Transcript of Stop Chasing Grants and Start Winning Them with Alanna Taylor New

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You're listening to Mick Unplugged, hosted by the one and only Mick Hunt. This is where purpose meets power and stories spark transformation. Mick takes you beyond the motivation and into meaning, helping you discover your because and becoming unstoppable. I'm Rudy Rush, and trust me, you're in the right place. Let's get unplugged.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged.

And today We are joined by a visionary leader and a strategic architect who has spent 3 decades transforming bold ideas into fundable realities. With a staggering 60%+ grant win rate and over $1 million raised annually for her clients, she is a nationally respected expert in program design, funding, and sustainable growth for mission-driven organizations. It is my distinct honor and pleasure to welcome the transformative, the strategic, the unparalleled, Ms. Solana Taylor. Ms. Taylor, how you doing today, dear?

I'm doing great. How are you?

I am doing amazing now that I am here with you. You know, we met like a year ago, right? With Dr. Darnell, amazing leader herself, puts on amazing events for a lot of people. And you and I like instantly connected, right? Like we were talking about, you know, our backgrounds and talking about life in general and our faith that kind of brought us together. So I'm honored that we can sit here and, and have a few moments together.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, I, I ask all my guests this question about your because, that thing that's deeper than your why, like your true mission and all the things that you're doing with, with Granted Success. If I were to ask you today, what's your because? Why do you keep doing what you do?

I believe in the missions of the organizations I work with. Just about all of them are Black-centered, Black-run nonprofit organizations. My recent client list is really Black women executive directors. I actually do screenshots of the Zoom meetings where it's just all Black women on the screen. And I would say that's my because. It's, it's really meeting the needs of Black women who are in the nonprofit space. Very few are executive directors, and when they are executive directors, Many of them are founders of the nonprofit. For whatever reason, they position themselves as the executive director. That's a whole nother podcast. And then a disproportionate number of them get terminated by their board. So, yeah. Uh, so I'm real— my because, Black women that are in the nonprofit space.

I love it. I love it. And I know you said this is for a different podcast, but I'd love to go there and have that conversation because You just said something that I want everybody that's watching to pay attention to. So you found this nonprofit, meaning you started this nonprofit. You then put yourself as the executive director. Things don't go so well and the board's like, uh, you're out. You're out of the business that you started, right? Talk to us about that. I, I wanna get to the brevity of that, of that topic.

So, what I'm finding is that because there's a need for, um, a paycheck, many founders of nonprofits will position themselves as the executive director, and a disproportionate number of them will be Black women. So a lot of times with founders of other races, they'll position themselves as a founder and then get on the board, and then they hire the executive director. They, they work to hire the staff. We, for whatever reason, we position ourselves to be the executive director, and we create our boss, That's the board. So what I found is that many of the Black-centered, Black-run nonprofits will, that are run by a Black professional, a Black executive director, they hire, they put friends and family on the board. See, that, that's getting around like, okay, you know, I'm not gonna get fired. But then you stack the board with people who, they're there in name only. They're not gonna raise money. They're not gonna help with structuring the vision and the mission of the nonprofit. So then your nonprofit, you know, it eeks along not having a substantial budget. So you have this catch-22 here where it's like, yeah, you're not going to get fired, but then you don't have a strong board.

And then if you do build up your board, many times you're going to end up putting people on your board who don't look like you. And before you know it, you could get pushed out of your position as executive director.

And you're seeing that happen. More often than not. So how, what's your first conversation when you come into an organization and, and they're hiring you for consultancy or advisory? What's that conversation like that you're having with them? That initial conversation.

I really talk about, I talk about bringing in, I'm, I don't do board development. I know I have other consultants, other colleagues that do that. But the main, the, the first thing I talk about is board development. And it's okay to ask board members to leave. In many cases, they're relieved. You're asking them to leave. They really You'll be surprised. And start getting your board together, but more importantly, you have to be comfortable with the fact that you could be let go as executive director. So the idea is maybe move yourself from being the executive director to getting on the board. And so then let's look at maybe you becoming a consultant yourself and having your own business, becoming a board member of the nonprofit you founded. So that you're not beholden to the board as your boss. So I, that's what I say to a lot of, um, that many nonprofit executive directors, if you, if you're a founder, get yourself out of that position as the executive director, unless you're willing to get let go eventually, and position yourself as a board member and look at starting a business, a consulting business, because if you could If you could create a nonprofit, you can create a business.

Absolutely. Because you're doing the hard part. You're doing the hard part, right? Absolutely.

And what I, and then I've had younger people come to me saying, I'm interested in starting a nonprofit. And I say, stop, don't do it. You could do social good and have a business. You could have an S corporation, an LLC, and still do social good. And then they're like, well, how do I get grants? You look for a nonprofit with a similar mission and they become your fiscal sponsor.

There you go. There you go. So, you know, let's talk about the grant writing and the funding because there's not 3 people on the planet that I can name that are better than you, right? I mean, that's, that's your kudos. Those are your flowers. When and how did that start for you? When did you know that that was a superpower you had?

I knew it was a superpower in 2015. But I wasn't willing to step fully into that lane. So my journey goes back to when virtual administrative assistant became an occupation. I think it started around the mid-'90s. It, it was listed as an occupation. And then I think The 4-Hour Workweek, that book popularized having, you know, people, entrepreneurs getting a virtual assistant. This was around 2006, 2007. I already started working remotely. For small business owners, real estate agents, entrepreneurs, like doing graphic design, administrative work, calendar management. And one of my friends like said, you are a virtual administrative assistant. So I built a business around that. So since 2008, I have been, I was doing virtual admin work. Then, then I started getting hired by nonprofits and I noticed that I was doing event planning, social media, content creation and management. And grant writing. Then 2015, I said, forget event planning. I'm just going to do social media and grant writing. And I saw on the horizon that social media content creation, people were really getting into digital communications doing that. There was many people getting in that field of doing digital communications and social media.

I was like, uh, grant writing. That's it. So by 2018, I just leap of faith, I said, it's going to be grant writing. Cause I was, I was having an 80% win rate then. And I was like, yeah. So that's, that's when I did it, but I started off as a virtual administrative assistant.

Wow. Wow. So you started Granted Success, right? Talk to us about that business. I know you do so many different things within that business, right? It's not just the grant writing piece, but talk to us about Granted Success and what you're doing there.

Okay. So in Granted Success, we do grant writing, and even there, there's different tiers. Sometimes people come to us with an idea already in how they want to approach the proposal. They want to get funding for an existing program to expand it. So I, I then work with them in pulling information from previous proposals, but more importantly, I look at their outcomes. This is a running program. Well, what are your outcomes so far? 'Cause that is— funders are now looking at outcomes. They're not looking at a whole bunch of narrative and fancy marketing information and proposals. They now have strict character limits and word limits on applications now. So you can't be wordy, but they want the quantitative data. They want outcomes. So I work with the client on that. In some cases, they come to me to create a whole new program. So not only am I writing the grant proposal, they're asking me, to create a new program and ask a funder, hey, this is new. We haven't implemented this, but this is what we wanna do with your money. And so in that situation, I have to show the need for that program and have projected outcomes for that.

So that's what I have to do for that. And can— some clients will ask me to serve as what I call a fractional executive director. I come in as a part-time executive director, not with the goal to become one. So I don't have any skin in the game to, you know, to take over the position and to get hired full-time. So I am, I'm able to be objective and tell the organization what is needed moving forward when they do bring on a full-time executive assist— I mean, executive director and what areas, what challenges they need to address. To move the organization further along. So there's that. And then my favorite service is what I call the Grant Ready Elevation Audit. And that is where a nonprofit comes to us. They say, well, you know, we haven't won any grants, or we haven't applied, or, you know, we're just nervous about it. And my partner and I look at 4 pillars in their organization to determine their winnability for a grant award. And so we look at their internal controls and operations. The second area is we look at their messaging. Then the third area is their digital footprint.

And finally, the fourth area we evaluate is their current grant-ready— no, excuse me, grant writing strategy, as well as their fundraising strategies. So those are the four areas, and we, and we give a score. So we look at their strength and weaknesses in each one of those areas, and then we give them recommendations. Based on those strengths and weaknesses. And then with the recommendations, we create a timeline to tackle those recommendations. So it's like a mini strategic plan without paying $10,000, $20,000 for it and it collecting dust.

Real talk.

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There you go. You know, earlier I talked about giving you your flowers, um, and I believe in statistics and numbers. And so, you know, you've got a 60% win rate, more than 60% win rate on your grant writing, um, you know, securing over a million dollars annually for your clients. What's one pivotal strategy that you consistently implore that kind of allows you to, to make that happen? Because that's a phenomenal number. I know people that haven't won 10% of the grants that they apply for, uh, and you, you've got 60+%.

Well, you know, because I've had control. I can say no to a client. Client could print, present an RFP, and I review it carefully. I review the eligibility requirements, but more importantly, I review the end of the RFP. The end of the RFP has what's called terms and conditions stating what you are required to do if you're awarded. And I say to client, can you, are you gonna have this insurance in place? Are you gonna have this in place? Like, you gotta meet these. And if they say no, I say, you have no business applying.

Correct.

That, and that's actually really my My win rate was low. Like one time it was 80%, it got lowered at 60% because I was running the clients insisting that I still apply. Another area of weakness for RFPs, when you apply, uh, the funder will have what's called their focus areas, their priority areas. And if what you're proposing is not really in line with their focus areas or priority areas, and I've had clients like, well, make it work. You know, you're a great writer, make it work. Look, I'm a great writer, but I am not Jesus. I, I cannot make this work, but hey, if you wanna waste your money and pay me, I'll take it.

Yeah.

But then it lowers my win rate.

Yeah. I love the truth. I love the truth. You know, beyond securing that initial funding, you also emphasize that building organizations need to sustain it as well too. Right, which I think is really important because once you have funding, what are you gonna do to, to keep the business moving, to keep the business tied to the mission that it was started for? So what are some key elements for you that truly define sustainability for the nonprofits that you work with? Or I guess to say it better, what do you look for in those businesses before you agree to say, yes, I'll work with you?

Yeah, I'm, I'm finding now, and this is thanks to Dr. Darnell, really evaluating my clients better. And it's a red flag for me if they don't have multiple streams of income, revenue coming in. And I've had executive directors look like deer staring at headlights when I talk about, are you, are you doing fee-for-service work? Are you doing, is the nonprofit positioning themselves to provide technical assistance? And I said, you. You're allowed to make money. As a nonprofit, you are allowed to generate revenue. You are allowed to create a service and charge for it, and that's unrestricted funding. You could spend it on whatever you want, whereas with a grant award, you can only use that money for what the funder stated in the RFP that you could use it for. Most cases is programmatic expenses. They allow a certain percentage. To be used for salaries, but not much, like what, 20% maybe. But with, if you create fee-for-service or you do a technical assistance initiative, you could use that money for whatever your board says you could use it for. Another thing is maybe the nonprofit publishing a book and selling that. You could create merchandise, you know, swag that you could sell on your website.

It's so many. Oh, more importantly, having private donors. Your board should be donating. Your friends and fa— you're the executive director, get your friends and family to donate. That's right. That's right.

That's right. So for the person that's watching, for that, and, and I'm gonna go to who you said, like, your core because is, to the Black female entrepreneur who now is like, oh, I want to start a foundation. I want to start a nonprofit. Give me 2 or 3 things that you want them to consider. I know you talked about saying, wait, is that something you really want to do? Like, let's talk to, to her specifically. What do you want her to consider right now before she says, yes, that's what I want to do?

I want her to consider how she's going to position herself in that nonprofit. I would want her to position herself as the board chair, not the executive director. I would want her to consider, I really want her to Do market competitive research. Who are your competitors? If you create a nonprofit to serve youth, do you know how many nonprofits are out here serving youth? What's going to make your nonprofit any different from any other youth organization out here? You have to do market research as if it was a business. Third, what income streams are you going to create outside of grant writing and donors?

That's amazing. Those are some, some beautiful tips, some amazing tips. So now I want to turn the floor over to you for a moment. Talk to us about what you have going on, where people can find and follow you. Like, this is the moment for Ms. Taylor to give herself her flowers now.

Well, I am act— I have a business page on LinkedIn, Granted Success Inc. on, on LinkedIn. My profile's there, Alana Taylor. I must have been one of the first Alana Taylors to join LinkedIn because it's Alana Taylor for the URL. Yes, I must have been the first one. Giving away my age here. And my website is grantedsuccess.com. And then the Grant Ready Elevation Audit, we created a separate website for that. That's grantreadynow.com. And then my email address is ataylors@grantreadynow.com. GrantedSuccess.org.

Ladies and gentlemen, one, I'm gonna have descriptions and links to all of that in the show notes, in the descriptions on YouTube as well. Do me a huge favor, go to the sites that we have listed here that Alana just talked about, shoot her email. Like if a guest on my show gives you their email and you don't take advantage of it, that is shame on you. I can promise you, reach out to her, pick her brain, go see the services that she offers. On her website. She has a lot of affordable services. Um, I would definitely take a moment and, and schedule a consultation because it's worth it. If you have a nonprofit, if you have a mission, if you have a foundation, I would start here because there is no one better on planet Earth than Alana Taylor, and that's coming from me directly. So Alana, I appreciate you more than you know. It's been an honor to spend time with you. I can't wait to see you again. We have to be in person again soon. Just, just honored for all the things that you do.

And real quick, you know, a teacher is also a student. Based on all that you know around leadership, what advice do you give to someone who's serving, who is serving as a consultant in the nonprofit space?

Yeah, so a few things. The first thing I'm going to tell you, which you kind of already know, is everyone isn't for you, right? No is a complete sentence. You heard me say that in person before. So you can have a heart, but that also doesn't mean that they should be a client. A lot of times with consultants and coaches, our heart gets in the way and we want to do and give and give and give, but then we forget that we are for profit on the other side of that. So always understand that. But then from a coaching standpoint, I'm going to tell you the best thing you can do is being present. Making sure that you show up for your clients. I would say one of the biggest things that I get from my clients is they just love the fact that, that me and my team are available, right? Being available, you don't have to know all the answers, right? But being available, being transparent about that, that would be my advice for sure.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

You got it. To all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen, share it with someone who needs that spark, and leave a review so more people can find their because. I'm Rudy Rush, and until next time, stay driven, stay focused, and stay unplugged.