Photo: Rachel Strohm

An idea is nothing without funding–and that funding is often secured by writing a two to three page proposal and budget detailing your plans and goals.

As a writer, activist, and the daughter of a foundation director, l know that careful and meticulous grant writing can go a long way in the effort to implement real change.

1. Be realistic.

Don’t propose the work of 30 volunteers if you’ve only recruited the help of three. Don’t say you’ll commit 40 hours per week if you already have a full time job.

Think long and hard about what you can commit, but also consider opportunities for growth down the road. Funders want to see that you’re thinking long term, even if their money is used for preliminary set up, structure, or supplies.

2. Be concrete.

Your budget should include basic items like office supplies, rent, salary, fringe benefits, telephone, or any other relevant expenses. This applies to your goals section, too. Try to quantify ways to gauge your progress and success.

For example, instead of “We hope to ensure greater access to clean water,” you might say, “we hope to ensure that 10 more communities in X region are given clean water access by Y date.”

3. Fill an unfilled niche.

A vital part of securing a grant is being able to answer the question, “Why is my idea different?” Make sure what you are proposing isn’t identical to a project or organization already in existence. Be creative in your thought process, and confident that your idea is one-of-a-kind.

4. Do your research.

Photo: juhansonin

Some foundations have very specific limits regarding what or who they fund. For example, a funder might only be interested in election issues during an election year. Community foundations may be constrained by geography, funneling all of their money towards local groups and individuals. Other funders do not accept unsolicited proposals.

Don’t waste time by applying for a grant for which you don’t even qualify. The solution to this all too common mistake is simple: read the foundation’s website and grant guidelines carefully. If a funder is open to taking questions, then by all means, call or e-mail them.

5. Edit, edit, edit.

Crafting a succinct and clear proposal is crucial to successful grant writing. Why trust an individual who doesn’t even take the time to edit his or her application for spelling or grammatical errors? If your proposal is well-written, it will not only demonstrate professionalism, but it show your ability to complete your project with the same degree of thoughtfulness and attention to detail.

6. Utilize resources.

The Foundation Center is a great resource for both new and experienced grant writers. The Center provides online access to a huge database of funder profiles, and has offices in several major cities.

Use of their books and the help of a knowledgeable employee is completely free of charge if you visit the Center. The Foundation Center also offers courses, such as “Introduction to Grant Writing,” for very reasonable prices.

7. Learn from your mistakes.

Securing funding is difficult, but seeing a project through is just as challenging. Some days, it may seem that obstacles triumph.

One of my favorite grant-funded projects ended up being a total flop; we ran out of resources to keep our new website–which featured “found footage of war”–up and running past the grant period’s deadline. Still, the project allowed me to connect with many wonderful people, learn about myself, and test my limits.

Keep on trying, and if you grow from the experience, you will not have failed.

Community Connection:

Learn about other successful organizations by reading some of our organizational profiles, including these:

SheJumps

What Took You So Long?

Collective Lens

Photo: Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake

One of the most popular articles we’ve published on MatadorChange is How to Start a Successful NGO in 10 Steps. The article, written by photographer and NGO-preneur Ryan Libre, has had more than 200,000 views since it was published in September 2008.

Every day we receive comments on this article, often from people in “developing” countries who are fired up on solving local problems with local solutions. They view starting an NGO as an excellent way to do just that.

They’re right, but the challenge they all face is funding. If dollars were distributed on the merit of good ideas alone, well… you wouldn’t need an article like this one.

If you’ve got a sweet idea about an NGO, non-profit, or small business that could change your community–or the world–here are a few ways you can bootstrap your start up with some funding methods beyond the usual approaches.

1. Set up a blog.

If you’ve got a great idea but no one knows about it, how do you expect to get funding for it? Setting up a blog is almost as simple as having an Internet connection… and it’s free.

Start establishing your Internet presence by setting up a simple blog on WordPress. Matador’s got dozens of resources to help you understand exactly how to do this on our Blogging Tips Focus Page.

Essential information includes: the name of your organization; your mission; who you’re working with and/or serving; what need you’re fulfilling; and why no one else is filling it. Provide a way for visitors to get in touch with you if they want to ask questions. Let them know how they can help.

2. Broaden your web presence.

Screenshot of Matador member Misty Tosh’s NGO’s website

What evidence can you provide that you’re already working to solve the big social problem your NGO, non-profit, or small business is going to address?

Flickr and YouTube will let you compile and present visual evidence that you are (1) who you say you are, (2) where you say you are, (3) working on what you claim to be working on.

Flickr and YouTube accounts are free and they’re essential to building and broadening your web presence. They also can be integrated into your WordPress blog easily.

Beyond Flickr and YouTube, set up a Twitter account. Connect with other social entrepreneurs who have started their organization or who are in the process of setting one up. Share ideas and contacts; provide each other with support. Connect with journalists and other people who may be interested in your enterprise. Ask for their support.

3. Now, start raising funds.

It used to be the case that starting an NGO or non-profit required non-stop grant writing.

While grants remain a significant source of operating income, the Internet provides many more tools you can use that will supplement your organization’s financial flow:

ChipIn: ChipIn is a free widget you can embed on your blog to raise money for your cause.

Screenshot from ChipIn

People who want to support your fledgling organization donate money using their PayPal account by clicking on the ChipIn button that now appears on your blog. You can also add the ChipIn widget to your Facebook profile.

Matador has used ChipIn to raise funds for our Brave New Travelers scholarship.

Kickstarter: Kickstarter’s a bit like ChipIn, but with a twist- you set a fund raising goal for your project and you have to meet our goal within a certain period of time in order for the donors’ money to be released to you.

Screenshot of Irina Zhorov’s project on Kickstarter

There are two other catches: (1) You have to have a US bank account and address in order to set up a Kickstarter account and (2) Kickstarter makes its money by taking 5% out of your funded project.

But if you’re agreeable to those terms and if you have a network of people you can reach out to to contribute, it can be an effective fund raising platform. Charyn Pfeuffer, who was profiled on MatadorChange recently, recently funded her $20,000 international voluntourism project on Kickstarter and Matador contributor Irina Zhorov is currently fund raising for a project on Kickstarter, too.

Grow VC
Grow VC is a brand new venture capital funding platform for entrepreneurs who are launching start-ups with a mobile or web-based focus. If your project falls into that category, read about this new funding option on the Grow VC website or in this article from TechCrunch.

Amazon Affiliate Program
You won’t be able to fully fund your start-up as an Amazon affiliate. You likely won’t even make enough to buy coffee for a week, but if you use this program as part of a diverse set of passive income sources, you might just cover some basic operating expenses, like simple office supplies.

There are all sorts of catches, but if you’re approved, the program is easy to use. Read all about it in Amazon’s overview.

Google Grants and Google for Non-Profits
Google has all kinds of resources that relatively few people know about, and Google for Non-Profits is one of them. In addition to its grants program, Google offers in-kind AdWords advertising to non-profits. All of their relevant resources can be accessed on the Google for Non-Profits page.

Community Connection:

Do you have experience funding a non-profit or NGO? Want to share your tips? Leave your advice in the comments section.

Flavia Cueva; Photo courtesy of Tyler Orsburn

It all started with Dr. Adan Cueva, Flavia’s father, who was born in Copan Ruinas in Western Honduras and was part of one of the founding families of the town. Adan was a pioneer in helping to restore and protect the Mayan ruins in Honduras, and he introduced American archaeologists to the value of the famous relics found in Copan.

Though Adan and his family lived in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, he found refuge in San Lucas, a small homestead located on 300 acres of tropical rainforest in Copan Ruinas that had been in the family for nearly 100 years. A self-proclaimed “spoiled city girl,” Flavia dreaded vacationing at San Lucas while growing up. It took two days to get from Tegucigalpa to Copan, there was no electricity on site and they had to ride mules from the heart of Copan to San Lucas.

As a young adult, Flavia left Honduras to study in the United States. She ended up marrying, raising a family, working a handful of careers and getting a master’s degree before returning to Honduras 30 years later. It was then she began to realize why San Lucas was so important to her father. In 2000, she moved to Copan Ruinas and began converting her family’s property into an eco-lodge.

She had her work cut out for her.

Yoga studio at Hacienda San Lucas. Photo / JoAnna Haugen

The area had been slashed and burned for agriculture. Deforestation and erosion threatened to ruin the land marking the sacred ground of the ancient Maya. Flavia planted 4,600 native trees, which provided a safe habitat for local birds and wildlife, and began to educate local farmers about the importance of proper planting in order to preserve the land.

“I truly believe that it is a privilege to take care of the land and its people in a sacred space,” she says. “It is really not ours. It is only our duty to take care of it and share it with people who visit us.”

For her work in sustainable tourism, the Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Board of Honduras awarded Flavia with the Premio Copan this year, which she describes as being like “the Oscars of tourism.” The award is given annually to one person and one institution. San Lucas was nominated for the institutional award a few years ago, but Flavia herself received the award in the personal category this year for returning to Honduras and helping the people of Copan to create a desirable and sustainable tourist destination.

The Chamber of Commerce also recently asked her to participate in the First Central American Forum on Social Responsibility, Sustainability and Climate Change. “I love the topic, of course,” Flavia says, “and I feel very honored.”

Sitting with Flavia in the restaurant area of her eco-lodge, Hacienda San Lucas, I can see the effects of her sustainability efforts. There are no electric lights (except for the one in the bathroom, but this is run on solar power); instead, every surface is covered with candles. The five-course meal that we’ve just eaten—including an flavorful cream of baby corn with chipilin soup and a main dish consisting of cream chicken with loroco—was cooked fresh on the spot; Flavia bought all of the ingredients locally and there were no additives.

In fact, she requires people to make reservations to dine at Hacienda San Lucas because she pops into town to buy exactly what she needs every morning. When a young couple shows up with no advance warning, Flavia has to work up her “fast food fare” of steamed fresh corn tamales wrapped in banana leaves served with pickled green papaya relish in place of the multi-course meal.

Just beyond the boundaries of San Lucas lies La Pintada, a village of Chortí Indians, direct descendents of the Mayans. “When I came, it was just a little forgotten village,” Flavia says. “I met with the elders and explained how it was going to change. I wanted them to be a part of it.”

Today, 50 percent of the employees at Hacienda San Lucas are from La Pintada. “I hire a lot of indigenous women and now they’re empowered. Now they have jobs they’re proud of,” she says. “Their children are graduating from high school for the first time, and they have learned to work in tourism and to appreciate the value of having visitors leave pleased.”

In less than ten years, Flavia has transformed the face of San Lucas and Copan through desire and drive in a way few others could have. “There has been a renaissance in preserving the authentic,” she says of her community. “I think I helped to awake Copan to what people really enjoyed. It gave them an appreciation of their recent past while setting high standards of quality and service for the future.”

And as for Hacienda San Lucas: “It’s grown from two to eight rooms, thanks to amazing guests,” she says. “San Lucas is self sustainable, and although we will never be rich, I consider it very profitable because we have changed the lives of people. To me, it’s a miracle.”

Community Connection:

If you find Flavia’s story inspiring, you may want to read about 50 Visionaries Changing Your World then make a commitment to change the world yourself.

Teens at New Orleans’ Cafe Reconcile stay off the street, get skills, and–hopefully–get a job. Photo: Francisco Collazo

Exotic cuisine, celebrity chefs, and Michelin starred restaurants may seem a world away from violent misfits and underpaid government staff of juvenile correction facilities. However, distant worlds are rapidly colliding. Fed up with ineffective government interventions, the culinary world is taking charge by bringing innovative at risk teen programing from the back kitchens of bakeries and culinary schools across America to the country’s “correctional” facilities.

The Argument for Change

Forget the days of knuckle-rapping punitive discipline. The new game is early detection and early intervention. Provide constructive and enriching support to underprivileged young adults before the system fails them. And why can’t cooking be that support?

Culinary training builds confidence and self worth by teaching students how to combine simple ingredients with passion and imagination to create something out of nothing– a highly lucrative skill set and a classic metaphor for life. And run with military precision, a professional kitchen demands self discipline, team work, and clear communication amongst its members… all positive character building influences that troubled youth often lack.

What does juvenile detention and incarceration produce? Probably, a more hardened and bitter criminal who still can’t get a job.

Can cooking be the catalyst necessary to revive our outdated prevention and intervention policies? Some chefs and social entrepreneurs think so.

Who’s Paving the Way?

Lisa Thompson – Blue Sky Inn Bakery, Chicago, Illinois

Employing homeless and troubled youth on the east side of Chicago, Lisa Thompson opened the doors to Blue Sky Inn Bakery in 2008. Supplying fresh baked goods, coffees, and catering services to local downtown Chicago businesses, the bakery supports hands-on job training and the development of “soft skills,” such as teamwork, conflict resolution, communication, accountability, critical thinking, and problem solving. Lisa has blazed a path for many young adults by helping them find long term employment and facilitating an outlet for creative expression and subsequent personal growth.

Bill Strickland – Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Don’t believe the fine arts are an anti-poverty, anti-crime tool? All cynics please direct questions to Bill Strickland.

Raised in the slums of Pittsburgh, Strickland founded the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (and adopted the Bidwell Training Center) to teach fine arts and marketable skills to troubled youth and displaced adults in his community. The center’s culinary program, whose curriculum is modeled after the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York, prepares students for and places them in the finest kitchens across America.

Strickland’s innovative programing has not gone unnoticed. In 1996, he was the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, an honor bestowed to individuals committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.

The Icing on the Cake

The use of heavy handed discipline to produce a change in behavior is not only outdated, but dangerous. And the proof is in the numbers.

While prison funding eats over $60 billion tax dollars per year, incarceration still yields a recidivism rate (rate that inmates return to prison within three years of their release) of over 50% in the United States. In other words, in over half the cases, the prison system fails in its core objective – to rehabilitate criminals and transform them into productive members of society.

Compare that approach to Bill Strickland’s program, which invests in the educational and personal development of troubled teens before the system fails them. Strickland’s investment produces an 85 percent college acceptance rate among graduating seniors.

Crime fighting never tasted so good.

For more information and opportunities to get involved, visit Blue Sky Inn and Manchester Bidwell.

Community Connection:

Lots of Matador members are interested in the ways food can be used as a tool of social change. Meet Boya, a Washington, D.C. native currently in Italy who teaches kids about food.

Want to get cooking yourself? Check out this article from our archives on the non-profit Culinary Corps to see if you’re eligible to participate in their annual service trips.

One of Bamboo House’s artisans. Photos courtesy of Bamboo House.

Today, the lyrics of Paycheck’s song hold true for many young, enterprising professionals from India who are steering clear of cushy jobs that would perhaps give them the money and luxury they want, but not the satisfaction.

Prashant and Aruna are one such couple. Based in Hyderabad, India, Prashant and Aruna strive to both combat global warming and ensure that poor people in India have a way to earn a livelihood.

It all happened quite by chance. Prashant and Aruna were out shopping one evening, looking for an eco-friendly sofa set. To their dismay, they found nothing. “The market was inundated with routine wood, steel, iron, and plastic furniture,” they said. Not to be daunted, Aruna and Prashant resorted to what we all do when we’re looking for information- Google!

Google searches revealed that eco-friendly products were being made from bamboo. Bamboo harvesting was happening all over the world, but not in India. Upon further research, the young couple discovered that the market potential of bamboo based products in India was the equivalent of more than $5 billion U.S dollars.

Setting up a bamboo based enterprise would enable them to help more than 5 million people in India. It would also realised help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and generate up to 35% more oxygen than an average tree!

Aruna, Co-Founder of Bamboo House

While doing their research, Prashant and Aruna realised there was a need to improve housing in rural India. To do so, they could provide better opportunities for rural and tribal artisans by inviting them to work in the bamboo sector. But there was one pitfall- no one in India had tried it before, so there was no business model to fall back on.

They also realised making bamboo handicrafts was a specialised skill, so they decided to train their artisans at The National University of Design, Ahmedabad. They also decided to collaborate with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), using their bow beam technology to help create rural housing structures.

Established in May 2008, Bamboo House has come a long way. The Andhra Pradesh Technology and Development Centre, The National Mission on Bamboo Application, and The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi are just some of its partner organisations. The government of India has also given its full support.

Bamboo House India believes in giving artisans cash advances so they can concentrate on the quality of their work instead of worrying about whether their children can get food to eat. The capital also allows the artisans to buy raw material they need, a smart strategy because it prevents the common problem of artisans from running up debt by taking huge loans at very high interest rates.

Once the products are made, Bamboo House India markets them. The wages are negotiated in consultation with the artisan. The artisans’ wages are not affected by how their products are doing in the market. They receive payments for the product even before they arrive at the warehouse.

Bamboo House India works towards achieving a “green livelihood”. The concept is slightly Robin Hoodish- their target clientele are people who earn approximately 40,000 rupees in a month, which is about 40 times more than what the average Indian earns.

You can check out this video for more on their work or visit their website.

Community Connection:

Do you know a social entrepreneur in your community? Would you like to see them featured on Matador? E-mail your ideas to julie@matadornetwork.com.