Strategic Planning and Finding the Right Fit: Why Social Service Agencies Shouldn't Apply for NASA Grants to Build Space Ships

Grant writers get the pleasure of dealing with all types of organizations, some of which are more organized than others. Among the most difficult clients to fund are those that approach strategic planning purely as something on paper, not a true reflection of their priorities, mission or focus. Without having a clearly defined set of priorities, many organizations wind up chasing after any grant that comes down the pike, then trying to conform their programming to a funding source that isn’t aligned to their mission, rather than selectively pursuing appropriate funding sources that meet their needs.

In the title of this post, I use a pretty extreme example of mission creep. Sure, you may think it's absurd to think that a social services agency would ever be so foolish as to pursue a NASA grant to build space ships, when rocket science obviously has nothing to do with social services*. But, I have witnessed, firsthand, attempts to pursue grants that were just as far removed from an organization's primary functions.

Ultimately, it is a compounding recipe for disaster. If an organization lacks the capacity to maintain a reasonable level of strategic planning, they really aren't a very good candidate for grant funding in the first place. If they then pursue grant funding in a scrambled attempt to secure any type of funding, from any source, they find themselves trying to keep a third ball in the air when they lack the coordination to juggle two.

Fortunately, most funders are adept at recognizing mission creep and these types of proposals are rarely funded. They just result in a lot of wasted time and effort - and no money. The more common problem arises when a lack of strategic planning undermines attempts to secure sustainability funding for an existing program. 


*Before I get hate mail for this, I was a social worker in my last life. My reference to social services not being rocket science is purely tongue-in-cheek.