• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About The Charity Report
    • Editorial
    • The Charity Report: Frequently Asked Questions
  • Bespoke Research About Charities
  • Contact The Charity Report
  • Log In

The Charity Report

... creating a space that gets people talking

Shop Intelligence Reports
  • Photo Essay
  • Features
  • News
  • Literary Circle
    • Literary Circle Review Panel
  • TalkingUP Podcast
  • Intelligence Reports

You Have a Hammer: A state of fundraising being

by Gail Picco, August 25, 2021

Barbara Floersch

You Have a Hammer: Building Grant Proposals for Social Change, Barbara Floersch, Civil Sector Press, January 26, 2021, 115 pp., $28.95

In You Have a Hammer, Barbara Floersch, who assumes the grantwriter knows how to fill in an application, is more interested in how charities and grantwriters are positioning themselves in relation to those with the money to make or break their missions. 

In her introduction, she urges the reader to be well-grounded in what you’re fighting for.

“… if you fail to understand the essence of the work, the dollars in your pocket won’t amount to much when it comes to impact,” she writes. 

Floersch has more than 40 years’ experience in nonprofit administration, grant proposal development, grant management, grant reviewing, and nonprofit consulting. In 2015 she updated and expanded Norton Kiritz’s Grantsmanship: Program Planning & Proposal Writing, a seminal work in the field originally published in 1972, and considered “the bible” of grantwriting by many American fundraisers.

She calls a grant proposal “a particular form of advocacy.” 

By developing and submitting a grant proposal, you’re taking a high-profile stand on an issue and waving a flag to rally assistance and energy. You do the community organizing and collaboration that are required to bring people together and incite action, and when the proposal is righteous, a rejection of your grant request doesn’t stop the momentum. Committed organizations stay the course, make the case, talk it up, and continue to reach out until the necessary pieces, including funding, are in place.

Build partnerships with funders. Be proactive. Exchange ideas. Get to know each other. Make a righteous ask, says Floersch.

A righteous ask is a funding request grounded in a community need that is well aligned with the funder’s mission and put forth by a well-respected nonprofit in pursuit of impact rather than dollars.

In a world where foundations get richer and the communities who are the recipients of their grantmaking, Floersch is seeking to apply some balance to the imbalance that exists between granter and grantee. And she counsels that any grantseeking organization be rooted in the community it serves and use the leverage of community involvement to get things done.  Bring prospective grantmakers to the table early in a project’s life, so that when you get to the money part, it’s not actually about money, it’s about change. 

“Grantmakers and nonprofits need each other. Funders need the expertise, community access, and muscle of nonprofits. Nonprofits need grantmakers’ resources as well as their honest, transparent partnership,” Floersch writes.

It is a refreshing approach that’s built around identifying, working with and getting support for demonstrated community need.  

Barbara Floersch quotes the godfather of US grantseeking Norton Kiritz who admonished grantseekers to stand tall when he thundered, “You’re applicants, not supplicants. Don’t beg.” 

And at an economical 115 pages, You Have a Hammer contains an accessible, durable lesson, perfect for our times. 

More reviews by Gail Picco

Likeness by David Macfarlane: A father’s thoughts of a future without his son July 26, 2021

Sylvia Olsen Unravelling Canada: Pulling at the stitches of Canadian history June 22, 2021

A Girl Called Echo: A Resounding Messenger of Métis History May 10, 2021

David Love: Thoughts of an Environmental Fundraiser April 30, 2021

What Bears Teach Us: The push and pull of co-existence December 8, 2020

Begin Again by Eddie Glaude: James Baldwin as a Man for our Time November 30, 2020

She Proclaims: The necessity of women persistently proclaiming October 20, 2020

The reputation of philanthropy: A history of the facts September 18, 2020 

Juneteenth: ‘The most keenly awaited novel of the 20th century’ June 19, 2020

Filed Under: Literary Circle

Primary Sidebar

Literary Circle Newsletter

Literary Circle Reviews

Heroin: What came first—the suffering or the criminalization?

June 20, 2022 By Literary Circle

The Smart NonProfit : Staying Human-Centred in an Automated World 

June 20, 2022 By Literary Circle

Is America’s next civil war already in progress?

March 14, 2022 By Literary Circle

Nora Loreto and her book Spin Doctors are here to tell us how we got here

January 24, 2022 By Literary Circle

Cid Brunet, A Stripper’s Memoir: One woman’s tour through humankind

December 20, 2021 By Literary Circle

Wayne Simpson: Photos of the human soul

December 16, 2021 By Literary Circle

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

About

Our beat is justice and equity in the charity sector. We follow news of the day, highlight people doing amazing work and conduct new research that sheds light on the forces driving the sector. The Charity Report TalkingUP podcast, hosted by editor in chief Gail Picco, interviews authors and journalists wbo have lots to say about the issues facing our time.  This is a place where independent thinking is valued, questions about the charity sector are asked and our independence is fiercely guarded. The guardians of that space are our Subscribers and Patrons who provide the financial support to pay writers, editors, researchers, producers, and content providers. We adore them.

Learn more.

Recent

  • The Charity Report Ceases Publication 
  • The Cost of Conflict: How we measure the global failure in Syria
  • Where Wealth Resides: The funding of philanthropy in Canada
  • Who Give and Who Gets: The Beneficiaries of Private Foundation Philanthropy
  • Community Giving: The Growth and Giving Priorities of Community Foundations

Search

Copyright © 2025 The Charity Report · Log in