You Only Get One Chance to Make a Great First Impression

The Standard Elements of a Grant Proposal

Usually, this is the most boring part of any workshop on grant-writing - the standard elements of the grant proposal. Given my perspective, however, the "standard" elements take on a whole new importance if you fully appreciate how little time your application will actually get from the funder. The standard elements include:

Cover Letter. Use the cover letter to quickly identify yourself, your organization, and indicate the reason for the application. You will need to focus on the benefits of your program for the clients - not for you or your agency. I pay a lot of attention to the letterhead itself - I like to use color, I like to show off your affiliations and board members, and I like quality paper. I also pay a lot of attention to the signature. I like to see it done in blue ink (so funders know it is original) and I like to make it look confident and upbeat. The quicker you sign, the better it will look.

Introduction. On the first page of your proposal, the introduction is a key to whether your search for funding will be successful. Briefly provide a short and clear statement of what is to be accomplished by your project, the need for your project and the link between your project and the funder's area of interest. It is smart to make your ask explicit. Nobody likes hunting around for the price tag.

Background. To do a great background section, you will need to conduct a needs assessment. A thorough needs assessment identifies the problem, where it exists, what needs to be done, the services that are currently available to assist the population and who would benefit from your project. There several ways to gather information for needs assessments, including conducting surveys of potential program participants, sponsoring discussion meetings with community service agencies, and researching statistical databases. One secret of success is to never cite sources more than two (2) years old. Funders like to act on the latest scientific research and they depend on you to bring it to their attention.

A Quick First Draft Will Make It Easier to Research Your Grant

To me, grant-writing is more like a sport than a science. Like any sport, it is a game that richly rewards quick, high-volume producers.

From this perspective, a quick first draft does wonders for your financial success. Sometimes the best thing to do is to write the entire proposal out - from beginning to end - as quickly as possible.

This is what Peter Drucker called the "zero" draft. In this draft, I like to write as quickly as possible while still following all of the funders' directions. This way, I get a good overall picture of the scope of the grant application, and I can identify what exactly the funder really expects from my non-profit client.

Finally, I like to do my research after I have created the first draft...otherwise I just do not know what facts and figures will be really needed to create a credible argument.

In the past, I used to do a lot of reading and internet searching to make sure that I collected all the right information. Unfortunately, I soon realized that 96% of all that data never appeared in the final grant application. Today, I write my conclusions first...and then research only what it takes to make the most credible case for that particular grant.

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Drew & Associates

The Golden Rule: Understand the Funder's Fears

Empathy for the funder can be a touchstone for success as a grant writer. When we visited China to lecture on grant writing, we got a chance to visit the Great Wall. It wove its way through the landscape as far as I could see in either direction. To me, the wall represents a powerful human need for self-protection. I think grant writers can sometimes make mistakes if they underestimate just how wary the funders are of non-profit organizations.

To help workshop participants understand the funder's point of view, I typically ask them to answer some key questions as if they were the ones giving away money to charities:

Do you trust the non-profit executive?
Should the grant you give away be large or small?
Should the proposal be neat or sloppy?
Do you prefer giving money to old friends or to brand new charities?
As a funder, what are you most afraid of?
As you work through these questions, I think you will start feeling some of the nervousness that the funders feel about even well-run and well-known charities. I think my job, as a grant writer, is to make the funders feel as safe and as comfortable as possible.

To me, the otherwise dull grant writing literature suddenly comes to life when I see the standard operating procedures of the profession as tools for reducing the funder's deepest fears. I like to build trust by appropriately mirroring their ideas and buzzwords, by supporting my arguments with recent research citations, and by avoiding the red flags that make it easy for funders to toss out an application without thoroughly reading it. Ideally, I like to make the grant package look so safe that the funder will be afraid not to fund my client's project.