing the wall and the squirrel picture was facing out.” While “some people were agitated, I said, ‘These children and young and short, but they’re not stupid. What about the big steeple? What about how you greet them?’ I think you can greet them even though the squirrel picture is out front.”

But “what if they say, ‘We have lots of dollars [to fight] food deserts. Would you have someone at the front to check people’s immigration status?’ There is not enough money in the world to sign you up for that.”

Landing a planning grant can be the entrée for securing a larger grant. “The big foundations have program officers who authorize discretionary grants,” she said. Lindner suggested finding the person “in your subject area. Make their acquaintance and say to them, ‘We have some space available. There is appetite for it and a demonstrated need. But to tell you the truth, we are not ready to put together a proposal. We would like to get a planning grant for the next year to develop the proposal in the appropriate way.’”

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“You get some funding, you get your foot in the door, and you have developed a relationship with the person who will take [your application for a larger grant] to the board,” she said.

“Church folks have a reputation for not playing well with secular organizations,” Lindner pointed out. She suggested “talking to the guy at the YMCA and seeing where they get their grant money. … You can save yourself a lot of headaches by being a subcontractor with someone else getting the grant. They get the grant, and you get your soup kitchen, which they helped fund.”

For smaller grants, keep an eye on community foundations and what Lindner calls “the animal clubs,” including the Lions, Elks and Moose. “Those folks like the fellowship and like to be in service to the community,” such as “renovating a place to be a childcare facility or a soup kitchen. They might come over for work day.”

“We are in the business of the common good,” she said, “of people heading in a common direction.”

Grantors “expect you to have skin in the game. You do, and sometimes you have to monetize it” on the grant form, she said, by noting, “this will take one-third of our pastor’s time and we’re going to use our property.”

Also, “they will ask you for your budget because it’s the only way you have to tell them you know how to handle money.”

Lindner said the question she’s asked the most is, should we hire a grant writer?

“It’s complex,” she said. “If you know somebody who does that and knows your community and cause, it’s probably a good investment.”

Read other Presbyterian News Service reports on the Connection to Transformation conference here, here, here and here.