A foundation officer I once worked with complained to me about an executive director who had dropped by the foundation’s office to follow up on his grant request. “Why can’t this guy let the grant proposal speak for the organization?” he quipped. I imagined an anxious E.D. (for some reason, he’s also rain-soaked in my mental image), in desperate need for funding for his organization, trying every means possible to stand out from the pack. In this case, it was clear this strategy had backfired.
I just finished reading the second edition of Cheryl Clarke’s excellent book, “Storytelling for Grantseekers”, and I suspect that E.D. might have been in a much stronger position if he’d read it, too.
