Blog: Fundraising for Nonprofits

This posting by: Jayme Sokolow

Being a Success
According to Dr. Heidi Grant Stevenson, a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of an intriguing new book, Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (2011), even very bright people are often clueless when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. Recent research on achievement shows that successful people reach their goals not because of any inborn traits or extraordinary IQs but because of what they do.

Dr. Stevenson identifies nine things that successful people do differently from their less successful peers. How many of these traits do you have as a grant proposal professional?

1. Get Specific
When you set a goal, you are specific as possible. Being concrete gives you a clear definition of success.

2. Seize the Moment and Act on your Goals
Because we are all very busy, we often routinely miss opportunities to act on our goals. To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take action to achieve a goal.

3. Know Exactly How Far You Have Left to Go
To achieve your goals, you must candidly and regularly monitor your progress and determine what remains to achieve your goal. “It will take 15 more hours to finish producing our grant application” enables you to adjust your behavior and strategies so that you are likely to succeed.

4. Be a Realistic Optimist
Positive thinking is very important in achieving goals, but you must be realistic about how likely you are to achieve them. Simply telling your proposal team that the “first draft must be finished today” is meaningless unless there is a high probability that this is possible.

5. Focus on Getting Better rather than being Good
Our talents and skills are very malleable. To improve, you should focus on getting better at doing something specific rather than just being good. This is a more realistic and motivating goal than trying to achieve some abstract standard of excellence.

6. Show Grit and Determination
Grit and determination are common characteristics of successful people, especially in the face of difficulties. By planning, by developing good strategies to accomplish difficult tasks, and by sheer persistence you often can succeed.

7. Build your Willpower
Successful people have strong willpower. They are determined to succeed. Identifying difficult challenges and satisfactorily addressing them will increase your sense of willpower and enable you to be more successful.

8. Have a Sense of Limitations
Today, it is fashionable to say that we all have unlimited potential. This is simply not true. We all have limitations, and we must understand and respect them.

9. Focus on What You Will Do, Not on What You Will Not Do
One of the best ways to succeed is to ask a simple question: “What can I do differently?” Focus on behavioral changes you realistically can make rather than on simply avoiding unproductive behaviors.

I think that Dr. Stevenson has identified nine important things successful grant proposal professionals do differently. As he concludes, “You usually do not have to become a different person to become more successful.”

All of us, however, need to do our grant proposal development differently – and better.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.
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Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
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