It's time to celebrate friends, family, community, and our beautiful planet. It's also a great time to appreciate your organization's 2021 achievements and start thinking about your plans for 2022.
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This month, you'll find some great resources below to help you out (including a special 20% discount). You'll also find a gift of all 10 episodes of the "Ask Dalya Live" video series -- now available for free online.
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And, if you're *giving* gifts this holiday, check out my tips on climate-friendly gift wrapping.
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Happy writing,
Dalya Massachi
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(Feel free to forward this newsletter to friends and colleagues who may be interested.)​​
Do you know how to evaluate a funder’s Request for Proposals? If you have been in the grant writing world for any length of time, you are bound to have come across a number of funding opportunities. Released a few weeks or months before the deadlines, they are usually called Requests for Proposals (RFPs).
You will have to assess each funding opportunity to see if and when you should pursue it...[more]
Remember when your nonprofit organization won that institutional grant? No doubt you celebrated — at least a little. After all, you put in a lot of hard work and it finally paid off.
Several months later, you found yourself at the grant reporting phase. One of the best ways to continue building a good relationship with your funder is to submit thorough and useful grant reports, on time, and in the requested format.Here’s how.
"Ask Dalya Live": Free Series of 10 Now Available
Throughout 2021, I hosted live brief conversations that answered many of your questions about nonprofit grant writing and management. The 10 video episodes covered a whopping 40 topics that you all asked about!
Questions ranged from how to set up your organization to be grant-ready, to grant strategy, to how to work with funders once your grant is successful (or still needs work) -- and everything in between.
On Your Holiday Wish List? (20% discount thru 12/20!)
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Is your nonprofit or library interested in attracting funding through successful grant writing? Yes, grant awards absolutelycan help you start, maintain, and expand your programs.
The challenge is knowing what to expect in the grant world and preparing to be successful in it.
But navigating the grant world can seem overwhelming, confusing, and even mysterious at first. That’s why TechSoup and I created the Grant Writing and Management course
track. It consists of 5 interactive courses that form a “starter kit” for grant success.
In all 5 courses, you’ll engage with me through videos, interactive activities, and quizzes. You’ll also find dozens of samples, templates, worksheets, checklists, and other resources. And each module comes with its own transcript for easy reference.
Since its launch in October 2020, the course track has helped several hundred nonprofit and library professionals learn grant writing and management…on their own schedules.
“A HUGE Thank You for one of the best online training experiences I have ever had.”
“Having a facilitator guide me through the process was much easier than trying to do it on my own in a hit-and-miss way.”
“This course is exactly what our organization needs as we embark on our first major fundraising efforts.”
Special Offer: Save 20%!
Enter code GRANTOFF20 at checkout to get 20% off! This code is good until December 20, 2021, and may be shared with your colleagues.
Learn moreabout this professional development tool and the FREE introductory webinar!
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Climate Solutions
Report
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I recently got trained by Former Vice President Al Gore and the Climate Reality Project, and I am now officially part of the Climate Leadership Corps. Joined by over 40,000 climate activists around the world, I am embarking on new projects to advance climate justice solutions in our communities.
You can too! Find out more about thefree 2022 online training opportunities. I learned more about the climate and justice crises
shaping our world – and how I can get involved to make a real difference.
You can take a step in that direction RIGHT NOW: during this holiday season. How? Avoid contributing to the millions of tons of holiday trash by simply using zero-waste gift wrap. A few ideas:
Colorful fabric or scarves you have around the house (check out Japanese fabric wrapping, calledFuroshiki)
Gift bags, tins, jars, boxes, or glitter-free tissue paper
Expired calendars, newspaper, magazines, or maps
Bubble liners from grocery deliveries
If you really need to use traditional paper gift wrap, please avoid the shiny stuff – it's usually NOT recyclable due to the foil or plastic coating. Kraft paper (or other non-coated paper) is easy to find online or at your local crafts store -- and it's compostable/recyclable! Instead of tape, you can use biodegradable string or twine to tie up your packages.
If you have collected bows or ribbons from holidays past, you can just reuse them. Decorative plant items also add flair to packages (cinnamon sticks, holly, small pine cones, acorns, cranberries, fir tree sprigs, etc.).
Of course, you can also focus on gifts that don’t need wrapping. Consider giving experiences (classes, outings), special shared meals, digital gifts, etc.
And don't forget that you can always re-gift items you don't really want.You might also want to consider joining a Buy Nothinggroup in your area.
Bonus: Giving gifts with our shared planet's future in mind may inspire the gift-receiver to do the same.
