Before You Write A Grant, Consider This

While on the plane from Memphis to DC, my thoughts shifted to the spectrum of participants from the Professional Grant Development workshop I had just conducted. These people wanted to make a difference in their field and for the people they represented. They all had great ideas, but needed better focus in their respective grant proposals. Once the participants understood how a grant needs to evolve, they would be empowered to write for success. This process revolves around the following four points:

  1. Teamwork

Working effectively as a team does not mean that each person is given a section to review or write. This isn’t group work from an undergrad course! Rather, the team designs a plan of operation, then collaborates on specific tasks such as content, evaluation, editing, statistics, and data. Ultimately, one person will compile the team-worked pieces and do the final write-up of the whole. Cross-disciplinary teams are practically a necessity for many projects and research grants. Make sure to recruit from areas and disciplines outside your area of expertise when composing your team.

  1. Be Proactive

Knowing what you want and when to apply for funding comes from a strategic plan of action. How often are we given a solicitation and asked to “go for it, after all we might get it?” Writing grants for “hope” ends with you writing ten grants for every one awarded. Strategically positioning your applications during a six month – or better yet – a yearly cycle, allows you time to develop your thoughts and process. Writing grants strategically can lead to the much better odds of writing five grants and receiving three.

  1. Follow Directions

About 50% of the proposals submitted to the Federal Government are immediately eliminated because applicants have not followed directions. One of the best proposals I read as an evaluator was eliminated because the font used was not one specified in the directions. I asked the program officer whether she could at least tell the submitting team how well they did. Unfortunately, she had to return the proposal marked as unread, based on the established rules.

  1. Give Yourself the Gift of Time

Most of the problems and errors with submitting a proposal occur during that hectic time of last-minute scrambling. Dealing with the idiosyncrasies of Grants.gov is no easy matter either, especially during the last hours of submission. That’s why people who submit their proposals three or four days prior to the deadline have a 37% granter chance of getting the grant than last-minute submitters. When your team is designing the timeline, be sure to allot extra time at the end of the process.

Remember to always chase the good ideas and not the money.

Mathilda Harris

Over the past 18 years, she has written grants, conducted capital campaigns, developed strategic plans for grant procurement, and assisted individuals and institutions to write winning proposals for various donors.

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