Tips for Moving Past Grants Overwhelm

Foreign. Hi, I'm Jessie Ballantyne and I love grants. I sold my house to fund the launch of the Grants Hub because I truly wanted to make grants easier to find. In the very early days, I ended up running the Grants Hub from the ICU ward of a children's hospital. Let's just say I'm committed to the cause of helping you find grants. If you're looking to get real with grants to learn what works and what doesn't, to hear from grant experts from across the country and have some fun while we do it, then Grants Uncovered is the podcast for you. Good afternoon. And it is Thursday again. These days come around very quickly. It's a busy, busy season in grants at the moment, and many of you who are working in the space will know that the end of March is a very big, big and busy grants time of the year, as we find with all quarters. But I do find that March tends to come around a bit quickly. I don't know if it's because of we've just come out of Christmas and then we're heading towards Easter and it's the first time of school, there's always so many things going on. But I find like, March just is a little bit overwhelming sometimes when it comes to grants. I just did a count before and there's actually still about 90 grants to close in the next five days before the end of March. So it's a really busy season that's right across Australia. And then already within April, we've got well over 160 grants available that are coming up. So it's just a very, very busy time for grant writers. So on that note, I was thinking about how about we talk about today, how to move past that feeling of overwhelm, because as grant writers, it's so important that you can manage those senses of overwhelm. And the feelings and the stress that comes with grant writing, it can be quite stressful, particularly if you're writing applications for organizations who desperately need the money and aren't in a great financial position. Or if you're now in a flood area in New South Wales or Queensland, you've got those extra pressures there, plus grant deadlines. There's so many different things that come into our lives and into the stress that we all face day to day. And we've got all of that going on while we're also trying to write grant applications in a very, very busy work season for grant writers at the moment. So I thought about five things that I tend to do when I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed, particularly when it comes to grant writing. So the first thing I would encourage all of you to do is, and this is something that I've learned probably in the last couple of years in particular, but that is just to step away and to take five minutes to do some deep breathing. Now, I'm very new to deep breathing. It's only been the last couple of years to me that I've implemented this really. And it really is a game changer. You'll hear a lot of people talking about it if you search on anything on LinkedIn or websites. There'll be so much that comes up about breathing at the moment, but it's got a reason. There's a reason why it is becoming so popular now. If you haven't done it before, start off with something like the Smiling Mind app. That's an excellent free resource. It's an Australian based resource. It's achieving big things. They're doing some very cool stuff. But download that Smiling Mind app. Take five minutes to pick out one of their stressed ones or the workplace ones and spend five minutes for yourself just to clear your mind and to reset before you try and achieve anything further. I guarantee that it will make a big difference to how you feel within yourself. Number two is to write a plan. Now, these ones, you'll notice that most of this is about the planning side, not about pushing harder, working harder. Push, push, push. Keep writing, keep going, drink more coffee. We've got to move beyond that. When we get stressed, we tend to do those things. We've got to get out of that little space, get out of that rut and work at how can we overcome those feelings that come. So number two is write a plan. So brainstorm all of the resources that you've got. It might be team members, existing applications that you might be able to cut and paste sections out of, obviously making them relevant to the new application that you're working on. But often you will have a whole folder of applications that you've done in the past. Use those to your advantage. See if your accountant could help out with some of the complex financial data that you'll need to be putting in for some of the bigger grant programs that are coming out at the moment, particularly the federal government ones, and then think about maybe whether you've got consultants or a grant writer that you might be able to pull in to help if you've really got a lot of applications on your desk at the moment. The other part to that is what can you get rid of? So it's not just brainstorming all the resources that you've got, it's also what can you get rid of? So what are you working on at the moment that might not be your most essential projects in front of you? Like, what could you move on to, perhaps another team member? Or what could you talk to your boss about about dropping for now or postponing or getting other help in? The third one is to prioritise now. There's different ways that when we have a lot of applications that we're looking at at one time, there are different ways that you can prioritise what are the needs. Now this is one way that you can do it for your organisation. You might want to do this a different way, but for me, I would start with the ones that I'm most likely to win, because I think if we're going to invest our time and we have to choose which application we want to focus on when we've got so many to pick from at one time. Pick the ones that you're most likely to win, because that will probably give you the best chance of winning it and getting that success in for your organization. At the end of the day, grant writers need to bring the money in for the organization or the business that you're in, so work that out. Number one, most likely to win. It's probably going to be the one that you've got the most information for already, that you've got your documentation in place, possibly the one you're most passionate about. Go for those and go hard on those, and then move on to the next ones if you can. Number two, think about what's most needed. So number one is what is most likely to win. Number two is what is most needed. So if you're working in a service and they desperately need funding for marketing, and there's a marketing grant available at the moment, and that's a critical need within that organizational business, then make that a priority. We want to make sure that we're aligning our applications and our priorities to those broader business plans and organizational plans and your team goals and making sure that you're going for the grants that are relevant and fit within that. And then thirdly, if you happen to have some spare time left over, let's go to Dreamworld here. We'll just pretend that you happen to get all of your applications done, you've done your most likely to win, you've done your most needed, then I would do some quick wins. So if there happened to be some that are, say, fairly straightforward and simple Grant applications, it might be from a smaller foundation or a corporate funder. Some of those ones that are quite easy to go for. Then perhaps, you know, pop in some quick wins and see what you can do. But that's only if you get the time. They're usually smaller grants, they're usually highly competitive because they are easier and they get a lot of promotion. So maybe move on to those once you've done the others. So the priorities there for me would be most likely to win, then the most needed, then the quick wins. Four is focus on what you've done, not on what you haven't done. Now in life in general, we can tend to focus on glass half empty instead of glass half full. So this also translates into the grant space. We can look at all the applications that we haven't done, or the budgets we haven't got done yet, or the signing that still needs to take place, or the submissions that need to happen. The actual, you know, the registering the grant application within your organization. If you're part of a bigger organization where you've got different branches and different services happening, it's very easy to focus on all the things that haven't been done yet. But I would really encourage you to sit back and focus on what you have done instead of what you haven't done. And it will help you celebrate your success. It will also put you in a more positive frame of mind to help you potentially put out another application or get another one done that you didn't think was possible. But you know, importantly, as I said, to celebrate what you have done. In grants, there is always potential to do more. It is kind of a never ending bucket that can continually be filled up. Especially if you are in the not for profit world or you've got your tax deductibility status or in your general community service. You know who you are, you know that there are so many grants that you can be going for. It is so easy to focus on all the applications that haven't been submitted or all the potential lost opportunity costs. But I really want you to sit back and celebrate what you have done. It is a huge job to put in grant applications and we want to celebrate those moments. So give yourselves a pat on the back, have an extra coffee, have a cup of tea, whatever it is, eat some chocolate, whatever it is, go and celebrate that and make the most of the success and the wins that you've had simply by completing and submitting that application. Number five is get someone else, not yourself, not someone who's read the application. Before, get someone else to proofread your application and to double check all your numbers, particularly in the budget. So when we get overwhelmed, it's when we tend to rush things and when we can tend to just write things and cut and paste. Like I said before, that's a good tactic to use when you're overwhelmed, but you want to make sure that you, when you've cut and pasted sections, that you've made it relevant for this particular application that you're working on now. Same goes for the budget. We tend to see a lot of budget mistakes happen when people are rushed and feeling overwhelmed and they've got so much on their desk, you want someone else to come in and read that application. In an ideal world, someone who doesn't even know the project that well because they will give you a completely neutral response on whether they can understand your project and what you're aiming to achieve. And also, do they think that they would give you the grant? Like when they look at your budget and your project rationale, would they go, yeah, that makes sense. I can see the need for that. I can definitely see why they need grant funding. So it can be very helpful to step out, get someone else to come in and check it when you're rushed. We all make mistakes and these things are more likely to happen when we do have a lot going on at the moment. As I said, there's a huge volume of grants still open in March for the next five to six days that need to get submitted. And then April is already becoming a massive month, and that is without all of the flood funding that will be coming out, too. There's five simple things that you can do when you're feeling overwhelmed and how to help you move past that feeling of overwhelm so that you can still continue to put out those best grant applications that you can and be able to do your job. So a quick wrap of what those are again. Number one, take five minutes for some deep breathing. My recommendation is to download the Smiling Mind app. Number two, write a plan and brainstorm all of your resources, what you can bring in and what you can get rid of. Number three is to prioritise. So my order again was most likely to win, then most needed, and then the quick wins. Number four is focus on what you've done, not on what you haven't done. And number five is to get someone else to proofread and double check your whole application and particularly your budget. Have a great week, everyone. Short and sharp today, because I know you've all got a lot going on at the moment, but keep up the great work. We're nearly at the end of March, and then we'll be fresh again for another month in April. Have a great week. Thanks for joining me on Grants Uncovered. If you'd like show notes, head over to grantsuncovered.com see you next time.