Ready to win more grants?
Our team has helped dozens of nonprofits win millions in new grant funding.

According to data from Giving USA, foundations in the U.S. are expected to contribute nearly $100 billion in grants to nonprofit organizations this year, representing almost 20% of all giving in the country. If properly managed, grants are an important source of income and can provide significant funding for an organization’s programs and strategic initiatives that might otherwise not be possible.

We “get” grants. Our team has worked in every area of the grant profession – private and public funding, grant seeking and making, and even as a fiscal sponsor through intermediary organizations. This breadth, depth, and passion for grantsmanship allows DickersonBakker to have a keen understanding of the way grant makers award grants. Why not put our grants team to work for you?

Here’s how we can help you.

We provide a complete spectrum of grant services for nonprofit organizations and can tailor a program to meet your needs and budget. Whether you need help getting started with grants, managing your entire grants program, or simply adding capacity to your current grants team, we are here to help.

Our most popular and effective program is our full-service partnership plan. Under this program, our grants team essentially embeds as a member of your team, working in close collaboration with your team to help you strengthen your capacity to compete for grants, integrate systems-based grant management processes into your operation, and win more grants for your programs and services.

Grant Assessments

Grant Assessments

As a first step, we can conduct a no-obligation comprehensive assessment of your grant program to recommend action steps you can take to improve the effectiveness and outcomes of your grant-seeking efforts going forward.

Grant Readiness

Grant Readiness

We provide counsel to help you continually improve your grant development program; we ensure that the right systems, tools, materials, procedures, and practices are in place to win increasingly more grant opportunities.

Grant Management

Grant Management

We help monitor and manage your grant calendar by tracking deadlines and ensuring prompt completion of all proposals and reports to foundations, for both current funding partners and new foundation prospects.

Research & Prospecting

Research & Prospecting

We conduct research to ensure that we approach funders whose interests best align with what your organization seeks to achieve; we ensure that each submission is in keeping with the funder’s standards and requirements.

Grant Writing

Grant Writing

We can help you prepare, write, and submit letters of inquiry, applications/proposals, and reports that are credible and professionally crafted and will stand out against other grant proposals/reports.

Training & Coaching

Training & Coaching

We provide your team with training and strategic counsel to help you plan approaches, manage relationships with decision-makers, and implement best practices for follow-up, site visits, presentations, and reporting.
Your grants team just got a whole lot bigger.

Most nonprofits don’t need a full-time staff person 100% focused on grants. You do, however, need 100% competency. Foundations have very specific interests, processes, and policies, and are highly specialized and unique in their grantmaking. In this highly competitive arena, you need the very best talent you can find to help you maximize and streamline your grant-seeking efforts.

That’s where we come in. When you partner with DickersonBakker, our team becomes your team, and you can breathe easier knowing you have a team of highly skilled and experienced grant professionals working shoulder-to-shoulder with you, helping you win more grants so that you can achieve a greater impact.

Expert Insights from Our Team

Click these links to read relevant entries on our blog and/or to download free white paper resources.

How to Write a Grant Proposal

Aside from how to engage grantors, probably no question is more common in grant-seeking than how to actually write a…

“What is the trick to getting in front of grant funders?” – As a grant professional, I get this question…

As a former VP of a large foundation, I had the pleasure – and sometimes the pain – of reading…

Grant Services
Experts
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Group VP, Grant Services
David Broussard, GPC
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Senior Development Consultant
Amanda Day, GPC
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Senior VP Client Partnership
Jeff Crabtree

Meet The Team

Meet the experienced and talented folks that you will be working alongside.

Clients We Have Served with Grant Writing Services

Pathways:

No doubt you’ve heard it said that successful major gift fund development is “all about relationships”. We couldn’t agree more. At the same time, however, it just isn’t that simple. Real success in major gift fundraising is about strategically managing relationships with high-value donors in order to maximize their understanding of, interest in, involvement with, and commitment to your organization and its underlying mission. Even the word “relationships” is ambiguous. Major donors don’t have “relationships” with organizations. They have relationships with people in the organization. Too many put too much emphasis on the relationship with the development officer and overlook the importance of others. Relationships between your organization and its major donors actually have multiple dimensions, each increasingly important as you advance to higher tiers of giving.


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Presentation:

The case statement, also known as the “case for support,” provides a glimpse into the heart of a non-profit organization and is a vital part of any major gift fundraising effort. With over twenty years experience working with major donors we know what they are looking for in an offer. We will work with you to craft a compelling and professional case for support and guide you through the development of additional collateral materials needed to effectively present your case. We will also spend time in the field with your team to help them hone their presentation skills and train them in the “Art of the Close”.


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People:

Of all the building blocks needed to create a major gift program, none is more important than the people you have in place on your major gift leadership team. Having the right people in the right roles is a critical part of the Keystone Solution™ and we will work with you to ensure that your staff and volunteers are well-trained and appropriately gifted for their roles. If necessary, we will work with you to recruit additional members to your major gift leadership team.


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Prospects:

Any good fisherman knows that you can’t catch a big fish if you’ve got your line in the wrong pond. The future success of any major gift fund-raising program is built upon the organization’s ability to attract new donors to support its mission. To ensure on-going growth, a wide base of dynamic support is necessary, which presumes that a significant number of new major donors must be acquired and subsequently nurtured and elevated to rising giving levels. Using both “high-tech” and “high-touch” approaches we will work with your organization to identify a pool of best major gift prospects for your major gift program and to segment them into prioritized lists. As part of our prospecting services, we are also able to provide Donor Research Services to help you realize the major gift potential in your donor database and circles of influence.


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Practices:

Successful major gift fundraising is both an art and a science. The art is in the relationships, but the science is in the systems. Someone once said, “Motivation is what gets you started; good habits are what keep you going.” Putting good major gift development policies and procedures in place and getting into the habit of living by them is a critical part of making a program sustainable. Dickerson, Bakker & Associates will work with your organization to implement best practices within your major gift development department to ensure that the improvements we put in place will continue not just beyond our term of service but can be consistently applied even if you have a turnover of staff.


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Brand:

An organization’s brand is perhaps its most important asset. Most people think of brand superficially—considering only those aspects encompassing the “look and feel” of an organization (e.g. name, logo, etc.). Those brand marks are just outward expressions of your brand, however. At a deeper level, BRAND represents a promise to your constituents of those quintessential qualities that define who you are, what you do, and what you stand for as an organization. Doubt about the integrity of an organization’s brand promise almost always has a detrimental effect on giving, regardless of the effectiveness or competency of the fund development staff. Establishing and adhering to a clear focused brand is foundational in your ability to communicate who you are, what you do, where you are going, and how you will get there.


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Culture:

CULTURE refers to the collective attitudes that characterize and impact the ways that an organization’s people will perceive one another and work together. A “development-friendly” culture provides a fertile soil for giving to flourish. Dickerson, Bakker & Associates has identified six ingredients that together comprise a vibrant, development-friendly culture, and—if consistently applied—will significantly improve your organization’s ability to consistently garner high-level investments from major donors.


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Quality:

While mainstream donors may be satisfied with a simple understanding of what an organization does, major donors are more interested in what an organization achieves, or—more specifically—will achieve with the money they invest. Major donors want to know how their investment is helping bring about positive change in the lives of people. Major donors increasingly condition giving upon delivery of impact metrics, often requesting information on outcomes even before investing. Organizations that are serious about achieving success in major gift development will therefore do best when they embrace a culture that supports and encourages outcomes thinking.


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