Folly #5: Batting .100

When only 10% of the new proposals you write get you a home run.

No doubt you’ve heard the expression “batting a thousand.” Although a bit of a misnomer (read more about batting, On Base Percentage and economic scarcity), 1.000 is a sign of perfection. One thing I love about baseball is that the experts have an OBP of thirty-something. Meaning: they fail nearly 70% of the time. That feels so … human.

Yet when 30%, or fewer, of your grant proposals actually result in a grant, well that just feels … discouraging.

A highly unscientific poll among my colleagues on proposals to new funders puts the number at closer to 10% and I’d have to say that matches my experience. Who wants to share that?!? It makes you look like a really terrible grant writer. But I’m thinking it’s pretty honest.

GrantStation tracks information from nonprofits on this topic and, very kindly, shares it publicly in their annual State of Grantseeking Report. While I wish that their 2022 report findings separated data on proposals for tough-to-crack new funders vs. renewals to funders where you already have a relationship, here’s their combined data from 1,758 respondents:

• Staff time is enormous: as much as 23 days to research, strategize, write and submit a proposal (not counting up to three additional days for required reporting). At $30/hour as a minimum rate for a grant writer, that’s $5,520 in staff time, without the essential and more expensive time required by program staff, executive director and finance manager.

• Only 24% of respondents said their largest grant was for general operating support, which would actually cover staff costs like the above. (Although, seriously, who lists grantwriting expense in their proposal budget?)

• If you submitted 11 or more proposals, you were certain to receive funding. Typical success rates appear to have been 18-30%. (Organizations that submitted three to five applications had a 91% chance of funding.)

• For 75% of the nonprofits who responded, one to two people are directly involved in the process of submitting each grant.

And 58% of survey respondents applied for more grants than they had in 2021. The frenzy accelerates.

Before your eyes glaze over from all the statistics, write a comment and share your experience – or let me know if you’d like to be interviewed for an upcoming Folly. This is the rare statistical rant. Mostly we’re here for good old storytelling.

Next week… Folly Take 6: On This Day Especially, fundraising for veterans.