National Foundations
December 10 @ 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm CST
Virtual Workshop – Live/Online
Fee: $50 for MCN members / $70 for nonmembers
Minnesota nonprofits that have strong track records with local and regional funders often hit a wall when they try to expand into national philanthropy. National funders increasingly work through invitation-only cohorts, funder collaboratives, and pre-vetted pipelines. Many of the doors nonprofits are used to knocking on (open RFPs, cold LOIs) are largely closed. This session demystifies how national funders build their portfolios, and gives participants a concrete, honest picture of what it takes to get on their radar. Participants will leave with a self-assessment of their own “national readiness,” a short list of realistic entry points, and a first-draft outreach plan they can act on in the next 90 days.
- Assess their own organization’s “national funder readiness,” including evaluation capacity, statewide or multi-state relevance, budget size, and communications infrastructure, and identify the gaps most likely to hold them back.
- Identify at least three realistic, non-RFP entry points for building visibility with national funders (e.g., statewide association or coalition membership, intermediary/regranting relationships, national conference presence, funder site visits arranged through existing relationships) relevant to their organization’s mission area.
- Translate a track record built with local and regional funders into language and framing that resonates with national funder priorities and due-diligence expectations.
- Draft a preliminary 90-day action plan for one or two specific national funder relationships to begin cultivating, including a first outreach step and a realistic timeline.
- Reverse engineer some leads based on funding relationships in similar missions and paths.
This session is intended for organizations who have some success in grant writing but largely at the state and local level. Organizations who have not yet had experience with grants are encouraged to begin with the introductory grant writing and grant prospecting sessions offered by MCN.
Event Details
This virtual event will take place on the Zoom platform. Your access link will be emailed to you the day before the event after 12 p.m.
This session will be recorded. The recording will be made available to registrants after the live event.
Captioning is provided automatically through Zoom. For information on requesting CART, ASL, or another accommodation, please visit our Registration Policies page.
To learn more about events, registration, and payment, visit our Event & Registration FAQ page.
Speaker Information
Steve Boland (he/him) is a nonprofit veteran with over twenty-five years of experience helping charities grow with new ideas in fundraising and communications. He has served as executive director of three organizations before founding Next in Nonprofits in 2013. Steve has presented over 100 learning sessions on topics such as crowdfunding, engaging corporate philanthropy, and social media strategy for nonprofits.
Steve disputes his Myers Briggs Type characterization of Commander (ENTJ) as any kind of apt descriptor, as authentic leadership never comes from issuing orders. A graduate of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Steve holds a Master of Nonprofit Management from Hamline University and is an alumnus of the Shannon Leadership Institute.
