Key tips for successful grant writing
Just like a good novel, a standout grant proposal is full of action, excitement, love, suspense… No… that’s not right. We all know grant proposals won’t become required summer reading or great beach books. But the good ones do have one thing in common with amazing stories – a great narrative that makes sense and doesn’t confuse the reader. A FEMA webpage on writing a good narrative describes it this way, “The information you provide in the narrative…is what the Peer Reviewers use to determine if they recommend your project for funding.” Translation: you need to wow your reviewers with a cohesive story, not just spit out a bunch of disconnected facts and figures or vague promises.
The narrative is the section where you provide all of the information about your project or cause. According to the Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, “The project narrative should supply all the details of the project, including a detailed statement of the problem, research objectives or goals, hypotheses, methods, procedures, outcomes or deliverables, and evaluation and dissemination of the results.”
Here are some of the key aspects for a compelling proposal narrative:
- State the financial need – You are not a starving artist and it is all about the money. How will this funding help you save the world? Your proposal should clearly state why the funding you’re requesting is needed and spell out exactly how the community would be served if the grant is awarded, including quantifiable outcomes. This is where personal stories matter. A Michigan State University presentation suggests, “…using compelling stories to illustrate points.” Details are important here, so be as clear and precise as you can, with verifiable numbers, but also with stories the funder can relate to.
- Articulate your approach – Here’s where you make it clear you know how to achieve your goals. Nobody likes stories with plot holes or improbable “how’d they get there?” moments, so again, be detailed and specific. You should also work to convince funders that your proposal is unique and that your organization is the best choice for accomplishing the goals of the grant.
- Explain how you will evaluate outcomes – Talking about what you want to accomplish isn’t enough. You need to be able to show how you will prove that your organization accomplished what it set out to do. Like a historical novel, you need facts to add validity to your story: verifiable statistics, surveys of the participants, or any methodology you will use to objectively gauge the overall success of the activities that were funded. Yep. More specifics.
- Provide a timeline – No funder wants to worry that their grant money will disappear down a rabbit hole. Use a timeline to show that your organization can provide a reasonable estimate of how much time it will take to complete the proposal’s objectives. You should be specific and realistic, including dates and durations, and outline the specific benchmarks you’ll use to gauge results. (Are you sensing a theme yet?)
- Give credentials and backgrounds of key participants – Every story needs a bit of character development. The grant reviewers will want to know who makes up your organization. Who are the key players? What experience do they have? What are their qualifications to do the work as related to the proposed project? What role will they play in achieving success with your organization’s project? Linking real people with real expertise to your goals shows you’ve (once again) thought out the details.
Follow the rules
While Faulkner and Joyce may have been able to get away with free-form wild stories, grant writers have no such luxury. It’s important to remember that funders will always provide specific guidelines outlining exactly what they want included in a grant proposal. The details outlined in the funder’s Request for Proposals are the-rules-that-must-not-be-broken, and may include things such an outline describing what information to include, the order of the information, and what should go on each page. It may even include details like line spacing, font type and size, and even the margins of a page. The level of detail may depend on who is providing the grant, but the rule is the same for all: always follow these instructions to the letter. Failing to do so can result in your application being deemed “non-responsive”, and it can be thrown out without even being read. Community Grants Now puts it this way, “A recent tweet from Proposal Cafe highlights this sentiment. “If your proposal is to lose, lose because it didn’t offer the best product/service, not because you didn’t follow the RFP instruction.”
If you’re not sure you can pull off the Great American Novel and keep track of all the plot twists, we can help. We live to craft well-written, thoroughly researched proposals, so you can get back to changing the world. Put us to work for you today.
