Where are the Funders? »

Creators of an animal grantmaking database just finished the analysis of their 2006 survey on where foundation dollars to help animals were disbursed…and animal sanctuaries came in dead last as recipients. As a former funder, who was part of disbursing those funds in 2006, I can tell you at least one reason sanctuaries received so little of the funding pie: Foundations perceive funding sanctuaries as risky business. Please see my note to foundations and charities for further explanation.

I am truly confident that the GFAS accreditation process will help funders feel more secure about giving to sanctuaries. It is one of the many ways GFAS intends to help attract new funding to sanctuaries.

I have also had more than one funder tell me that the grant proposals from animal sanctuaries are some of the most poorly written that they receive. Could it be you are busy with other things, like, oh, I don’t know, maybe caring for the animals?! I understand your time constraints. That is why I urge you to send volunteers, even virtual volunteers (advertise for them on volunteermatch.com), to attend one of the free GFAS webinars on grant writing. Some of the comments from sanctuary attendees and their volunteers to date have been:

“The session was wonderful and I enjoyed it. I got so much useful information I am swimming in it!”

“Your experience as both a funder and a grant seeker is invaluable, especially to those like myself who are really new to all of this.  I look forward to going over my notes and your slides again.  I am determined that 2009 will be a successful grant writing and receiving year for us!”

“I wanted to thank you again for inviting me to your webinar. There was a lot of helpful information. I felt that you were very personable and easy to talk to.”

So please do come join us, and we will try to remove the mystery from grant writing!