writing collaborative grants: blending and braiding...
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Writing Collaborative Grants: Blending and Braiding Funds
Suzanne Harbin, CFRE
Director of Advancement
Wallace State Community College - Hanceville
What is Braided and Blended Funding?
Braided funding refers to the weaving together of federal, state and private funding streams -- and the development of funding strategies -- to support high quality programs.
Blending funding involves co-mingling the funds into one “pot” where managers can draw down service dollars, personnel expenses can be paid, or other program needs can be met.
Braided Funding
Streams: Existing, multi-year sources of funding from federal programs, state programs, and private dollars. Examples include WIOA, TANF, SNAP E&T. Strategies: Ways to create more funding opportunities independent of specific funding streams, including: (1) reducing costs; (2) raising new revenue; or (3) redirecting existing revenue. Examples include using online technology to reduce costs and employer tuition reimbursements.
Braiding for Sustainability
Why Braid and Blend Funds? To the Organization:
Improves coordination and alignment among partners
Reduces duplication and realizes efficiencies
Expands capacity in resource-short environments
Brings additional staff strengths and expertise to customers
Increases flexibility in service planning
Improves program impacts and outcomes
Supports scalability, sustainability, and new investment
To the Project:
• Improves system accessibility,
transparency, and ease of use
• Offers more creative/diverse
service delivery options
• Brings additional staff
expertise and assistance to
customer needs
• Improves participant
experience and value
• Improves participant
outcomes/results
Phase 1: Creating a Vision & Identifying Partners
• Define the program or project goal, decide who needs to be involved.
• Depending on the scope of your braiding/blending effort, you could have anything from a small planning group of internal staff to a large community-wide collaborative with economic/workforce developers, funders, service providers, families, youth, non-profit/faith-based organizations and other community members.
• Use a checklist with questions to determine possible stakeholders or other groups you may want to consider involving in the process.
Create the Vision
• Identify what you hope to accomplish by blending and braiding funding.
• Define the specific set of services, a specific population and a strategy for how to identify and meet service needs, or even a design for a system that serves a broad population through collaboration across many providers and many types of service needs.
• Regardless of the scope of your goals, you need to clearly define them and outline what you will be funding.
• Use a checklist of questions to help you define your program, including specific data points or types of information to collect.
Developing Partners
EXTERNAL MEMBERS
• K-12 Systems/schools
• Faith-Based and Community Organizations
• Community Colleges/Universities
• Regional Workforce Councils
• Local Government Agencies
• Economic/Workforce Development
• American Job Centers/WIOA
• Employers & Industry Partners
• Chamber of Commerce
• Dept. of Corrections
• Community Action Agencies
• Veteran Affairs
INTERNAL MEMBERS
Finance
Grants & Development
Student/Client Services
Senior Administration
Project Coordinators
Board of Directors
Partner Checklist
Defining Your Program
Defining Your Program
Mapping Assets Engage partners in an asset mapping process to identify resources that can be aligned across stakeholders
• Process:
- Identify the assets available:
- Assets of individuals: their skills, knowledge, networks, time, interests and passions
- Assets of Associations: include both formal and voluntary groups
- Assets of Organizations: not only services locally, but services they control – parks, community centers, etc.
- Physical Assets: green space, unused land, building, streets, transportation
- Economic Assets: skills/talents not being used in local economy, local investment generating jobs and income, public spending
- Cultural Assets: talents of music, drama, art, and opportunities/offerings of these.
- Identify gaps and areas of need.
Identifying Funding Priorities
• Goal: Engage partners to identify specific funding priorities to include in your work plan.
• Process: _ Break down your model/population/structure by need, impact,
and cost. _ Where do you have the most need? _ Prioritize which pieces you want to fund, and in what order. _ Identify and prioritize the leveraged or matching fund sources _ Brainstorm about funding sources for each high-priority goal. _ Identify questions you need answered, and who might answer
them. Reach out!
Identifying Funding Streams
Analyzing Funding Streams
Analyzing Funding Streams
Collaborating with the Funders
• Avoiding Pitfalls: Ensure you know the parameters for funding from the awarding agency/group/foundation.
• Building Commitment: Working closely with a funder increases their investment in your program and builds their understanding of what your program needs to be successful.
• Preempting their “Supplanting” Fears: Most public funding streams require that the funds are not used to supplant another funding source. Many funders look at blended and braided models and, instead of seeing how you are leveraging funds, they will see a risk that you are replacing other funds with their funding.
Develop A Work Plan
• Goal: Develop a work plan with the braided funding team.
• Process:
- Set goals for the short, medium, and long-term.
- Identify leads for each piece of the plan.
- List out detailed action steps for each priority listed in the work plan.
- Develop and sign a “Memorandum of Understanding”
- Set Roles and Responsibilities for each partner
- Define organizational structure
- Define funding sources/allocations from each partner
- Include a timeline
- Include reporting requirements (both programmatic and financial)
Communication and Continued Engagement
• Goal: Develop a communication plan for the team and other key stakeholders.
• Questions to consider:
- How will you share information across the core team members?
- How will you work through differences in approaches and goals?
- How will you share information with other key stakeholders outside of the core team? How frequently?
- How will the core team continue to identify additional stakeholders and/or funding opportunities? What is your pitch?
Evaluate and Adjust
• Goal: Develop strategies for continuous improvement for the core braided funding team and the work plan.
• Questions to consider:
- How often will the core team evaluate progress?
- How will the core team identify what is working well and what isn’t?
- How will this information be shared across the core team and any other necessary stakeholders?
Reality of Braided and Blending Funding
• Braided funding must benefit all partners, but not always financially.
• Braided funding works best if you have a narrow and specific goal in mind.
• Some organizations are better positioned to receive funding, while others are better positioned to give funding (investing).
• Once the funds are blended – must decide who “owns” it.
• Start small to demonstrate the concept, iron out the wrinkles.
• This is a long-term strategy, you can go slow.
Innovative Ideas for Braiding and Blending
• Single Stop Projects
• Department of Labor Apprenticeship & TAACCCT Grants
• Talent Search and Upward Bound Grants
• Gear-Up Grants
• Community Development Block Grants
Resources
• JFF’s Braided Funding Toolkit
• Brighter Futures Together
• Spark Policy (www.sparkpolicy.com)
Today no one can rely on single major sources of funding to support and
sustain new, innovative programs. Major funders encourage nonprofits to
collaborate with never-before-considered partners. Engage multiple
partners in strong proposal and program development to work through
differences in approaches and goals and blend and braid funding to
make your project stronger and sustainable.
Suzanne Harbin, CFRE
256.352.8144