Why is it important to change how you talk to funders?

Farra Trompeter: Welcome to the Smart Communications Podcast. This is Farra Trompeter, co-director and worker-owner at Big Duck. In today’s episode, we’re going to ask the question: Why is it important to change how you talk to funders? And I’m delighted to be joined by Dani Faulkner. I first met Dani back in 2018 at NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, or NTC, where she joined an informal focus group when she was at the Baltimore Community Foundation and Big Duck was doing a project for CFLeads, which is actually a case study we can link to on our website. And we’ve stayed in touch and enjoyed conversations at other NTCs, and around the way, and on LinkedIn, and I’m so delighted to have her here as a guest.

Farra Trompeter: So, Dani Faulkner, she/her is a playwright turned grant writer turned development powerhouse who has built her career around equity, sustainability, and community power. Dani uses her storytelling roots to help nonprofits raise money without losing their values, their people, or their peace. Her work centers Community-Centric Fundraising, asset framing, and language justice, pushing the sector away from extractive habits and towards something more honest and humane. She brings 15 years of development and fundraising experience, plus a sharp eye, soft heart, and a deep commitment to amplifying Black voices. Whether she’s writing grants, leading workshops, or challenging funder theatrics, Dani is here to make this work better for all of us. She also has a wonderful sense of humor. Dani, welcome to the show.

Dani Faulkner: Thanks for having me. I sound fancy. I sound so fancy.

Farra Trompeter: You are fancy. Own it and love it.

Dani Faulkner: Yes.

Farra Trompeter: Well, Dani, I know when we were prepping for this, we were talking about how your journey into fundraising wasn’t necessarily something you planned. Though. I often wonder, has anyone woken up and said, you know, in elementary school, “When I grow up, I want to be a fundraiser.” But I wonder if you could talk about your background, and particularly, I love that you come at this work from being a playwright. So, can you talk a little bit about your background and the experiences that led you to do the work you do now?

Dani Faulkner: Yeah, sure. No one studies philanthropy in college. That’s not a major. I studied theater––playwriting––and I needed a job, or something to do that wouldn’t send me home. So I had other artist friends who were applying for funding here in Maryland, I’m in Baltimore, and there’s an annual individual artist award. You have to apply for it. You have to write this big grant, and a lot of my friends were scared of it. And I said, “Let me look at it. Let me take a look.” The first one I did, I think my friend gave me a bottle of wine to finish it. And to say that I was hooked, I was hooked. Because it was writing, but it was writing something that I loved, which was about the arts. And then I found that other people hated doing it. Grants are not something fundraisers like to do. We love the events, we love, you know, shaking the hands, kissing the babies, but to sit down and really write, that takes a lot of energy. And for me, it was nothing. So that’s how I kind of got into it, just telling a story, but in a different way.

Farra Trompeter: That’s great. It’s true. I think you’re right about grant writing. In my years of doing both fundraising and communications for nonprofits, I had a very small window that I was grant writing, and I found it very annoying. I found, “Oh, these questions they’re asking, and how many times do I have to answer it this way?” And I also feel like I need to sound fancy to use your phrase earlier, but a little different. Like, “Let me write like I sound like I’m deeply academic and use big words.” And you’ve recently launched a new service for grant writing that audits how people respond to proposals. That’s called Reframe and Rise, and it helps nonprofits rewrite the narrative. I’m curious, can you talk a little bit about the Reframe and Rise approach, and maybe even how it taps into your skills as a playwright?

Dani Faulkner: Yeah, so I think this is my answer to the problem I’m seeing with grant applications and some reports, where you’re so in that mindset of, “Let me make it pretty and fancy” that you’re not actually, you know, saying the words you need to say. I feel like we’ve gotten to the point where we’re so focused on the character counts and the word counts that we’re taking the heart out of it. And for me, that’s the biggest thing because words are very powerful. On the page, it’s going to last longer than you’re in that job. So for me, Reframe and Rise was that way to fix that problem. As a writer, language is fun for me. I love a good rabbit hole. I will pick at something and say, “Does this mean this? Did that mean this?” And for a lot of us fundraisers, we don’t have that time.

Dani Faulkner: So that’s my way to say, like, “This is a way to do that.” When you have the time to audit it, to say, “Oh, it’s the last time you looked at the language you’re using, is that template? You’ve used it for five years, does it still serve you? And are you using that same language, that same terminology, and do you feel good about it?” That’s another thing, when you read it, do you feel good about what you just wrote? So yeah, it’s bringing the whole self into the work. When you’re thinking about Community-Centric Fundraising, how you, as a professional, can do it, if you’re a grant writer.

Farra Trompeter: Great, and let’s bring it down a notch. When you’re actually conducting a Reframe and Rise or R&R audit, what are some of the specific steps you take?

Dani Faulkner: So it first starts with pulling some documents. If you have an impact report, an annual report, copy from your latest newsletter, your website. It’s a lot of language. So, if you don’t have your comms and marketing team in on this, don’t do this. You need more people than just your development folks at the table. And then I say, try to bring in your latest grant application, either the one that was a winner or declined. The freshest information. And then, from there, you’re sending old school, print out with a highlighter, highlight phrases you like, highlight phrases you hate, highlight phrases that give you pause. I like to tell folks, your application is going to someone that knows nothing about you. A lot of cases, it’s one person who’s reading hundreds of things.

Dani Faulkner: So, if you have a question when you’re reading it, they’re going to have a question. So, highlight those things and then start from there, as a group, pick it apart. Say, “Hey, this part, I don’t like it. Do you like it? How do we say this?” And have those people go back and forth, and that’s where the time comes in. You really need that extra eye that, you know, outside look. So, those who are in love with the language, who say, “Oh, I love this.” No, this is not the time to fall in love with language. You’ve really got to hatchet to make sure that it makes sense and that it’s very clear.

Farra Trompeter: Well, I love that you’re talking about bringing the development and communications teams together. We’ve definitely talked about that before. You know, some organizations I talked to, they laugh when I say that. And they’re like, “We have no comms team. We are all of the things.”

Dani Faulkner: And that’s fair.

Farra Trompeter: There’s some people who are doing all the jobs, or their comms person is, like, a volunteer on a committee. Other organizations do have departments and teams, and they do tend to operate in silos. So I love that you’re talking about bringing those folks together for this process, which is so important because I don’t know how many times the comms team ever looks at a grant. They are certainly looking at the annual report, and I’m sure that’s a collaboration. But what about these things, like these proposals, and how can comms teams lend their expertise and fuse that with what the development team knows? Well, I’m curious, speaking of bringing things together, what do you see as the connection between the work of an R&R audit and an organization’s strategic plan?

Dani Faulkner: Yeah, I mean, during that time of those planning sessions, that’s when you hear the big ideas and big plans. For me, it’s great because they’re fresh and pure. They haven’t been filtered down yet; people are speaking from the heart, you know, you don’t have your finance eye on it to say, “How much is that budget down?” You’re really just sitting together and saying, “What is possible?” So for me, during that time, if you can do an audit, that’s great because everyone’s at a reset. It’s a time to just say and reflect, like, “Does this work? Are we taking it to the next year, three years, what have you?” And people are thinking reflectively, they’re really thinking about, you know, what’s possible. So if you can do it around that time, when it’s already set with your organization, I find that people are more open to it because they’re already thinking in that mindset. So yeah, I really try to set around either a retreat or strategic planning. If you have a department retreat situation, this is a good activity to say, “Let’s take this document and pick it apart together.” It’s a nice icebreaker; it’s a different type of icebreaker. Take a question every meeting and just say, “Here’s a question we always get. Let’s pick it apart together.” That’s a really easy audit without, you know, going through the whole process. So yeah, that’s a really easy way to do it.

Farra Trompeter: Yeah, I love that. I can imagine just saying, “How would you answer this question?” Maybe even everybody writes in on an index card or a post-it, you know, you and I love to go analog. Let’s get those highlighters and those pens out and see what they say. And first of all, you might get some new ways to answer that question, but interesting to see does everyone answer it in a completely different way? Or are we all saying kind of the same thing? So the branding person in me is curious about what could come from an exercise like that, too.

Dani Faulkner: Yeah, definitely.

Farra Trompeter: Well, I imagine there could be people out there who are listening, who might be working in organizations with leaders or other staff who are afraid to change their approach and believe that they need to use a lot of jargon, maybe even exploitative framing, to get funding from grant makers. We certainly, I know both see that in some of the things that we review out in the world. And I’m curious, what advice do you have if someone is out there, they’re working in an organization where they do see that language coming across, maybe when they do an audit like this themselves, or they just happen to see it pass by them, how can they make change from within? Any advice for those folks?

Dani Faulkner: Yeah, I mean, I first come from a place of like, “How are you sleeping?” Because that’s a lot to carry, when you notice it, and you see the patterns, and it’s definitely not a singular thing, I’ve found. It tends to touch on everything in the org when you see language like that: That is the mindset. And that can be really dangerous to someone who’s working in, you know, philanthropy and fundraising. So first I’d say, “Are you good? Are you alright? Do you need help?” And from there, I think really getting the idea and wrapping your mind around what you are submitting to a funder. For a lot of them, this is the first time; if anything, they’re going to read about your community, your mission, the problems that are going on, and you’re educating them.

Dani Faulkner: So do you want that to be the first impression they have of what’s happening? When I think like that, that changes the way I write something, because there sometimes isn’t another way to get to them, to explain or reeducate them. You know, you might not see them again till a site visit. God forbid it’s a site visit, because that’s another whole thing. But yeah, you might not see them for another six, nine months, and they’re only going with what you wrote down. And for me, thinking about my legacy and you know, what I bring—not that it’ll be a huge legacy—but what I’m thinking about is if somebody were to read that years from now, how would I feel? How would they feel? And that, for me, does make it easier to take out the jargon to really, you know, figure out a different way to come at this work.

Dani Faulkner: And that’s why the audit for me is a good start. It’s a good start to begin with, to say like, “This isn’t working. I don’t know how we can fix it, but let’s try.” And you might come out of it and say, “No, this is not a good thing. We can keep going. That’s cool.” But for some that are, you know, having that back and forth, this is a good beginner entry way to say like, “Let’s take a look at things and see if we can make it better.”

Farra Trompeter: Yeah. I often find that too, when people are afraid of change, just starting with a diagnostic to say, “Look, I’m not telling you have to make change yet. Let’s just see what’s going on. Let’s just look at it. Let’s bring someone fresh in. Let’s take a step back. Let’s not commit to what we’re doing. We just want to see what’s out there.” Sometimes people are a little more open, even if, you know, going into it, you’re about to recommend a lot of change. But that’s a great approach.

Farra Trompeter: Well, I hope folks are out there and intrigued about doing an audit yourself, or maybe even contacting Dani. If you want to get some great insights and some thought-provoking posts, be sure to follow Dani on LinkedIn. We will link to her profile in the transcript at bigduck.com/insights. You can also learn more about her work on her website at DaniFaulkner.com. Dani, before we go, you’ve just given us so much insight, but anything else you want to share?

Dani Faulkner: I got nothing. I’m an introvert. This is enough for me. Thank you so much.

Farra Trompeter: Well, thank you for, you know, giving your time to our listeners in our community. Everyone out there, have a great day, and we’ll talk soon.