Functional & Funded

As Bob Stilger, Co-President of the nonprofit New Stories puts it, “Chess advocates getting one's own house in order, getting clear about purpose and about what we already have before asking others for their support. Good sound advice!”

Functional and Funded has been written for fundraisers, many who are nonprofit staff or board members, others who are entrepreneurs. They write proposals to finance the programs a nonprofit organization carries out, or to underwrite the costs of bringing their creative, vital ideas to fruition. This book makes it possible succeed in such endeavors through strategies it labels as “business as unusual”, allowing proposal writers to approach funders from a position of strength.

The insignia of such an approach is to flip typical proposal development on its head. This unfolds when the author asserts that many nonprofits botch their mission statements by emphasizing program delivery rather than success among the people for whom they exist. In addition, a clear distinction is made between how a proposal is constructed, and how it is presented. This strengthens your capacity to make a compelling impression on a prospective benefactor because of the soundness of the way your proposal was pieced together. As the title Functional and Funded indicates, there is a vibrant connection between the quality of an organization seeking resources and its success in securing them.

There are two other strategies described in this book that work to a reader's advantage when applied to resource development. First, a reader will discover imaginative and solid techniques for pursuing resources that will prove beneficial EVERY time an opportunity to seek resources presents itself— and the range of such opportunities to build organizational assets is significant. (This is not to be confused with the deservedly disparaged boilerplate proposals.) The process by which your proposal is built is as important as the product that emerges and, if executed according to the process described, leads to an incontestably powerful proposal that can be used whether encountering the rigors of competing for grant funds, weighing in to the crowded realm of crowdfunding, or as the basis for making a strong appeal while sitting down face to face with an individual donor.

Second—and this is where the sub-title, The Inside-Out Strategy for Developing Your Nonprofit's Resources, comes into play—the author has used his accumulated experience to develop a signature approach to the ever-present need to build funding proposals. Described in the book as Integrated Resource and Organizational Development, this process leads the organization to strengthen itself while going through the process of developing its potent funding proposal. This is embodied, for example, when team members realize they have to increase organizational credibility within their local community in order to become a more viable candidate for funding. Nothing less than a strong organization presenting a strong proposal makes sense in these hyper-competitive times.

The book is designed to be used and re-used—a guide in your hands, not on a shelf but on your desk, passed around in meetings with others with whom you will build magnificent funding proposals. It comes with real life examples to dissect, a section on focused internet resource links for the proposal writer, and a Tool Kit filled with guidance materials available in pdf form on the author's web site.