How nonprofits should talk about overhead and indirect costs in a grant budget
"Overhead" has a branding problem. Decades of donor messaging equating low overhead with high efficiency left many funders, and many nonprofit staff themselves,...
Government grant eligibility and application process, explained
Government grant eligibility and process requirements are usually the last thing organizations check, not the first. Most sort them out halfway through writing...
How to write a grant needs statement that doesn’t sound generic
The needs statement is the first real test of your grant proposal. Before a reviewer gets to your program design, your budget, or...
What funders actually look for in a grant budget narrative
Most organizations treat the budget narrative as an afterthought. The proposal narrative gets weeks of attention. The budget gets assembled in the final...
How to write a letter of inquiry (LOI) that leads to a full proposal
Most foundations never see your full proposal. They see your letter of inquiry first and if it doesn't move them, the proposal never...
State and local government grants: The overlooked middle tier
Federal grants get most of the attention in the grant writing world. Foundation grants get most of the rest. Between these two sits...
Grant readiness audit: 10 things funders check before they read your narrative
Most organizations spend the majority of their grant preparation time on the narrative. The story, the need, the program design, the outcomes. All...
Grant writing for universities and research institutions: What’s actually different
Academic grant writing operates under a different set of rules than any other type of proposal work. The funders are (largely) different, the...
Grants for women-owned businesses in 2026: Where to find them and how to win
Women own 42 percent of all businesses in the United States. Yet research consistently shows that women-owned businesses receive a fraction of available...
Manufacturing grants in 2026: What the SBA’s new $50 million program means for small manufacturers
Small manufacturers make up 98 percent of all U.S. manufacturers. They employ millions of Americans and sit at the foundation of domestic supply...