Approaching funders: timing and story are everything. (Grants).

"People, people need people," Jill Pranger sang, slightly flat, as she referenced Barbra Streisand to a crowd of about 30 fundraisers. Her virtuoso point that is a successful grant proposal talks about the people potential funding will help, not the organization appealing for it.

"Always remember when you're writing that request, to remove your organization from it," Pranger said.

Pranger talked about effective grant writing techniques during a pre-conference session at the 39th Association of Fundraising Professionals conference in St. Louis earlier this year.

Pranger is senior development officer, Division of College Advancement, National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, N.Y. Her expertise is in grant writing for private money.

Fundraisers should approach the proposal and grantor prepared to show the positive aspects of funding, Pranger said. Previously, fundraisers' approach to grantors focused on how needy an organization was and how money could help. Now, nonprofits must relate how funding will solve a community's problems and give the grantor a positive experience.

"What we say to funders now is, 'you know what, if you give us a gift, we'll be able to solve some of our community's problems,'" Pranger said. "It's a very different approach, and this is what funders are looking for."

Any writer knows a blank screen or paper is daunting when others expect it to fill with great words and reap scads of funding for an organization.

So, don't start with a blank screen.

Pranger suggested creating a block of "boilerplate" language, which describes a nonprofit's mission, history and the community served. Save the text and use it to churn the gears of a doubting brain.

Sitting at a computer screen filled with enthusiasm and knowledge of an organization and potential funder, can result in words that may suffuse into the eyes and minds of grantors when they receive the proposal. A fundraiser's enthusiasm breeds an enthusiastic response, Pranger said.

Of course, the most important step in scoring grants from foundations is sending out proposals. But, grant seekers ought not sit and begin typing proposals without knowing whether a potential funder is a good fit for their organization.

"One of my responsibilities is to talk with potential donors and find out why they like my organization, and what they like about my organization," Pranger said, recalling how she explained her job duties to her father. "All I have to do is make a match. All I have to be is a matchmaker."

Grant writers should know their organization, programs and potential donor well, she said.

Stringing words and concepts together and creating a money-garnering proposal makes little sense if the proposal arrives late. Know deadlines. It's critical to a proposal's success, Pranger said.

Deadlines can be an organization's or a grantor's, Pranger explained. The first example happens, for instance, when an organization won't make payroll next month and needs money now. The second instance is more common, with a funder announcing that it will review proposals only twice a year, Pranger said.

"If you meet the funder's timing, you will increase your chances of success with your request," Pranger said. She couldn't say how much meeting deadlines improves success, but "if you don't meet their timing, you will vastly decrease your chances of success."

Remember that potential funders are people too, a point sometimes forgotten. A good relationship between a grant writer and funder leads to better success, Pranger said.

"We no longer have the luxury that we did in the mid-80s of sitting down, writing a proposal, sending it off to 10 organizations and checks came back in," Pranger said. "We didn't always start with the relationship. We sometimes started with the writing. Nowadays we have to start with the relationship."

A critical part of a proposal's positive return is making a preliminary phone call or sending an email, "whatever way the funder wants you to contact them," Pranger said.

Grant writers should call a funder and talk about their organization's programs: "Hi, this is Jill Pranger, I'm calling with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and I would like to talk with you. I read that the X-YZ foundation is interested in educational opportunities for disabled young people. Let me tell you about programs we're involved with right now.

This small, but important, step saves time and anxiety by eliminating proposals that don't need to be written, Pranger said. Funders may tell the grant writer they aren't accepting proposals or an organization is not a good fit, Pranger said.

Pranger visits a potential funder's Web site. Usually she'll type in the organization's name and .org, go to Guidestar.org, or call the funder for information. Research helps determine whether a finding source fits a nonprofit and aids a writer in drafting an appropriate proposal.

When writing a grant or thinking about success factors, "does it make sense for a healthcare organization" interested in finding money for breast cancer research to go to an organization with a higher education priority? Pranger asked "No. That's a no-brainer."

Pranger gave a hypothetical example of a funder of breast cancer research receiving a proposal from a nonprofit that wanted funding for a playground. That made little sense.

Once the proposal is sent, follow up. "We are not used car salesman," Pranger said. "We are in the relationship building business. We have to be certain to follow up with our potential donor."

Ask the funder what that person thought of the proposal, and note suggestions. If a funder approves a grant, send a thank you.

Sometimes an alert mind leads to a more personal thank you. Pranger told about one organization that knew a donor liked chocolate chip cookies from a specific bakery, so instead of a thank you, they sent a box of chocolate chip cookies. The organization created a better relationship with the donor, than if they had sent a computer-generated card.

Having sent the thank you cards and the niceties, the work isn't finished. The nonprofit that receives the grant must continue to inform its grantor of goals achieved and, yes, missed goals, Pranger said.

Pranger recalled when honesty with a funder about a program that wasn't working out led to respect and an invitation to work together in the future. But this moment came after Pranger spent several months and telephone calls working with the funder to reorganize a program. Eventually, the funder representative scheduled an appointment and arrived with a few board members in tow.

The program landed in a school one of the board member set up. Had she ignored or hidden the problems, Pranger wouldn't have completed the program or got money again from that funder.

A final thought: If you do everything right and you still don't get the money, don't blame yourself. It happens.

In Pranger's words, "That's just karma."