The Little Known Truth About Grants

Hey honeys and hustlers,

I may be fighting back tears while writing this article. This past weekend marked the end of my time in the PLACE Builder Fellowship. This program was a collaboration between Forward Cities and Ecomap to grow place-based entrepreneurial ecosystems across the country. I represented the Southeast region throughout this 3-month sprint and learned how to make this community even better from people around the country doing incredible ecosystem-building work. If you’re new here, I reflected on my experience at the Startup Champions Network Summit in Shenandoah Valley in this article, which was a curated experiential learning opportunity during this fellowship.

There was a grant associated with this fellowship, which prompted me to think about my relationship with grant funding in hopes that it may inform how you determine its priority in your overall funding strategy. My perspective comes from being a for-profit creative business owner – not a non-profit, and not a startup seeking venture capital.

• Grants are really hard to get. No matter how good you or your grant writer is, you likely won't have a 100% success rate. It may not even be 50%. Mine is probably close to a 20-25% success rate.

• Grants can come in many forms:

  • nonrestrictive funds (which can be allocated for gear/materials/payroll)

  • direct funding (covering overhead/staff/a specific campaign or initiative)

  • project-specific funding (e.g. film funds)

  • fellowships (industry/niche specific, typically 3 months-1 year, collective cohort style programs)

  • accelerators (1 week - a few months, collective cohort programs designed to accelerate your growth)

• The least important thing about the grant should be the money you receive. Sounds like a contradiction, I know. In my experience, the money from the grant has been secondary to the relationship I developed with the grant funder. Yes, business owners need money. And if you’re like me, you probably prefer spending someone else’s. But that money is a short-term cash injection in your business. The long-term impact of a relationship with an organization that wants to see you succeed, that can connect you to relevant people in your industry, that will amplify the work you’re doing, that can provide technical assistance and potential mentors, that curates peer-to-peer and experiential learning opportunities, AND will be a sounding board for your business strategy is priceless.

I can’t imagine participating in the PLACE Builders Fellowship with anyone other than my fellow cohort members, the Forward Cities team, the Ecomap team, the mentor I was paired with, and the speakers who presented to our group each week. I was challenged in ways that made me uncomfortable. I got asked questions that I didn’t have immediate answers to. I had some of my greatest ‘aha’ moments at unexpected times. I experienced and learned from two other entrepreneurial ecosystems on the East Coast. I learned alongside some of the brightest people I’ve ever met. I was encouraged in moments when I unknowingly needed it the most. I grew in ways that made me explore the depths of my desires as a creator and community builder. But the deeper reality is that for the other 70-80% of grants, fellowships, and accelerators I applied to, I probably was better spent using that time to grow my creative business.

This isn’t to say that I’ll never apply for another grant or that they’re a waste of time. However, I’ll likely prioritize applications with an organizational or objective mission fit over a grant that is only offering money. Building a business requires so much mental and emotional energy, grant applications require even more. My only unsolicited advice is to allocate your energy according to what can pour back into you. I can truly say, that this fellowship has left my cup running over.

My Favorite Writing App is Shutting Down 😢

At the end of last week, I got some devastating news – Strut is shutting down its app on July 20th. You may recognize this name as the writing app that has sponsored a few newsletter issues. I try only to share things that I genuinely use and recommend. So many product reviews, unboxing videos, and sponsored content are available that it can be hard to determine what people actually use in their day-to-day creative and business processes. Strut was something I fell wholeheartedly in love with and it became my primary writing platform. The app rivals the amount of time I spend in Notion, which is a lot. I’m currently on the hunt for a replacement, because now that I know what the good life feels like, there’s no going back (sorry Google Keep). Throughout the next 30 days, I’ll be trying out alternatives to consider moving to. If you have a favorite digital writing tool, let me know!

No pictures, no videos, no news, no frills today. This is my most personal article to date, and while that vulnerability scares me, I know that this needs to be in the world. We’ve got some exciting things we’ll be implementing in this community over the next 6 months and I’m excited for you all to be a part of it!

Please Hustle Responsibly,

🤙🏾✨

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