Writing with the Needs of the Foundation in Mind: Getting Money Quicker

My Drew & Associates team recently finished up a series of proposals designed to help a young film director, Maj. Lynette Jones win funding for her film called "The Truth Behind the Camouflage." This highly topical documentary film will investigate solutions for ending sexual assault in the Armed Forces.

One of our senior associate grant writers, Pearl Rothman, took on this project because of her own experience as a screenwriter for short films and commercials. I could not be more proud of the work she did on this project.

In the process, I learned a lot about what it takes to get funding for a documentary film based on an excellent book by Morrie Warshawski, "Shaking the Money Tree." Accordingly, I thought it would be fun to share some of the new insights I will be applying to my own grant writing in the years ahead.

Grant writing for a documentary film is kind of tough because so few foundations are sincerely interested in funding documentary films. My research team, for example, found it difficult to search out funders for Maj. Jones' project. As Warshawski writes: "Remember, many foundations are funding the film not because it is a film, but inspite of the fact that it is a film!" Below, I have inserted the trailer for the film, The Truth Behind the Camouflage. 

To address this challenge, Warshawski recommends seeking funders that are interested in the subject matter of the documentary and not for funders that express a specific interest in documentary films. This seems like sage advice to me. In my experience, it is a lot easier to win a grant from a funder that has a strong interest in your topic area. This is why, at times, it seems to me that the good research is more important than good writing when it comes to winning grants.

One of the unending debates in grant writing is whether you would tailor your projects to match the funders' previous project or else stick to your own programs and then work harder to find appropriate matches. In my experience, there are generally only a handful of funders in your region that give money for what you want to do. Accordingly, it looks to me like your best bet is to see what they want to do and to start doing that.