BKM & Co LLC

Humanizing nonprofit fundraising through storytelling, grant strategy, data analyzing, & excellence.

02/02/2026

⚖️ Grant Writing Ethics: thoughtful guidance for navigating risks and responsibilities. How do you handle conflicts of interest with funders?

Conflicts of interest happen when board members, staff, or leadership have personal ties to a funder. This is not automatically wrong, but it must be handled with transparency. 🔍

✅ Disclose the relationship in applications and board minutes.
✅ Make sure the decision-making process remains fair.

Funders appreciate honesty about these connections. Trying to hide them creates unnecessary risk. 🌟 Integrity always earns more respect than secrecy.

01/31/2026

⚖️ Grant Writing Ethics: thoughtful guidance for navigating risks and responsibilities. What happens if you use restricted funds incorrectly?

Restricted funds are meant for specific purposes.
❌ If you use them outside those purposes, even unintentionally, you are violating the terms of the grant.

The consequences can be serious—repayment of funds, damaged relationships, and loss of eligibility for future funding.

🌟 The safest approach is to track restricted funds carefully, communicate clearly with staff, and if necessary, ask the funder for permission to adjust spending. 👉 Most funders value honesty and will work with you if you are upfront about changes.

01/28/2026

⚖️ Grant Writing Ethics: thoughtful guidance for navigating risks and responsibilities. Why is ghost writing for partners risky?

Sometimes nonprofits try to help a partner by writing their grant applications for them. 💡 While collaboration is important, writing on behalf of another organization can create confusion, conflicts of interest, and even ethical issues if information is not accurate.

🌟 It is better to offer guidance, review drafts, or share best practices than to put words in someone else’s name.

Funders want authenticity. If they sense that one group is pulling strings behind the scenes, trust is broken.

01/25/2026

⚖️ Grant Writing Ethics: thoughtful guidance for navigating risks and responsibilities. How do you avoid double counting expenses?

Double counting happens when the same expense is listed under multiple grants or reported more than once.

🚩 This might seem like a small mistake, but it is a major red flag for funders.

The best way to avoid it is by working closely with finance staff and keeping clear records of how each dollar is allocated.

🌟 Transparency in budgets and reporting is essential. When funders see that your accounting is clean, they are more likely to trust you with larger awards.

01/22/2026

⚖️ Grant Writing Ethics: thoughtful guidance for navigating risks and responsibilities.

Big promises can be tempting, but inflated outcomes put trust, funding, and relationships at risk. Strong grant writing balances ambition with honesty. 👇👇

01/21/2026

✨ Our next set of FAQs will be focused on ethics and pitfalls: thoughtful guidance for navigating risks and responsibilities.

🤥 What are common unethical practices in grant writing?

Unethical practices in grant writing usually come from pressure to get results at any cost.

❌ Some writers inflate numbers, promise outcomes they cannot deliver, or copy entire applications from other organizations.
❌ Others downplay weaknesses or hide financial instability.

These shortcuts might win a grant once, but they damage credibility long-term. 💡Funders talk to each other. If they sense dishonesty, your chances of future funding shrink. Ethical grant writers know that trust is worth more than any single award.

01/15/2026

How do you show success over multiple years🤔

Grant strategy is not a one-year game. ✅True success shows up in multi-year trends. Are your awards growing over time Are you seeing stronger renewal rates Are you building deeper relationships with funders.

Multi-year dashboards or reports can show this bigger picture. They prove that grants are not just quick wins but part of a sustainable strategy. When you look back after three to five years, you should see steady growth in dollars, funder diversity, and organizational capacity. That is what long-term success looks like.😀

01/13/2026

✨ Grant Writing & Fundraising FAQs: demystifying the process, one question at a time.

🤔 How do you show success over multiple years?

Grant strategy is not a one-year game. True success shows up in multi-year trends.

👉 Are your awards growing over time?
👉 Are you seeing stronger renewal rates?
👉 Are you building deeper relationships with funders?

📈 Multi-year dashboards or reports can show this bigger picture. They prove that grants are not just quick wins but part of a sustainable strategy. When you look back after three to five years, you should see steady growth in dollars, funder diversity, and organizational capacity. That is what long-term success looks like.

01/07/2026

💡Next up in our Grant Writing & Fundraising FAQ series: What metrics can you share with your board?

Boards do not need every detail, but they do need a clear picture of progress.

Useful metrics include:
📈 Number of applications submitted
💸 Total dollars requested
💰 Total dollars awarded
📆 Renewal rates
📑 Diversity of the portfolio.

Boards also appreciate context: What you are learning from rejections, what relationships you are building, and how grants fit into the larger fundraising strategy?

🌟 Sharing the right metrics builds trust and keeps the board engaged in the process.

01/05/2026

How do you know if your portfolio is diverse enough

Relying on one or two funders for most of your grant income is risky. 😮 If one of them pulls back, your programs could be in jeopardy. Measuring diversity means looking at the spread of your funding sources.

✅Do you have a mix of foundation, corporate, and government support Do you have small grants alongside larger ones Are you balancing renewals with new funders

👍A diverse portfolio makes your organization more stable and gives funders confidence that you are not dependent on one stream of income.

01/04/2026

✨ Grant Writing & Fundraising FAQs: demystifying the process, one question at a time.

Rejections are hard, but they’re also valuable teachers. When you track the reasons behind them, you gain clarity, improve future submissions, and show leadership that growth happens even when funding doesn’t.

12/31/2025

💡 Today in our Grant Writing & Fundraising FAQ series: How do you measure staff efficiency in grant writing?

Grant writing takes time, but how much time is too much?
Tracking staff efficiency can help you answer that.

Consider to measuring:
👉 How long it takes to complete applications
👉 How many deadlines are being managed at once
👉 How often staff are scrambling at the last minute

If your team is stretched too thin, you may need to adjust workload, add systems, or consider consulting support.

🌟 Efficiency is not about cutting corners. It is about making sure the process is sustainable for the people doing the work.

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