1. Are You Cut Out To Be A Grant Writer?

If you are someone who enjoys writing, enjoys research and working with factual information, then perhaps grant writing jobs might well be a lucrative career path for you. These jobs require patience and persistence and a strong work ethic as well as attention to detail and good communication skills as you will find the ability to liaise well with key personnel in grant organisations very useful.

2. Grant Writing Defined

There are many organisations, businesses and even individuals who apply for all manner of grants. Grants are a form of aid given by an organisation with a mind to offer financial or other assistance to a worthy recipient. To apply for such aid, the organisation in question needs to submit a grant proposal or a grant application and this is where the grant writer steps into focus. This takes a certain amount of skill and finesse and to someone unfamiliar with the territory it is often easier and more expedient to hire someone to create the proposal and submit it on their behalf.

3. What You Need To Know

Grant writing jobs vary, depending upon the organisations involved and the nature of the grants. You may well choose to do grant writing for environmental agencies only, or you might choose to do business proposals as your specialty. Every grant proposal will be as individual as the organisation submitting it. Your job is to define the organisation that you are representing and outline as clearly as possible, the goals of the organisation, as well as the products or services provided by them and how this institution benefits its immediate or global community. You will be expected to outline the budget for each proposal quite clearly and this is where your researching strengths come into play.

Grants are part of the no profit world; this characteristic trait enforces upon the grant seekers to involve much greater skill to write grant proposals, as these proposals are only key to their success.

These proposals will move through the review process whereby evaluation will be made on the basis grants are applied and to the degree of your requirement. There is a stringent review process through a committee. You will compete with other applicants for the grant money, and this grant review committee will evaluate merits of each proposal and only those people who fulfill objectives of the grant will get approval.

It is also very fitting and appropriate if your family income is below $66,350? And at the same time you will also get tax credit. Grants are renewed every year and many of them are formulated at certain time and period in a year providing to the applicants on first come first served basis.

There are various programs available through various agencies having their own set criteria, which might be ethnicity, gender, religion, location or education. For your help for personal grants, there are several companies on whom you can be dependent and moreover you can make use of many templates for writing proposals. These grants are just not only beneficial for the personal but also for the whole economy as small businesses can easily avail of this grant money to develop their business further.

Around one hundred thousand businesses start every year by many new entrepreneurs in United States alone but many of them are victims of failure because they cannot retain their financial stability. Hence it becomes responsibility of the government to help entrepreneurs to remain in their business and give service to the community. These grants range from 500 to 250,000 dollars but only the entrepreneurs who have willingness and eagerness to meet the criteria could avail these grants.

Both the grant seeking and grant making are rational processes and involve not only stringent but also very careful work making government realize their necessity and put them in their grant list.

The SBIR Program is administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration and twelve federal agencies participate in spending over $2 billion in funding. This Program provides small, high-tech companies a great shot at contributing to the nation’s research and development, and eventually commercial growth, efforts. Think of the SBIR Program as being one large river of funding with all the agencies being streams of funding off this river. Some are very large creeks, such as the Department of Defense, and some are smaller brooks, such as NOAA.

Each agency may follow slightly different solicitation methods and cycles, and may use slightly different formats and submission methods. However all have the goal of bringing a small business’s innovative idea to commercial fruition via a three phased approach. Phase I: This phase allows a business to provide proof of concept or prove the feasibility of their idea. Awards usually hover around $100,000. Phase II: This phase takes that feasible idea into a demonstrative prototype and awards can be upwards of $1 million. Phase III: This is an “unofficial” phase as it does not include SBIR Program funding, however it can include internal funding and perhaps outside source investment to bring the prototype into commercialization.

The key for a small business is finding that great opportunity on which to propose and then winning a Phase I. Getting to Phase II and III should be considered from the onset, but if a company has not yet jumped into the SBIR pool, getting that first Phase I sometimes is the biggest hurdle. It can be done however, and with minimal time and expense. Here is how.

Each agency will solicit Phase I proposals throughout the year; the DoD solicits three times a year, whereas NASA solicits only once. All of these solicitation release dates (and sometimes pre-release dates) are posted on agency websites. A great starting point is http://www.sbir.gov. Find an agency that suits your service/product and industry well and find out when their solicitation release date(s) may be. Then:

It’s always frustrating to have your grant proposal rejected, but it’s absolutely essential to stay optimistic and to persevere. The fact is that most grant proposals do get rejected, but learning from the experience–examining why your proposal was turned down–will benefit you by making future proposals stronger. And don’t give up on one foundation because they have declined your proposal. Unless you specifically don’t fall within their funding guidelines (in which case you probably shouldn’t have wasted your time applying in the first place), you’ll want to reapply as soon as you’re able.

If you feel like you’ve done a solid job describing your non-profit’s mission, the population you serve, and how your proposed grant would help your clients, then take another look at the foundation’s mission. Did your proposal help the foundation meet its goals? Was it really a good fit in the first place? Foundations routinely turn down the best conceived projects simply because the goals of the non-profit and the foundation aren’t aligned. Explore the foundation’s website, annual report and 990 form to see what kind of projects they’ve funded in the past, and compare those projects to your own. See what you can learn, and if this step wasn’t part of your last round of proposal applications, make it part of your next.

If you’re confident that the goals of your proposal met the goals of the foundation, then go back to the original Request for Proposals. Consider the following questions:

Next, evaluate the writing in your proposal.

Did you state your needs clearly and specifically, right up front?

Did you include information about your non-profit’s other sources of funding to help show that you’re a worthy cause?

Did you use testimonials to bring the needs of your clients to life, and did you use meaningful, accurate data to support your organization’s needs?

Is your writing clear and compelling?

Does the proposal sound like it’s been written by one person, or do several different voices make it choppy and scattered?

Is the formatting clean and consistent?

Did you use headings and subheadings to make your proposal easily navigable?
If you’ve reevaluated your proposal and still have questions, call the foundation and ask to speak with the program officer who reviewed your proposal. After you’ve thanked them for their thoughtful review, ask:

Is there anything we could have done differently in our proposal?

May we resubmit for your next funding cycle?

Are you aware of any other foundations that we might approach?

And in your next round of grant proposals, build upon what you’ve learned. Send your applications to a diverse group of foundations, and be sure to explain how your project can help each foundation meets its own goals, not only how the foundation can help you meet yours. Above all–be patient, be persistent, and be positive.

If you have worked in the corporate world, you probably know “smart” goals as if you had written the manual. The majority of “fortune 500″ companies flourish by their use of “smart” goals-simple formulations of who will accomplish what, by when; and how will you know they have accomplished it. Administering grant-funded programs, the government follows industry’s example, demanding “smart” goals as the foundation of your business plan, and checking carefully to make sure you have valid, reliable, infinitely repeatable measurements built into your goal statements.

Do you need technical support?

Although the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 spawned a bumper crop of internet scams based on federal grant schemes, legitimate technical assistance is available. Every proposal writer will benefit from expert technical assistance, and every enterprise needs both quality tools and “a critical friend.” An expert technical advisor can provide both. Do not dismiss every internet offers as a fraud, and do not overlook the government’s own offers of support and assistance. Your proposal must show what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. Technical advisors will help you make your case.

If the agency administering your grant program offers workshops for grant proposal writers, attend them. Use the workshops as opportunities to make friends within the government agency, and capitalize on those friends’ expertise as you draft, edit, and revise your proposal. You cannot afford to feel sensitive about your project and proposal; instead, solicit aggressive inquiry and criticism, making certain that your proposal withstands even the toughest scrutiny. Your reviewers will not read between the lines or draw conclusions for you; therefore, enlist a team of “critical friends” to make sure your proposal shows how you will achieve all of your smart goals.

Free online grant applications sound like there might be some quick money to be made. But the application process is still a fairly long, complex process. Well thought out programs that are clearly expressed in well written documents will still give you the best chance with funders.

Most grant experts have adapted their own approach to writing grant applications and proposals. There’s no one right way to write grant applications. One approach might work well with one funder and it might not meet the requirements of another. A sample of a grant proposal for HIV online shows some common elements of a grant proposal, but also makes it clear that it’s important to check for individual funder requirements. The Minnesota Council on Foundations has made proposal writing guidelines easily accessible online.

Many funding sources discourage personal contact with a foundation. You will read “no phone calls” or “initial contact through letter only.” This serves as a gate-keeping function for funding sources.

If they require a little bit more work in order to make contact, they will weed out many of the organizations that are less serious, less qualified, and less prepared.

However, it is now more critical than ever to make a personal contact with the foundation BEFORE submitting a Letter of Inquiry (LOI). Changes in the market and the economy may have changed their giving habits. Foundations that were giving 6 months ago may not be giving today.

Some funding sources are only funding existing grantees. Others are reducing award amounts or changing their focus. The only way to know this is through a personal contact with the funding source.

Focus on People:

Focus on the issues that will make an impact on people. During difficult times, a stronger focus on programs and services makes for a more compelling case for funding than a new building or capital upgrade.

Discuss how your particular program will have an immediate impact on the people you serve. Often it is helpful to state a brief example of a current client served by your ministry and how your services directly benefited him, changing his life or personal situation.

Of course, it may seem that an increased focus on programs and services means you will be focusing less on operating expenses and current and future building projects. Not necessarily. Those interested in giving toward operating expenses or capital projects may be harder to find, but they are there if you spend enough time doing your research.

However, for funding sources that are interested in both programming and capital projects… lean toward a request for programming.

When drafting a proposal the most important thing to keep in mind is that the reader is looking for benefits; they want to know how your product, service, or idea adds value to their operation. Therefore your proposal must be well-written and it also must clearly indicate how you can fulfill a current need.

Here are a few tips to help you improve your proposal:

1. Make the proposal about your customer. A proposal is not the time to tell about your mission, your locations, or how long you have been in business. Instead you should state how these (or any other) aspects benefit your client.

2. Show and don?t tell. Do not tell your prospect what you can do for them, but show them using clear examples. Avoid unsubstantiated hype like ?best value?, ?low risk?, and ?cutting edge?; unless you are willing to prove it.

3. Be careful not to include irrelevant information. If you are making the proposal about the reader, and showing instead of telling, then you should have no problem with this.

4. If you are responding to a RFP, read the request more than once. You want to ensure that you completely grasp the requirements.

5. Show your creditability. Who have you worked with before? How did you help them and how does that relate to the company you are submitting this proposal to?

6. Watch your language. It is very important to make sure your proposal is politically correct. Additionally, you want to avoid jargon unless it is commonly known in the field you are targeting. Also, avoid writing in passive voice.

7. Include samples if it is appropriate. This is a great way to show that you are capable of handling the job.

8. Be specific. State your time frame for completing the project and your rates (if applicable). This will help eliminate differences in expectations.

9. Above all, if you are a poor writer, seek assistance. Proposal writing is time-consuming and it requires a certain amount of skill.

As you develop your proposal, therefore, you must reason and argue like a lawyer, disciplining yourself to question every assertion and tie-up every loose end. Your reviewers demand perfect consistency among the pieces in your grant proposal; use aggressive questions to assure you meet their standards.

Relentless questions drive your proposal.

At the beginning of your proposal, you will establish your project’s objectives. Naturally, your objectives must match the government’s. Do they? How do they match? How can you show the match? Have you shown the match clearly in your writing and in your measurement tools?

Each of your project’s objectives must provide for objective, empirical measurement. Have you shown how you will measure your achievements? Are your measurements reliable? When you get results, can other researchers repeat your measurements and produce similar results? How have you paid for all this testing? Can you account for the payments? Are your accounting measures valid?

You should see a pattern emerging: Every one of your proposal’s assertions easily generates three or four questions. Make sure you ask and answer the questions as if you were a lawyer. If you feel uncertain, enlist a lawyer’s services as you review your rough drafts.

What Does Grantors Expect from You?

1. Know from whom you’re requesting a grant. Find out what are their grant awarding priorities and who they have approved grants to in the past.
2. Acknowledge and respect the grantor’s distinctiveness. Find out what approach they find significant. Read and follow specified guidelines and application formats and make sure you suit all requirements. It is important to make sure you are acquainted with their fiscal rules and policies and the review process of grant proposals.
3. Grantors want to be clear on what you want. Make your request clear and to the point. Demonstrate why you can be regarded as an expert or competent to complete the project. Uniqueness and originality plays a roll in presentation and be certain about estimates in the budget.
4. It is of utmost importance to display ability to achieve what is compiled in the grant proposal. Show the grantors that you have a record of success and that you are qualified and competent to be successful and that the project will be sustainable.

The fail-proof-step-by-step Grant Proposal Sample.

Don’t overlook the fact that grant proposal writing is time consuming and is not a 30 minute job! Research is very important as it will form the back bone of the grant proposal.

1. Make the grantor aware of the need you have identified. Convince the grantor that funding the proposed project will have a positive and measurable effect on the broader community. Involve economic and social stakeholders of the project.
2. State clear but succinctly with what you want to achieve. State the preferred outcome or solution and what will happen if you are able to implement your proposal. Make sure your outcomes are realistic and achievable.
3. Shape the project. Get experts’ opinions, look what others have done and from all the information that you gather formulate a plan that outlines the method of achieving your objectives, the timeline and the details of the work plan. Be sure that your compilation is done in a way that both technical experts and the general public understand it.
4. Search for relevant grant suppliers to the proposed plan. Begin with organisations or institutions and people you know. Grantors provide funds for specific purposes. Start with those who have funded similar projects before in the proposed area.
5. Write your grant proposal. The above instructions give you the basis a sample grant proposal. Customise and change the proposal to relate to each grantor you propose to. Sternly stick to the instructions and be familiar with set criteria and act accordingly. Double check the application that all that is requested are included and allow ample time for any unforeseen circumstances to enable you to meet the deadline.