The future of your nonprofit rests on successful fundraising: discover how to do it right. Being part of a nonprofit is one of the most inspiring and passionate lines of work someone can do. But as passionate as you are and as hard as you work, your nonprofit won’t be able to achieve its goals without enough funding. This is a struggle many nonprofits experience, and they end up wasting a lot of energy on ineffective strategies that just don’t seem to work. You need to understand the best practices out there that will help your organization access the funds it needs to keep going.

Every now and then, nonprofits partner up with government agencies, foundations, and other such organizations to carry out projects with potential to change lives, improve scientific understanding, or for artistic works. For you and your nonprofit, that means drafting a grant proposal. No matter how impressive your vision looks on paper, unless your proposal aligns with the goals of the organization you seek grants from, you’re bound to get rejected. The good news is, with Winning Grants, you’re only a few steps away from the secret to writing winning grants.

Written by James Ruell, who has served as director and vice-treasurer of an award-winning charity, Nonprofit Board Success gives practical advice and proven techniques for building a top-notch board of directors—one that will make you the envy of CEOs everywhere.

Do you want to become an exceptional nonprofit leader? You have a vision, you have a mission, and you have a burning desire to do good in the world. But that’s it. Starting a nonprofit seemed like the right thing to do but it hasn’t turned out to be that simple. Your skills are in driving social change, not in managing people, finding donors, and all the administrative headaches that come with running a business. But it’s ok. All of these challenges are solvable and shouldn’t hold you back from fulfilling your purpose.

Since the 1950s, nonprofits have relied on impersonal outreach to inspire generosity from their donors. They leveraged direct mail, mass marketing, and event fundraising to drive donations. With the introduction of social media, smartphones, and a hyper-connected world, everything changed. The new normal for everyone became transparency, personalization, and a feeling of ever-present engagement. In addition, donors also had new levels of access to information to the causes they cared about. Unfortunately, as expectations evolved, nonprofit fundraisers failed to keep up.