Important Resources for Grant Seekers: Dr. Drew Culls the Key E-Mail Lists and Government Websites for Grants

As my recent grant victories indicate, one of my most important secrets of success is getting a jump on the competition. The sooner I get a rough draft outline distributed to the top staff, the sooner I start getting confident that the project will result in a large check.  


This is not as tough to do as it sounds. One of the best ideas for speeding up the opportunity recognition process is to make sure that you are subscribed to the most important grant-related e-newsletters and funding alerts available to you and your non-profit or government institution. Many of the leading funders, for example, are more than happy to include you on their list of upcoming grant deadlines and newly available RFPs.

California Department of Education Grants

One of the most important resources for schools in California, for example, comes from the state's Department of Education.

You can sign up for their free alerts e-newsletter by going to this site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/af/

I think that every school principal, assistant principal and senior administrator ought to be receiving and tracking this sort of free online information. Once you discover a plausible opportunity, then you can simply hire a contract grant writer like me or take one of the many courses available to help you write the grant or, if you prefer, you can learn to write the grant in class as part of my uniquely focused Two Day Grant Writing Retreat. One of the cool things about the resources available through the State of California Department of Education is that they have a lot of programs with multi-million dollar budgets that give away a large number of smaller grants. These are the easiest grants for schools or non-profit organizations to obtain and a great place to start your new grant writing career.


California Department of Alcohol and Drugs

There is also a lot of valuable possibiities available to you at http://www.adp.cahwnet.gov/Funding/adp.shtml regarding the grants offered through the California Department of Alcohol and Drugs. One of the secrets of success I've noticed in winning funding like this is that it pays to travel to Sacramento and visit with the politicians with a special interest in each of these programs and with the top bureaucrats who are making decisions by implementing the rules. They will not give you any special favors, but they will help you make sure you have a realistic view of what the government funder is really looking for in a winner application.

Dr. Drew Reviews the Top YouTube Video on the Topic of Grant Writing

I thought it would be fun to look through the top YouTube videos on grant writing. I approached this task with no expectations and an open mind. By far, the highest rated YouTube video comes from Brian Loyal, a biomedical engineer who provides a concise look at how to win funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The whole video is only about 10 minutes long and I think it is well worth your time in terms of its content.


I'm not the only one to be impressed. So far, this YouTube video has received about 7,868 hits as of October, 2011.

One of the things he says that got my attention is that your grant proposal needs to be feasible, relevant and backed up by an appropriate team of people. I have always had a powerful intuitive sense of how that works. I'm glad to see Brian articulate this concept so clearly and simply for his audience. All in all, I think he boiled down the most important secrets of success in a shrewd and insightful manner.

One of the funniest things about this video is that Brian repeats the comments he heard from another speaker on grants, Anthony M. Coelho, Jr. Ph.D. According to Brian, Dr. Coelho has been very honest when painting a picture regarding the state of mind of the average grant reviewer. In my workshops, for example, I explain that I'm writing for the hungover intern who is facing severe emotional problems.

In this YouTube, however, Brian says Dr. Coelho goes in for the kill and suggests that it is smart to assume the NIH reviewer is probably overwhelmed by late night hours, crushed by too much to read even as the reviewer is comforted by too much to drink. The line, of course, gets a big laugh. The takeaway, however, that it is important to provide your NIH reviewer with a document that is relatively easy to read and easy to understand even under trying circumstances.

I also like the way Brian suggests that it is smart to telephone the government "contact officials" in charge of each grant and ask whether or not your project is a fit. To me, this advice makes great sense in any proposal writing situation.


Moreover, Brian illustrates how he goes about his grant writing work by placing an emphasis on the idea that he is not writing about pure science. Instead, he is seeking to market pure science. As the last two grant I won for Orange Coast College suggest, you do not need to be an expert in a field of study to write a successful grant proposal. You do, however, need to know how to market to the overwhelmed grant reader. Brian illustrates his talent in this regard when he reduces his own scientific interest in the field of proteomics "...as like searching for the needle in a haystack by first removing all of the hay."

As a word of caution, however, I would like to suggest that the grant writer succeeds through abstinence and sobriety even as he/she assumes the worst of the grant reviewers. If you have a YouTube video you think I should see and review, please send me an e-mail. Better yet, give me a call at 949-643-8058 because I'd like to hear from you.

Drew & Associates Wins $450,000 Grant for Orange Coast College

We are celebrating success in the Drew household this month. I'm pleased to report that my team helped Orange Coast College (OCC) win an extremely competitive grant from the State of California to fund its new computer numerically controlled (CNC) technology program that is worth $450,000.

This victory comes on the heels of an earlier effort to help OCC win its first grant from the Orange County Health Care Agency for an alcohol prevention services project worth $220,000.


In both cases, I can report that success came from moving quickly when I first learned about the grant opportunity. By quickly creating a rough draft that laid out the key elements of both proposals, I was able to give the staff at OCC the tools and framework they needed to add in the telling details and personal stories that made a big difference in beating out the other competitor colleges and institutions.