Becoming Grant Ready During Turbulent Times: Meet Betty Barnard

Funders are closing doors, deadlines are tighter, and “spray and pray” proposals aren’t landing. We sit down with grant strategist Betty Barnard, President and CEO of Resurgens Impact Consulting, to map a smarter way forward for small and mid-sized nonprofits serving health, human services, and movement-building work. The conversation starts with values—care for communities, clarity of mission, and equity—and moves into the tangible steps leaders can take to secure grants without burning out.

We break down what grant readiness truly means in today’s climate: two to three years of operations, clean financials, a strong board, and a written budget you can defend. For newer groups, we explore fiscal sponsorship as a credible pathway to capacity. Betty shares why visibility now equals viability and how to align your website, social channels, and GuideStar or Charity Navigator profiles so funders see a consistent story, strong governance, and measurable outcomes.

Then we get tactical with specific grant application tips: follow directions to the letter, translate outcomes into the funder’s language, use boilerplates wisely and edit hard. Most importantly, build relationships before you submit—because many foundations are prioritizing current or past grantees and moving to invitation-only cycles. A warm outreach can clarify fit, surface timing, and prevent wasted work. We wrap up with a chat about the best way to us AI to support your grant applications.

Betty Barnard's Bio

Bett Barnard specializes in creating and supporting the growth of sustainable, smart, innovative organizations and programs through grant seeking, writing, and research. Betty loves securing grant funds for programs that help people meet their needs and thrive. She has experience in fundraising and grantsmanship with private foundations, corporate sponsors, and local, state, and federal program offices. She believes that everyone deserves to have the resources they need to overcome adversity, heal from violence, and flourish.

Betty launched Resurgens Impact Consulting in 2015 with Irene Turner. Today, Resurgens Impact Consulting is a grant-writing, research, and strategy firm that helps clients across Georgia and the U.S. secure grant funding. We specialize in grant writing for health, human services, including victim services, and systemic change, such as advocacy, organizing, and voter engagement. RIC has helped more than 100 nonprofit clients raise grant awards totaling $155 million and counting.

Betty is a Certified Grant Professional (GPC), a member of the Grant Professionals Association, and a former member of the Georgia Chapter Board.

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Transcript

Setting The Stage For Grant Series

Ann Price 0:44

Hi, everybody, welcome to Community Possibilities. Today I am recording in the middle of December. It is December 11th, 2025. I'm not sure when this will reach your ears, but it's been quite a year for those of us who are working with nonprofits and foundations, even our university leaders out there looking for grant funds. So I thought I would do a series just for you. I've invited some of my grant professional friends to join me in a series that really highlights their profession and how they work with those who are seeking support for organizations. So first up is Betty Barnard. Grant seeking is Betty's life's purpose. She specializes in creating and supporting the growth of sustainable, smart, innovative organizations and programs through grant seeking, writing, and research. Betty loves securing grant funds for programs to help people meet their needs and thrive. She truly does love this work. She has experience in fundraising, grantmanship with private foundations, corporate sponsors, local, state, and federal program offices. And she believes to her core that everyone deserves to have the resources they need to overcome adversity, heal from violence, and flourish. Betty launched Resurgence Impact Consulting in 2015 with Irene Turner. And today, Resurgence Impact Consulting is a grant writing, research and strategy firm that helps clients across Georgia and the US to acquire grant funds. They specialize in grant writing for health, human services, including victim services, and systemic change such as advocacy, organizing, and voter engagement. Resurgence has helped more than 100 nonprofit clients raise grant awards totaling $155 million in counting. So Betty is the real deal. We met a couple of years ago through a mutual friend, and I know you're going to get a lot out of this conversation. So get your notebook ready. Let's dive in. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Community Possibilities. I am so excited to bring you this uh episode, which I think is going to be so helpful for our nonprofits, our nonprofit leaders who may be a little tired as we enter the end of the year. And yet they still need they still need money to do what they need to do to serve their community. So hi better but Betty Bernard. I'm about to mess up your name. Betty Bernard. Hey, how are you? How are you? I'm good. I'm good. We were just talking about it is um cold and gloomy here in the Metro Atlanta area today. Um, so definitely uh soup weather and boot weather and sweater weather, all the all the weathers. Yes, it is. Yep. So hopefully we can offer a little sunshine to our nonprofit leaders, Betty, and I know you can help us out here. So I'm excited to have you on the show. So everybody, I met Betty, Betty, you and I met like three years ago, I think, at the my first grant professional summit. And we have a mutual friend and colleague, Jen Ballantine. And so she kind of hooked us up. She said, like, uh, you guys got to meet. So we we've gotten to know each other over the last couple of years a little bit.

Betty Barnard 4:26

Yes, and I'm so grateful. You've really been a steady presence, not just in the Atlanta nonprofit community, but in the grant seeking space too. And I'm really thankful that we connected.

Ann Price 4:39

Well, you are first up in my series where I'm gonna be talking to three grant professionals. And um you did a presentation at the Prevent Child Abuse Summit a few months ago. And I'm like, oh, I gotta get Betty on the show because you have such practical advice. But before we get into all of that, let's just let you introduce you uh yourself to my audience and just tell them who you are. Uh tell us who you are. How how did how did Betty come to be Betty?

Betty Barnard 5:09

Okay. Uh wow, that's a big question. So, yes, my name is Betty Barnard, and I'm the president and CEO of Resurgeons Impact Consulting. I've lived in Atlanta since 2011. And when I think of how I got here, how I came to be Betty, it really goes back to my childhood and my mom's dedication to service. So I have a younger brother. I am also just like a stereotypical oldest daughter, uh, older, older sister. Uh, but our mother always brought us with her to volunteer and to vote. And that was hugely formative for me. I believe firmly in civic participation and I believe firmly in a life of service. Um, and my brother does too, even though we both diverge a lot in our values and our approach, uh, we we share that orientation. So I grew up in a very conservative community in Northwest Florida, and I knew from a young age that I was that, you know, things did not click with me well politically and socially in my community. And when I entered high school, I I formed an identity as a feminist through my connections to a um a teacher who inspired me and through my friends. And that really shaped my own worldview in terms of progressive values. And I think that's another reason why you and I connect, Ian, is because we we both kind of share a lot of the same perspectives on the nonprofit sector and on philanthropy and just like, you know, its role in society. And so as I entered my career, I worked for some feminist nonprofits. And then I began working for the state of Georgia at the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, where we funded crime victim service providers across the state. So that encompassed domestic violence shelters, sexual assault centers, child abuse centers, things of that ilk. And we not only made grants to those nonprofits, but we also wrote grants to the federal government to distribute those funds. And that's why I got the grant bug. So I really enjoyed distributing grants, writing RFPs, reviewing applications. But the first competitive grant I wrote, I'm I'm blessed and lucky to say that I got it. And if I did, then I kind of wonder if I would be here today. But um, writing that that high, getting that rush of getting an award was just so powerful. I felt incredibly accomplished. And when I thought about what the like the impact that that grant would have, it was just incredibly meaningful. So when I left the state, I started a values-based company with another feminist, Irene Turner, whom I met at the Feminist Women's Health Center, which is now called the Feminist Center for Reproductive Liberation. And here we are today. Resurgence turned 10 in October. Oh my gosh.

Ann Price 8:19

Right. And you've grown a lot, right? So it started out. Was it you and Irene originally? And then you've got several Grant Writers on your staff now.

Resurgence’s Focus Areas

Betty Barnard 8:30

Yeah, yeah. So 10 years ago and some change, Irene and I met over lunch at Duck's Cosmic Kitchen in Decatur. We had soup, another soup day, and sandwiches, but still. Um, and Irene and I realized that we shared a dream. So we wanted to form a nonprofit consulting company that really reflected our values as progressive feminist women. At the time, we had envisioned a collection of nonprofit experts that were doing multiple types of nonprofit capacity building, but our goal was just to help them become powerful and really coming from that like progressiveslash radical lens. Um, so we started as a team of two part-time contractors, just Irene and I, with no clients and no income. We just had a vision, a commitment to justice and equity, and a desire to support nonprofits that shared our values. And so in 2015, we founded Resurgence with the conviction that nonprofits that were striving for social justice could benefit from the support of values-oriented consultants who shared their vision for a better world where all of us can thrive. And 10 years later, we still believe that. So we came from zero, just two young women with a dream and a passion. And now we have a team of 10 talented grant professionals. So that includes me. I have nine staff. And now I'm proud to say that we've helped more than 100 nonprofits to secure 157 million dollars in grant funding and counting.

Ann Price 10:00

Girl. That's amazing growth and amazing wins for your clients and not just your clients, but the people they serve, right? Which is what it's all about. So we definitely have that. Um, and uh we probably have talked about this, but you know I grew up in northwest Georgia, right? So I think we probably talked, we've shared that. So so I totally get I totally get you there. I love I I love Florida, happy to be, happy to be here like you are, and happy to serve this community for sure. So good for you. So I know um you've done a lot of work in victims assistance. I know you've done a lot of work with domestic violence. Is there a certain area that resurgence focuses on? Tell us about that. Tell us, tell us a little bit about your client. You don't have to name names, but tell us, you know, who your clients are.

Betty Barnard 10:56

Yeah, so we work with organizations that do three different kinds of things. Like basically, we help mission-driven nonprofits secure funding, sustain their work, and create lasting change. We only work with nonprofits, although we work with 501c3s, 501c4s. We don't work with governments or for-profit agencies. There are other consulting firms that do that and do that well, but we specifically work with those nonprofits and they tend to be smaller, scrappier nonprofits, although you know, budget size can vary pretty widely, even within that small to medium-sized nonprofit range. But um that's usually where we find our niche and are best able to support those organizations that for the most part don't have development staff, and many of them don't have a grant writer at all whatsoever. Oftentimes they're they um, if they have a grant writer, they're working with us because they need to expand their capacity, either by doing funding strategy prospect research, or because they have really heavy deadlines and so they need help with applications and reporting. So we work with organizations that do three different kinds of things. One is health care related. So that usually looks like advocating for access to health care, mental health care training, advocacy for mental health, or other types of health like reproductive health and things of that nature. We don't tend to work with hospital systems, but some of them do direct service delivery like pre-clinics. We also work with organizations that do human services, and this is really the bulk of our clients. So these are organizations that are people helping people that are in need. They do things like homelessness and housing support, homelessness prevention work, disability service providers. We also work with organizations that don't do education specifically, but they do wraparound support for education so that children can succeed in schools. And we also work with a lot of victim service providers. So, like you mentioned, Ann, many of our clients are in the area of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, advocacy and prevention. Um, that's one of our specialty areas and definitely our bread and butter. We're very familiar with the funding landscape and some of the unique challenges and issues that those organizations deal with. So, not exclusively who we work with, but one of our main specialties. And then the final type of organization that we work with does movement building. So that looks like organizing, training, advocacy, policy development, and just general support for systemic change. So a lot of times I kind of frame that like we work with organizations that help people in need and organizations that change the systems that harm them in the first place.

Ann Price 14:05

Gotcha. So tell us a little about your um, well, we I don't want you to give away your secret sauce, but tell us about your secret sauce. What's your what's the framework you bring to the work and what's your approach? And I asked that because um early on I got asked um if I ever did grant writing. And at the time, and still today, I have so much evaluation work. I let the grant writers do the what grant writers do. I only get involved when uh, you know, I need to write an evaluation section for an existing client, for example, right? So I do I do not, nor do I want to do what you do, but I know you have an approach that you bring to the work, which makes you really effective. Um, as a matter of fact, we'll talk about it later, but we have a we have a mutual client. I just found that out a couple of weeks ago. Oh really? Yeah, we do, we do. So um, yeah, so tell us a little about your approach.

Betty Barnard 15:01

Yeah, definitely. And the feeling is mutual, right? Like we want to stay in our lane and and yield to experts in other areas. So uh I would say that our secret sauce is actually care. So we care deeply about I knew that you would, because you do too.

The Secret Sauce: Care And Strategy

Speaker 1 15:20

Yeah.

Betty Barnard 15:20

We care deeply about the work that our clients are doing. We're we care deeply about the communities they serve. Like we consider nonprofits to be important uh service providers and entities that um you know, when people fall through the social safety net, when when government fails them, when for-profit companies, the job market fails them, people often fall through the cracks. And nonprofits are there to catch them and then lift them back up. Like think of it like a trampoline. I feel like ideally that's how it would work. Nonprofits are the trampoline. It's like boom, here you go. You fell through, now let's bounce you back up. And we care about those nonprofits very much, but we also care about the people who they're helping, the issues that they're working on. We believe firmly in their mission. As a values-based company, that's what really what comes first. What it boils down to is like getting the work done. Um I would say we also imbue our approach with care because our staff are trained to come to the work with that lens that nonprofits are doing this really hard work of solving some of the most complex problems of our society where people are falling through these cracks. Like, you know, there should be multiple points where people don't fall through the cracks. So when they do, you know that something is wrong. And they know that the staff at these nonprofits are doing some really, really tough work helping people with very complex and severe challenges often. And so they approach that with a lot of care, understanding that many of those staff members are going through a lot of vicarious trauma. They're exposed to trauma from the people they work with to community-level trauma. Sometimes that is related directly to violence itself. Um, sometimes it's more of like job loss and huge financial strain. But regardless, they approach the work with a lot of care and support for the people we're serving. So I would say that is ultimately our secret sauce. Um, we do this through three main lines of service. So, of course, we do grant writing. That's, you know, I I would actually we'll go into this more later, but we're less and less of writers and more and more of strategists. Oh, I love that. And I think that that's yeah, I think that that's a trend that's gonna accelerate, especially because AI is just like rocking our worlds, right? Um, and it's not like we can completely let go of writing, but uh I think more and more increasingly, like our value is going to be seen in our ability to to think and strategize and to wield AI and other writing tools. Anyway, I digress. So grant writing, research, careful, diligent funder research so that we know that the grant funders' goals match that of the nonprofit, and then the strategy piece like how do you maneuver, how do you take the research and apply it to um figuring out how and when to approach these funders? We try to take as much as possible off of our clients' plate, and that kind of goes back to the care theme. So we want to use our expertise, our tools, and our time to do the research, writing, and strategy so that the these nonprofit leaders can do the hard work and focus on their mission, taking care of their staff, and taking care of their community.

AI’s Role And Ethical Guardrails

Ann Price 19:04

Um, where do I want to go here? I'd love I want I definitely want to hear more about the strategic thinking. I love a good strategy. What I think what's coming to mind for me is uh how exhausted even before 2025, nonprofit executive directors and and development folks are, right? They're doing everything, right? They're providing the service, uh, they're writing the grants, they're cleaning the bathrooms, they're running the board, right? So, so, so many things. Um, so it's really important that they get the kind of help and support they need. And I love it when you say, hey, we work with folks who maybe they they don't they don't have the capacity or they don't have the resource to have, you know, somebody in person who can do that heavy lifting uh for you. And yeah, AI helps and it speeds up, but it's it can't do the Thinking for us. And it tells stories and not the good kind sometimes. And I bet you've seen this too. Uh, nonprofits tend to um sometimes follow the shiny object, right? I'm gonna go for this grant, I'm gonna go for this grant because they're not thinking strategically. They're thinking a little bit out of, you know, fear, I would say. Like we've got to keep the lights on, so we're gonna go for this grant. And then all of a sudden um they're even more exhausted because they're trying to do all the things. So it sounds like what I think I hear you saying is we're gonna help them be strategic in the partnerships, the relationships they're building with the funders, and uh really thinking deeply about the kinds of funds that will support their mission and not have that creep, right, that gets them to exhaustion. Is that is that a would you agree with that?

Betty Barnard 20:54

Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, there are there are many tools available to us that can help us do this really hard and important work. And I see AI and LL LLM large language models as being one of those tools. Like we also use Foundation Directory Online, and that is a fabulous tool that aggregates data on foundations from across the country so that you don't have to sift through every single Form 990 to get the information you need on a funder. But you can't just rely solely on Foundation Directory Online data. You have to poke around and do other kinds of research as well to supplement that. Sometimes that means picking up the phone and making a call. So I see AI and LLMs as being similar. Can it help us cut corners? Can it help us work smarter and not harder? Yeah, absolutely. I was a little bit resistant at first, and there certainly are a lot of arguments for why, you know, this is a not something to be taken lightly or used in a cavalier manner, like ethics and the environmental impact being one of them or two of them, as well as the uh propensity to perpetuate inequity and racist, sexist language. But again, those things can be mitigated or prevented, I feel, if used smartly. I don't think that you can just stop there. Again, just like with Foundation Directory Online or other tools. You have to take what you get, verify, edit, edit, edit, but they can still be helpful. And in some cases, I will I will also say to the point about values, like some clients may say, hey, we don't want to use this. Like this is against our policy, it's against our ethics. And of course, we would respect that.

Ann Price 22:59

Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I'm glad you brought up the um, you know, the just the inherent bias that is built into these systems and the environmental impact. I would it's so funny because I was just have been talking to people lately. Um, it's just something that we just don't think enough about. Before I run this query in Chat GPT, is it really worth the water costs and the energy costs that I am about to ask?

unknown 23:28

Right.

Betty Barnard 23:28

Yes, we take it for granted, right? And it's like it seems it's invisible to us, and so we don't think about it. And we also know now that the harm that's being wrought from those clicks and questions is being wrought on the very communities that are already experiencing the worst of climate injustice. So yeah, it's again not something to be taken lightly.

Ann Price 23:54

Right. Yeah. So what I what I hear you talking about, Betty, is that you you just come from a place of such deep values, and I so appreciate that. I really do.

Betty Barnard 24:06

Thank you, Ann. Again, that's why I think that we connect well too, because I know that you share many of them.

Ann Price 24:12

So let's talk about um I I would love to say let's not talk about 2025, but 2026 is coming. And um, gosh, I was on this call yesterday and an evaluation colleague shared this thought uh from an indigenous elder, Jerry Olliman, and I wrote it down because I thought it was so profound. Uh, and I just happen to have it here. It says, you have to say hello to a problem before you can say goodbye. So you have to say hello to a problem before you can say goodbye, Jerry Olman. Um, so let's talk about 2025. What has it been like for your clients? And how are you all kind of helping them deal with? Gosh, was it March 13th or it whatever day it was? What was it February 14th, Valentine's Massacre? I'm not sure. It was February or March when all of the duties started hitting the fan. I know that because um we there was a GPA meeting that day, a virtual meeting. I don't know if you were there. Anyway, I I I digress. I'm I'm having my own trauma issues right now. Well tell us about 2025 and your and the kind of what you've seen in the nonprofit space.

Betty Barnard 25:30

Yep. Yep. Okay. So we just did a webinar about this yesterday for all of our current clients. And I think what you're getting at is that this year has been really, really hard. So we kicked off the webinar with a word cloud exercise using Minty. I love Minty and those little tools. And the word cloud came up with uh uncertainty as the main theme of the year. Other things that folks said are stressed, different, whiplashed, concerned, confused, philanthropy fatigue. One person said incredulous, which I was like, yes, definitely. It's like mind-boggling. And then somebody said cautious but hopeful, which I really love because you know, we're gonna I bet we're gonna go into that. Um, but uncertainty is absolutely the theme I've heard, not just from our clients, but also from others in the field. So the the three words that we had to sum everything up before we even did this word cloud exercise were change, uncertainty, and relational. Big changes are throwing us all for a loop. Like we've heard we've heard that again from like nonprofits and funders alike. The changes are like they're sweeping in severe. There's AI, federal policy shifts, how that's affecting the economy, just so many different things. And it's all happening at a time when we were already experiencing seismic change in a country, in the country like I mean, with 2020, we had COVID recovery funding, and then we also had funding pouring out from the racial reckoning. And a lot of that is ending like pretty abruptly, not unsurprisingly. Like we knew these deadlines were coming. And I think for for those who are in the racial justice movement, we also are familiar with that pendulum swaying of like, you know, reckoning and then the white lash, so to speak. All of these changes happening all at once, though, and the severity of them are leading to a ton of uncertainty and just, you know, head spinning. It makes it really, really hard to plan, but no less necessary. So we've been touting scenario planning and risk assessments as key approaches that our clients can take to navigate uncertainty. We're also trying to emphasize that it's okay to be honest about this, even with funders, and say, we are all trying to figure out together, we don't know right now, but we're committed to our mission and we need help and dialogue to forge a path forward. And if they say, Well, what is your plan? You can say, Here's our scenario plan. And then also respectfully, what's your plan? Because what we've heard from a lot of nonprofits is it feels like funders are asking them to give them this information for free because they're trying to figure it out, and it's like extractive. So we would like to challenge funders to share first before you ask, and also say, like, this is our these are our plans, but we'd like to know yours because we care.

Scenario Planning And Risk

Ann Price 28:51

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I love the idea of scenario planning. And um, you know, at AEA this year, there was a lot of talk about um force uh, you know, using foresight thinking, right? Which is really when you're talking about scenario planning, it's it's that. Like if we talk about logic models and theories of change, often it's a just it's one trajectory, right? We, you know, we have this um population, they have these needs, we're gonna do these services, these programs, and we're gonna have we're gonna change their knowledge, skills, abilities, all the things, and we reach nirvana, right? But we have not done a good job, and I use that we collectively, and the not those who are in this, you know, service space of thinking about well, what if that doesn't happen? What if something, you know, goes wrong, the doo-doo hits the fan, and you know, we have a year like we had. So if we do that scenario planning, then we're kind of better prepared, is what I think I hear you saying. So it just reminds me of some of the conversations at some of the conferences that I've been attending to in the last couple of months. Yeah, and I don't think we're used to doing that. Like I said, you know, our nonprofit leaders and our staff are exhausted, and now we want them to scenario. But yeah. Yeah. But you guys walk them through that. You're starting to help them. Is that what you meant earlier when you were saying we're doing this strategic work? Is that what you were talking about?

Betty Barnard 30:27

Well, not exclusively, but kind of. So to be clear, we we haven't yet, although I think it's a great question because I could see us lending some help with this. We we haven't shepherded anyone through a scenario plan. I think as grant consultants, one of the the challenges that we have is that we get exposed to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the nonprofits we work with. And that's actually ideal because when we have clients that don't disclose that to us. Oh, yes. We we usually uncover it in unpleasant ways, or like when a funder uncovers it, we're like, oh, this impression is wearing no clothes. But um, I guess all that to say, like, you know, we we have to be very thoughtful and strategic from a high level, looking at how the nonprofit operates and serves its community, because often we have to talk about that in grants. So we we frequently will say, Hey, could you you you could consider this, this approach, um, for like financial planning, for strategic planning, for evaluation. We don't do that, but here are some experts that do if you need some help. Here's some tips and resources that may benefit you.

Ann Price 31:48

Okay. I got you now. All right. So one of the things that you talked about at the um the talk that you gave at PCA a couple of months ago was how nonprofits can be grant ready. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Betty Barnard 32:02

Yeah, definitely. So um, and it's actually a great segue from what we were just discussing. So in order to be grant ready, um you need to have capacity. And I've also always said that grants are more of an intermediate step. They're, you know, it's not, it's like if you think of it in terms of your schooling, it's not elementary school. Sometimes it's not even really middle school. You need to be relatively advanced in order to be competitive. And that's coming from a funder perspective. And so, therefore, I will say as somebody who who has a love-hate relationship who like critiques philanthropy, even though I'm I'm hearing it, um, that I think that that's problematic. It becomes a chicken in the egg problem for a lot of nonprofits. They they can be ready but still not check these specific boxes. They can do good, important work, but if they don't have an audit, for example, then they can be precluded from a lot of funding opportunities. So um, all that to say, for nonprofits that want to play the game that stands currently, uh, we recommend a couple of baseline things. So, one is having at least two to three years of existence since your nonprofit status. We also recommend having an audit if possible. Sometimes in different states, that's not required. Maybe you can get around it with uh reviewed financial statements or just simply even having financial statements or a 990 form. We do recommend having a 990 form completed, at least for the last two to three years as well. Um, another workaround, I think, would be if a nonprofit has a fiscal sponsor, which is kind of a model that we've been seeing more frequently and think we will see more frequently as all of these changes rock our field. So we've been kind of like exploring that and getting ourselves educated on what fiscal sponsorship models can and do look like and how they can be beneficial for nonprofits, especially as it relates to grant seeking. Because you know, you can use the fiscal sponsor to piggyback off of their capacity, especially if the nonprofit is like new, small, or might otherwise pose some uh typical concerns for funders. I think one of the things that we we see and hear most often from those small and new nonprofits is that they don't have a budget or a board, or the board is actually just like, you know, a couple of friends right together. Yes. Um, written budget is key.

What Grant Ready Really Means

Ann Price 34:47

I have I have seen this, yeah. I have seen similar things. And you know, and this was before 2025. I think our count of the number of nonprofits in the US was something like 2 million plus. And you might know that number better than I. Um yeah, I have a friend of mine who's real big on we don't this was again before 2025. We don't need more nonprofits, right? We have so many and so many that fail, and so many will fail because of the struggles and the strains. But that's really true. And I think that gets back to the capacity that you were talking about, building that structural capacity that makes you a good investment, right? That you that you have a strong board, that you have a budget, that you're not operating in the red, right? That you have the, you know, because they are they're businesses, really. We don't always think of them as businesses, but they are businesses.

Betty Barnard 35:44

It's a type of business. And this may be digressing, but one reason why I think nonprofits are so cool is because they're businesses that aren't profit-minded. So they kind of like can expand our our conception of like our typical capitalist like profit growth orientation. It's like, what if we actually existed to help people?

Ann Price 36:04

Yes, right. Yeah, I and I when I say business, I mean they need to function with those that strong foundation, right? The foundation, uh, you know, the pillars, a solid roof, all of the things, right, that that can guarantee that they exist and can serve the people that they want to serve. That's what I mean. Okay. Any other tips on being grant ready?

Betty Barnard 36:30

You know, uh, folks can download a grant ready checklist from our website. It's it's really comprehensive. So we've ordered it into three different sections, beginning with uh a section on what is like some baseline requirements, and often it's documentation. Documentation of things that should have substance, but having the that documentation. Um, the second section is things that are less commonly required, but can help make you more competitive or get the attention of more niche-oriented funders, and the third are things that are maybe less commonly requested, but again, might depend more on your organization, the kind of work you do. Um, I think another thing that is really helpful right now that's not documentation and is less tangible is that it's really important to be very visible. So we've been talking more about how nonprofits need to make sure that their website is up to date. Whatever social media they have, uh, you know, the platform can be dependent on the kind of work they do in their constituents, but the social media should align. You know, they should be saying the same thing on one platform and on their website as they are on all of them, should be consistent. And we know that funders are looking at Guide Star Charity Navigator profiles. So it's really important that nonprofits don't just, you know, like those platforms will create it for you for free and they'll upload the 990 and plain and simple. But if you do the extra work to go in and update it, which we can also do for you. Um, but if you go in and update it, customize it, again, align the language and the capacity with what you have on your website on social media, then you're you're more likely to be up to date, visible, and attractive to funders when they go and research you. Right.

Ann Price 38:25

Um I I had a flashback a few years ago when um uh my now marketing person, she uh Kel Woods helps me with my marketing and she goes, uh yeah, do you know that what you have on um Facebook is not what the same as you have on Instagram? Like the brand is not the same, the language that you use is not the no, I no, I did not know that.

Betty Barnard 38:49

Yeah. Yeah, but it can be tricky because sometimes we tweak things and we update it and we're like, oh, the you know, we've we forget about these other platforms. Correct. It's all gotta line up and say the same thing, or else people are gonna be confused. Like, who are you and what do you do? Do you even know?

Ann Price 39:05

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well, and just that just that practice can help, you know. I think the not a nonprofit leader, like really, oh yeah, what am I saying? What are we saying? What is our mission? How do we talk about ourselves? And oh my gosh, I love a good checklist. I gotta tell you, I love a good checklist. So that's awesome. So fun. Yeah, so fun. So they can so this is a free download on your website. Just want to underline that.

Betty Barnard 39:31

Yeah, yeah. People can download it for free. It's just like go to our homepage, reseurgensimpact.com, and it's there available as a download. There's a couple of different buttons you can click, even.

Ann Price 39:42

Oh, that's that's terrific. I love it. So, when thinking about um being grant ready, or maybe just in general, what are some of the biggest mistakes you think um nonprofits make when it comes to you know, going for funding or maybe even just building the structure that they need? Wherever you want to take that question.

Visibility, Alignment, And Profiles

Betty Barnard 40:03

Yeah, I think you know, we we talked about infrastructure and how important that is. And that that is slow, hard work. It it truly is. It can take years. Especially if you're gonna do it right and do it thoughtfully. To build a board, even even to like apply for and get nonprofit status is time consuming. Um when it comes to grant seeking, I can share some of the common pitfalls and mistakes we see, especially if it's things that we have to like clean up for a new client or help their staff to to address or um mitigate some past issues. But one of them is really simple and it's not following directions. Even when I was a grant reviewer for the state of Georgia, it was it was pretty common, shockingly common to me to get applications that didn't follow directions. And when many reviewers are looking at applications, they're scoring them based on whether you answered some key questions so that they can take it back to their trustees or committees or you know, whoever makes the ultimate funding decisions and saying, like, these are the applications that um answer our questions and actually merit our dollars. So following directions is really important. It's also key to speak the funders' language and otherwise connect the dots with their guidelines and priorities. And I think a lot of folks who are, especially those who aren't in our field, don't know that you really have to do that explicitly. And it can be it can be a little bit tricky sometimes because we get used to our own language, our own way of talking about things. But when you're speaking to these very specific audiences and making a pitch, you have to adapt what you say and how you say it to speak to what they care about and show them that you know you share those goals and priorities. Connect the dots for them. Don't expect them to do it for you. Like make it very easy and simple. So some of the things we we advise our consultants to do is to even restate the funder's question or prompt in their own words. And that way it just makes it super clear and easy for the reviewer. We were talking about AI earlier, and so we're seeing this more and more. But I think scrambling at the last minute and thinking that you can just put an application into Chat GPT, um, just being sloppy in general and completing an application without reviewing and editing before you put it in a system and click submit, copying and pasting content without adapting it first. Like having a boilerplate is a starting point. Having a grant template is a good best practice. You don't just copy and paste it into an application and then click submit and think, okay, moving on to the next task. It's really important to update it and adapt it again to speak to each funder. And a lot of that takes work and time, which is why it's really important to build in extra time and work on this slowly and thoughtfully leading up to the deadline. So maybe you know, growing up in a like a military community, this is actually one acronym that I do love. Uh prior preparation prevents piss-poor performance. And so that's that's something that we imbue in our approach to like get ready, stay on top of things. Right. Yeah, coordinate coordinate grants like it's a project because it is. And then I think the final thing, and this really points back to a lot of the trends that we've been seeing and what we we foresee happening for the next few years, is focus on relationship building. So more and more we're seeing some clients be resistant to the idea that they need to pick up the phone, write an email, reach out to a funder and build a relationship before they click submit. Those days are over. I mean, when I started in this field, I think those days were ending, especially in hindsight, but they're really over now. Like gone is the time when you could do that and expect to get an ROI. We're hearing more and more boards ask questions about why they're not getting a good return on grants and why they're spending, you know, the organization's budget on grant seeking without getting awards. And a lot of times that's what it boils down to is the the failure to build a relationship before you ask for money.

Common Grant Mistakes To Avoid

Ann Price 44:52

Right. Have you seen um what I think I've seen is that um because there are less and less federal dollars going towards you know, some of the things that we care about and uh towards nonprofits, people are putting a lot of pressure on foundations to be the to be the provider and foundations, it seems like to me anyway, are circling the wagons, right? I'm you know, I'm I'm lowering down the gate, I'm battening down the hatches, uh funding people that they have funded before, not not necessarily funding new uh grantees. Um yeah, I don't know if you're seeing some of that. I feel like I am. Maybe that's just conjecture, but it that's it feels like that's true. I don't know. Are you seeing that or no? 100%. Yeah. 100%.

Betty Barnard 45:49

And I don't think that that response is fair or right, but that is exactly what we're seeing. More and more foundations saying we're only funding current grantees or past grantees, or they're saying we're not taking it it's invitation only from here on out. And companies too. It's not just foundations, it's also companies.

Ann Price 46:10

Yeah. Which makes that relationship building even more important. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, tough times. Um, anything else you would like to share as we kind of draw our conversation to a close?

Betty Barnard 46:32

You know, I mean, I could talk about this forever, like, especially the the last point we were talking about and that that trend. Like, I really we we we discussed this during the webinar too. I mean, it it seems counterintuitive in a period where we're seeing so many rapid technological advancements, but it really boils back down to relationships, connections, and conversations. And because of some of the the fear and political retribution we're seeing, some of that is happening very old school, like on the phone and in person. And that's why we're trying to emphasize to our clients like you have to invest time in this, or you know, you're you're gonna be slashing your budget, you're gonna be cutting staff. It's really important to put that time into relationships and talking. Good old-fashioned talking.

Ann Price 47:28

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yes, AI is here to stay, and relationships still matter. Yes. Absolutely. Very succinct. All right, I want to ask you a couple of rapid uh fire questions here. What is giving you hope these days?

Betty Barnard 47:46

Okay, I love that because it is um, it's a tough time. So just like we're talking about community and connection is giving me hope. Just before this podcast over lunch, I had a craft in conversation hour with some of my friends at the coworking community I'm a part of. And it was hard for me to close my laptop and put down the email that I was writing frantically and was really hoping to finish. But my friends were there and I wanted to catch up with them and I wanted to drink hot cocoa and make ornaments with them and see how they were doing. And I left feeling refreshed. I also I I will admit it was productive. I got business ideas, and you know, I I just needed that time. That gives me a lot of hope to know that we can still find joy and connection one another. I think also I I love that you opened with that quote from the um, I can't remember his name, I'm sorry, the indigenous elder who you mentioned. This is not a historical. Like we we may be freaking out and mired in it. And I definitely hear, especially from other people of color, who are like, oh, yo, you white women are like, you know, you're you're you're flipping out, you're freaking, but this is like this is normal. Like this is how history goes. These are the the waves that we rise. Yes. And we have the tools, we have the um ancestors, we have the the history to learn from and build off of. And something new will come out of this. As painful as it may be to see these old structures die, something new and hopefully more inclusive is going to emerge that is going to carry us through. And, you know, I'm also hearing a lot of hope and determination that like this kind of tyranny will not last. And when it does go away, we're going to be so strong and well equipped to thrive.

Relationship First Funding Reality

Ann Price 49:54

You know, I'm so glad you said that because getting back to that GPA um that happened when the first executive order happened that had to do with nonprofits and making our life very difficult. There was a there was um uh a black woman in our circle who said, folks, it's hard and it has been hard. And we will we will continue to do the work no matter what we call things, we will continue to do the work. And I think that's kind of what you're saying. Yeah. For some of us, it feels new. For other uh other of us, it is not it's not new, and they were under no illusions, but yeah. Exactly.

Betty Barnard 50:43

For sure. She said it, she said it best.

Ann Price 50:46

Yeah. So what's one piece of advice you would give community leaders doing social change work?

Betty Barnard 50:55

Um, well, I'm gonna be sneaky and say and give two pieces of advice, I guess. Um, I I think that people really need to remain adaptable. I don't think that burying our heads in the stand in the sand and doing the same thing that we have been doing is going to work. And, you know, like my family was in construction for a really long time, and I saw their business crumble over the course of many years as a result of failing to adapt in the wake of some really hard challenges. Like there was a major hurricane that came through, and then COVID hit, and then my my great grand my grandfather, the the patriarch, the company's founder, died. Like, you know, these constellations of really difficult factors, and the company didn't adapt, and now it's essentially defunct. And I think that's just one example of how when we we refuse to change our ways, then you know, we we might have to say goodbye. Or, you know, life, life and society and the economy may say goodbye to us. So I think it's really important, as hard and painful as it may be sometimes to to adapt and to adjust. And the other thing is just to take care of yourselves because that is really hard work and we are all we have.

Ann Price 52:19

You know, I took the I took the morning off. I went to a Christmas craft fair at a church that I go to every year, and I had lunch with a friend, and now I'm talking to you. And I yeah, and I have things to do and I have deadlines, but I needed a break. So you're right. We have to we have to take those mental breaks because we're really not good for anybody if we're just burnt out and exhausted all the time.

Betty Barnard 52:42

Yes, good for you. So we both did something similar. We went to have like craft time with people we love.

Ann Price 52:48

Yeah, absolutely. So, Bay, thank you so much, and thank you for your advice. I will um definitely put the link to your tip sheet in the show notes for sure. But as we close, I want to ask you the question I ask everybody when you look to the future, what community possibilities do you see?

Betty Barnard 53:09

I have so much hope right now from the people who I'm connecting with and the other nonprofit leaders who are like, oh my gosh, like this is hard, but something really cool and amazing is going to emerge. So I'm finding hope and possibility through community and innovation. I'll I'll also leave y'all with one other resource. So I recently read this book, A New Era of Philanthropy by Dimple Abacani, and it gave me so many ideas and hope. I'm gonna be uh writing about it on LinkedIn. So I I hope that other people pick up that book and buy it, support her, read it, learn from it. And I think that they will also find a lot of hope and community possibility there too.

Ann Price 53:55

Oh, I love that. I'm gonna I'm gonna write that down. Awesome. Well, Betty, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate your time today. How can people get in touch with you, learn more about resurgence and and the good work you do?

Hope, Adaptability, And Care

Betty Barnard 54:11

I've had so much fun. Thank you. Um, people can find us on uh LinkedIn. I'm I'm also really active, so you can follow me on LinkedIn, just search for Betty Barnard. You can also email me at Betty at resurgeonsimpact.com. And if you want to learn more about what we do, how we do it, and how to work with us, you can go to resurgeonsimpact.com as well. Awesome.

Ann Price 54:34

Well, thank you so much, Betty. Have a fabulous, restful, more self-care weekend. You too, and you deserve it. Thank you. Hi, everybody. Thanks so much for listening to Community Possibilities. This is the podcast that is all about imagining possibilities for our communities. I'm a podcast listener too, so I know you have lots of choices for the things you put in your ears. So thanks for listening. You know, for some of us, it's kind of hard right now. I see you and I hear you. One of the things I'm focused on is bringing all the love and value I can to my clients and the communities we serve together. We've been busy revamping the resources on our website. We offer a wide range of free and low-cost tools. And one of the things I'm most proud of is our new nonprofit mission statement template. It is gorgeous and will help you so much. There's no time like the present to truly rethink your mission and ensure that it excites the people you serve and those you're trying to attract to your cause. I hope you'll grab it at Community Evaluation Solutions.com. Please be sure to visit the website over the next few weeks as we'll be rolling out additional templates and resources related to strategic visioning and strategic plan development. In the meantime, we offer lots of other resources from our logic model template, our coalition self-assessment, nonprofit evaluation capacity self-assessment, and so much more. And if you're one of the nonprofits finding your budget stressed but needs some help with evaluation, I hope you'll check out our course, Powerful Evidence Evaluation for Non-Evaluators. Now, lastly, before I let you go, please let me hear from you. Let me know what you're enjoying about the show. Send me an email if someone you know or know of would be a great guest on the podcast. Thanks everybody, and don't forget to take a breath.