Episode 125: What to Do When Things Go Wrong (with your Grant): Be Proactive!
Things go wrong in life. It's just the way it goes. The unexpected also happens when administering programs. Learn the appropriate way to respond to keep your organization from being suspended or ruining your relationship with funders.
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🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿
Mirror Memoirs Pt. 1
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https://fusion.amberwynn.net/nonprofit-mastery-academy/
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Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding, impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident, Philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey fam, it's your girl, Amber Wynn and today we're going to talk about what to do when things go wrong with your grant because things do happen life, be life in. Sometimes you've put in the work, you wrote the grant, you've got your timeline and life be life it. So today we're going to talk about what to do because a lot of nonprofit founders, especially if it's your first grant and you just don't know and you're not sure, you'll try and fix it, right? You'll try and fix it behind the scenes and what ends up happening is that you make things worse. So when we come back, we're going to talk about what to do when things go wrong with your grant. If your grants aren't getting funded, it could be because the funder can't see how your programs are making an impact in your community.
(01:13):
Get the How to demonstrate Impact workbook to quantify the work you're doing in your community in a way that a funder can see a potential return on your investment. Funders need proof that your organization will use their grant dollars to improve your community. That proof is called impact, and impact is quantified through measurable outcomes. Leverage my 30 years of program development experience to help increase your chance of securing funding. Order your copy today. Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn. Today we're talking about what to do when things go wrong with your grant because everything is not always perfect. Sometimes things go wrong. Here's the thing, the very worst thing that you can do is to give your funder any reason to think that you're being unethical. And I have people say all the time, well, I was just trying to fix it. I was just, and here's, here's the thing, I get it, but there are too many ways for them to find out that you've lied.
(02:13):
And once that trust is broken, it's all downhill. It's downhill because now your funder doesn't trust you, but it's even bigger than that. The nonprofit funding circle is small. So once one funder thinks that you are unethical, they're going to tell the rest of the funding circle, and you don't want to do that. So the best thing that you can do if something goes wrong with your grant is to tell on yourself. You want to be proactive. Let me give you a situation. Let's just say you have two grants. One is a government grant and it's reimbursable, and then one is a foundation grant. And the foundation grant said, okay, this money is specifically for programs and your government is reimbursable. They said they were going to give it to you in 60 days and it ends up being 90 days. What you don't want to do is take that money from the foundation to fill that hole.
(03:10):
That's unethical. That's called mismanagement of funds. The other thing that could happen is let's just say you thought you'd be able to finish something within a specific amount of time, but you're depending on other people and it just doesn't happen. So what do you do? You're like, oh my goodness, I wasn't able to complete it based off of that timeline. You want to be very transparent. When things go wrong with your grant, the very first thing you want to do is contact your program officer, explain to them what the situation is. Number two, which is extremely important, is to bring a solution. So in the situation, in that first situation, you want to reach out to your funder and say, Hey, this is what's going on. I've got a letter from the government saying that this money is going to come in in another 30 days.
(04:00):
This goes towards salary. Would you be okay with me reallocating a portion of this grant until this money comes in? You ask them for permission. This is not one of those situations where you do it and you ask for forgiveness later. No, no, no. You have to ask for permission. In the second scenario, when you promised to do something and you didn't meet that criteria, you call your program officer and you say, Hey, we were supposed to do this by January. What had happened was, and you explain to them and then you bring the solution. You don't just come and say, we weren't able to do it. I'm so sorry. The funder's going to be like, okay, well what are you going to do? So tell on yourself first. Bring them a viable solution. And the third point, which is extremely important, do not add in any additional expenses.
(04:50):
Don't let your solution cost more money because now you've not only brought in a problem, but now you've added a cost to that. You want to stay within whatever they've already allocated you. Worst case scenario, you can ask for what's called a no cost extension. So if your program is supposed to be finished June 30th, you can ask for a six month no cost extension. That means they're going to give you an additional six months to finish what you said you were going to finish. You just don't get any more money. What does that mean? That means that you're being honest and transparent with your funder. And the fact that I'm saying to you, you can ask for a no-cost extension lets you know that this is a common practice in the nonprofit sector because it is because life happens. So it's important to understand that you want to be proactive.
(05:44):
Explain what happened, provide a no additional cost solution and ask for permission. This is their money. They granted it to you. When you submit your progress reports, when you submit your financials, everything should line up. And I'm going to tell you, people have tried to dupe their funders only for it to come back to bite them. In the end, you think, oh, well, I'm just going to move this money for one pay period and then I'm going to move it back. There is a reason why they ask you for financial statements. There's a reason why they ask you for different types of financial statements because those financial statements allows them to see your organization at different periods, right? And how money moves. So you may think you are being slick and smart and they're going to look at your financials and say, okay, I can see right here what happened.
(06:42):
So it's just important that you ask if it's okay to deviate from the agreement. And if they tell you no, then you have to find another solution. Because if you do what they tell you not to do, then you risk the potential of being suspended or debarred and you don't want that, right? You don't want to be fined for mismanagement funds. You don't want to be on a list that other people have access to. And if a funder does their due diligence, they're going to find you. They're going to find out that you've not done what you're supposed to do, and that's going to prevent you from getting future funding. So that's what you are supposed to do When things go wrong with the grant, be proactive, be transparent, ask for permission. In my experience as a program coordinator, when I reached out to my program officer with a solution that didn't cost any additional money, they always said yes.
(07:42):
That's not to say that they will, but you know what? Your mama said, closed mouth never gets fed. Ask for permission and be in partnership. Here's the other thing. Funders know that things go wrong all the time, but when you come to them and say, Hey, this is what happened. Here's the solution, may I please have permission to implement the solution? That means you're in partnership. So that's what I want you to consider, and that's what I want you to do. And if you're not sure about how to do these types of things, how to write these types of letters, guess what? I have templates for you. This is in module nine of The Nonprofit Mastery Academy. It's called compliance. And a part of compliance is how to respond in specific situations. Not only do I tell you how to respond, but I give you the templates, meaning here's the email that you copy and paste and write to your potential funder. So if you're just not sure about how to navigate these things, this is a part of being a nonprofit leader. You've got to be able to talk to your funders. If you're not sure you'd like somebody to hold your hand, guess what? I got you. It's called The Nonprofit Mastery Academy. Let's take a look.
(09:02):
Are you struggling to fund your programs? Can't get a grant to save your life. Most consultants will share the what of how to start a nonprofit or how to fundraise. They may even share the why, but they don't share the how because that's where they make their money. Now, I'm not hating. I'm a businesswoman too, but I've been where you are trying to make the world a better place, struggling to keep the doors open up to the we hours of the night writing grants and doing whatever needed to be done. And because I've walked in your shoes, I'm not here to make you spend your will, waste your time or your hard earned money. We ain't got time for that. The world needs you. I'm here to show you how to transform that pit. You keep dumping your hard earned money into and to a profitable nonprofit.
(09:52):
I take my 30 years of nonprofit experience as a founder, executive director, program developer, grant writer in funder, giving out over $7 million annually in grants, and I save you literally thousands of dollars in hundreds of hours. I walk you through setting up your nonprofit organization so that you can be generating enough revenue to cover your monthly expenses in just 90 days. How would that feel? Not paying bills from your personal bank account. I share my insider secret tips, tricks of the trade and provide you with a step-by-step roadmap on how to turn your bootstrap organization into a profitable nonprofit. Within six months, you could be generating enough revenue to pay your salary or fully fund your program. The choice is yours, but you have to get the blueprint, and it took me three years to develop it, but it's here and it's going to change your life.
(10:49):
Join my other successful clients who are just like you full of passion and determination, but they had no idea all that it takes to run and fund a successful nonprofit. Now they're winning grants and drawing a salary and they know what it is that they're supposed to be doing to run a successful nonprofit. They're no longer making it up as they go. They have the roadmap and they're clear about next steps. And I want that for you too. So what do you get in this course? You'll walk away with knowledge, products, processes, and systems, not just a bunch of promises, but exactly what you need to turn your organization into a profitable nonprofit. I promise you don't need grants. What you need is a solid infrastructure, and this course is going to give you all of that and more. And what's more it comes with the money back guarantee.
(11:42):
So go ahead, click the link below to register for this course. Welcome back. You're on air with Amber Wynn. Today we're talking about what to do when things go wrong with your grant. And now we are switching to the part of the episode where you get to ask me your questions. It's called Ask Amber. And today's question comes from Wendy from Colorado Springs. Wendy hit me up on Facebook and here's her question. Hi, Amber, it's Wendy. My question is, how do you get a person to serve on your board if you're just starting, do you pay them? And if so, how much? Wendy, this is a very common question. Here's the thing, you don't want just anyone on your board. You want seasoned professionals who understand what the IRS expects of them. It's called fiduciary responsibility. The nonprofit board of directors volunteer understanding that they don't get paid.
(12:41):
If you are on a corporate for-profit board, you get paid, but on a nonprofit board, it's all volunteer. And why are they doing it? Because you're giving them an opportunity to make a difference or it's because you have a powerful mission that they resonate with. It's because you have a strong infrastructure and structured opportunities for them to make a difference. It's because they believe in your programs, they've seen the outcomes, and they want to be a part of growth for you. And so I'm saying to you basically, how do you get seasoned nonprofit board of directors is by making sure that your organization is ready to receive them. A seasoned board member is going to be busy, and they're usually going to sit on one or two boards. So in order to attract them, you need to have your house in order because a seasoned board member's not going to come in wanting to do that type of work.
(13:43):
They want to come in bringing in resources and helping you grow your organization. If you don't even have your infrastructure together, if you don't have packaged marketing opportunities, success stories that they can pitch, they're not going to be interested in your organization. So it's less about money and more about you having your organization in order for them to come in and serve. But because you're asking this question, I'm going to encourage you to do more research on what it is that a board member does because you need to understand what their role is. What does fiduciary responsibility mean in a nonprofit organization? If you understand what that means, then you know what type of person that you want to recruit and what that looks like. So start with learning all that a board member is supposed to do and then start with looking at how to recruit seasoned board members.
(14:39):
All right. If you have any questions for me, you can hit me up on any of my socials. I'm out there to get your question asked. I'd love to feature you on Ask Amber, and now we get to move to my favorite part of the show, and that's where I get to put a spotlight on the most amazing individuals on this planet. Yes, that would be you. My nonprofit leaders. Today's conversation is with Jane and Fields of Mirror Memoirs, and we're going to go deep into looking at how to deal with challenges and looking at different ways to build out an organization's infrastructure. For those of you just joining me, I shine a spotlight on nonprofit leaders and those individuals who support them because usually my nonprofit leaders are in the weeds doing the work, and visibility is a huge part of an organization's success. Visibility gets you in front of funders, it also gets you in front of potential clients and things of that nature. So we're going to start off our four-part series, speaking with Jaden, the co-founder of Mirror Memoirs.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
So Mirror Memoirs, our work is really focused on being a community of belonging for anyone who wants to intervene and read culture. And we do that by starting with the stories and the healing and leadership of LGBTQIA plus survivors of child sexual abuse who are primarily black, indigenous or other people of color. And we start with those stories because we are often left out of the conversation around violence prevention. There's often not conversations being had about supporting survivors of child sexual abuse in particular. And it's just been really important to understand that Survivor leadership includes us two. And so originally we started as an audio history oral project, and I shared my story in 2017, and I've just been a part of it since the beginning and joined as a co-executive director in December of 2020
Speaker 2 (17:35):
And we're back. It wasn't that an amazing introduction to Mirror memoirs. There's so many amazing nonprofits out there just doing the work. And here's what I'll say. I'm going to continue to shine the light on nonprofit leaders, on the consultants that support them because this world needs nonprofits. If you want to listen to the full interview going on over to my YouTube channel and you can hear it all. But we'll continue with listening to Jaden and their experience building out an amazing organization in the next three parts that'll be coming up in the future episodes. So that's all we have for today. We talked about what to do when things go wrong with your grant. The bottom line is you want to be proactive, you want to be transparent, and you want to come with the solution. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to like, subscribe and share it with somebody you think who can benefit from today's content. And I hope to see you next week. I'm going to tell you what I tell you every week. Take care of yourself, like you take care of your community. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.next/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.
