Hello, guys, and welcome to Grant Writing Today.
I'm your host, Rodney Walker.
And today I'm especially excited to have
a special guest coming all the way from Kenya,
Nairobi over in Africa is going to
join us today, none other than Mr.
Michael Kiragu
Welcome, Michael.
Thank you, Rodney.
Such a pleasure to be here.
It's honor getting a chance to have you.
I'm excited about getting a chance to
connect with you and learn more about
you as a grant professional and fundraiser.
Michael is the owner guide of Bell Consultant, and
he's doing some great work in his area.
Michael, tell us as we get started today, tell us
a little bit more about yourself and how you got
started as a grant fundraising specialist in your area.
Yeah.
Thank you, Rodney.
So this story starts way back.
I worked as a manager for nonprofits
in Aerobic a couple of years ago.
That was for 13 years, I worked as
a manager as a senior manager for nonprofits.
And at that time when I joined,
I joined as a technical person.
I had just left medical practice to join
this nonprofit that was doing medical work, and
I was thrown in the deep end.
One of the things I didn't know is I
could treat and I could support other health workers.
But that job now required me to
raise funds for the program as well.
And at that time, it was crazy because time
after time we applied for grants and time after
time, they were not awarded they were not awarded
for a couple of years in a row.
And that's when our team decided
to do things a little differently.
We got a trainer who trained us on how
to do grants properly and all the other systems
that are required to make a grant successful.
So basically, that's the first interaction I had.
And following that training, we got
some really good track record.
We established some really solid relationships with
donors, and the funds started rolling in.
So about four years ago, I left
the nonprofits to become a consultant.
And at that time, my choice was
to become a public health consultant to
help people with policies and strategies.
And every nonprofit I talked to were
talking about, they didn't have resources.
Every time we got into a conversation,
the conversation always seemed to end up
that we don't have enough resources.
So I decided to take that route because that seemed
to be the places where they really needed my support
because I had learned how to do this.
There were systems that I learned how to build and that
so I've been doing that for a couple of years now.
It's been four years of working with people
in the nonprofit sector, leveraging the skills that
I had learned as a nonprofit manager.
Awesome.
So it sounds like from your journey, you started out in
the deep end and had to learn how to swim.
You swam your way and got that money and
now are helping other organizations to do the same.
Absolutely.
It's an interesting journey that many people just get
into it, and many people are thrown in the
deep end without knowing how to do it.
I was privileged to be trained by
a really good grand professional, and I
think many people should do the same.
Having the technical skill is not always
equal to having the grant skills that
are required to make things function. Yeah.
And I found that to be the case with a lot
of professionals as well as grant professionals that kind of fall
and stumble into it because they're working and then need to
raise those funds and need to have those systems.
They're trained in their actual profession,
but not necessarily in fundraising.
So it's great that you've learned that skill
and made it your own and also have
taken it and grown it into a practice.
What challenges do you see most in this
industry as a grand professional, and how have
you been coming alongside of your clients to
help them to overcome some of those challenges?
The biggest challenge that I see is
that many nonprofits think the grant fundraising
is about writing a grant proposal.
And in fact, many of them who approach
me, they're usually approaching me to help them
to write the grant, which is all good.
But as you know, if that's all we are
thinking about, if the view is limited in that
perspective of just writing the proposal, you are, first
of all in perpetual competition because you're only responding
to the request for proposals.
The success is minuscule.
In such a scenario, your chances of winning
such grants is low is often very low.
Writing a good grant should be supported by systems.
Yeah.
And I know, Rodney, you are the master
of grant systems, which you need to leverage
your relationships as you write the grant.
You should be leveraging relationships.
You should be creating
visibility for your organization.
You should be looking internally and thinking, what systems
do we have that support this fundraising effort?
Do we have a strong organizational strategy?
Do we have strong policies in place?
So I think the narrow view of grant
fundraising to just writing grants, I think that's
the biggest problem I face at the moment.
And so what I do, I go in and work
with organizations to show them, hey, look, there's this whole
spectrum of things that we need to do.
And with working with you and many other
grant professionals, I worked out a framework that
just spells out the systems that are required.
Yes.
I call it the rise method.
The risers method brings together the
relationships, creating solid relationships as the
anchor for solid grandfather easy letter.
There is I, which is impeccable
visibility and an impeccable reputation.
You should be doing things to show your
visibility, but your reputation has to be guarded.
I find some people are not guarding the reputation.
They're allowing other people to speak about them.
They're not speaking about themselves, and that's
risky then the other thing is systems.
We have to look at organizational systems.
We have the right governance.
We have management systems in place.
We have the right technical teams for implementation.
Do we have the right policies?
Do you have the right strategy as an organization and
even the grand fundraising within itself is a system.
Do we have a team in place, or is it
just the one person who's left in a corner to
be writing grants and sending them off so that's the
S and E is effective proposals that will go beyond
just having a well written proposal, but having one that's
effective, one that demonstrates capacity, one that demonstrates alignment with
the mission of the grant.
The grantee missions have to be demonstrated.
The alignment has to be
demonstrated within the proposal.
So that makes it beyond a well written proposal.
It has to be effective. Yeah.
And then the R is research.
We have to be constantly doing research on the
prospective donors, but also for the grant application.
So is about researching the donors, researching the
grants and making sure that we are keeping
up with information and we are keeping up
with relevant information that will create solid leads
and solid relationship building tactics.
And then S, which is the last part
usually overlooked, which is many people will walk
away once they receive the grant.
They do a pretty bad job of
maintaining the experience for the donor.
So S is superior reporting, having a strategy to
make sure that we have solid reporting as we
move together with this funder and making sure that
we are building upon this newly established relationship and
making sure that over time, this grant becomes a
strong ally for our organization.
So basically, that's it.
And then having this within a healthy mindset that
we are not approaching grounds like they are not
everything, but we are not giving up.
We have to have a healthy
mindset as we approach fundraising.
So that's a Riser's method.
See how using that approach, Michael, can
bring a lot of success to the
organizations that you're working with and helping
them to have a more comprehensive approach.
Are you primarily working with clients in the Nairobi
area or outside of that area as well?
So for the last couple of years,
I started off with the organizations that
were within my network within Nairobi, but
through LinkedIn, the network has been expanding.
I have a couple of clients from the West Africa region.
I've received inquiries even from
people down South Africa.
Technology is basically pulling the world together, and I
don't know where it's going to take us next.
It's really interesting.
That's why it's like we have the grant writing
today, because it is pulling us so close together
and making the opportunities for us to connect and
learn from each other even greater.
Let me ask you this, Michael.
What do you see things going in terms of grant writing
as it relates to your country and where you're at.
What are you seeing on that end?
That seems like it may be an interesting
or maybe something that may be promising that
may be coming around the corner.
I think one of the most interesting
things that I'm observing is there is
a real challenge to maintain granted attention.
And because of all these things that are
happening, there are many causes to be addressed.
There are many organizations now also
just asking for their funding.
So nonprofits have to be really solid in a way
that they maintain the attention of their granters and skill.
It requires a new space that I've found
that is becoming more effective, which is storytelling.
Storytelling is becoming an increasingly important
way for nonprofits to communicate.
Even the most technical subjects, if they
cannot be broken down to storage, that
explain how their funds are impacting communities
and individuals within the communities.
It's very difficult to maintain the attention
that we need to have consistent relationship
and consistent flow of funds.
So my take has been that nonprofits have
to embrace storytelling as a new way.
Well, it's really not new.
It's how humanity has communicated over time.
But nonprofits have to learn how to break this down,
to break down whatever we are doing into stories of
how we are impacting people with these funds we are
raising and making sure that that goes into the grant
applications but also goes into our reporting mechanism.
It goes into our visibility.
For me, I think that's a really big
area that non profit should invest in.
I think you're absolutely right.
And I think what you have mentioned
in terms of the storytelling is huge.
I think the other thing, Michael, that you made mention
of is that this has always been the case.
Storytelling has always been very important.
But the fact that now there's so many different
ways of being able to get that story out
and to communicate that what are some of the
ways that with some of the clients that you've
been working with that you've been helping to assist
them in amplifying and telling their stories?
Are there any examples that you can give that
may help some of those that are listening today?
I think the biggest way is video.
Just having shot videos of
people really changes perceptions.
And as you know, people say that currently
80% of online activity right now is video.
So none of it should not miss out on this.
Many people are spending time on YouTube
and all these other video platforms.
And the nonprofits that I work with, I find that
as a very useful way of getting their stories out
and just telling the story of their work.
But it takes a bit of skill
to make sure that the video communicates
whatever they want to communicate authentically.
It has to be authentic, but it also has
to be really skillful because some videos come out
as a pity party when you're talking about Beneficiaries.
And that's not what grant has want to see
granters want to see the possibility of becoming heroes.
And that's the thing that has helped many nonprofits
to communicate their story, just showing the potential to
become heroes as nonprofits and as grant makers.
That's awesome.
And I love that you have incorporated that
into what you're doing and that you're showing
your clients the importance of that.
I think a lot of times when we look
at grant professionals, we sometimes put ourselves in boxes
by just limiting to what we do to writing.
And I love that you're taking and
helping others in those organizations that you're
working with to see in your possession.
If you have a phone these days likelihood
all the broadcasting that you need to be
able to get your message out.
But I think, Mike, one thing that you also said that
really struck me is the importance of having a strategy behind
what you shoot with that camera to communicate that message so
that it doesn't come off as a pity party.
Tell me this.
For those who have been sharing that insight and have
been helping them to look at things differently and getting
their stories out, are there any interesting tidbits of information
or AHAs or things that have come out of you
helping your clients to do that?
Yeah, there have been some really interesting
things coming out of the field.
When there's this one client who went out to
do these videos and what she thought she was
doing a video around a health intervention.
What they came out with was information
about how their intervention empowered the women.
It was a health intervention for women.
So my client came back and told me, you know what?
This has really clarified what
I should be communicating.
I have been communicating about these health interventions,
about how we are giving these women treatment.
But these women are telling
us that they feel empowered.
They feel like they've been able
to take over their lives.
They feel like the world is opening up for them.
Their options are opening up for them.
So the whole idea of even working with a
Ground professional is helping people to communicate better, to
communicate what's the real impact of our work?
What's a real impact of your work that people didn't
really care about the pills or the treatment they were
getting, that they felt loved, they felt compassion.
They felt all those things that
are very difficult to quantify.
And now emerging within the communication from this nonprofit
as a byproduct of just getting out and talking
to the people and trying to figure out how
do we talk about our story better.
So for me, that was enlightening even to me
that this is a clarifying moment for many nonprofits.
You need to clarify what it is that
you're serving to the communities beyond the interventions
some of them are doing housing, but it's
not the structure that people look for.
They are looking for security.
And that is a much easier thing for people to relate.
Across the world, people will be able to relate
to a sense of feeling unsafe, feeling insecure.
So it's a much easier relatable way to
communicate once you really get into it.
I love it and I love the fact that you're doing that.
It shows even as I'm listening to you, the
fact that what we do as grant professionals is
much bigger than simply write information on paper.
And I'm also hearing and listen that you got to
think outside of the box to tell that story Because
once we start telling that story, the story not only
impacts those that are hearing the story but also impact
those that are in the story.
And I think that's phenomenal how you've been doing that,
Michael, we're out of time for the day, but I
want to give our listeners a way to reach you.
If they want to know more about what
you're doing and any of them want to
connect with you, how can people find you?
I know that you and I are connected on LinkedIn.
I know you're there, but can you let
us know other places that they may be
able to connect with you and find you?
I think LinkedIn is the very best way
to reach me, Michael Kirago, they're on LinkedIn.
Our website is coming up.
We'll be sure to let you know
once we have it up and running. Awesome.
That sounds great.
So guys, make sure that you connect with them.
He's doing wonderful things.
Mike, I want to thank you for the time that you
shared the insight that you gave us today and thank you
for all the wonderful work that you do to help the
wonderful non profits that you're working with and I wish you
much continued success in all that you do.
Thank you so much.
Rodney, it's been a pleasure to be with you.
Thank you for inviting me to be part of this
awesome audience and to share in your awesome energy today.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Have a good one.
Thank you.
Bye.
