Hidden Funding: Grants for Creatives, Consultants & Agency Owners with Danielle Desir Corbett

Susan Boles:
01:09

Imagine having access to funds for your business that don't need to be repaid. Those funds can help you launch new projects, expand your reach, or fill in the gap during tough times. Sound too good to be true? It's actually not. I'm your host, Susan Boles, and this is Beyond Margins, the show where we geek out about what it takes to build a calmer business.

Susan Boles:
01:31

And today, we're wrapping up our series on funding options for service businesses. So far in the series, we've covered equity investments, crowdfunding, and using debt strategically. So if you haven't checked out those episodes, hop back into the feed and have a listen. Today, we're wrapping up the series by exploring using grants as a source of funding for your business. It's a funding source that's really common in the nonprofit space, but I don't think a lot of us running for profit businesses really consider it a viable option, but it totally is.

Susan Boles:
02:03

Joining me today is Danielle DeSear Corbett, the founder of Grants for Creators, which is a monthly newsletter that shares funding opportunities for US based creatives and small business owners. Danielle doesn't just curate and source these funding opportunities. She's also regularly applying and winning grants for her own business. Danielle and I geek out about the pros and cons of using grants as a funding source, how to make the grant application process efficient, and where to actually find good grants to apply for.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
02:32

I am all in on grants. After graduating from grad school, I jumped into a health care role as a financial analyst for a grants department, and that was my first introduction to the world of grants in a healthcare setting, though. I worked as a grant administrator for a total of 7 years while I was also accretive. I had a blog, I had a travel blog, I have a travel a lot there were a lot of things happening in the economy, and there were actually quite a bit of grant opportunities that were out there for small businesses, for creatives, and I said, you know what? Why not just apply?

Danielle Desir Corbett:
03:28

So I applied. I won 1 grant, 2 grants. By 2 years later, I won 4 grants total as a creative person. So as a podcaster and a writer and blogger, I won 4 grand total this opportunity. I cannot unsee this, And it opened up my mind and world of possibilities that, hey, grants are a legit and viable funding source that sure.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
03:54

It's free money out there and there are strings attached. I'm sure we'll talk about it later, but it's something that can be part of your funding mix. So that's really how I began and how I started. By the time 2022 came around, I felt really inspired. I was finding so many grants at any given time that my friends were probably getting really tired of me sharing opportunities with them.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
04:16

So I decided to create this newsletter called grants, which you can check out at grants for creators.com. And this is a big, big, big part of my everyday life in business where I curate and source different funding opportunities specifically for US based creatives and entrepreneurs. It's been a a a passion of mine to be able to connect so many people to money that they may have missed because they don't have the grant finding skill or they don't even know that

Susan Boles:
04:45

it exists. I think that's maybe the biggest challenge for people is, you know, most of my listeners, we run for profit businesses, and I think that grants are just something we never really think about when it comes to funding our business. You know, it's just something that's out there that nonprofits do. But why should we be thinking about grants as a kind of core component potentially of our funding structure and our businesses? Kieran.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
05:11

Absolutely. So let's just take a step back to describe what our grant is. So a grant is an award, a financial award that is used to promote an initiative, to support an initiative, to fund ideas, literally grants out there for just amazing ideas, all the way up to a full fledged program or project. Right? And there are so many different types of organizations that are awarding this money to support the community, to promote initiatives that they're really passionate about, and it's usually a tax benefit for them to have these grants out there in the world.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
05:49

So for us as small business owners or creative entrepreneurs, this is a pot of money that we can use to launch projects to kind of fill the gap where maybe you have a really great idea or you wanna impact your community, but you don't need. Right? I know most entrepreneur listening to this can could think of 10 things that they can do with $500 right now or 10 things they could do with with 5,000 or $50,000. Right? Like, there's always money that we wish we had to have a bigger impact in our community, and this is what grant funds can help us to do.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
06:24

I do wanna say that on paper, grants are considered free money because you don't have to pay them back. However, I always say the disclaimer is that it's all there's a lot of things attached to that. So it's free money with strings attached. It's like what I have to like to say, because there are gonna be rules and regulations as issued by the funder of the opportunity. They may have spending restrictions.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
06:51

They usually always have eligibility requirements. So you have to make sure that you're even eligible to apply. There may be recording requirements. There may be things that you have to do after, like, licenses and and posting on social stuff. Like, there's things that you have to do besides just receiving the funds, but it's mud table, and a lot of folks realize that all I have to do invest is is in my time to write these applications.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
07:20

Some people have a lot of time. So if you have a lot of time and you have a lot of things

Susan Boles:
07:24

that you wanna do in your business, then grants can be a great opportunity to see if you can can secure that money. Talk to me a little bit about what really to consider when you are thinking about applying for a grant. You know, you can spend a lot of time writing grant applications. When you're thinking about the kind of cost benefit of, should I go sell to a new client, or should I write a grant? How do you think about that holistically, that process?

Susan Boles:
07:54

What do you take into account?

Danielle Desir Corbett:
07:56

So one of the downsides I would say to grants is that it is time consuming. And like you mentioned, taking you away from the core money making activities that you're doing in your business otherwise. Right? That time investment is real. But we can definitely talk about ways to speed that time up, things that you can do to be more efficient.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
08:15

However, I always say whenever you look at a grant announcement, you want to read everything on that page. So what is the grant about? Who is the funder? The eligibility criteria, what they're looking for? How much money is being awarded?

Danielle Desir Corbett:
08:33

Because some awards, they're considered like micro grants where it could be under $500. And you may realize, you know what? Looking at just the math isn't mapping. Like, this is gonna take me way too much time for the payout, so I'm not gonna apply. Some grants have application fee, or reading fees that they call, so that's something that you can consider in the terms and conditions.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
08:57

Look at the FAQ section, officially ask questions. They will list out deadline. All all the things that you need to know are all typically there on the application. When it comes to private grants, meaning these are private individuals or corporations who are sharing these grant opportunities, a lot of times there's no contact information. So if you have a question, it won't be easy for you to contact the grant administrator like a foundation or a government grant that has these structures really in place.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
09:29

So just be aware of that. I always say, if I look at the grant, I don't fit what they're looking for in terms of like the focus of the grant and who they're trying to reach and help. And I don't fit the eligibility criteria, it's a no for me. One of the things I think a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with is FOMO when it comes to finding a grant. It's like you see a grant, you feel like it's a good fit, and then it's like, if I don't apply, I'm gonna miss out.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
09:57

And you just kind of let this, like, shame, regret, and all of this negative emotions come in. But I will be here to tell you that, like, just last year, I shared over a 1,000 funding opportunities on my newsletter. So do not force fit an opportunity if it's not the right fit, not the right target for you, or not the right time for you to apply. There's so many out there that you will find something else that will better match what you're looking for later.

Susan Boles:
10:26

So let's talk about the actual application process. How do we make it easier or more efficient?

Danielle Desir Corbett:
10:32

One of the first things I look at is before I even sit down and apply for the grant, I'm looking at how many questions. So I compare the number of questions. I estimate how much time it's going to take me. I always multiply it, though. So it's a multiple of 3.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
10:42

I think it's gonna take an hour. It's probably gonna take 3 hours. Right? If there are things in the application, like do a video, which is a 60 second video, it's like, oh gosh. It's gonna take me another 3 hours.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
10:56

These are things that are time consuming, so always allocate more time. So looking at your questions is a good, like, gauge so you can figure out how much time you need. But a lot of applications have the same questions. So this is where efficiency comes in and practice and repetition definitely helps. As you apply to more grants, you're gonna see the same questions like, tell me about yourself.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
11:18

Tell me about the your business. Who are you impacting? How has your business, you know, impacted your community? These become now boilerplate templates or submissions that you could literally just a lot of times copy paste and remaster it for the, for the funding opportunity, but you don't have to start from scratch. It's always going to feel like a lot more work when you're starting from scratch for the first time versus having a regular grant process where you can just copy and paste submissions.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
11:46

So what I like to do is I pretty much have a Google doc with all of the grant application questions I ever submitted for and all the responses. Caveat, though, something I wish I did before is I wish I would have dated and also identify which grant I applied for because I've won many grants. No idea which ones were the good ones, which ones I maybe don't have to ever go back to. Right? So have a master document where you are always, like, having all of your questions all in one place and label it with the grant that you're applying for and the date so that you can have something to reference later.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
12:25

Another thing that I want to dispel is that some grant applications are really long, but you'll be surprised of how short some are. Like 1 to 2 questions, short. But you have to just get into practice of, like, looking at the applications, looking at the questions so you can build up that confidence to make it a little faster for yourself.

Susan Boles:
12:44

Do you have any routines that you have created around the grant application process? Yeah.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
12:51

So I love having a day a week where I'm able to just review all of the grants that I'm aware of, or I'm looking at newsletters. I'm looking at databases to see what funding opportunities are out there. So it's my grants day, for example, and from there, I'm able to identify which ones I want to look into more, and I add those deadlines to my calendar, and I kind of backdate from there to have time to review the application, work on submission questions, and that sort of thing. But definitely putting dates on your calendar is one of those processing workflows that I feel like is so important. And where I have often fell down is I missed deadlines.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
13:33

Right? This is where the FOMO may come in because you're like, that was perfect, and I missed it. Lastly, I think something that if you have a friend, a colleague who is able to review your answers, that I feel like is ideal because you have fresh pair of eyes and you can ask them for their honest input from a person. Right? When it comes to grant applications, we are talking to real people behind these funding organizations.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
13:57

So we wanna make that connection. And I think having another human review your work can help whether it's, you know, your partner, your your team member, or a colleague.

Susan Boles:
14:07

That's super helpful. Are there and and maybe it changes grant by grant. But do you think there are specific things to make sure that we should include in applications or not include in applications? Are there things that could potentially make the application or what you're writing more successful?

Danielle Desir Corbett:
14:26

So I am not a grant writer by any means of the imagination. But with my line of work, like, I really get to talk to grant writers a lot, and what I've learned from them is the power and art of storytelling. So storytelling and communicating the impact of your work. So, like, for me, I'm a very, like, say it plain kind of person, but when it comes to grant writing, I have to really pull at the heartstrings. I have to really tell a story.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
14:57

And often I am being more specific. I'm quantifying certain things. Like, not only, like, I help podcasters, but I help 200 podcasters launch within the 2 month cohort, like very specific things. And these are things that are not necessarily may not be natural to you, right, or natural to me. But with practicing grant writing, I'm learning how to communicate more specifically, the art of storytelling and the impact.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
15:27

I think more than anything more than anything, when I used to start grant submissions years ago, I would just look at the application and say, I fit. Let's go. Today, I say, I fit. And then I go and do more research about the funder. I look at their about page.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
15:44

I look at the other initiatives that they funded. I look at their social media accounts. I really try to get a holistic view because just because our they say small business doesn't mean that I'm the right small business that they're trying to help and support. So that I think is, also a huge time saver when you do the little bit of legwork to figure out, do we match? I call it like the billboard test.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
16:09

Like, can me and this funder be in a billboard together? A lot of times, we may not be a good billboard test. You know? It doesn't we're not really good billboard partners. So that's a no for me, and that would definitely help me not waste time on a submission that may not be fruitful.

Susan Boles:
16:24

That's super helpful. So where are some of the best places to to kind of find out about grants? Obviously, your newsletter, Grants for Creators. Everybody sign up, but what are some other places we should be looking?

Danielle Desir Corbett:
16:37

You know, there are so many places. I would often say don't start with a Google search because there's so much information on Google. A lot of it is outdated. They're expired grants or they're announcing the awardees who have won the grant, but it's not truly there's it's not an open submission. So I would definitely look at your industry news publications.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
17:03

So look at who in your industry reports on the news, who shares opportunities, even if it's like job board. Sometimes they may have, like, fellowships and accelerated programs on there. So definitely start with your industry news publications. Talk to your peers and your network and your colleagues about your grant search. Let them know, hey.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
17:23

Listen. I'm looking for grants on x and x. If you ever see anything, please let me know. You'll be surprised by activating your network. How many people randomly shoot you a text, right, or or randomly forward you something because they thought of you when you had that ask.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
17:39

Right. And then if you are gonna do a Google search, I would just be very specific. Like for example, I'm a podcaster. So I would say like podcaster group grants or like podcast grants for launching a podcast or something like that, where it's very specific versus just the general, you know, small business grants or grants, because you'll just get so bombarded and overflowed with opportunities. There are also lots of incredible newsletters.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
18:10

There's like newsletters like mine, but there's databases as well where they're larger, but if you want to cast your your net wide, then they exist as well. So there are a lot of sources. Lastly, I always say check your inbox. Check your inbox because a lot of the places that we subscribe to naturally, they love sharing opportunities with their community members. If you're part of any Facebook groups, just keep an eye in there.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
18:37

And sometimes a lot of these organizations are having ads on social media too. So you may be scrolling on on social media, on Instagram, and all of a sudden, you know, an accelerator pops up, and you're like, woah.

Susan Boles:
18:48

Oh, I love that. So is there anything you think we should talk about or touch on when it comes to grants that we haven't talked about yet?

Danielle Desir Corbett:
18:55

I think counting ourselves in is so important. Oftentimes as small business owners, we, because we're not a brick and mortar a lot of times, we feel like we can't compete with the attorneys. We can't compete with the accountants or like the restaurants down the road, but you are a small business. If you look at the definition, the IRS definition of a small business, many of us qualify as small businesses and you do not always need to see the word that you identify as in the application to say, I'm going to submit, like for me, for podcasters, there are a lot of grants out there that do not say the word podcast, but because I fit in the narrative because I fit with what the funder is supporting, then I can be the vehicle for change for them and with them as a podcast. So that is so important.

Danielle Desir Corbett:
19:52

We have to really deconstruct. We're not always gonna see, like, specific words within the grant application, but we have to count ourselves in versus saying, that's not for me. Right? Count yourself in more often than not.

Susan Boles:
20:07

Throughout this series, we've been examining some different options for bringing in some outside funds for your service business. We've covered equity investments, which can potentially bring in big bucks or even a partner to share the workload, but they require you to give up some ownership and control. We've talked about crowdfunding, which is a fantastic option because you don't have to give up ownership or control, but it can be a lot of work and require an investment of both time and funds. Last time, we covered using debt strategically. Debt is likely the easiest and fastest source of capital available to you.

Susan Boles:
20:41

It doesn't require you to give up any ownership at all, but it does mean you have to pay that money back. And finally, grants. Grants can be a great addition to the funding mix for your business, but there are definitely trade offs. You might invest a bunch of time applying for grants that you don't get. And if you do get them, you might have some additional, maybe time consuming obligations that you have to fulfill.

Susan Boles:
21:03

But they can be a great part of your overall funding mix, and they are technically free money. When you're trying to decide how to fund growth or how to keep your business afloat during tougher seasons, it's really important to consider all of the funding options to help select the one that's right for you. Each type of funding comes with its own set of benefits and challenges, and ultimately, the best choice depends on your specific business needs and goals. Whether you're looking to grow, manage cash flow, or launch a new project, there's a funding path that can support your vision. You can learn more about what Danielle does and connect with her using the links in the show notes.

Susan Boles:
21:44

And while you're there, please explore my sponsor link so I can keep this show going and growing. A big thanks to everyone who supports Beyond Margins. If you're a listener, if you're a sponsor or a partner of any kind, I really couldn't do this show without you. For more ideas and stories from me about how to build a calmer business with comfortable margins, head to beyondmargins.com. While you're there, you can sign up for my free newsletter.

Susan Boles:
22:07

I send it every week and it's all about one question. What does it take to build a calmer business? Thank you so much for listening. I'm back in 2 weeks with a new episode and a new format. For the next series, I'll be diving into my call more framework with a new mini series format.

Susan Boles:
22:23

So hit subscribe in your favorite podcast player so you don't miss it.