Speaker Biography Rant

I'm not heavy handed about writing or speaking "rules," and tend to favor well-rounded communicators who have good stories to tell. When asked to give a presentation or talk to a group, there's often the request to provide some sort of biography or resume, which can be used to:

1. verbally introduce you
   
2. provide audience members with a snapshot of who you are in meeting materials
3. remind meeting organizers who you are and why you were invited
   

Writing your own bio shouldn't be a big deal, but you may want to treat it the same way as a job cover letter, customizing it to each audience. Imagine what your typical audience member might want to know about you and don't bore them with a laundry list of accomplishments. Better yet, ask the meeting organizer what info they'd like and how long your bio should be.

I write this having returned from a meeting at a nearby urban center on business funding mechanisms where each speaker's bio was presented as part of the meeting materials. These bios ranged from 1 1/3 pages single spaced to two lines long. The bio that sparked this post, however, got under my skin immediately because it seemed so wierdly unprofessional. Here are my complaints:

• picture with spouse and child: um, I thought you were invited to this gig as a professional, and the pic of your family is creeping me out. I'm not getting whatever message this is supposed to be sending.
• youngest person to...(x 3) OK, I get that you've accomplished a lot for your age, but mentioning it three times is a bit much. I think you should consider trying to be the oldest person on some of your committees just for balance. We all know you wrote this, so take it easy on the bragging.
  
• religious affiliation This seems as inappropriate in a bio for a business meeting as mentioning your sexual orientation. Who cares? If I'm not your religion will this be an issue?
  
• elementary school and high school graduation info I have a hard enough time placing colleges and universities, so providing this extra info seems extraneous. Here's a shout out to my Gribben Elementary School homies who were down with the Alphabet People.
  
• home location, marriage date, list of children Too much info.
  

This speaker presented their talk well and clearly has ambitions in urban center politics, so I'm wondering if this bio was meant to give the audience feel a sense of this individual's wholesome, family-valued, faith-based integrity. The problem is, I don't care. Really, I was just looking to see what info would be provided and what the speaker's qualifications were for dishing out that info. Now that I know where the speaker lives and who their kids' names are I feel like I've been invited to stalk them...no thanks. Keep your bios pertinent and brief...we can swap personal info after business hours if it's mutually agreeable.

Project Resumes

Organizations typically have a range of projects that they'd like to have funded via grants. I like to take the organization's top 3-5 projects and write one-page informational "resumes" about each of them, geared towards potential partners and funders. While this exercise may seem mundane, it forces everyone to take stock of what exactly they're trying to accomplish, and makes a much better impression when meeting with potential collaborators than showering them with stacks of RFPs, previous grant submissions, glossy organizational brochures or verbal jargon. Here are some items you might include on your project resume:

• Project Title
• Organization Name
• Project Summary
  
• Target Population or Overarching Goal
• Budget or Allocated Resources
• Potential Grant Sponsors, Deadlines, Award Amounts
• Potential Project Partners: who you're considering or are working with as collaborators
  
• Needs from Partners: detail what exactly you're looking for, such as data, suggestions, examples, letters of support, etc.
  
• Contacts: provide info on the lead for this project and/or the grant coordinator
  

Project resumes can be viewed as a marketing device for a grant project. Their purpose is to communicate the basics about your project in an easy to digest format. Once assembled, they can be easily updated to provide a current snapshot about the project, to include:

• Milestones Achieved
• Upcoming Goals
• Awards and Sponsors

Give project summaries a try. Although it can be difficult to fit all your project info into one readable page, brevity is important. Make sure key project leaders agree about the project resume before distributing outside your organization, and keep them as current as possible. Best wishes grant-hunting!

Who are Your Partners?

Now that Valentine's Day has passed, let's focus on a different type of relationship...the one your organization has with its potential grant partners. Funding agencies often request information on who your organization has collaborated with in the past, who you've completed projects for, or who you're talking with about potential upcoming projects. There has been renewed focus on building coalitions, regional efforts, and multi-partner projects to ensure that grant funds have maximum public impact. Grants for longer commitments or higher amounts are often possible for multi-agency proposals that foster collaborations among nonprofits and public entities, versus individual organizations.

So how can we foster organizational relationships? Here are a few ways:

1) Redefine your competition
When it comes to grants, there are few projects that need to be kept top-secret. At least yearly, write down the top 5-10 competitors in your region, and determine what they do well versus what you offer the world. Get clear on why they are your competitors versus project partners. Could you partner on an upcoming grant-ready project? Are there cross-promotional activities you could agree on? Are there areas of your businesses needing improvement that you could brainstorm solutions for?

2) Nurture your current partners
Remind your current project partners of your shared interests and/or goals. Grants become available for a range of activities, and typically don't have long lead times. If you've worked successfully with partner, continue to nurture that relationship by showing genuine interest in their organization. Is there still overlap in long-term interests? It won't come as a surprise if you end up calling about a potential grant activity if you've invested with your current partners.

3) Promote your organization as partnership-ready
Your organization's board members or senior leaders can help promote a willingness to partner by having ready successful partnership stories or fishing for partnership opportunities on specific projects. Make sure they're prepared with examples and real goals, not overwhelmed with wants and needs. Let them sing your organization's praises to help recruit the best partnership opportunities, and make sure to follow up with all leads.

Relationship building has become trendy, with classes, certificates, and training galore on individual networking techniques. Before "networking" there was "being nice," which includes being open for opportunities for relationships with not just individuals, but their organizations. Assess where your organization's relationships are today, and consider expanding or updating your "dating" circle.

Grants are Rarely "Free" Money

I hate to rain on the enthusiastic notion that grants are basically free money. Free money, whoo hoo! Matthew Lesko and a host of other "Free Grant Money" websites will assure you that you've been missing out on all sorts of dough for doing exactly what you've been doing. And they're wrong.

Grants refer to a variety of funding mechanisms, but are usually funds supplied for programs, research, investigations, or pilot projects. Someone wants something done and they'll fund you or your organization to do it. Grants for students or non-repayable scholarships usually stipulate that you graduate or at least maintain a certain GPA. Government grants require deliverables of some sort, and foundation grants require proof that you accomplished what you said you would. So why aren't they free?

Few funders will pay for 100% of any project's costs. You can do your best budget work, calculate indirect costs, and plan for all contingencies and still come up short in the final analysis, and this is to be expected because funders assume that you will take a small portion of the responsibility for the successful completion of your grant project. Responsibility for things like writing progress reports, keeping careful accounting of expenditures, writing publicity for the project, and making sure the project doesn't die by raising more funds.

Don't be swindled into thinking there's buckets of moolah just waiting for you. Grants are a serious business, and funders are looking for project commitment, not someone looking for free money. Now where's the link to that unclaimed property website?

Book Review

Everything You Need to Know About Grants: How To Write The Grant--How To Get The Grant--Where To Get The Grant
Well, Mr. Hollis, not everything one needs to know about grants. After brushing aside the Christian references in every chapter, I found OK advice about starting a non-profit organization, writing grants, and general fundraising. There are lots of references, a few templates, and over 114 pages listing potential funder contact info, of which a large portion is bound to be out-of-date. But my main gripe with the author is that he does not explain the importance of the distinction between grants and gifts (or contributions). This book is appropriate for some faith-based programs and services, but can’t stand alone as the “ultimate” grant guide. Sorry Mr. Hollis.

Zotero Extension for Firefox

If you do a lot of online research using Mozilla Firefox as your browser, check out the Zotero extension. Developed by the Center for History and New Media of George Mason University, it's a blend of old-school research notes and web-savvy organization. Developed by scholars used to organizing reference notes via index cards, this handy tool allows the capture of information from libraries, databases, blogs, and other web pages. Once captured, the user can add notes, associate items, and link files and images. Plus, Zotero allows you to annotate sources with highlighting and sticky notes. Best of all, you can organize and export references in a variety of styles into Word or OpenOffice and do not need to be online.