Pay It Forward

By Barbara Stratton, Professional Grant Writer

When a need presents itself in the community, schools, health departments, and other social service, agencies attempt to meet that need with a new program or service. After all, meeting community needs is the nature of non-profits. However, what is inside an agency's mission may be outside its financial means. Organizations that can't deliver without dollars seek grant support.

A grant award can support a program/service for anywhere from one to three years. In that time frame, jobs are created, policies revised, partnerships formed, refurbishments completed, and constituents benefit. So what happens when the money runs out?

Many grant-makers are explicit about refunding. The Acme Foundation does not provide continuous funding. Grantees may not re-apply for five years. The HMC Corporate award is intended to serve as seed money for the implementation of new, as opposed to on-going, services. One social worker observed, “Grant makers drop a lot of seeds, but they don't nourish growth.” Yet virtually every grant application poses the same challenge: How will you sustain the program beyond the period of financial assistance?

The grant process is a stressful one. At minimum, it involves identifying the local problem or gap in services, designing a responsive program, seeking an appropriate funder, and crafting a narrative that addresses the funder's criteria for receiving information. At the same time, you must also articulate the nuances of the issues, highlight the capability of your agency, and meet a deadline that's rushing toward you with the speed of a commuter train.

Post-deadline, most of us peel ourselves off the train track and worry about sustainability after the fact. It is a coping mechanism that has torpedoed many a grant award. For all practical purposes, strategizing to sustain a grant-funded program or service should be an integral part of the development process.

To sustain a program or service is to institutionalize it: make it part of your school or agency's standard operating procedures. Happily, the seed money provided by a grant usually supports the bulk of start-up costs (i.e. CATCH K-8 Complete Activity Kit & Equipment). Grant funds also help to launch public awareness and recruit participation. It is the on-going expenses of staff salaries and benefits, supplies, rent, utilities, and marketing that cause concern. What's the solution?

First, we must understand that sustainability does not always require money. If, for example, a CATCH fitness program was developed by a partnership or collaboration, then the partner-agencies should consider sharing staff to keep the program going. This is an in-kind, as opposed to cash, contribution. A youth resource center in northern New Jersey is operated this way with three different organizations staffing the center on a rotating schedule. To help cover the rent and utilities, this same youth resource center gave office space to the local Substance Abuse & Prevention Council. The Council, using its own funds, hosts weekly family dinners at which components of Eat Smart Nutrition are covered.

No-cost or low-cost services, contributed by local agencies, are also considered sustainability. To sustain a health and wellness program, the Red Cross can be recruited to deliver CPR or Emergency Response training; Planned Parenthood can teach sexual-abuse prevention, etc.

Marketing is not the high cost activity it once was. Today, promotional information is passed through list serves or written into established websites.

Strategies for sustainability also include seeking additional competitive grants and/or assuming certain program expenses inside entitlement grants (IDEA and No Child Left Behind). For programs being operated on an after-school, weekend, or holiday basis, tuition or fees can be charged to offset expenses.

In short, it's not over when it's over.

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