HEASLET CORPORATION

MEDIA SERVICES / GRANT FUNDING

Physical projects are one thing. Getting people to engage is another. Heaslet is a one-stop shop for infrastructure development, grant funding, social media and press relations.

For-profit and nonprofit organizations do better when media and grant strategies go hand-in-hand.

It makes perfect sense that a media strategy accompany every project as it evolves. It helps shape opinions and public and governmental engagements with the project.

Jeff Morgan filming in the Mathare Valley slum in Kenya

Jeffrey Morgan, cinematographer, fliming "MC" in the Mathare Valley slum in Kenya for the "Children of the Mathare" documentary. Produced by Heaslet and Nyati Productions, the film continues to raise money for social services programs in East Africa.

One example:  A press strategy to build the project brand in the public eye, in a way that will help convince grant evaluators that a project needs public or NGO funding. Often this means that the strategies are applied in venues where donor constituencies live, apart from the project venue.

Or it might be indirect - such as building mass social awareness of a social or environmental issue that is served by the project, using a combination of press, video, social media and special event strategies.

In all cases, media services are driven by research and knowledge of social behaviors, and using "free" media as much as possible.

Heaslet can create an online community from scratch. Experience includes development of the front and back end side of complex media applications and online community development.  One example includes development of a dedicated data center for a Canadian broadcaster to accept incentivized content submissions from filmmakers. The job required acquisition of original licensed content via a new user-generated content upload and digital rights management system. 

Heaslet identifies the best content management system for a particular job, sourcing a team of programmers, and developing an online platform for in-house and contracted graphic artists, writers, digital rights specialists, public relations, and translators for global deployment.

Nyati logo

Video and online work is done through Nyati Productions who can write, shoot and edit client projects in studio and on location, and who has extensive access to a wide range of on and off-camera talent.  Client projects are in Oregon, Florida, Caribbean and Africa, all of which have resulted in changing public opinions or raising money for worthy causes.

GRANTS

In conjunction with media development, Heaslet develops community and grant funding strategies.  We have raised nearly $40 million for capital and programs grants in the last 20 years. 

Programs drive capital.  It's not the other way around.  Stuart Heaslet

Nothing is taken at face value, because the best grants show how the program will live beyond the term of the grant.  Many grant specialists will tell you that "following the instructions" is all that you need to do, but this is only part of what should be done. 

Here are our TOP TEN TIPS for writing better RFP and grant proposals:


    1. Sell the benefits of your program. Programs drive everything, including the need for capital. If you don't have a good program, don't waste time asking for a building or other physical infrastructure.
    2. The grantor is your friend, and wants good projects. Give them what they want. Know their mission, preferred demographics and long-range plans. But first make sure you find out everything you can about the people who make the decisions - RFP committees, board members, and the reviewers. Verify their politics, community involvement and outside business interests. Use this information to focus your approach.
    3. Outline why it would be imprudent for them to say no. Be nice about it, don't preach, and don't suggest you are entitled to their money.  But make sure your narrative subtly reminds them of their own mission and their own self-interests.  Show them how your proposal will help them.  
    4. Declare, then explain the problems, solutions, benefits and costs. Match these to budgets. Use active voice, short paragraphs. Order points in declining order of significance. Make it web friendly. Be aware that different reviewers will review your grant in different ways.  Assume that some will skim your proposal, make a decision in less than 5 minutes, all after 11:00 p.m., and others will read your proposal three times and pick apart your budget. 
    5. Craft a powerful pitch in 40 words or less so that staff and board members can use it to focus and sell the idea. If Board members are not willing to help raise awareness of the program and sell the project, then there is a structural problem beyond your control in the organization.  You may have to step back.
    6. Be authentic and don't pander.
    7. Explain how the program will live beyond the term of the proposed grant. If your program isn't set up that way, if possible stop and make it so. Write the proposal like a business plan and prove revenue streams after the grant runs out. We said this once before, but we'll say it again: Make your budgets relate to the narrative.
    8. Prove project integrity with self-imposed budget restrictions.
    9. Yes, your project is probably a great one but wax poetic elsewhere. Reek of practicality - tell them clearly and up front who is going to load the truck, how it will happen, what the risks are, and how those risks will be addressed.  
    10. Get support letters from political, business and other leaders even if people tell you the letters don't matter. Prepare those letter yourself if necessary. Find a board member or “critical friend” who will walk your proposal into the granting organization, and who can help you informally vet the project with the grantor before you submit the application.

As to the mechanics of good grant writing:  Use clear program, technical and performance specifications writing, financial models, demographic datasets, current Construction Specification Institute (CSI) MasterFormat-based estimating/budgeting for government projects, program modeling to show sustainability, and bundle it all into a business plan format.

Research tools:  Heaslet uses federal and state databases, courthouse and library records, private databases such as LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters, The Foundation Center and other formal and informal sources.   

Performance Contract Chart

Heaslet provides performance contract energy service consultations to agencies and private organizations who wish to finance HVAC and lighting system (deferred maintenance) replacements using future energy savings. Under Heaslet guidance clients have been able to obtain grant incentives to help pay for "soft" costs as well as parallel capital improvements.

Our main successes have been in these areas:

  • Environmental education, research, conservation and habitat preservation
  • Health Services emergency management support
  • Cultural facilities and programs
  • Emergency management and preparedness
  • Urban re-development and historic preservation
  • Telecommunications, broadcast towers, and computer technologies
  • Energy services and performance contract development
  • Education
  • Social Services and micro-enterprise development

Clients include local county and municipal agencies, nonprofits, technical services companies, school districts, private businesses, and affiliated con­sortiums.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.