Let's Talk with Leaha & Rhonda October 21, 2023

What is Let's Talk with Leaha & Rhonda?

Leaha Crawford and Rhonda Nolen are business consultants that discuss the current struggles of small business owners and entrepreneurs. Each episode covers steps necessary for smaller businesses and business owners to grow and prosper.

Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NBC Studios on public radio K, u and v. 91.5.

Unknown Speaker 0:11
The following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford management group and smart time consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you hear did not represent the views of 91.5 Jazz anymore. The University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:34
Hi, my name is Leah Crawford.

Unknown Speaker 0:36
And I'm Rhonda Nolan.

Unknown Speaker 0:37
And you're listening to the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show

Unknown Speaker 0:41
for all the beautiful entrepreneurs out there. This is for you. Good morning. Las Vegas. Happy Saturday to everybody. Oh, Miss Leah. How you doing today Rhonda is

Unknown Speaker 0:52
back is back around is back. And guess what Rhonda? The Las Vegas aces are two times W NBA champs. What they say aces. Aces. Aces. We gotta love it right? We gotta love it because the women did it. Right. That's right. The women did it. The women did it two times. Women

Unknown Speaker 1:16
President women coach, I love it. I want my president woman coach. I love it.

Unknown Speaker 1:20
I love it. Love it. Love it. And if you'd miss the game, because the game was at the game was one of those hearts? No,

Unknown Speaker 1:26
did you watch it all the way to the end,

Unknown Speaker 1:28
I watched it. I was metaphoric. I was sitting there crying and I was like, oh my god, they did it. They did it. But today we have somebody amazing. I'm gonna say it again. You're the person that we're proud to introduce you to. You might want to take some notes, some copious notes, because I know people are always asking about grants. They're not sure how to write grants, they want to learn, you know, just how do you do this. They hear about it. And don't have a clue how to connect the dots. Well, today we are going to assist you with that. So I would like to first of all, I've known this woman probably since I've been in Vegas, and I've watched her grow and start this business. So I would like to welcome Mr. Nice Wiggins to the show. Hey, Janine.

Unknown Speaker 2:08
Hello, Miss Lea Khurana you surrounded how're you doing?

Unknown Speaker 2:12
I'm doing great.

Unknown Speaker 2:13
Thank you, ladies for having me here on your wonderful show. You know, I tune in. I appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 2:19
We appreciate that. We appreciate that. We really appreciate that. But just, I guess introduce yourself to our audience. Absolutely. Who is Denise Wiggins?

Unknown Speaker 2:29
Yeah. So as you say, my name is Denise Wiggins. I'm the co founder of grant me success. It is a business woman own minority own and based business here in Las Vegas, Nevada. We provide education. First of all on grants. The first question that I oftentimes get is what is a grant? And how can I get one is the next question that I get. So we provide education on grants, I help people start 501 C three nonprofit organization. So if they haven't even started a nonprofit organization, then our company can help them to do that paperwork. Of course, we write grants. I teach grant writing classes, and we have a nonprofit leaders Academy is where as well, where we have a 12 week program, and we take people through many different operational and human resource components that they need to know to run an effective nonprofit organization.

Unknown Speaker 3:28
So how long does that class? 12 weeks, 12 weeks, 12 weeks? And then is that every day is on Saturday? How's it work?

Unknown Speaker 3:35
We meet once a week, okay? Usually it's on Wednesdays right now we're doing it Wednesdays, from four to 6pm. We're actually getting ready to wrap up one of our series, and we're going to be having a graduation on November 3. So we have 11. Graduates, that's wonderful. Yeah, from here in Las Vegas. And we have actually one person who's going to be traveling here for graduation from California. That's wonderful. Yes. So very excited in. Then once we wrap that up November 1, we're actually going to be starting our grant writing Academy. And that is an eight week program. Okay, so some of our nonprofit leaders are going over into the grant writing Academy, but then we also have some a couple of slots open for that program.

Unknown Speaker 4:20
So you have two wonderful programs, one ending and one getting ready to start. How much does something like this costs?

Unknown Speaker 4:26
Right now? They're about 697 or $697. really affordable.

Unknown Speaker 4:32
That's very affordable. I'm gonna say something different. I

Unknown Speaker 4:34
know, I know. I know, look for right now. Right what the cost is, but you know, today's price is not tomorrow's price. So we'll see about tomorrow. That's right. So they may want to get it now.

Unknown Speaker 4:45
So your next class is starting November, the first and it's an eight week class. So it's from November, the first to December 30, about the 20th December 20. And this is for people in the nonprofit business who want to learn how to write grant.

Unknown Speaker 4:58
Absolutely, yeah. I'm gonna take them from grant writing basics. Talk to them about budgeting, I find that that's the place and Leah can probably attest to this. But that is the place where a lot of people get stuck on writing grants is looking at that budget piece and trying to decide how do I do this budget for grant? What can I ask for? What am I allowed to ask for? So we go through budgeting, we talk about how to manage a grant. So it's one thing to write the grant is one thing to receive the grant. I see. Yes, I see Leah's head shaking over there. And that grant management piece is no joke, it is no joke.

Unknown Speaker 5:38
It's not in what I found is, a lot of people go about it backwards. They see a grant that's out there, and they try to write a program for the grant. That's your rights. And that's backwards, that's backwards. So your program, if you're in a nonprofit world, you need to build what your nonprofit is about. And then talk about what you need to operate this nonprofit. And then you find a grant that fits within that scope, right? Because then your work because we you're working backwards, you know, they'll see something, oh, I can make this work. But that's why the budget is challenging, because you don't already have the pieces in place.

Unknown Speaker 6:17
So if you're already working the program, you can better answer the questions on the grant, because you're already every day you already have the information. It's just you just simply filling it in. But if you're trying to build a program around the grant, I agree with you. That's that's not the way to go. But that's what

Unknown Speaker 6:32
you find a lot of times interests, which that's what you find, especially with the smaller nonprofits, the larger ones, they they got to figure it out. And people wonder why they always get like why certain larger agencies always get certain funding, because then they are unrestricted funds. So certain agencies and I can give you like Clark Clark County outside agency fund, it used to be around

Unknown Speaker 6:53
and it's still they still have it right. Yeah, they started the grant was SAR County, Clark

Unknown Speaker 6:57
County. And what we found was, it doesn't matter what program you're doing, they are looking for ways to give money to the community, right? So you can use your program that you're writing and apply for those funds. And you can pay for, you know, pay for stuff, but yeah,

Unknown Speaker 7:11
no. Different Yeah. What I usually suggest to organizations is that they stay true to their mission. That's what we're really talking about is staying true to your mission. And then also one of the sessions are series, the weeks that we study in the nonprofit leaders Academy is that program development piece. Yeah. So once your organization has a board, once you have a mission, a vision, then you need to start developing the programs. And sometimes people are visionaries. And I have to will, in my visionary sometimes and say, Listen, just focus on one program for right now. Just get one program going. You know, I know that there are a lot of people out there that needs services, there are a lot of programs that are needed in the community. But if you want to just focus on housing, let's just make that the main thing and focus on housing, because then

Unknown Speaker 8:02
housing goes into different things, right? Because it's housing for veterans, housing for women, battered women is housing for this person. But if you're doing housing stay, there's many different categories. There is a whole lot of different categories with housing. But once you have the housing program set up, then you're just changing the community that you're servicing. Absolutely. So grandma's setup.

Unknown Speaker 8:22
Yeah, way to expand. But then if sometimes people see money over here and food insecurity, and then they want all of a sudden open up the pantry. Okay? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with open up a pantry, but you haven't figured out the housing PCs,

Unknown Speaker 8:37
right? No, because you look at your bigger organizations that do all of that, right. But you got to remember steps to it.

Unknown Speaker 8:42
But they didn't do that stuff overnight. They didn't. It took time, they had to really build and grow

Unknown Speaker 8:48
absolute, but a way you could bring the food in is that when you're dealing with housing insecurities, maybe not have the food pantry, but had the collaboration with someone that does and you use a referral over to that program to do that. And that's what what I loved about some of the nonprofits I worked with is because nonprofits was my that was my thing when I for years is when you build the collaboration and every one you do what you're good at That's right, you do what you do you do what you're good at, and then less refer the clients because the end of the day you want to fill a need, right? And it might take multiple organizations to fill a need because HIV was actually my passion had been my passion for a good decade or so. And it's been some years well decades now since I was

Unknown Speaker 9:34
actually how you engine nice met. That's actually how I met I was

Unknown Speaker 9:37
working I came out here in 80 Right I came out here from Well, it's been my passion since we were in DC and when I came out here that's what I was working on HIV and AIDS and just the programs that are needed and just have a multiple, you know, offering multiple services testing you know, just different things but let you need to do what you're good at. Right? And then you become good at master something and then Want to master snatch?

Unknown Speaker 10:00
Right? Absolute? So

Unknown Speaker 10:01
Mr. Nice. How long have you owned? Grant me success? Tell me a little bit about your business. So we

Unknown Speaker 10:07
start I started grant me success, I say we now because I just hired my first employee relations. That's you and my first contractor originally, yes, thank you. So we are expanding. So I say we but I started grant me success in 2017. So just this month celebrated six years in business. It was. Thank you so much. And I actually started my business based on some inspiration from here at UNLV. UNLV is my alma mater. My background is in social work. And I got a master's from here at UNLV and public administration. And I was attending a workshop by the Brookings Institute, that's one of the institute's here at UNLV. And the presenter at the time was sharing information about federal grants. And that Nevada is considered what we call a donor state in the grant world. And what that means is that Nevada, we give more tax dollars back to the federal government than we receive from the federal government in grant dollars. And so basically, we're not getting our fair share our share of the pie. Now, our neighboring states, you know, the ones that are going, you know, you got it New Mexico, New Mexico, Colorado, they're getting more grant dollars than Nevada, Nevada was like 50th, at that time at that presentation, 2015. Wow. And so with my background in social work, I've always worked with nonprofit organizations or government entities. And either my position was funded by a grant or the entire organization was funded by a grant or a portion, a program within the organization was funded by grants. So I knew that I could do something about it, you know, I could do my part. And I've always been a person that I just looked around me, and I wanted to see how I could be of service. And I said, You know what, I can write some grants, I can write some grants. So I know that I can help to bring some grant dollars here to the state of Nevada. So start my business in 2017, and have just been going on and flourishing since that time.

Unknown Speaker 12:23
Well, we appreciate that because no one Nevada's a donor state, and it's just applying now. Yeah, applying and having a good application getting the application approved, and then getting the funding but more important spending the funding.

Unknown Speaker 12:36
Absolutely. And that's one of the key things. So the reason why Nevada was a donor state and giving away more tax dollars than they were receiving is because they just wasn't asking. Not asking. That's it's not, it's just not asking. And other states more frequently, putting those applications in grants is kind of like a numbers game. It's not just a numbers game, meaning the frequency in which you ask for it, but like you said, producing quality and competitive applications. So grant writing is really a technical skill. And a lot of people could do it. You know, if you have knowledge about a particular topic, you're passionate about it, all you need to do is develop the technical skill of grant writing, which is why I teach the have the grant writing Academy teach people to take the knowledge that you have the passion that you have, and put a little sauce on it and submit these applications and get this money get this grant money class

Unknown Speaker 13:32
starts November 1, November 1. How

Unknown Speaker 13:34
do we how do we how do we get in contact with

Unknown Speaker 13:36
my website, grant me success.com www dot grant me success.com I'm also on social media, Facebook, grant me success. Just look for grant me success and on Instagram grant me success as well.

Unknown Speaker 13:50
And for some of you old timers that in that really savvy with the internet, you can call your office number is 702-440-9390 contact or at what numbers 702-440-9390.

Unknown Speaker 14:09
But I want to also say when they write the grant, make sure to budget matches the narrative. Oh, absolutely. Make sure to budget read, just read the narrative. Make sure the budget matches the narrative. So if you say you're going to help 200 people, make sure that you budget for 200 people and not 2000 It doesn't make it just makes you know you because those those are the little things they're looking for to see if you if we give you this money. Can you manage it?

Unknown Speaker 14:39
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the other things that encouraged me to go ahead and jump out there and start my business as a grant writer is that when I was when I was younger, when I was early on in my career, I shared an office with one of the management analysts at The organization that I was working at Southern Nevada health district. And when I shared an office with that person, that person was the budgets person as the management analyst. And I would hear and I would see, and I would soak in information. And I would ask her to teach me some things. And she would, and she said, You know what, you know how you need to learn how to write grants. She said, Go and learn how the government scores grants. Yes. So I became a federal grant reviewer, and I reverse engineered, and I learned actually how to read and score grants before I ever became a grant writer. Why, and I dedicated about 10 years into that before I ever became a grant writer. That's some great

Unknown Speaker 15:39
experience. Yeah, actually get to see them, look at them, read them, and then check for the score, then Gordon know what they're looking for know what they're looking for, know, and then be able to take all those tips and tricks back and work for other people and other organizations. That's super fantastic. That's amazing. So if other nonprofits want to hire you to write grants for them, do you have the time?

Unknown Speaker 16:03
Yeah, absolutely. And then like I said, I'm building a team now. Okay. And so what I find is very important, though, even if people hire me, I understand that it's better to teach people how to fish, right. And then like I said, they're going to need to manage this grant is well, I can help to teach them to manage the grant. But I find that organizations really benefit the best if they understand from beginning to end the grant process. So one, how to find grants, where do you find grants as appropriate for your organization? How to write the grant, when you receive the grant? How do you do program evaluation? That's right, program evaluation, and then how you manage this money. Many people think that when they receive a grant, they they just get a check, no. Say that again?

Unknown Speaker 16:55
No. Say that again? Because is the grant something where they're going to advance you money, their language? Or are they going to reimburse you as you spend? And that is another challenge for a lot of organizations because they get a reimbursable grant, where you have to spend x amount of dollars before you get reimbursed on approved items you can't just spend, right? So it's a it's a it's an interesting dance. But once you master it, it's simple.

Unknown Speaker 17:26
It's very detailed. And that's why I have grant preparation services first when I work with new clients. So usually the first step and working with a client is not just the write their grant, for me, I want to do an assessment, right. That's my social work background. We do assessments first, before we just start applying treatments. We just did a

Unknown Speaker 17:45
document. Right, exactly. We talked about that all the time. Have your documents in

Unknown Speaker 17:51
order. Absolutely. So I have a checklist and we run through that checklist. And I say, Do you have your 501? C three document? Yeah, yeah, we're nonprofit, we're 501 C three, I want to see a determination letter. Or what I do is I just go on the IRS website, myself, and I go to tax exempt search. And I look to see if I can find that. That 501 C

Unknown Speaker 18:11
three documentation. Because if you are a smaller nonprofit, you have to file a return every year. Because if you don't file, and we talk about this, if you don't file in three years, your exemption gets revoked. And I can't tell you the number of people that they started it maybe three years ago, and they believe they got that determination letter, which they did. But if you didn't file those returns, you are now revoke you

Unknown Speaker 18:39
provide us was removing if you didn't make a lot of money, even if they have a small nonprofit, and we had to file and Lea helped us out. And she was like, Well, how much money did you make? And we told her she was like, Oh, that's not a lot. I can just file it this way. Because a certain way you have to file based on how much money you bring in. But if even if you only receive a $250 donation, you still have to tell file every

Unknown Speaker 19:01
year you got it? Well, no. And with that, it's a simpler form. It's just an information return. But you want to file the postcards, right? And the time just getting it. If you haven't, you just file every year, just file it every year. So that way, you don't have to worry about it getting revoked because it's a little challenging to get it back.

Unknown Speaker 19:20
It takes time. You bring that up. And there's a young lady and my nonprofit leaders Academy now and part of the nonprofit leaders Academy is offer them some complimentary consultations one on one. And I'm glad that this young lady scheduled the appointment with me because while we were there during our consultation on Zoom, I said let me just go and look up your nonprofit organization now. Went to the IRS website. And guess what, there's all this status was revoked. Seamus, she didn't know I should let me share the screen and let me show you what I'm talking about and direct you to it. You need to get in touch with an accountant. I think I Need to make a referral possibly to croffer and his management group, but we do so we

Unknown Speaker 20:05
do because with the revoke status, there's just some returns that have to be filed. It is a process. And we, we've been doing it for years. But more importantly, just reaching out to our clients and letting them know, because they're not aware of the Secretary of State, you have to pay the Secretary of State every year. Yes, I think it's 50. But is it is it is it is, but you know, they're like, Well, I'm not doing anything doesn't matter. Doesn't matter, doesn't matter. As part of you setting up this nonprofit and having this vision to do this, there are certain things that you must do every year, every year. So to stay in good standing

Unknown Speaker 20:43
paperwork, or same paperwork you need for a for profit business you need for your nonprofit business, your licensing has to be in order, your state licensing your city licensing your county licensing the same things we talked about.

Unknown Speaker 20:57
Now, do you help clients with the state tax exemption? Because that's something totally different?

Unknown Speaker 21:02
Yes, absolutely. So that's through the Nevada Treasurer's Office taxation, taxation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you taxation. So first, we we have to get them established as a 501. C three first. Yes. So we go through everything to get that paperwork done, they get incorporated in the state of Nevada, then once they get their 501 C three determination letter from the IRS, then that's when we can go to taxation and say, Hey, can we apply for sales tax exemption? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 21:35
because that's the other that's the other part, people assume, you know, I got this nonprofit set up on my written, that's another application.

Unknown Speaker 21:42
That's another there's another application, they want a business plan.

Unknown Speaker 21:45
They want they want a business plan. And they want to they want to well documented, what do you plan to do? What are you anyone volunteer hours and some more stuff? It's a very detailed application. And what we were finding is, people would set up the nonprofits, and then they will come to us and some of them have been established for years. And I'm like, where's this state tax exemption? And they will look at me, huh, I didn't know. Okay, yeah, let's go. Let's do it.

Unknown Speaker 22:11
There's levels to this. There's

Unknown Speaker 22:12
levels to this. So business plans, and we always talk about this. Business plans are needed for profit, and nonprofit is marketing plans are needed for profits and nonprofits.

Unknown Speaker 22:24
It is, because when you are applying for grants, it makes it much more easier to apply for the grant. When either you or you're working with a grant writer or someone within your organization, when they can use that information to write from, I usually tell people that when you work with somebody like me, as a grant writer, I'm really just a ghost writer, right? Like you know your organization's life, you are just telling me the story of your organization, whether it's verbally or by your website, or the documentation that you have. And then I use that information to technically write about your organization. But I can't make your story up. Right? I can't make up the story

Unknown Speaker 23:10
about you, not a story writer, story writer.

Unknown Speaker 23:14
You know, I'm creative. I write creatively, I write creatively. But I'm not here to make stuff up, right? Because we appreciate that I'm not the one that will be held accountable. When you when your organization has to explain what did you do with the money did you do and that's again,

Unknown Speaker 23:31
a lot of grants will surprise you. And you'll fill out the application and you'll receive the grant and they'll wire the money to your account. And then less than a year later, they'll say do you have a report for me?

Unknown Speaker 23:42
Oh, well, yeah, they you're gonna have to do either monthly reports, quarterly reports, semi annual reports, or annual reports.

Unknown Speaker 23:50
So you should but just get in the habit of it. Because I know sometimes you get monies from different foundations that don't require as much. And what we found is with certain nonprofits, if we just told them what we did with the money, even if we didn't spend all the money, but we can document instance, Native Son Spelling Bee, we always document and send them pictures, thank them and things like that. That goes a long way. Because when you come around to ask again, it's not a question, they know that you are going to do the

Unknown Speaker 24:19
work. I was just getting ready to say that if you have documentation, you have photos, you have video, you have write ups in the paper, you have clips from the news, you keep all of that stuff because that tells your story

Unknown Speaker 24:29
it does and then that that's what helps you to once again write another grant or get this same grant renewed for the following year and get more money, right. I helped one client one organization we wrote they had been doing excellent work in the community already for about two three years before they found me. I said okay, let's start writing this up. Let's apply for some grants. We applied for state grant. This was even before the pandemic, we got them $180,000 First time out the gate. That's a blessing. So that's a blessing blessing. Now, I will say that that is a pretty, you know, unique case. All right, not every organization is getting $180,000 first time around. But what was even better for that organization is that the next time they were keeping documentation, keeping history on who they had served the population demographics, what type of services people were receiving, what frequency they had names, addresses, phone numbers, so they had

Unknown Speaker 25:35
viable, verifiable names, addresses and phone.

Unknown Speaker 25:38
Absolutely, yes. And we reapplied and they got double the money the following year doing the work well, just by doing the work and keeping documentation.

Unknown Speaker 25:50
Alright, so let's get that contact information again, because I know we're almost at the end of our show for all

Unknown Speaker 25:55
of you nonprofits out there and need a little bit of help at 702-440-9390. Again, that's 702-440-9390 and if you have access to your computer, www. Grant me success.com

Unknown Speaker 26:14
Denise, I want to say thank you, thank you for taking the time. I know we reconnected again with the downtown Alliance, just taking a class always learning you're always out in the community, telling people about your services, offering your services but also getting educated apps learning how you can be a better business owner because we didn't get a chance to talk about that but we'll talk about that the next time we bring you on absolutely but thank you again for coming. Thank you. Thank

Unknown Speaker 26:38
you again we really appreciate it now

Unknown Speaker 26:40
you miss Rhonda Miss Rhonda Miss Rhonda what's going on.

Unknown Speaker 26:42
Oh my god, we have so much going on in Las Vegas.

Unknown Speaker 26:45
I just want to say LV feiyr.com So we talked with David Ricketts last week, LV fires.com If you want to fire blanket, I'm gonna keep on promoting it. He taught me He scared me and made me realize that I don't do a lot of stuff right but it's okay. I'm gonna not charge my cell phone up overnight and all that other stuff. But LV fires.com They will come out doing fire inspection of your house check your fire, um, your smoke detectors, and you get a free fire blanket. Just cool by just filling out the questionnaire. So LV fires.com And we got some youth cooking shows. Coming up. 100

Unknown Speaker 27:19
black men in Las Vegas has a lot going on in next couple of weeks. Next Tuesday is the virtual youth cooking class with executive chef dia Yang. So if you signed up your loved one, they're gonna have fun on Tuesday night for the cooking class. Also next week is a very big week. If you'd like to find out more programs about the 100 black men of Las Vegas, the citywide mentorship program information session that will take place on Wednesday, October 25. At the Doolittle Community Center at 6pm and learn about all the different programs we have to offer and find out how you can get your children set up for success. And all you have to do is go to eventbrite.com to RSVP is no charge for anything. Light Refreshments will be served. One day does that again. That is Wednesday. The 25th of October is

Unknown Speaker 28:10
my grandmother's birthday. Oh Hi Grandma. Hi, grandma. Yeah, okay. Okay, so we're going to do little, and we can sign up and y'all this is the banking class. This is the investment class. Yes. And all the other programs that 100 Blackman is offering in our community. And just so you know, they give out for the banking class and investment class, the children get $200 for participating if they are successful in participating. Yes. And it's real, because I cashed I cashed checks. Yes, I cashing checks. In addition

Unknown Speaker 28:38
to that, and 100 black men in Las Vegas gives out a lot of scholarships. Yes, they do. The only requirement is that you're part of our mentoring program. So if you participate in our cooking class and our banking class or investment class or any other class we may have, then you are ready to apply for a scholarship when it's time for you to go to college or do a trade or whatever it is you want to do after you turn 18. So

Unknown Speaker 28:58
what we're saying guys do to work is there the money's there. We're going to show you how to get to it. Well Until next week, Miss Rhonda, I know we all met till next week and until next week, peace and blessings Las Vegas

Unknown Speaker 29:09
bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai