Generosity Genius co-founder Daniel Wise sat down with one of our very first clients, Elana Frank, Founder and CEO of Jewish Fertility Foundation, to get her perspective on why JFF chose to work with the GG team, what we've been able to accomplish together, and what she'd say to other small non-profit leaders looking to scale their impact and grant fundraising strategy.
Full Video Transcript
Dan Wise: Hi everyone, I'm Daniel Wise with Generosity Genius. Joining me today is Elana Frank with the Jewish Fertility Foundation. Hi Elana.
Elana Frank: Hi Dan.
Dan Wise: Thank you for being here today, we appreciate your time.
Elana Frank: I'm excited I'm your first guest.
Dan Wise: You're our first guest and you're our first and longest client at Generosity Genius and we are eternally grateful for being able to work with you as long as we have and we've enjoyed so much helping you grow your impact. I do have a few questions for you today. To start, please go ahead and introduce yourself, introduce JFF and what your mission is.
Elana Frank: Sure, so I'm Elana Frank, I'm CEO and Founder of Jewish Fertility Foundation. As you know, we are an organization that is working with intended parents on their path to parenthood and we help them in three major ways: Through financial assistance, emotional support, and educational training.
Dan Wise: It really is an amazing mission and one that's made a positive impact in the community that I currently live in as well as where my partner Geoff lives, so we are thankful for you guys operating there. Why did you decide to work with Generosity Genius?
Elana Frank: Well, I'll tell you, as a small organization under a two million dollar budget, we try to be scrappy if we can, but we also rely a lot on our foundation support. With that, it means that you have to do a lot of grant writing and a lot of reporting for when you are able to successfully receive a grant from an organization. It is time consuming, as any executive would know.
It requires a specific skill set and when I learned about your service, it was different than any grant writing service that I've known or used previously, so I wasn't just looking for grant writers. One of the pieces that was really interesting to me was how you claimed that you were going to organize both the grant writing, grant research, and management of the grant so that when there was a report on the calendar, you were managing up to me and to my team so that we knew it was coming our way. That's a huge service to be able to work with a fractional grant writing company or grant management company.
I never heard of anything like that that existed previously.
Dan Wise: Well, great. The work we do is really in partnership with you and we couldn't have been so successful in what we've done if it weren't for you and your team helping us through the process and providing us information at every step along the process. Can you share a little bit about the work Generosity Genius does for JFF and how it's benefited you and your team?
Elana Frank: Yeah. Listen, we can feed you some of the existing deadlines and grants that we've received, but I think you're looking at the whole picture and you've been helpful in really organizing our entire grants program. You're handling deadlines. You're literally doing the writing, the reporting. Of course, working with our team and our staff to gather exactly what data and information you need. We love our foundation partners, but they ask for a lot of important information and you're handling the management and collection of all of that and ultimately giving it to us to provide the foundation with what they need.
Also, you've been successful in identifying some opportunities for potential grant opportunities within our sector.
Dan Wise: That's great. Glad to hear we've been able to have that impact on your life. In addition to the what we do, which is the grant writing, the reporting, the research, the managing the calendar, could you talk a little bit about the type of impact we've helped your organization have within the communities you serve?
Elana Frank: Absolutely. We've done a little data survey since we started. In under one year, we (you) have applied for over $800,000 in funding.
I just want to say that has saved us organizationally time. Time is money. That is really one of the biggest benefits.
I will say we looked today and we're lucky - 18 times return on investment with an 85% grant rate. That's real success there.
Dan Wise: That's a win and mazel tov on achieving high return with us. We're happy to help you get there. What would you say to a fellow nonprofit CEO or executive director who's considering working with the Generosity Genius team?
Elana Frank: I think, again, for smaller organizations, you have really found your sweet spot. Not that you can't work with larger ones as well, but especially when you're trying to decide, you know, are you hiring a development director versus a grant manager? You know, looking at the difference between that and looking at what a fractional consultant can bring to the table, really consider it.
It is a gift, what you are offering. Talk with them. See, you know, if you like their personalities, if they work with you well.
Really trying to understand that and, you know, think outside the box because there is real opportunity today with, you know, having consultants that care and do a great job and are also your partners in this.
Dan Wise: Well, thank you. Appreciate your tooting our horn for us so we don't have to. But I will just have to do the same for you because the Jewish Fertility Foundation is an amazing organization.
For those of you watching at home, if you or someone you know is struggling with infertility, I urge you to connect with JFF. Whether you're Jewish or not, they are the most supportive organization we know, and we're so thankful to be able to help scale their impact and serve their mission through the work we do. So, Elana, Frank, thank you again. We look forward to many more grants together and more reports and more of everything we do.
Elana Frank:
Thank you both.
Dan Wise:
Thank you.
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