The LOI should be written to communicate at least three things:

• That you have researched the donor and know the project fits their guidelines as well as their culture and language.
• That this is a substantial and needed project with real outcomes that serve the constituents.
• That you, your team, and institution are capable of succeeding if funded.

A Letter of Intent should be composed as follows:

• The opening paragraph should include the summary statement, which will be the roadmap of your proposal. This first section should stand alone and address: what, who, how much, and over what period.
• The Statement of Need (1-2 paragraphs) will include the problem, the science/field as it currently stands, what is unknown, what is proposed, and who will benefit by the intervention.
• The Project Activity or approach will address: what and how, innovation, partnerships, and all activities to be undertaken. This will be the bulk of your letter.
• Outcomes (1-2 paragraphs) will relate directly to your measurable objectives, will contain the specific deliverables/outcomes, and will show how you propose to achieve them.
• Credibility/credentials will address the project director’s and team’s credibility and why they are best equipped to carry out the project. Indicate awards, rankings, and tangible measures that set you apart from your peers. Also, describe what each team member will contribute to the project and how they will work together.
• The Budget (1-2 paragraphs) should be abbreviated; save the detail for the complete proposal. Instead, write a few sentences addressing other funding you have received or plans to raise the rest, and how the program will be sustained after the project is complete. Try to imagine the questions the reviewer will ask.
• The Closing Paragraph should refer to the solicitation instructions and the contribution that the intervention will make to the field/constituents. If it is a scientific research, reference should be made to the contribution you will make to your science and science in general.

Additional tips:

• Visualize your proposal and how it will unfold.
• Address the match between the donor’s mission and yours.
• Ensure that you avoid jargon, unnecessarily flowery language, superfluous adjectives and adverbs, and remove indefinite terms such as “might” “possibly” and “hope.”
• Get feedback from your colleagues.
• Review, if possible, other LOIs written to your donor.

The post The Letter That Will Get You Funded appeared first on Grant Training Center Blog.

The questions that follow are catalysts that will help provide initial answers to where your research will start, but after answering them, you may discover that it might not be where your research will end up. These questions will not only shape your search for the answer(s) to the problem, but will also increase your understanding of additional and alternative information that will be needed to clarify the road map and direction of your project.

Although the list of questions that will assist you in constructing and focusing your project can be extensive, the ones below center on the idea, purpose, focus, approach and institutional support:

Idea questions: What is the argument you are making about your idea? Why is your idea timely, urgent, compelling, and unique? Why does your idea matter? How might others challenge your idea? What kind of sources will you need to support your idea?

Purpose questions: What is the purpose of your research? How will you achieve the purpose? What will change once your proposal is implemented? How will you know that changes have taken place as you implement the proposal?

Narrowing your focus questions: Why is your proposal needed to advance the studies within your field? How are your preliminary data relevant? Why did you choose this way of approaching the gap in knowledge versus other options? What results will be evaluated in your project? How will you evaluate the results? What difficulties might appear within your research plan? How is your research limited?

Justifying the research questions: Who cares about the postulation of your argument? How is present opinion divided? How important is it to have the right answer? What are the implications of various possible answers?

Research methods questions: What are the variables to be measured during your research project? What population and samples will be used in your research project, including explanations of sampling and procedures? What methods will you apply to collect primary and secondary information? What might be any relevant biases in your methods and the means by which these biases would be overcome?

Institutional questions: How will this project capitalize on your institution’s/department’s strengths? How will this project help your institution/department overcome some of its weaknesses? How will your institution/department support you to succeed?

Science begins by first asking relevant questions and then seeking answers. The manner in which your research will unfold will emerge from the critical questions that you will need to answer prior to building your research proposal. These questions will assist you in solidifying your idea and eventually lead you to critical, significant, and substantive insights into the purpose, focus, and methods of your research proposal.

The post Critical Questions to Clarify Your Research appeared first on Grant Training Center Blog.

The best way to collect information about the problem is for you to conduct and document both a formal and informal needs assessment for your program in the target or service area. The information you provide should be both factual and directly related to the problem addressed. Areas for you to document are:

• Purpose for developing the proposal – what need you identified or what problem will be solved. You also have to address why you identified this particular need and why you and your organization are credible and able to make a substantial difference in terms of the solution.

• Beneficiaries – who they are, how they will benefit, how they were chosen, how many were chosen and how you came up with this approach must be documented and specifically addressed.

• Social and economic costs – who and what will be affected and by how much. Here you will need to address the percentage of change you expect and why. Obviously, cost is always a consideration, and if you can demonstrate that your intervention will save institutional and individual costs, this will be to your benefit.

• The nature of the problem – provide as much hard evidence as possible. This will be accomplished via the literature review, your past experience, surveys, and past and present data that demonstrate your past and anticipated future success with the targeted beneficiaries.

• Objectives – the specific way you will solve the problem, including the resources needed, how they will be used, and to what end. The goal and objectives will be the “heart of your proposal” that together will constitute your plan of operation.

• Sustainability plan – explain what will happen to your project when funding has been exhausted. If there is a way to institutionalize the approach  (e.g. train the trainers), this will demonstrate that the donor’s funding will make an ongoing difference, not just a one-time intervention.

There are several types of data you might want to collect, depending on the project: historical, geographic, statistical, as well as studies completed in your field. Unless otherwise specified, a mix of qualitative and quantitative data usually works best.

The need statement will ultimately be about an area of concern, a condition to be improved upon, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature that requires understanding and deliberate intervention. Making the need and your credibility to solve the problem clear to the donor, will make the difference between being funded and rejected.

The post The Core of Your Proposal: The Problem Statement appeared first on Grant Training Center Blog.