The main thing that really stuck out to me from the second part of the Grantspace video was that the ultimate goal isn’t to shoot for a single, one-time grant. I’d never thought about this before, but it makes sense to strive for relationships with funders over time instead of looking around for other funders for future projects. If you develop a close relationship with a funder, you’re probably more likely to receive funding from them in the future. This will save you so much time and effort for future projects if you already have a couple reliable funders who already believe in your mission. This type of mindset may coincide with the idea of establishing relationships for end-of-life donations from funders. However, I can see how this strategy could be used to receive continued funding for specific projects as well. So it’s really important to put in that extra effort, in the beginning, to find the right match (step 7) so that connection is more likely to remain strong.
