How To Align your Nonprofit Mission with Funder Priorities

“Mission Alignment” is a technical sounding term, but it's really a beautiful thing. Mission alignment is the point where your organization’s mission and initiatives match up nicely with what a funder wants to support. Good mission alignment is the core upon which nonprofits build trust and develop sustainability in their relationships.

When it comes to the actual process of fundraising and grant writing, mission alignment can come into play in a few ways. You can use your mission as a guideline to finding the best potential funders. You can also use it as part of the decision-making process of how you present your case to funders. While you always want to stick to your core values, you can also adjust to a funder’s mission as well, to better meet their funding priorities. Understanding how to master this can be the key to getting the most out of every grant proposal.

Why Mission Alignment Matters

To get a clear understanding of why mission alignment matters, it pays to view the application process from both ends. First, let's take the funders. They want to, naturally, support nonprofit organizations that best fit their own vision. They have a clear mandate to make sure that the beneficiaries of the funding are able to enact real, measurable impacts. No one wants to feel like their money's going to waste.

On the flip side, nonprofits applying for grants don’t want to waste time chasing down funding that won’t materialize. It’s best that they find a funder who is clearly aligned with their own organization’s goals, so that the process of funding application is as smooth as possible. Lack of mission alignment is one of the top reasons that grant proposals get dropped. And developing good mission alignment means that one-off grant donations can turn into long-term success stories with the right support.

Researching Funder Priorities the Smart Way

It might seem a little obvious to emphasize the importance of mission alignment. Of course your nonprofit wants to work with partners who think the same way! But it is worth it to really hammer that point home.

And now that the point is well and truly hammered - what next? Saying that you want mission alignment is one thing. But how do you find the kind of funding opportunities that will build these sorts of partnerships?

Your basic research is only going to get you part of the way to understanding the contexts behind particular grant applications. Your best bet is to go deeper into secondary research to make sure that your work is truly aligned with a particular grant funding organization you are interested in.

A great way to get started here is to use GrantStation’s own secondary research tools. This helps you dig deeper into your initial set of leads and determine if they’re going to have good mission alignment. These tools review the funder’s website and reports for you, giving you a deeper insight into their application guidelines, annual reports and any other relevant information. It also gives you a review of their grants history. This all gives you a glimpse into how the entity in question handles funding decisions and giving financial support. These, in turn, can help you understand not just your eligibility for their grants, but if you have mission alignment.

Connecting the Dots Between Your Work and Theirs

Once you’ve done the research, you need to think about how you’ll take this information into your grant proposal. One good trick to get started here is to mirror the language of the funder in your grant proposal. This makes it clear that you’ve read and understand their long-term goals and are on board. For example, if your nonprofit is in the business of getting teens apprenticeships, and a grant opportunity is for “workforce readiness” for youths, it's easy to take that term and apply it to your own work. This is simple, but can have a significant impact in improved communication.

In general it's a good idea in your proposal to highlight overlapping goals. This isn’t just your goals for what you want to do with the funding. You need to emphasize, as much as possible, how your nonprofit leader’s dreams for long-term impact and meaningful change are similar to the funders.

This doesn’t mean that you are just parroting the funder. That would be impossible, because a nonprofit and a grant provider are doing two very different jobs. Rather, you want to translate your tangible ideas for action into something that makes sense to their goal. They want to improve youth workforce readiness. You supply the apprenticeships. You just need the proposal to draw a clear translation between desired outcome and possible actions.

When (and How) to Say No

Sometimes the best thing you can do for mission alignment is to turn down a grant. It can be hard to do so, but it's always better to avoid mission creep, and compromise your nonprofit’s mission. If alignment just isn’t there, don’t force things.

It’s especially important to know how to say no, if taking on a grant also requires starting a new program to utilize the grant funds. Think very carefully about this. Would you be doing this kind of program without the grant? Would you use this sort of program outside of the short-term? If you can’t see yourself doing it, then you may want to focus your efforts on other submissions.

Building Toward Alignment Over Time

One last thought - even if you’re not a perfect match now, that doesn’t mean that you’ll always be unaligned. You need to prioritize the well-being of your nonprofit in the short term, but don’t be afraid to think long-term either. Even if a funder isn’t on the same page right now, both they and your nonprofit could grow.

You can also evolve into better alignment over time as your programming expands and you gain valuable insights from past grants. A funder that you don’t quite have mission alignment with now, but share similar interests, could be an important partner later. Don’t be afraid to keep such funders in the loop with newsletters and event invites. Your strategic approach should always keep the future in mind as well!