Finding Sources for Funding

1. Grant funds are made available by organizations that want to change something.
2. Government, Corporation, Trusts, Foundations
3. Goggle it

Deciding if you should apply

1. Is there a match between the goals of the funding agency and your goals?
2. Is there enough money available to make it worthwhile to write for funds?
3. Will there be support for the project if it is funded?  

Budget your time

1. Grant writing can take from 2 to 4 hours per page depending on the degree of complexity in the application guidelines.

Applications (Pre-Planning)

1. Find the RFP (Request for Proposal)
2. Is there a planning team in place?  Can you put a team together? Can you find people who have knowledge and experience in some part of the project?  Will these people be a part of an implementation team if you are funded?
3. Do you know what you want to accomplish with grant funds?  Is your proposal a solution to a relevant problem?

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1. Read the application guidelines
2. Read the application guidelines
3. Read the application guidelines
4. Underline or highlight the technical restrictions.  Your grant will be thrown out during the screening process if directions are not followed EXACTLY.
5. Before you begin, make sure you understand all the questions you must answer.
6. Set up an outline of the questions to be answered.  Make notes about what you already know and what you will need to know in order to answer the question.
7. Research your topic.  The Internet is filled with information about almost everything. Find out what the experts are saying about your topic.  Cut and paste relevant information into the appropriate space in your outline. Be sure you understand that information you cut and paste is for reference only. Do not leave it in your final copy. People do not react kindly to plagiarism.

Writing

1. Your goal is clarity.
2. Your audience is a group of grant readers who will give points to each section of the grant. Grants are awarded based on who gets the highest score.
3. Write the goals of your grant – even if the application doesn't ask for them.  Make sure you know exactly what you are going to accomplish with this money.
4. Goals don’ tell what you are going to do; goals tell how the money will impact people.  For example:  My goal for this class is that you to be able to write a successful grant application…something you will know more about and will be able to do.
5. Write a summary for yourself that answers the What, Where, When, Who, How, and Why questions.  Regardless of the questions asked in the grant, make sure you put this information someone early on in the grant so the reader doesn’t get lost in the details of the specific grant questions.
6. The person reading your grant does not know you, your organization, and your goals.  It is up to you to make yourself clear.  They can’t call you and ask you to explain something that they don’t understand.
7. I will often put in a short paragraph labeled Background where I give a BRIEF description of the project. (What, Where, When, Who, How, and Why)
8. Respond to EVERY detail. 
9. Be honest. 
10. Don’t get whiney. 
11. Stay positive. 
12. Stick to the facts.  Leave emotional pleas for greeting cards. 
13. Tell why their money will solve problems for your organization. 
14. If applicable, it doesn’t hurt to repeat the info in the application guidelines that tell them how your project will meet their goals.
15. Run spell check often.
16. Save your work often.
17. Make sure you aren’t over the page limit.
18. Use Bold, Italics, Bullets, and Numbers to your advantage. 
19. Make your grant a pleasure to read. Assume readers are reading your grant last thing on Friday afternoon, have a headache, want to get home, eyes are tired, and someone else ate the last of the comfort candy bars.  Make your grant so easy to read, they are glad they saved the best for last.

Rewrite

1. Reread, reread, and reread everything you wrote.   Give yourself a day or so between writing and rereading.
2. Put on your thick skin and ask someone who knows what the project is about if they will read the grant and make suggestions.  Make it clear to them that you want their ideas and won’t be upset if they suggest changes.  Mean it.  Don't get huffy if they don’t understand what you wrote. If they didn't get it, a grant reader probably won’t either.  Change the wording while you can.
3. Rarely has anything been written that couldn’t be improved by a revision.

Budget Pages

1. You must complete a budget page. You will will have to show how money will be spent.
2. You will need a budget justification page. This page must relate back to the narrative section of your grant.   If you said you are going to spend money for a computer, you must be able to show somewhere in the narrative why a computer is essential for your proposal. If you are not required to justify your expenses, do it anyway.
3. Double and triple check computation.  Grant readers love to get out their calculators to see if your numbers add up correctly.

Meet your deadline and STOP

1. Double check all application guidelines
2. Run a final Spell Check
3. Read the questions and your answers again to see if they still make sense
4. Mail it and put it out of your mind.
5. Funding is a combination of good planning, clear writing, and a reader’s interpretation.  You control planning and writing, but can do nothing about the reader. 
6. If you are funded, be sure and share credit with those who helped. 

Implementation

1. You may or may not be a part of a grant implementation team. 
2. If not, be sure you hold an orientation meeting with them so they understand exactly what they need to do in terms of putting the grant into action and in terms of reporting requirements.

Grant Writing Tips

About Grant Writing

Grant Writers

Grant Proposal Writing