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Quit your toxic nonprofit job and replace your full-time income while writing grants part-time, from home! Join our students in the Freelance Grant Writer Academy to create Financial Stability and Flexibility through writing grants for causes you are passionate about: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy
World-renowned grant writing expert and Amazon bestselling author Holly Rustick provides coaching that helps new and experienced grant writers replace their full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or anywhere they want to live or travel in the world).
She coaches changemakers to master grant writing and start to grow 6-figure+ grant writing businesses on part-time hours via her signature group program, “Freelance Grant Writer Academy."
As an unapologetic feminist, Holly’s work in coaching female grant writers to master grant writing, find their cause-area niche, and navigate value-based pricing and nonprofit sales is breaking glass ceilings for women all over the world.
Every week, she coaches thousands of people through the top-ranking podcast, Grant Writing & Funding, books on grant writing, and inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy.
Holly has 20 years of experience in grant writing, and began her freelance grant writing journey back in 2005. While teaching in Kuwait and Indonesia, and then earning a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy in Belgium, Holly saw the light of setting up a virtual-based business in grant writing back in the mid-2000s. Having secured more than $45 million of dollars for nonprofit organizations, and then setting up a multi 6-figure freelance business, Holly has a mission to help female grant writers break out of toxic nonprofit J-O-B-S and create high-level income while freelance grant writing.
Inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy, students have secured more than $225+ million in grant funding and $4+ million in revenue in their grant writing businesses within two years.
To amplify this work, she is past-president of the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce and was appointed to the Guam Business Advisory Task Force as an advisor to the first female governor of Guam. Holly lives on the island of Guam with her beautiful daughter, Isabella.
If you are interested in replacing your full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or from anywhere in the world!) join the Freelance Grant Writer Academy!
Welcome to the Grant Writing and Funding podcast, the world's top ranked podcast since 2017 on grant writing and, you guessed it, funding. I'm your host, Holly Rustick. And here at GWF, we have a movement for grant writers to secure $1,000,000,000 in grants for amazing causes in the world and 25 to $30,000,000 in their grant writing businesses. We are well on our way there with hundreds of millions of dollars of grants already secured and millions of dollars secured in client contracts through our two signature programs, the freelance grant writer academy and the grant professional mentorship, where hundreds of students at any given time are working on replacing their full time income on flexible hours, writing grants from home for causes and missions they are passionate about. To learn more about our movement, be sure to check out our newsletter, write grants, get paid, and go to grantwritingandfunding.com to check out our free grant class and resources.
Holly Rustick:Now let's get into our podcast episode so you can learn how to win grants and advance impact in the world. Hello. Hello. Hello. It's Holly Rustic here with Grant Writing and Funding.
Holly Rustick:I'm really excited today to bring a special guest to our show, a nonprofit founder and executive director and that's Shilpa Alba of Surge for Water. Really excited to be talking about your nonprofit, how your nonprofit has been able to continue to get funding in 2025 and all of the things going on in the world today. You are doing so many good things with helping just all the areas with access to water and all of the things. So I'm really excited that you're here. Welcome.
Holly Rustick:Welcome, Shefla.
Shilpa Alva:Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Holly Rustick:Yeah. I'm really excited. So I know we talk, we're like in, so we're in different time zones right now. You said, oh, I'm gonna be traveling too, too. And all of the things.
Holly Rustick:And I know your nonprofit has really grown, but can you just, like, let the listeners or the viewers know yes, we're on YouTube, y'all let them know if, like, about this nonprofit, Search for Water. I was doing some research on it in my bed last night, like, scrolling on it, and I was like, This is such nonprofit. I'm really excited about it. As I've mentioned, I've worked overseas as well, where we've helped just in partnerships with access to clean water and projects in that way, just smaller projects, not like yours, but I would love to hear more about your nonprofit, Search for Water.
Shilpa Alva:Yes, thanks for this opportunity, Holly. So yes, Search for Water, we're a woman founded, woman led organization that provides comprehensive water plus solutions. And the reason we call it water plus is because we start with water and we go beyond. So our work includes safe water solutions like wells and rainwater harvesting, solar systems, things like that, anything to provide access and purification. But then we go beyond that to comprehensive work that includes sanitation.
Shilpa Alva:So toilets and schools and healthcare facilities, we do hygiene, which provides education how to produce soap, basic, something that basic and essential or training around critical hygiene practices. And then the last pillar of our work is menstrual health, where we work with young adolescent girls and we educate them on the changes in their body, like confidence and breaking down stigma and taboos and also ensuring that they have the resources and the tools to have basically practice their men their menstruation, I would say with dignity and be able to continue to go to school. So that's what we do. I think the uniqueness of us is how we do it and where we do it. We, our approach is very centered on women's voices and their leadership.
Shilpa Alva:So woman led and woman centered is a very strong part of our model. The other key part of our model is community ownership. So it's not just communities leading, how do they own their solutions? We have a lot of thoughtful processes that ensure that that happens. And we currently work in Indonesia, Uganda and Haiti, but within those countries, we're in very rural remote communities that are self described as forgotten lands and places where no other international NGOs are working in partnership with local leaders and local organizations to basically help those leaders achieve their vision for comprehensive water plus solutions.
Holly Rustick:I love that so much. And I love the work that you do. Just like you said, it all is together, really. Like, you know what I mean? There's different work that's done together.
Holly Rustick:And I know, like, ending period poverty has been a real thing, right? In Guam, there's been a big effort. You mentioned, even going to school, like a lot of the girls we noticed, like, if they didn't have access sanitary products, they just weren't going to school, right? So it was really impacting a lot of that. So I was happy when my daughter is taking pictures in the school bathrooms and there's a little basket, right?
Holly Rustick:They have, like, these little nonprofits that are helping, like, raise money and just clubs helping raise There's the like there's products so that you know you can have for menstruation products in bathrooms for free, right? I've seen even like I remember what was it? I was at the airport in Chicago I think or Disneyland, I think somewhere. I don't know where I was in The States.
Shilpa Alva:It's a staff on's in the bathroom. Yeah.
Holly Rustick:In the bathroom. And I was like, I remember I'm a Gen X kid. Like, I remember when I lived in The States, it was like a quarter after driving.
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, yeah, yeah. People don't have that anymore. No one's scaring around quarters.
Holly Rustick:No one's scaring around quarters. Yeah. So I was like, that's, I really love that you're doing that work too. And that's so important, you know, to help with education and just like what's going on with your body, you know, because it's not talked about a lot. So, so, so good.
Shilpa Alva:Yeah. And many of the girls, like in the places we work in, don't have that access to products. So part of that program is educating on how to make their own reusable sanitary products. And then some of them who are enterprise and even start making them for sale, and there's all these like cool things that have happened from that, but yeah, they learn how to make their own pads as well.
Holly Rustick:Right, and then do you, I mean, not to get like in the weeds of this or anything, but I know like when I was in Indonesia back in 'five, 2005, and I remember we had brought a lot of deep My friend that I was working with, she had actually had a company send her a bunch of DivaCups, right? But this is before it was mainstream. It was in an area that it was more conservative, right? A Muslim conservative area. Yes, and they, you know, the diva cups were like, no, we'll do pads.
Holly Rustick:But you know what I mean? There's also, like, cultural things or just, you know, comfort if it's mainstream, if it's normalized, like, all of that with the different types of products. So do you feel like the ones that they're creating are more you know what I mean? Like, what they're comfortable with?
Shilpa Alva:That make So one that creating they're comfortable, yes, they are because we've met them where they're at. And interestingly, it's still a thing. We just, every now and every few years we introduce cups, but we do it in a very careful way. Like we do it to the midwives, we do it to first the trainers and the educators need to use it and only if they're comfortable. Then it starts moving, but it actually interestingly in the place where I work in Indonesia, they did it didn't go further than the the community leaders.
Shilpa Alva:Well, like, we don't want this product. So you're like, we don't force it because they're just still not used to it. But in Uganda, it's been received really well in the community vein, but it really just depends. And, you know, we just it goes slow and you see what's what's applicable. And you know what?
Shilpa Alva:You need water to wash it. So you gotta be careful too, like in these environments, like what you bring in and a cup not being clean is way more detrimental than a pad not being clean. Both should be clean, but one can cause even more infections. Yeah.
Holly Rustick:Yeah. It's interesting, right? So it's like working with that and I always was like, okay, yeah, I don't think that's gonna work here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's like a great idea.
Holly Rustick:It's kind of that westernization approach to like going into places, but I love that you're doing it the opposite where you're working with the leaders and you're working with the community and finding out even, okay, so we can get off the topic for a second now. We can talk about like the water pump we had worked with an Australian nonprofit to come in and put in. And I know like even that was like, there has to be a system you have to pump it so many times every day like you know what I mean there has to
Shilpa Alva:be a
Holly Rustick:lot of education and if yes if that's even going to be something they also did compostable toilets and I know those didn't Right? So it was like the same thing. Like, there's education, though, to stay or, like, how to take care of these things or if that's even really wanted. Right? So that's I love that you're working with the local leaders because I've seen a lot of flaws when folks go out into areas and then it's like great ideas, great intentions, but not applicable or not long, you know, do not sustain
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, don't sustain over time exactly because it just wasn't the right solution.
Holly Rustick:Right. So how do you feel like, is it just working with the local leaders that really helps them? Like you find out for them what's really needed? Like can you talk about that process a little Yeah.
Shilpa Alva:So we don't have, like we're product agnostic, right? Like when I say we do water sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health, there's so many versions of that that can be implemented. And so it really depends on what the need is in that community. And then we go even further. So there's multiple aspects, right?
Shilpa Alva:Like one is, really like what's around there? What are they used to? It's not like we're not bringing innovations to innovative stuff, but even if we are, can it be maintained? Where are the local parts coming for? Sorry, where are parts coming from?
Shilpa Alva:Are they locally sourced? Can they get replaced? Do they have the engineering knowledge? Like, when now we're building solar production wells, who's gonna maintain that? So there's all these different angles of it.
Shilpa Alva:And yeah, the crux of all of it is the community partners that we work with and what's their capabilities. And then the training off, every water source has a water service committee, a water sanitation committee that is responsible for the upkeep. And part of our programming is that we provide trainings and repeat trainings to those groups. And then we also have a monitoring program that helps monitor projects well, way beyond when they were implemented. So we're not dropping into like an area and leaving because we're working with local partners, they're deeply, they're from there, so they're deeply integrated.
Shilpa Alva:And then we also work in every level with the government. So we're working with the departments of health, the departments of education, just like the district water offices, who actually, it's their solutions. These are usually government schools, usually government hospitals. So at the end of everything, you're handing it over to them. So they're involved every step of the way from what's the solution that we're bringing in, the implementation, there's co ownership and cost sharing.
Shilpa Alva:And then there's the final handover. It's a very formal, like in Indonesia, there's a beautiful ceremony and papers are stamped, things are signed, things like that are happening. And that formality is important because it's how they would signify a significant exchange. And we respect those processes. And I think everything together is what helps with that long term.
Shilpa Alva:And then even after that, we're continuing to monitor, right? And provide that support through the local teams.
Holly Rustick:I think, I mean, that's so good. I'm so glad you're doing that. That's a lot of work to do as well. Yes, it's a deal.
Shilpa Alva:And look at cost, work, and yeah, the resources, And
Holly Rustick:I think moreover, what I'm hearing from this, and this is what we're hearing about grants, we're gonna segue into that a little bit too, is on trust, right? It's trust, it's building relationships and that takes time to build relationships, especially when you're going to other communities, other cultures, they have, you know, other processes, you know, and you're going into multiple places. It's not like you're just learning how this one area operates with their laws and like, there's this, like that whole thing, the bureaucracy, right? That's a whole layer of itself, but then building relationships and building trust within that. So like, and I feel like when as we're kind of going to segue into the grants, like as you mentioned in the green room, so y'all get to hear, primarily you guys like foundation grants, right?
Holly Rustick:So you haven't tapped into federal grants yet, you're tapping into foundation grants, and with foundation grants, a lot of that is building relationships. It sounds like that's almost like the work that you're really in as well.
Shilpa Alva:It's building relationships. Yeah, on both sides with the funders and with the communities.
Holly Rustick:So can we talk about that a little bit? How much is it to run this program, right? Like you guys are working in multiple countries, like what's your annual operating budget? How have you been able to cover those costs? Like, on a very pragmatic side, like, what does that look like for you all?
Shilpa Alva:So this year, our operating budget is $1,700,000 and very excited because this year's budget, I think, is more than what it was two years ago. So we have doubled in size, assuming we hit our budget. So putting good energy on that. Yes, we're looking at growth this year. And yeah, so within that, just like from an expense standpoint, just like every other org, got money that goes to programs, the cost of fundraising, and then the cost of just the management and admin.
Shilpa Alva:And we are a very lean team. So we do a lot of our stuff in house and we do what we hire consultants. Like, we were talking earlier in the green room as well about in the future, like I could see us like working with a freelance grant writer, right? Because as we grow, we would need that resource. But right now, as of March, there were three of us who are full time, but prior to that, there were two of us, right?
Shilpa Alva:And the third person is entirely dedicated to the program side of it and managing those programs because they've gotten more complex with our growth. But the two of us are focused on the marketing, the fundraising, the financial management, like all the other things, the operations that run this organization. And then we're also supported by contractors and things like that. So that's sort of the high level. And then when you asked about funding from that budget, about 40% last year came from what we call grants and foundations.
Shilpa Alva:So that was the mix and that's significant increase. So that was a big drive towards our growth as well. So we've been doing well in that space, which has driven some of that growth that I've been talking about.
Holly Rustick:Okay, so you get, and that is a very lean team for, you know, 1,700,000.0 budget for a three full time, like that is a lean team. And as you mentioned, you have contractors too. But okay, so 40% was this year of annual operating budget from grants, right? What about prior to that? And you said now that's really driven the growth of the organization, but where does the other 60% come from?
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, it's actually, and then this is just like last year because we've had a quite a change in the last few years. So just last year, like 40% was grants and like 30% was individuals and the other 30% was just corporate money outside of grants, right? So not through their foundations through CSR budgets, marketing budgets, things like that. So we're like, it's very clean, thirty, thirty, forty sort of mix a little bit. There's a little bit of an other category of like, things sold and things like that.
Shilpa Alva:That's very tiny, but it's pretty much. And we actually, Holly, like did a very intentional thing three to four years ago. I can't even remember the exact timeframe, but we decided to strongly focus on corporate funding and to go after corporate money. So we actually, we are working with a corporate consultant that represents us, like, and goes out and tries to find this corporate funding. And interestingly, a lot of that outreach led to the road of like, yes, great.
Shilpa Alva:We built a relationship with the people in the corporate offices and then they were like, please meet our foundation. Now you can apply to our grant in this foundation. But it started with corporate outreach. We were hoping that we didn't need to go down a grants process and you're like, here you go. Like, we're gonna support you through this marketing budget.
Shilpa Alva:But many of those conversations led to the foundations and that's the door that we entered. It's coming from the same investment.
Holly Rustick:Was there like a fear or something about applying to grants or was there a hesitation for that? Or was it just like not
Shilpa Alva:No, I don't think it was that. I think it was a couple of things. I think we applied to as many grants as we could do from a capacity perspective that aligned with us. We went, I think a lot of like EDs and small organizations go through this. First, there was a period we tried to apply to everything.
Shilpa Alva:And this is prior to AI, right? So you're just doing it all yourself and spending all this stuff. And then our success rates were very low and then we're like, okay, this doesn't make sense. And then we cleaned up and we're like, okay, it really has to make sense. We were to look at the, do the research, pass funders, pass grantees or in all of those things.
Shilpa Alva:And we got more like selective about what we applied for. And then it started working really well. The part that changed was not like, it was just that we never had access to that. Like some of this is like, you need to have an employee like vouch for you, right? You need to have an introduction.
Shilpa Alva:Like so many of them are invite only. And then you have to have had a person, like an example, you have to have an employee volunteer for one year before you can apply. So it's like figuring out these inner workings. One was you have to have the country office, either Indonesia, Uganda, or Haiti apply on your behalf. So even going through that process and trying to figure out how to get into the grants application has been a journey.
Shilpa Alva:And as we've gotten those opportunities, we'll happily apply because then you have an employee vouching for you and saying, Hey, I'm introducing you. That's your biggest like entry point. And that's gone really well. I have almost a 100% success rate from going down that path because we've already done all that work upfront and then we're confident, right? We know that once we get this chance, if the company is really gonna give you that money, I shouldn't say a 100%, there have been a couple of rejections, but I'm not counting them.
Shilpa Alva:Those were the completely unreasonable ones. The ones we really thought we were gonna get, we got.
Holly Rustick:And thank you to Grant EZ Management Software for sponsoring today's podcast episode. We love GEMS, Grant Easy Management Software, because GEMS is a software tool that organizes all of your grants. It also gives you an opportunity to invite your nonprofit clients into the software, and you can put every single grant you submitted. You can also put every single note with funding sources that you've connected to. At a click of a button, you can see everything that's pending, everything that's been secured, everything that's been denied, and your clients can see that as well.
Holly Rustick:We love that GEMS actually says, hey, bring GEMS into your meeting with your nonprofit clients so you can show them exactly where you're at with all of the grant writing strategy as you are working with them. And there's even a time tracker inside of GEMS so you can track your time with all of your clients. Never miss a deadline again. Never miss a document again. Go ahead and join GEMS, Grant Easy Management Software.
Holly Rustick:Sign up for a free demo today, and you can also get a $50 off coupon code when you mention g w f, Holly, h o l l y. Go to grantwritingandfunding.com/gemsgems. And that goes back to, like like you said, first off, it was just you were sending too many grants. Didn't make any sense. Yeah,
Shilpa Alva:like everywhere.
Holly Rustick:Yeah. You had some success, but then what's really been successful is this relationship with your, the corporate relationships that you've already built, sounds like, right? So, yeah, and I heard so many people, I mean, even in the academy and the mentorship and our programs, and they'll be like, oh my gosh, there's so many grants out there I would love to apply for, but they say you can't apply, like you can't solicit, you know what I mean? Like you said, you have to, like doors are closed, we only have preselected organizations and there's so much of that and they're always asking, how do we get past the gatekeeper? So it sounds like you figured that out in a different type of way with also saying, well, let's first target corporates as sponsors, right?
Holly Rustick:And then if they say no, maybe they'll introduce that target.
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, that's pretty much it. Yes, exactly.
Holly Rustick:So smart, it's duplicating it, you know, or you're not duplicating it, you're able to replicate it almost, or repurpose it in a way. And I think that's really good for your time management as well to be like, okay, well, we can try to get it this way or maybe we'll get it that way, but we'll just go with this one action first. Is that kind of, am hitting that?
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I think the, you know, depending on the kind of grants you get, like a lot of grants, at least in the water space are, is restricted money. And a lot of times when you get the money from like a corporate budget, it's unrestricted. Most nonprofits want unrestricted money, right? That's sort of like our first, obviously our preference is that you build relationship with a particular division department and it's coming out of a marketing CSR, like something like that.
Shilpa Alva:And of course, if companies aren't able to do that, we're also very happy to be connected to their foundations. Absolutely, so it really, it just depends. I mean, we go with whatever works for the company. Yeah. And then it still has to align within there, right?
Shilpa Alva:And if it doesn't, so of course there've been conversations when you get to the point where you're like, okay, this doesn't match. Like we're not gonna be able to apply from, you know, but if it gets to the point that we're applying, then I think all parties are saying like, yeah, we're a good match and we should be trying. Received several invite only through this path, which has been great because yeah, it's a really exclusive world. So you're absolutely right. There are many more that we haven't been able to target.
Shilpa Alva:And I will clarify that the ones we've gotten access to are corporate foundations. I think the ones that are just foundations on their own or family, those are still much harder, right? Because there's no other way to get to them. You just have to go to the foundation. So the places we've had success with are the corporate foundations.
Holly Rustick:I love that so much. And even as you mentioned, you had hired someone even to help you strategically find these corporate sponsors and that sort of thing. Is your method? Because we also teach that corporate sponsorship, but I usually delve more into engage the board, who their relationships are, activating them, but it sounds like you kind of did this a different way, which is really cool. So can you kind of talk about that?
Holly Rustick:Like, is it cold pitches? Are they trying to get you at board meetings to do a short five minute presentation? Or like, what is the kind of like, how do they even build that relationship?
Shilpa Alva:Yes. So we definitely, I think it was multiple. I will also say, I mean, was quite stressful as a founder, right? Because when we started this, you're like, okay, you're gonna have to put in an investment before you even get the return because this takes a while to get like decent amount of money, like from a corporate partner. And so that was very stressful, I will say, but now we're past that and money is coming in, the first year, that's hard and it takes a lot of trust.
Shilpa Alva:It goes back to the trust comment you made. And for us, it was a couple of things. We definitely did the low hanging fruit, like who does the board know or all of those contacts who can do deduce them to, right? Like, So we went down that path and we got some introductions and that did work. That did lead to some of the money that we eventually got.
Shilpa Alva:The other angle was we've developed a strategy of what kinds of companies, right? So like in the water space, like who are the companies that are possibly not touched or not giving out money or if they are, it's us, it's someone else plus us, right? So it was quite strategic on like narrowing down a list in the water space. Where are they going? What conferences do they show up at?
Shilpa Alva:And then our consultant Peter is his name. So give him a shout out right now. He's quite persistent, and then does the classic things of like reaching out on LinkedIn and his whole process of like the sales bar, which is he tells me what he does, but I'm not part of that process. He brings me in later. So that's quite a good role that I have there, but there is a lot of how many people are you reaching out to and who's responding based on that.
Shilpa Alva:Obviously, you know, I don't know those specific numbers from his side. What I can see is the success side, like how many of those actually turned into conversation. And then when a conversation happened, it's multiple things. Like, just did a presentation to an employee group yesterday. Right?
Shilpa Alva:And that's like an initial first engagement. Sometimes it's different. Sometimes the company gives us money and then by the end of it, present to our employees, right? Or sometimes we've been invited to speak at huge conferences at the companies, right? So like when they have large meetings, there's been different ways we've posted employees from corporate foundations at our sites, right?
Shilpa Alva:So there's been employee engagement has been a very important part for almost every corporate partner that has come in. Members of their company's staff members have served on our boards, right? So those are the opportunities that they can get involved. So we present these different ways of getting involved and then depends on what fits for that company. And then at our size, can be adaptable to that, right?
Shilpa Alva:And we're also very, we're not just doing it because, okay, need to do this for the funding. We also make sure we're very clear that it's beneficial, like to both parties, like mutually beneficial, right? That's a more efficient way to say it. And that's important to us. We're not just doing things to like get the funds, I guess.
Holly Rustick:Are you like analyzing like their values and does it align with yours and
Shilpa Alva:all of
Holly Rustick:the things? Right? Yeah. So, yeah. And I think that's great.
Holly Rustick:Have you ever done like employee volunteerism? Like, I know you said like on the board, but like in any of the communities or no?
Shilpa Alva:We have not necessarily employee volunteerism, but we have taken, because we don't do that, that's not our model. We used to back in the day, but it shifted. We've learned a lot more since those days. So we don't do that anymore. But what we do is we have taken corporate partners to visit the sites.
Shilpa Alva:So they're not volunteering. They're just They're meeting local leaders. They're understanding our strategy. They're meeting our local partners. They're not doing anything, not building a well or painting a toilet, but they're there to see the work and to assess the work and to have those conversations with us and join us in meetings and in strategic conversations and in workshops is something that makes sense along those lines, but not the volunteering part of it.
Holly Rustick:Okay. Was just kind of ringing a bell. My colleague, Rachel Waterman, she's been doing that. Like, in Brazil, she lives in Brazil and, like, taking people, like different monitors down there.
Shilpa Alva:I was like,
Holly Rustick:Oh, that's so interesting. But yeah, I would see like, it would depend on what that looks like too, because that could feel intrusive as well. Or, you know, there's like all the things in certain Different
Shilpa Alva:ways, yeah.
Holly Rustick:But I like that yeah the ability to to be a part of the movement in a way or to us being on the board or just hearing what's going on and then with that are you doing like follow-up reports like how do you keep the sponsors? Do they keep renewing in their sponsorship? Is it an annual sponsorship? Or do they like do you try to set something up where it can be, you know, ongoing?
Shilpa Alva:We always try to set it up where it can be ongoing. It doesn't always work that way. So three years is what we're saying, right? Like we try to get the thing that doesn't always work, but most of them have been ongoing and have been multi year. Some of the newer ones, it's still to be decided.
Shilpa Alva:So it depends. So if it's a corporate partnership that's out of, not in the grants process, then yes, we do try to like at an annual cycle, right? Like go back to them, but we do report because again, a lot of our funding is restricted, but even if it's not restricted, it is, we will come back and be like, here's the well you built, here's the toilets, right? Like here's the stories of impact. And so we do provide a very detailed impact report for the funding.
Shilpa Alva:And then from grants, you just have to follow, as you know, we'd have to follow that process. Like you have to submit your grant reports and the goal there is to get it done in time. A lot And of some of them are like, Oh, you can't apply for next grant until you are done or we better get done. So we can ask for the next round of money. So we do manage that.
Shilpa Alva:Like all of that is managed where we manage those timelines and the reporting and the communication. And then even if we have a direct access to, it goes back to the relationships, right? Like even if we don't, a lot of them you like need to submit your final report. There's not even a midterm report for some of them, we don't follow that. Like we still submit updates along the way.
Shilpa Alva:Like as soon as something's done, we try to bring people along because it goes back to that relationship. You don't wanna be forgotten until at the end of the year, you're like, here you go. Like here's your, here's the So we, as much as possible, try to have midpoint check ins that are calls, not just emails, bringing them along, sharing videos, sharing stories, sharing pictures so that they can see that like the money is being put to use as soon as and as fast as possible.
Holly Rustick:I love that keeping up and building those longer term relationships. And so we touched on the grants a bit, we touched on the corporate sponsorships a bit. The individual donors though, that's still quite a bit, 30% of your income. So do you have a newsletter that goes out? Because it sounds like you like to communicate what you're doing a lot, which is great.
Holly Rustick:Is that something how to keep them engaged? Like how do you get new donors? How do you retain them?
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, so the larger percent of our individual donors does come in through our events. So we do have fundraising events. Our fundraising events, right now I like to share with you individuals, corporate and grants, but that's events broken down. But events actually is also about 35, 40% of our revenue. And then you take those events out and then individuals and corporates come into those So we are getting funding from events, which we just finished one and we have another one at the November.
Shilpa Alva:So like, we're definitely in like heavy event mode right now that individuals are coming through that. And then we're, it's really beautiful. Like we've grown with our donors from like the individual perspective. So we had donors, I started this organization in 2008 and some of those donors at that time were points in their career that maybe they were giving $25 or $50 These same donors are executives and own their own companies now. And they've stayed with us.
Shilpa Alva:Our donors have grown as we've grown. So we've seen the benefits of that. And then of course, as you start, we just rebranded and refreshed our messaging and all of those kinds of things has now attracted another level, right? Board connection. We are cultivating it, but I will say because you can't put the small team focus on everything, the value or the amount, and you look at it like from just a pure like gross amount, individual donations is shrinking on our side.
Shilpa Alva:So that's not a good sign because we've been focusing so much more on corporate and on grants and fancy. Yeah, so we are concerned about that, but we can't do everything. So that was a strategic decision and we are seeing the effects of that. So we're trying to keep the ones we have, but it's been quite hard to do all of that and to do all well. And so that has suffered a bit.
Holly Rustick:Yeah. And it can be, if, you know, like you said, events are a huge lift if that's where you're going go, yeah, so it can feel like all these other ways are easier, quote unquote.
Shilpa Alva:Easier, right? Yeah. We have that conversation every year. Like we just said, we're like, should we cancel this? Is it worth it?
Shilpa Alva:Right? We just got the same amount of money and $1. Yeah. Yeah. And then you go
Holly Rustick:through it
Shilpa Alva:and like, you're not ready to walk away.
Holly Rustick:But yeah, it's good to have a balance and I really feel like you have a healthy balance with your mix of funding and I think that's great. But yeah, I could also think about like, what else could we do? Are there any easier events? You know what I mean? Does everything have to be like, what do you tell me about your events?
Holly Rustick:Tell me, what do you do? Well, they're
Shilpa Alva:full on productions. They're crazy. Like they're full on like, Yeah, easy at we do the full gala and the one that's gonna, so we have one in Dubai at the November. And that one is a interior, it's really a cool model actually. So that event is connected to the architecture and interior design community in The UAE.
Shilpa Alva:And yeah, this is I think a twelfth event, I wanna say, that we've done in this space. Every year interior design companies design a piece of furniture lighting or whatever on a theme. So this year's theme is Broken Beautiful And they create the most stunning. I just saw the pictures like this morning actually of the pieces and they're just stunning, like gorgeous, gorgeous pieces. And then the whole event comes around based on these creations.
Shilpa Alva:So we have 16 design teams this year, and then we reveal them at this gala. But the whole industry comes together because these interior designers and who are there, I guess clients are the flow manufacturers, the carpet people, the furniture people. So they all want to come into that room and basically be part of that community because that's like a business environment for all of them. So they're the ones who sponsor the event. And then the pieces are for sale and then everybody buys tickets, including the designers to attend.
Shilpa Alva:So it's everyone's contributing, but it comes together as this beautiful architecture and design community event. And the industry has really taken us on as like their cause. And like everyone looks forward to it because it's like the one night where it's like competition, because they compete, right? In the daytime, like these are all like, and then they come together for this beautiful purpose. And it's still a competition by the way, the best piece wins, but it's more, it's for a cause, right?
Shilpa Alva:So it's like quite beautiful.
Holly Rustick:And you're the center cause. You're the center nonprofit.
Shilpa Alva:We are the only, it's our event. We are the only cause. Raised goes to our work. And it's all I will go to that. Yeah, it's really beautiful.
Shilpa Alva:It's really cool. Such a beautiful niche, the pieces that we produce, like all of it has to be displayed. There's a whole, there's a video shoot going on this weekend in Dubai, right? Like that's a whole, it's a whole thing. That one is actually primarily corporate.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, I'm living in Abu Dhabi. So I know how they do things
Shilpa Alva:in UAE and everything's grand.
Holly Rustick:Like you said, it's a production, I can only imagine. So I would love to be a fly in the wall.
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, so that's done really well for us. That one's actually predominantly corporate funding, the US gala is more individuals and less corporate because The US One was really friends and family and coworkers and it's more for parties. So there's a dinner, but it's more of your like traditional, like band music, silent auction, like what you would normally see, but it's not the complete sit down people speaking at you. Still has a younger, like more fun hip vibe. And the US one, we celebrate the cultures and the like that we work in.
Shilpa Alva:So this year's gala was rhythms of water, and we celebrate, like, the Haitian, Indonesian, and Ugandan cultures through music, dance, food, drinks, things like that.
Holly Rustick:Wow. You guys do all out. I love it so much. Yeah. But it is it's a big lift, like you said.
Holly Rustick:Yeah. Sounds like you kind of do these back to back. These are the two that you're doing right now? Yeah.
Shilpa Alva:Wow. We just completed the US one with September 27 and then the Dubai one is November 27 on Thanksgiving Day.
Holly Rustick:Yeah. Very, very cool. Okay, so yeah, so you have your thing, you have individual donors, they come in through this way as well, and I think that's fantastic, but yeah, it is like, okay, how could we help this even more along? So like, as you mentioned, you have a contractor for helping with corporates to find and identify corporates. And you mentioned you guys do in the in house kind of grant writing yourselves.
Holly Rustick:And then it sounds like you guys do a lot for the events as well. Is that also you doing it?
Shilpa Alva:We do it all in house. It's all in house.
Holly Rustick:So yeah, so I mean, that sounds like maybe at this time, maybe consider another consultant to help you out.
Shilpa Alva:Right? We might've hit our capacity a while ago.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, you know, we do so much. I absolutely love the work that you're doing. And as you mentioned, just really quick, I wanted to touch on this. You did mention, oh, if we were to hire a grant writer, be a freelancer. And I thought that was such an interesting thing because I've seen this switch, and I've been doing this for more than twenty years, but I've seen definitely the switch from nonprofit EDs to go, that's like a first inclination.
Holly Rustick:It's not let's fight, because it used to be let's hire a staff grant writer, And now it's more like, let's hire a freelancer. Like, is that thought process? Because I kind of count that a little bit. I was like, Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.
Holly Rustick:Why would you go straight to freelancer?
Shilpa Alva:I think the way I would see it is like, that's a great way, like without a lot of risk to test it out. Right. And that, I mean, it was as simple as that was from a cost perspective. And it's not like, you know, we still like can do a certain amount internally. So this would be for the add on piece, right.
Shilpa Alva:And then slowly bring that on. So I think as we grow, of course, I can see the need of a full time person, but initially, to me, it's a great balance. And I know you probably end up spending more when you go freelance versus like a full time internal resource, I would assume. I don't know that information, but to me it's like, it's kind of cool because, and then also there's less risk to the writer, right? Then you have other clients.
Shilpa Alva:I honestly, that's probably gonna make, I mean, as long as there's no conflict and you're not working for all water organizations or something like then I think that it's a win win, right? Because then we get the benefits of knowledge that someone's learning across multiple processes. And then we also don't have that heavy cost. And then you grow from there. You grow from there.
Shilpa Alva:It's like, see what happens.
Holly Rustick:I absolutely love that. Yeah, because you're spot on. Like you can start off with a more flexible relationship that works for you. I always tell freelance grant writers, I'm like, it's a win win, right? Because you can make more money as a freelancer than a staff person because you can have multiple clients.
Holly Rustick:But for the nonprofit, it's actually more affordable to work with you than hiring Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it's like this beautiful win win. So because you're not doing all the other duties as necessary, right? Can just lean into the expertise, you can lean into being a grant strategist, you can lean into, even if you spent twenty hours a month with your organization search for water, they could just be focused exclusively on finding grants for you for a search for water, right?
Holly Rustick:For getting, knowing about the water grants that are out there, like the whole thing, right? Like that's the beauty of it. And then you're getting someone who's just focusing on that and their attention isn't everywhere else, right? So even though they're a staff grant writer, they're gonna be doing other things. You're gonna be pulling
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, them in for an owner of our size, absolutely. Yeah. You can't be like writing grants only when we have events.
Holly Rustick:Exactly. Exactly. I love that your brain kind of went there and that more nonprofits, hopefully in these days are like, because they are streamlining their budgets. They're trying to figure out what to do and staff grant writers might not be on deck for them, but the need to kind of offload some of this so they can focus on their events or whatnot is helpful, right, to get that freelancer. Yeah, I just wanted to I just wanted to tune into that for a second because I liked how I've, in the past, I've always heard, Oh, I'm going to hire a grant writer.
Holly Rustick:You know what I mean? Like, that's our first question. Yeah. We're making progress.
Shilpa Alva:And I will say, Holly, this conversation is definitely might be reaching out to you offline to be like, what does this cost? Like how do we do this? Because I do think our fiscal year ends in March. So maybe something we can put into next year's fiscal year, because if you don't wanna invest and we learned that through a corporate consultant, you need to invest and you've gotta take chances in order to be able to grow. Obviously we need to have the money to do that.
Shilpa Alva:But I think this is like also really beautifully timed conversation because we are at that size of other, it is time to be looking at them. And least looking, I don't even know what it costs, right? Like to do something like that. So it's like, it is really important to like, can we afford this? And if not, how do we figure out how to do it?
Shilpa Alva:And what part in our journey does that like goal come in? Because it's limiting our growth and the potential that we have because we're not investing. So should be one of the next steps.
Holly Rustick:Oh yeah, you could absolutely find it where it could fit, meet your budget. Absolutely. And you can go to our grant writer directory where we vet our grant writers.
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, love that. I think
Holly Rustick:that's amazing. Because we have, as I mentioned, I think I was telling you before, because you were like, Oh, what would that look like? And I said, Well, yeah, any grant writer in our grant writing directory, they have to have submitted at least four grants, or won four grants and submitted one for us to review. So we vet them before they're even on our site. And then they have to say what cause area they write grants for, foundation grant, federal grant, state grants, some write off for all of them, but they can be very specific if they're in a certain geographic area, like all of that.
Holly Rustick:So we have like, I don't know, probably 100 grant writers on our directory, but you can streamline it by having that search index. We've updated
Shilpa Alva:that We'll doing that. We'll be doing that.
Holly Rustick:Okay, what would that look like? So definitely, yeah, check that out. I love that. That's helpful because you found how helpful that corporate consultant is for you, right?
Shilpa Alva:How much time? And just skills that I don't have and we don't have internally, right? Skills and time. So it's just, it's great. I can't do the process that he has and he does it brilliantly because that's like his skill sets, same thing.
Shilpa Alva:We've had success by doing grants for ourselves, but what if you actually had a grant writer? We've never had that. Like, what would that do? Like
Holly Rustick:Right. And then you could go Yeah. Get So so good. I love this conversation with you so much, Shelby. Me too.
Holly Rustick:Yeah, I don't often get nonprofit EVs on this show, so I was really excited to be there. I'd love to hear their perspective. And all the grant writers out there, I hope that you're also hearing this different perspective from the inside of what people are doing these days, but this has also been really inspiring just to hear how your nonprofit's growing in 2025 for all of the work that you're doing. And where can they find you? Where can they get more involved, see what you guys are doing?
Shilpa Alva:Yeah, so our organizations on all the social channels, it's search for water or our website, just search for water.org. And then you can reach out to me directly on LinkedIn is probably the best face under my name. I'd love to connect yeah, like, yeah, get to know us and yeah, we're doing some great work and we need everyone's help to keep achieving the mission. Amazing, So open to
Holly Rustick:amazing. And any last words that you have for our community before we sign up today?
Shilpa Alva:I just wanna thank you, Holly, for creating this space. I think it's wonderful. When we started in the green room, was like, yeah, you're creating the funding is coming, right? Like organizations like us need the funds and you've created that space to generate those funds. And I think what's important when you do this kind of work is that it's so complex and that the issues are so large.
Shilpa Alva:And you're talking about the global water crisis, that you need everybody to sort of play their role and then together, right, like we can achieve great things. And I think that that's what I wanna say, but it's cool to be part of a larger community where everyone does their part.
Holly Rustick:Yes, yeah, we're really excited. We're on a mission right now to get to a billion dollars in grants by 2030. So we've already over $250,000,000 that our students have secured for organizations like yours. So really excited. I'm really excited about the work that you're doing.
Holly Rustick:This is how we can do our part to support the beautiful work that you guys are doing to actually change the world and make it better. So we appreciate you. Thank you so much. Yes. All right, Shafa.
Holly Rustick:Well, I will see you. I will hopefully see you again soon, and have a wonderful evening. Thank you for coming on.
Shilpa Alva:You too. Have a wonderful day.
Holly Rustick:I hope you enjoyed today's podcast episode. And if you are still struggling with how to write a grant, it still feels overwhelming. Maybe you're new to it or maybe you're a seasoned grant writer with no processes in place on how to write grants. So every time you onboard a client, it is a lot of work. Make sure you subscribe to our private podcast on how to write a master grant template.
Holly Rustick:When you sign up, you even get a free downloadable master grant template and a workbook. You'll get five episodes that walk you through how to write our master grant template framework that has helped hundreds of people inside our freelance grant writer academy win more than $238,000,000 in grant funding. Go to grantwritingandfunding.com/private-podcast. And if you love this podcast, please do me a favor and leave a review on your podcast player as we love to read each and every review, and this helps other people find the Thank you for listening to our podcast today.