The Written Word is Read by Someone

October 26, 2020 0 Comments

Writing is the act of communicating thoughts into words of meaning. When written, someone somewhere will read the words.

To some writers, this could be scary. Even if the reader is only the writer, such as in a diary. They may hold back from writing what they wanted to write. I do not know of any solution other than to push back the scariness by taking one step at a time and try not to fall. If you tumble down the stairs, start climbing again. The stairs aren’t going anywhere.

For other writers it is exciting that an unknown number of people will read what they thought. Whereas before the writer holds back, the excited writer holds nothing back. Sometimes, not everything needs to be published.

I find it important to understand that a writer, like myself, can be scared of their words and at other times excited. Maybe more of one than the other. In either case, I will write and develop my thoughts into words of meaning. Then they can be read by someone somewhere.

creative writing

Getting to Know People

October 19, 2020 0 Comments

Funding for nonprofits is more than grants and donations. Nonprofit management and staff should get involved in events and groups in the community even if it does not involve money. Here are some ideas.

    • Expand on business relationships such as getting involved in associations and clubs. The nonprofit can show businesses what benefit they can provide that helps with profitability. Also, businesses can provide feedback, positive and negative, to help the nonprofit with their mission. Of this, negative feedback is more important. Many problems can be solved easily instead of having them linger. Relationships can be much better after.
    • Attend community events that do not include raising money. This provides “face-time” where people in the community can meet the people in the nonprofit and learn about what is going on to include successes and failures. This can lead to more volunteers.
    • Create a relationship with other nonprofits, particularly if they are not in the same mission area (prevents competition). This can be no more than regular meetings once a month, maybe even for a coffee outside of the offices. I found that few nonprofits talk to one another. Forming a group will include sharing information about resources, problems, and solutions.
    • To be successful, it is critical that every nonprofit meet with, invite over, and talk to all elected officials. Not only locally, but also State elected officials and maybe Federal, too. But, never go political or choose political parties. Politics are fleeting and will always hurt the nonprofit.

The point of this blog post is to meet people and join their groups without asking for money. The more people who know about the nonprofit, its good and bad, successes and failures (hopefully there are more good and success stories), the more opportunities that can become available.

nonprofit use

Three Phases of the Self-Published Book

October 12, 2020 0 Comments

So as not to leave anyone in suspense, the three phases are: (1) writing a book, (2) publishing it, and (3) marketing. I discovered (like everyone else) that each phase requires vastly different expertise.

Also, each expertise can be used only for that phase which makes things even more troublesome. What I learned from writing my novel I could not apply to publishing it nor marketing my book. I had to learn three different processes for the hope of someone to read what I wrote.

There are a lot of resources to help authors with each phase and a lot of opinions about how to be successful at each one. All this information is too much and can be overwhelming. What is useful depends on each author’s book.

No one writes the same one. Each book is unique and it is hard to choose what information is useful.

What is working for me is completing each phase before moving on to the next. I did all I could to finish my novel and dove into publishing my product without looking back. Now that my novel is available, I’m stumbling around in the marketing field trying to get people to buy it.

Each phase was difficult and I won’t go back to a previous phase. It may be stubbornness or laziness. It just seems like a lot of work to go back to editing or re-publishing. Besides, it was a lot of work getting out of each phase that I don’t want to repeat.

All these phases should not discourage a writer from beginning this journey. Just realize that it will take a little work, a change of thinking when in each phase, and that many authors succeed. The end result is worth the trip.

creative writing, publishing

Changes in the Nonprofit – Be Positive

October 4, 2020 0 Comments

Grant writers, like myself, may not be part of the nonprofit’s staff or on the board. Therefore, it is important for grant writers to keep up on significant changes to the staff or board members who can create changes to grants already submitted.

I put a lot of time and work into submitting grants. It is frustrating after a grant is submitted that the nonprofit makes changes that disqualifies them from the submitted grant. The nonprofit does not change their mission, but they change how they qualified for the grant.

It is more important for grant writers to know that changes will happen. And not to prevent the change, but to inform the decision makers what the impact of their change will be.

Then move on. There will be changes, people will come and go, and other grants will need to be written that helps the nonprofit.

 

I changed the tone of this blog from a negative to a positive (at least I hope that’s how it reads). It’s always important to be positive when writing grants. I think most anything can be written in a positive way, despite the disaster(s) being written about.

Because many people don’t want to read negative things. There is enough of that in the news and social media. Negative words make people think negatively about the nonprofit. Besides, why not be positive?

It is hard sometimes with the negative world. I find it possible to be more positive by thinking of toys. Buy some and have them nearby. They can provide energy and play when you need some.

What toys do you have?

grant writing