Pro-Bono Grant Writing Assistance

The Arts Administration Program at Boston University Seeks Nonprofit Partners to Receive Pro-Bono Grantwriting Services.

About the Opportunity
Boston University’s course in Fundraising and Grantwriting for Nonprofit Organizations (MET AR 550) is offered primarily to graduate arts administration and fundraising management certificate students. In this course, students work with a nonprofit partner to apply their course work to the real world. This involves assembling the organization’s case resource file, formulating program plans and budgets, conducting prospect research using the Foundation Directory Online, drafting a Letter of Intent/Inquiry to the chosen foundation, presenting research methods to the organization, and ultimately, completing a full grant proposal. The nonprofit partner will receive these materials and can choose whether to directly submit the drafted proposal. AR 550 is an integral course in the BU Arts Administration Program, and students have raised millions of dollars in capital, project-based, and unrestricted operating support for organizations over the past 25 years.

Specific course topics that support our student’s grant writing process include: the philosophy and psychology of philanthropy, fundraising planning, strategy, budget and program planning, universal design, research, the storytelling style of narrative writing, sustainability, evaluation, fundraising ethics. As this class covers third-sector best practices, we also address the following topics: nonprofit governance, donor relations, annual, major, and planned giving, special events, marketing, and communications.

About the Instructor
Michael W. Ibrahim, CFRE, is program manager for the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Cultural Investment Portfolio, a $6 million grant program that supports 400 nonprofit arts, culture, humanities, and science organizations across the Commonwealth. In addition to grant making, Michael is responsible for the Council’s Advisory Services and Capacity Building Initiatives for cultural organizations with annual budgets up to $150 million. This work includes providing direct consulting services, as well as managing sector-wide education services, group advising, financial health inventorying, capacity building and mapping, research, and cohort development, in order to help organizations build sustainable, adaptive, and innovative models of operation.

The Nonprofit Partnership
As mentioned above, students will work with a nonprofit partner to progress through the grantwriting process, ultimately producing a full grant proposal the partner can choose to submit to their chosen foundation/funder. The course begins in early September 2020 and ends in mid-December 2020. The partner will have deliverables by the end of December 2020.

Partner Organization Qualifications

• Organization should be a 501c3 nonprofit organization in good standing with their local state Attorney General’s Office and/or Secretary of the State. The organization can be located anywhere in the United States.
• Organizations can come from a wide variety of nonprofit disciplines as students represent interests and study in various disciplines. While most students have a basis in the visual, performing, and multidisciplinary arts, additional students come from other Boston University programs, including the humanities, historic preservation, social service, education, medical, environment, theology, etc.
• Due to COVID-19 restrictions, it is understood that conversations between organization leadership and students will be done virtually.
• Organization leadership may expect frequent conversation at the beginning of the term in order to understand institutional priorities, mission, financials and current development strategy. During late October through November, organizations can expect less time commitment working with students as they are researching and writing.
• Students will present findings to their partner organization in a debrief Zoom call in December with next steps, grant application process, and timeline.
• Students have premium access to the Foundation Directory Online, Guidestar, Attorney General filings and other online tools that help them do much of the grant writing work remotely.

To apply
If you are interested in applying for this opportunity, please send an email to the Boston University Arts Administration Program office (artsad@bu.edu). Please include your organization title, EIN number, and primary contact.

Deadline to apply, Monday September 28

Questions?
Contact Michael Ibrahim at mibrahim@bu.edu