By Marge Nichols, ESC Consultant
and former Director of Research,
United Way
As all nonprofit leaders know first-hand, times are
tough. Funders and donors have less money to give, and they are constantly
making tough decisions about how to spend their money. There is one important
ingredient to any proposal that will help you convince them they should be
spending their money on your organization—data.
With a little research, you can arm your proposals
and presentations with information that can’t be ignored: recent facts and
figures about the problem and the population your program will address. The
right data will get donors’ attention and help sell your message.
This article provides some easy tips for how to
find and use data to make your proposal stand out among the rest in these
challenging times.
