They Want What?
Organizing
Your Support Documents
Will Help You Better Respond to RFPs
By Jane Mackey,
Vice President
Kansas City
Getting serious about a campaign and
raising funds can benefit from some
thoughtful organization of what you’ll
need at hand in the way of necessary
materials to make responding to Requests
for Proposals much more streamlined.
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If your campaign
efforts are focused on “bricks
and mortar,” consider developing
a response that you can use for those
organizations that will only fund
programs. It is not hard to find a
program need that you can tie in within
each capital need. Trying to raise
funds for a swimming pool? Consider
asking for scholarship support for
swimming lessons. The lack of a good
program option will close the door
to certain funding sources.
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Make sure your
documents all match the name that
you are using to currently conduct
your business. If you started as the
Kansas Friends of the Condors and
are now calling yourself the WorldWide
Bird Lover’s Club, you will
need to be able to show the proper
documentation related to your tax
status. Donors and funders need proof
that you are the same organization
and that the IRS knows that, too.
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If you are raising
funds for an asset that will be held
by another organization, be prepared
to submit grant requests on behalf
of the organization that will “own”
the asset. For example, if you are
a hospital foundation raising funds
for a hospital project, you may have
to submit the grant requests from
the “hospital” rather
than the “foundation.”
That means the funder will want to
see the hospital’s documents
(see the list below), and not the
foundation’s.
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Organizations that
are subject to inspections and accreditations
need to be prepared to share the results
of those surveys. Hospitals have Joint
Commission surveys, child care centers
often have state inspections or accreditation
by the National Association for the
Education of Young Children (NAEYC),
organizations that assist disabled
persons may have the Rehabilitation
Accreditation Commission (CARF) accreditation
and food service organizations often
have health department inspections.
Listed below are the documents you
will be asked to provide frequently.
It is not unusual during the course
of a campaign to respond to 30 or more
RFP’s, so it’s helpful for
your campaign – and your development
operations generally – that you
have these organized in your files with
copies at hand.
-
IRS 990
-
Annual Report (the
marketing document your send to your
donors and/or any state reporting)
-
Articles of Incorporation
-
Audit (past three
years)
-
Any Agreements
(Do you collaborate with another group
on projects?)
-
Board Roster (include
the member’s professional affiliations)
-
Budget (both your
campaign or project budget, and the
operating budget for your organization)
-
By-Laws
-
IRS Determination
Letter
-
Letters of Support
-
Marketing Materials
(Brochures, newsletters, campaign
literature)
-
Organizational
Chart
-
Position Descriptions
-
Resumes or Biographical
Sketches (for your key staff and volunteers)
-
Statistics (Look
to a variety of outside statistical
sources to support your case such
as demographic studies, census reports,
and other key finding published by
agencies.)
A Final Tip: Don’t forget to
also set up your word processing files
with the information about the project
and details from the case statement.
More and more funders are turning to
on-line applications and the ability
to “cut and paste” from
existing documents will assure continuity.
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