Grants are a key source of support for most nonprofit organizations, particularly new organizations or those starting new programs. Most nonprofits are very focused on getting them; nonprofits devote considerable time, effort, and resources to their efforts in getting private, public, and corporate foundations to give the organization money. Budgeting and financial issues are perhaps the single most troublesome area of grant proposal preparation. This means that too many innovative ideas, too many groundbreaking concepts, too many useful social experiments go forever untried, because the applicant for a grant could not translate their vision into dollars and cents, which is what a financial plan does. And if, in the opinion of the grantor, such a translation does not take place clearly and unequivocally, a grant applicant is doomed to futility, regardless of the best of intentions, clear capability, and abundant experience.
