bulb

Can AI Write your Grant Proposal?

The participants in my grant writing and designing workshops frequently ask me if AI is now able or will eventually be able to write their grant proposals. In one instance, a participant told me that AI wrote their grant, which was funded. It is difficult for me to believe that AI can possibly write a… read more

success

Three Essentials for Grant Success: Ingredients, Preparation, and Presentation

When the donor is expecting excellence, resourcefulness, and a keen awareness of how best to assure outcomes that make a difference, the best way to meet their needs is to incorporate the three essentials for grant success. The three essentials for grant success are ingredients, preparation, and presentation. All of these are crucial, equally important,… read more

writing

A Fatal Error: Confusing Manuscript Writing with Grant Writing

One of the major issues that beginning grant writers have is that their writing is much more suited for manuscripts rather than the development of an idea for which they are requesting funds. Understanding the difference, both in concept as well as approach, between these two forms of writing is crucial. To this end, following… read more

bidding

The Development of Competitive Bids is an Art and Science

The formal business acquisition process has always been a competitive endeavor. Today, winning bids is especially challenging given changing priorities, limited time and resources, and constrained budgets. The most successful organizations adopt industry standards and best practices – and when pursued diligently – find that win rates improve, and effectiveness and efficiencies are discovered. Best… read more

writing

Critical Tips for Captivating Grant Writing

The focus of this blog is effective grant writing. The reviewers of your proposal will be the ultimate judges of your funding success. To assure that they are enthused, you need to address: Whose story is this? What is this about? How does the material link backward and forward? What material warrants my attention? Let’s… read more

hands

How to Write Persuasive Proposals

A 2015 meta-analysis of more than 1000 articles with advice to proposal writers showed that most of the top 10 recommendations focus on strategic positioning and project design.1 I’ve seen scores of presentations advising faculty how to write more competitive grant proposals and I rarely hear anything besides these. Only one of the top 10… read more

success

How to Build a Successful Nonprofit

The key to maintaining a successful nonprofit organization is to have a diverse fundraising strategy that builds upon your organization’s core strengths and resources. It is essential, therefore, to know your organization, understand your place in the giving community, and build on your strengths and resources. Once, when I worked for a small, under-resourced organization,… read more

rejection

Proposal Rejection – Next Steps

You submit a grant proposal that you think has an excellent chance of success. Several weeks or months later you receive an email from the donor saying that it was not funded. Rejections can be difficult to swallow, especially since some reviewer comments might seem unjust. The best way to proceed is to give careful… read more

success

The Core of Your Proposal: The Problem Statement

In this blog, I will address need statements specifically for programmatic grants, which will have a heavy focus on the beneficiaries. The need statement, also known as the problem statement, is a key element of any proposal. It makes a clear, concise, and well-supported statement of the idea you are proposing. It needs to be… read more

connecting

Grant Success: Stop Stating, Start Connecting

If you want to connect, take your audience with you from the start. Effective communication in a grant proposal requires knowing your goal and stating it clearly, but also remembering that you have to construct that goal around what your donor wants to hear. Within this context, I want to convey an interesting encounter I… read more