Merry Christmas from John & Trish Drew

Dear Friends & Family:

As you may know, 2015 was an exceptionally tumultuous year which left us extraordinarily grateful for our friends, family and neighbors.

The year got off to a great start including new opportunities to expand our grant writing consulting business into the northern California area. Back at home, John led the effort to replace the leaky copper pipes at our Del Prado HOA with new PEX piping. On the surface, everything seemed as bright and cheery as new daffodils on a spring day.

By the end of March, however, Trish started to suffer from an inexplicable nausea and unrelenting dizziness. By the beginning of June, she fell hard in the bathtub, hit her head and temporarily lost her ability to walk or talk. John called 9-11. She ended up at Mission Hospital where a CT scan showed three subdural hematomas inside her head. Our small group from Coast Hills Church and other friends gathered around to pray and comfort us as Trish went in to surgery. While the brain surgery undoubtedly saved Trish’s life, she still had a bad case of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

For a number of months, she needed a walker to get around the house. Thanks to our premium health insurance, she got weekly visits from a social worker, a visiting nurse, a physical therapist and even an occupational therapist who taught Trish safer ways to get in and out of a bathtub. In addition to these professional visitors, we also got assistance from May Drew, John’s mom, who came down to Laguna Niguel to help with the cooking and other chores. Later, Michelle Drew and her daughter Joy stopped by and helped out too. Michelle gave Trish a new, stylish haircut that made the shaved parts of her head look like a compelling attractive fashion statement.

Trish did not heal up completely until late September after completing an intensive regime of physical therapy and a three day a week outpatient program.

To get a break from his nursing duties, John kept up his exercise program and oil painting classes at the nearby Sea County Community Center. He broke new ground by learning to paint his first portraits based on live models. Politically, John was in the news briefly when he was interviewed by The Campus Fix regarding freedom of speech on college campuses and his own experience as a token conservative on the elite Williams College campus. He later contributed an opinion piece on the same topic to Campus Reform.

All in all, we are now pleasantly at peace, physically stabilized and looking forward to a fresh crop of daffodils in the year ahead.

Love, John & Trish

Special Offer: Make a Big Impression with a New Resume in 2016

One of my secrets of success as a grant writing consultant is my ability to tweak the resumes of the organization's key talent so that they are more likely to win really big grants. Surprisingly, a professional looking, strategically designed resume can be the difference between winning or losing a multi-million dollar grant. At any rate, I thought it would be fun to offer a special in January 2016 for everyone who is seeking to find or get a better job in the coming year. Below, here are the details of my resume writing package.

Here's What Dr. Drew Will Do to Improve Your Prospects for 2016 

This is a special service of Drew & Associates.  Dr. Drew will ask you to email him a copy of your existing resume or curriculum vita which he will 1) read and analyze, and 2) discuss with you by phone for one (1) hour.  Then, he will 3) rewrite your resume curriculum vita, improve its format and look, so that it will tell a positive, uplifting, and attractive story about your life, your value to others, and the special skills you bring to the marketplace. 

Regular price: $400.

Payment by Check

For payment by check, mail to: Drew & Associates, 25195 Via Catalina, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677.

Please make checks payable to “Drew & Associates.”

OR

Payment by PayPal

Read What One Professional Says About Dr. Drew's Resume Writing Services

I highly recommend John Drew's resume writing services for anyone in the job market. As a full time community college faculty member and department chair, I decided to expand my job goals to seeking a position in administration. John helped me immensely with updating my curriculum vitae and creating a new cover letter tailored to the specific job I am seeking.

I felt his knowledge of the community college system, strong writing skills and his connections were extremely valuable to me - helping me gain insight and add information that I would not have considered myself.

He gave me a lot of time from our first phone conversation until we came up with a final product I felt good about. His interpersonal style made me feel as if I were speaking to a motivational coach who was helping me discover my strengths and abilities to move toward my career goals. 

I strongly recommend his services - personable, well-qualified, knowledgeable and outstanding writing skills. Thank you!

-- Dr. Irit Gat, Antelope Valley College

New Year's Promise: A New Resume is a New You

As you may know, a small part of my consulting practice involves helping people update and improve their resumes. I don't know why, but this is my one, God-given skills. It has always come easily to me and I was good at it right from the start. I'm familiar with the major publications that address job searches and resume writing including Martin Yate's extraordinary book, Knock 'Em Dead and Richard Bolles classic, What Color is Your Parachute? While I learned from both of these books, a lot of my resume writing techniques stem from my own perspective on resume writing, a perspective that is based on my common sense, my understanding of human nature, and my belief that the entire resume is actually a portrait of somebody's life. So, what are my rules for effective resume writing? Below, I'll share with you the rules that strike me as most important. If there is interest, I can share some of the finer points later on.

Pay Attention to the Employer's Unstated Fears

First, you need to think about the real - often unstated - needs of the potential employer. Although they may request that applicants demonstrate a specific set of observable skills, the employers are looking for more than just a list of skills. Above all, they are looking for someone who is manageable, focused, and a problem-solver. They would like to be assured that you will reduce stresses at the office, not increase them. Accordingly, you can present this image through details included in the resume such as cutting out extraneous details, deleting anything which might make you appear odd or eccentric, and playing up contributions where you soothed hurt feelings, created happier customers and led effective teams. Unfortunately, one error that hints at something problematic can be enough to sink your job prospects. Since I occasionally work with the chronically unemployed, I have often experienced positive results by only making minor changes which eliminated obvious red flags in the client's resume. I worked with one fellow who had been unemployed for two weeks. After I took the killer passages out of his resume, he landed a new job in less than a week.

Repackage Yourself to Fit Into the New Job

Second, your resume should reflect the skills you will use in your new job, not the skills you have polished up in your existing job. One of my secrets of success is to collect copies of successful resumes for high level corporate or academic employees including presidents, vice-presidents, treasurers, and so on. From these resumes you will get a much better look at the no nonsense attributes of a winning resume. If you are going for a higher level job, you need to be aware of the skill sets needed in that higher level job including negotiation skills, supervisory skills, public relations skills, financial accounting skills, and strategic planning. Even if you have not held a higher level job, you can still hint at your ability to handle a higher level of responsibility by showing where you have accomplished similar work at your current job. For example, maybe you have made your living as a salesman. You can still set yourself up for a higher level position by stressing moments where you mentored or supervised your fellow sales staff, by highlighting the moments when you participated in effective marketing efforts, or by reminding the reader of your ability to handle yourself well in tense, high-stake situations.

Paint a Picture of Your Happy, Successful Life

Finally, I always view the resume as a quick portrait of a person's whole life. The resume is useful in this regard because its list of previous employers is a no bullshit review of the skills that other people have been willing to buy from you. You may say you are a brilliant intellectual, but if no one has bought one of your published books, then you are just a pretender. Accordingly, I like to tweak the client's resume to show that they have gained and improved their skills over time. This means showing that they supervised more people or higher quality people at each stage of their career. I like to show that they handled bigger deals over time, larger accounts, and took on ever larger territories. If the person has made mistakes, then I like to put the best possible spin on the matter. If you failed at your business, then you might be a great addition to a new person's team if you present yourself as a humbled adult who now understands they work best in the company of others.

If you would like more information about my resume writing services, please click on the link below.

Dr. Drew's Resume Writing Services

In my experience, revised resumes are almost always essential to successful grant application too. This is because people give money to people. Accordingly, in your grant proposal you should strive to present your people's resumes along the same lines as I have communicated above.

Shape of the Future: No More Population Pyramid

As a student of child labor and child welfare programs, I have long thought that most of us underestimate the dramatic changes associated with ending child labor. Since most of us in the U.S. grew up in a country that effectively banned child labor, we think it is normal that children go to school, play, and do their homework. It is tough to realize that this now ordinary pattern really wasn't the rule in the U.S. until the Progressive Era. In poor regions of the world like Africa and South America, this pattern has still not completely taken hold.

One of the most interesting articles that help illustrate the breathtaking changes caused by child labor laws crossed my desk this week. John Parker, the environmental editor of one of my favorite magazines, The Economist, wrote  "The World Reshaped: The End of the Population Pyramid," back in November 2014. The most interesting part of this article, for me, is how the famous population pyramid is predicted to change over the next half century. See, below: 

In Parker's view, the declining fertility rate is largely responsible for the changes we see in the population pyramid between 1970 and 2015. The column shape of the pyramid that scholars anticipate for 2060 is largely the result of improved longevity in his view. 

I have been fascinated with this chart all week. I think that Parker is misinterpreting this information because, like most social scientists, he does not appreciate the impact of child labor laws on fertility, increased intellectual capital, and wealth accumulation. In the first place, child labor laws are unlikely to change and thus we will never see increases in fertility rates again. (Unless, of course, the Muslims take over completely and drag us into their dysfunctional world view.) In fact, I would predict that the fertility rate will eventually decrease everywhere as child labor laws are enacted and fully enforced. If parents cannot benefit from their children's labor, then we are taking away what has traditionally been one of the most important reasons to have children in the first place. 

I do, of course, anticipate that improvements in medicine will result in longer life spans. It makes sense to me that the column will continue to get higher for that reason. Nevertheless, I also expect that the base of the column -- the number of children in the world -- will continue to decrease until major (even dramatic) efforts are made to encourage increased fertility rates. 

I am still thinking through the implications of this new column shaped population pyramid. At the very least, it give us a more accurate image of what the world will look like for many generations to come. Those of us alive today will be among the first to think through the predictable trials and tribulations of this brave new world. For more of my thoughts on child labor and child welfare please see my Pathway to Prosperity blog site.

Dr. Drew's Two Day Grant Writing Retreat is Coming to a Community College Near You

Tricia and I will be traveling around the State of California to teach my Two Day Grant Writing Retreat at a community college near you in the Spring of 2016.  We have already received rave reviews for this innovative program and I'm excited about offering it again. 

As you may know, this retreat is designed to meet the educational needs of grant writers from city, county, and state agencies as well as non-profits, K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. You will emerge from this retreat with all - or a large portion - of your grant proposal written and ready to submit to an appropriate national, California or local funder.

The retreat will help you:

• Develop a top-notch and quality grant proposal
• Get funders interested in your project
• Identify at least 10 funders for your project
• Discover the best ways to approach funders
• Develop effective budgets that make sense
• Discover the best practices and trends in grant writing
• Learn insider secrets on making great grant proposals
• Save time with grant writing strategies and more

 These practical, down-to-earth retreats are scheduled as follows:

Antelope Valley College, Lancaster

Tel: (661) 722-6300

Antelope Valley College 

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday 

March 19 & 20, 2016.

Gavilan College, Gilroy

Tel: (408) 852-2801

Gavilan College Community Education

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday 

February 16 & 17, 2016. 

Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa

Tel: (714) 432-5993

Orange Coast College

9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday 

March 1 & 2, 2016.

 The retreats take place from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. each day. The special discounted price for these community college hosted events is $495 per person. Only twelve (12) spots are available at each location.

As you may know, the techniques I teach in my Two Day Grant Writing Retreat rely on the same principles and techniques I used to recently win $2.5 million in competitive funding for schools in the Coast Community College District. The Two Day Grant Writing Retreat provides you with inspiration and motivation along with enough time to allow you to meet your fellow participants and share your ideas in a supportive, non-judgmental environment.

These retreats are organized, step-by-step, to provide you with my expert, professional guidance on how to draft each portion of your grant.  We will also have time together for you to read, write, and critique your application during the retreat.

This program includes a comprehensive booklet, sample grant proposals, as well as PowerPoint presentations illustrating key principles regarding each portion of your grant application, plus group exercises designed to give you the experience of thinking about your grant proposal the way funders will think about your grant proposal.

Since these seats are filling up quickly, please place your order now so that you can be part of this extremely useful educational event.   

Retreat Description

 

Dr. Drew designed these two-day grant writing retreats so that participants would be able to emerge with a fully realized grant proposal.  These retreats are organized to follow the standard elements of a grant proposal including the cover letter, introduction, background, organizational history, objectives, plan of operation, evaluation, and budget.  In the process, Dr. Drew will also teach the ideas he uses to improve staff and individual resumes from the perspective of grant reviewers.  Samples of each element of the full grant proposal will be included with the course package. 

Day One: 9:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Topics: Cover letters, introduction, background, and organizational history.

Day Two: 9:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Topics: Objectives, plan of operation, evaluation, and budget.

What Others Say About Dr. Drew

"I was intimidated about grants, but you made it so easy." - Alex Mata, P.R.I.D.E., Pico Rivera, CA

"I took your workshop at Rio Hondo College and won $20,000 for my choir." - Lloyd Chen, Whittier, CA

"Dr. Drew assisted our community college district in winning over $2.1 million in grants." - Corine Doughty, Costa Mesa, CA

"Dr. Drew helped my agency win $350,000 in federal funding for its top priority project - helping children and teens." - Grant D. McNiff, Tustin, CA

 

Benefits of the Retreat Format

The benefits of these two-day grant writing retreats include my sustained focus and attention on your grant project, detailed line-by-line instructions regarding grant language, buzz words, and state-of-the-art practices, along with insight into the mind, emotion, and work practices of an outstanding scholar, a published author, and an experienced grantseeker.

The best way to learn grant writing is to write a grant.  Often the fastest way to write a grant is to do so with the help of a friend and a mentor.  In these retreats, we can quickly fix a delay or barrier that might otherwise prevent an agency or an individual from succeeding at grant writing.  Often, little things can gum up the works of creativity and success.  With the individual attention you'll receive at one of these retreats, however, your grant will surpass the most important hurdle - your own expectations.

 

Special Offer: Earn $700 by Making a Successful Referral for Drew & Associates

Drew & Associates pays $700.00 apiece for referrals that turn into grant writing work for us. If you know someone who needs the help of a professional grant writer, please give us a call at (949) 338-5921. This $700.00 referral replaces our normal marketing expenditures and our prices to the client do not change from our standard rates. We will make out a check straight to you or to the charity of your choice.

In 2015, Drew & Associates paid out $3,500 in referral fees to our raving fans. Please help your friends and favorite charities by recommending our services to them and setting up a phone or face-to-face appointment for them to meet with Dr. Drew. 

Offer Expires 1/31/2016.

Create Your Ideal Environment: Tips for Building Your Concentration as a Lightning Fast Grant Writer

Ironically, I did not start getting interested in ergonomics until I had my own grant writing consulting business. For some reason, I neglected my posture and health while I worked for various charities. Nevertheless, once I started working for my own company, I found myself getting fascinated with the details of what it takes to create a highly optimum work environment. I suppose that I got a lot more interested in my own productivity and comfort when the only employee at work -- at first -- was me. 

Nine Tips for a Healthy Workstation from the Mayo Clinic

As I like to share with my workshop participants, I purchased an expensive ergonomic chair when I started Drew & Associates. The advantages of this rather extravagant purchase included the fact that it was actually designed to reduce my stress and discomfort. The chair I use has foam cushioning and moves with my back to avoid locking my torso in a rigid position. The movement allowed by the chair actually keeps you more relaxed and resilient. To my surprise, physical discomfort had actually been harming my otherwise superhuman powers of concentration. Once I started using the ergonomic chair, I found I could blissfully write for an hour or two with barely a thought about my physical environment. What other tips made money for me? 

First, I think it is not enough to buy an expensive ergonomic chair. You also need to know how to adjust it so that it really works for you. For example, I raise my chair so that it is high enough that my elbows are parallel to the keyboard. I raise the arms of the chair so that they match the length of my upper arms exactly. (Left one is a little shorter on me.) 

I also use an ergonomic keyboard. It is the best I could buy. It is bent in the middle to reflect the actual angle of my hands and wrists. It also has a shelf which allows me to rest the palms of my hands at the exact same level as the keyboard itself. As the video above recommends, I keep the top of the display screen horizontal to my eyes. 

All of these may seem like minor details, but when you are making money based on your ability to concentrate on a difficult task with an extremely tight deadline, I have found that these little details matter a great deal. In fact, I do not think I could succeed as a grant writing consultant unless I had the technological edge provided by the highest quality office equipment. 

Finally, I cannot stress enough the importance of minimizing distractions. I do play soft music while I am writing. I have done that for years. I cannot imagine writing without having a radio going on in the background. I am getting a kick out of using Pandora for my office sound track. Oddly enough, I have done some of my best work when I played a song I particularly liked over and over again. I know I should get tired of hearing such a song, but when it is the right one my brain does not seem to mind the lack of variety. It is not so easy to avoid the telephone. I find that I simply do not answer it while I am writing something. Usually, there is nothing urgent taking place so this is no big deal. If you are an introvert like me, then ignoring your phone calls is probably one of the most pleasant things about being a grant writer. 

I also limit myself to checking my e-mail about twice a day. This is exceptionally difficult. Nevertheless, e-mail can be a great time waster and an easy way to be distracted from concentrating on your highest goals and priorities.Ultimately, we are judged by the successes of our grant writing, not the speed with which we respond to e-mail requests. 

Plan Ahead: Tips for Building Your Focus as a Lightning Fast Grant Writer

Typically, new non-profits and new grant writers come to me with massive projects. From my experience, these projects are so broad and so ambitious that no one except Superman and Lois Lane could get them done. My most important advice is usually to scale back their ambitious plans and focus their attention on the most important 10% of what they originally planned to do for their clients. 

New Oil Paintings by Dr. Drew

Too often, charities and grant writers think they can get ahead by creating a broad, general, comprehensive project that covers all the bases. This is usually due to a misplaced sense of perfectionism. It is as if they are saying they are confident they will win funding only if they offer to do everything possible for their clients for virtually free.   

Promising the funder less will actually improve your chances of winning a grant in a number of obvious and non-obvious ways. First, by featuring only a small portion of your total effort, you will have the advantage of pulling out the most attractive elements of your overall program for their consideration. As I teach in our Two Day Grant Writing Retreats, the funder wants to pay for the star on top of the Christmas tree. They would prefer that your annual campaign donors cover the more mundane aspects of your charitable work. Next, you can create a more credible case that you will be able to follow through and implement your program if you promise less to the funder. The funders are not any brighter than us, but they are not any dumber either. They can tell if you are trying to do too much, more than your organization can handle, and they would prefer that you take on programs and tasks that are proportional to your budget, expertise, and previous experience. 

Narrowing your concerns to a portion of a specific program will also help you in the process of drafting a compelling grant application. For example, if you pick a narrower topic, then you will find it easier to focus in on the most significant research that backs up your approach. Instead of providing the latest scholarly research on 10 or 12 subtopics, you can use your time and develop meaningful expertise by zeroing in (or focusing) on a smaller element of your program and creating a rock solid justification for that particular element.This focus on a smaller project will allow you to present your charity as a true, highly credible, cutting edge leader in its field. 

Ironically, a smaller project will also allow you to do a better job of articulating what is best and most exceptional about your charitable organization. This is a particularly great strategy for newer and smaller charities. They cannot compete head on with larger charities. Nevertheless, they can argue that they have greater expertise, qualifications, and access to clients in their local areas. The smaller project will also allow you to provide some leadership to the funder by indicating what you think is the most important and compelling need in your service area. The smaller project will also help you call attention to the unique attributes which will make your charity the best, greatest, most efficient solution to the smaller problem you have chosen as the object of your laser-like focus. 

Finally, I like the idea of focusing on a smaller project because it helps risk adverse non-profit agencies get over the delays and slothfulness associated with thinking that they need to promise a big program, a program that they may not have the expertise or resources to pull off. It is quite easy to talk yourself out of writing a grant if you make it into a seemingly impossible project. Instead, by focusing on a smaller project, you take away one of the excuses that facilitates procrastination and perfectionism. As always, the solution is to get into action. It is easier to get into action if you have a small project that absolutely needs to be completed by your charity. 

Follow the Funder's Guidelines: The Most Important Tip for Winning Massive Grants

Whenever I teach one of our Two Day Grant Writing Retreats, I'm usually quite insistent that the number one most important rule of successful grant writing is the follow the funder's directions. Ironically, I often find myself tempted to violate this iron clad rule myself, especially when I am in a hurry, facing a tough deadline or in the mood to dismiss the funder's tedious requirements as mistakes instead of directions. Luckily, my wife and staff are quick to remind me of this necessity. 

When is it harder to follow the funder's directions?  

Undoubtedly, it is hardest to follow those guidelines when they are ambiguous and open to interpretation. This often happens, for example, in large federal grants where different rules appear at the beginning of the grant application compared to the same rules written later in the application. Push comes to shove, I tend to make my first priority calling the program officer on the phone when I see this happen. Often, grant writers are nervous about calling the funder because they are worried they will blow it somehow. This is not a legitimate worry. The program officers want to see compliant applications and they are eager to help you to make that happen. A quick phone call or e-mail can quickly clear things up. 

If I do not hear back from the program officer in time, however, I usually go with the interpretation that makes the most sense to me or the interpretation that occurs toward the end of the document. My view is that they probably got smarter as they wrote the application and put their best ideas at the end. No matter what, it is smart to document your e-mail or phone call requesting a clarification. 

My Disconcerting Truth: Write the Grant First and Then Do the Research

Every once in a while, I’m surprised at the power of my own techniques. Recently, I was putting a grant application together for a new client with a new potential funder. Following my usual strategy, I started writing the client’s application without doing any research – except, of course, interviewing a staff member and a Board member.

As I wrote the application, I quickly figured out that the funder needed a much more narrowly defined project that what I was currently writing for them.  In other words, my efforts to answer the funder’s questions had given me a much more precise understanding of exactly what the funder was willing to pay for in terms of a model grant program.

Ironically, I was already about 3/4 of the way through the first draft when I noticed the funder’s own website had a lot of the information I was looking for regarding the proposed grant project. If I had scanned the funder’s entire website beforehand, I do not think I would have noticed – or paid much attention to – the valuable information posted there, information that was immediately relevant to my client’s grant application.

Since I was already writing the first draft of the client’s application, I was hypersensitive to the exact information I needed and it just jumped out at me when I flipped to the funder’s website.

I think you will have this sort of time saving experience too if you give this technique a try. Often, I find I do not need to do the all extensive research I anticipated once I actually look at the questions posed in the actual grant application paperwork.

Moreover, the client’s staff experts can often quickly provide me with the most relevant research – once they have read a draft and understand the internal logic of the application.  In a world of severe time constraints and limited rationality, I think it is usually a waste of time to ask the client to figure out the fundamental issues of significance by reading the funder’s guidelines. I have found the client’s staff can often be more helpful if they respond to a fully established rough draft of the full proposal.

Best of all, I think that if you do your research second, you will sometimes find you already know more than enough to write a tolerable solicitation document. With this technique, I have been able to avoid losing valuable hours and minutes researching things that may – in the end – have nothing to do with my client’s proposed project.

How Do I Follow the Money? Cool Websites Simplify Your Grant Research Chores

I think that everyone in the grant writing business has probably asked themselves: How do I follow the money for non-profit groups getting federal grants and contracts? As a political scientist, I was trained to follow the money no matter what as a tool for determining who had the most power and clout in Washington, D.C. Now, as a grant writer, I still follow the money. I follow the money in order to understand where it is coming from and what I need to say and do to get it.

One of my most important secrets of success is to research the competitors who are also applying for the same pot of grant money. If you would like to start researching your competitors, then you need to know about the following websites.
Check out Guidestar:

You can find another non-profit organization's IRS Form 990’s on Guidestar by going here and registering to use it.  Of course, you will need to use the non-profit's exact name as it appears on their Form 990. The IRS Form 990 is quite interesting because it includes a list of their largest funders along with details on how much they pay their high-level staff and, sometimes, board members. Although key information like phone numbers and addresses may sometimes be blocked out, you will still get enough basic information that a simple Google search will help you fill in the details on any cool information you discover through this remarkable service.

Check out USASpending.gov:

This website is the publicly accessible, searchable website mandated by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to give the American public access to information on how their tax dollars are spent. Most folks have no idea that this website even exists. Nevertheless it is a terrific way to investigate how much and what kind of federal funding your competitors are receiving from their grant campaigns. Again, you need to look up the exact name that they used when they applied for funding. This is a little tricky, but you can do it with a little persistence and imagination.

Check out annual reports to Congress:

These annual reports are a virtual cornucopia of information on grants. This data is also useful in identifying broad trends in government funding too.

Check out NonProfitFacts.com:

This website is particularly good for laying out the basic financial facts about a competitor organization without the tedious detail of reviewing the IRS 990 Form. The downside, however, is that it will not give you the names of the specific funders who give to the organization. Nevertheless, this is a good resource for getting the big picture overview of the folks you are competing with in the non-profit marketplace.

Fire Up Your Whole Charity by Moving on the Budget First, Not Last

One of the most important things I teach in my Lightning Fast Grant Writing Workshops is the suggestion charities should start working on their project budget right away.

Too often, charities work on their budget at the last minute.  They will only focus on the budget after they have written much of the grant.  This is odd, when you think about it, because the grant writer would have a better idea of what to write if there was a realistic budget.

Ironically, some busy grant reviewers will skim (or not read at all) the text of the charity's grant application. 

Instead, they turn to the budget to make an informed decision about whether the charity has a clear enough plan and a realistic understanding of their proposed project.  In this context, it is easier to understand why a strong, detailed, accurate budget will always give an agency an unfair advantage over its competition.

Since the budget is a great management tool for overseeing the implementation of your grant project, the short-cuts used by the hurried grant reviewer may actually be a shrewd and effective use of their time. 

One of the best ways to get started on your budget is to work off of a copy of an existing, winning budget.  You can obtain copies of winning budgets from other agencies, through the internet, or from your own agency's own previous grant applications.

Learn Grant Writing in a Flash By Reading Copies of Winning Grants

As a young grant writer, I felt like I needed to learn the process quickly - as a matter of financial survival. 

One of the best decisions I ever made was to exercise my charity's right to read the winning grant application in an Orange County grant program. 

I remember that I felt like Bob Woodward the day I read through all the applications for a $400,000 program designed to serve foster care youth. 

I'll never forget the experience of seeing the successful application face-to-face.  It was filled, for example, with unneccessary but really beautiful color charts and graphs.  

It had a level of slickness and perfection that I did not even think would be normally expected of a struggling non-profit charity. 

Over the years, I have learned other lessons from looking at real world examples of grant writing success.  Ironically, I have learned that grant proposals do not need to be perfect to succeed.  Sometimes, incredible needs in your community are so great that the foundations appear willing to "throw money" at a problem, even if the proposed grant project is not the best possible solution. 

All of this reminds me that appearances matter in the world of grant writing - even though the highest rewards still go to those willing to take action, no matter what.

Pay Attention to the Points: Simple Tips for Winning Federal Grants

Writing a successful federal grant demands the exact same skills, resources, and product positioning skills discussed in A Really Great Booklet on Grant Writing.  The only real difference is that you need to apply these skills with even greater depth and discipline.  As you may know, I created my best, early successes writing federal grants.  

I have found them to be an arena that verifies everything I have said earlier on the sudden appearance of money, and the need to move quickly when money arrives.  The necessity of quick action in this field makes perfect sense to me because of the process surrounding federal grant applications.  After these grant appropriations are approved by Congress, the money slowly trickles down, and then the government agency that is giving away the money needs to scramble to let everyone know that the money is now available.  Often, it is not really their fault that they could not move faster, simply because they are not sure what is going to be available.  (I imagine this was done on purpose in the past to give an advantage to existing interest groups over insurgent interest groups.)

For whatever reason, the same process is still taking place today.  Accordingly, to win one of these federal grants, you need to have everything set up ahead of time.  The main season for federal grants runs from January to May.  So, ideally, if you get yourself set-up with grants.gov in the Fall, you will be able to apply for funding in the Spring.

There are some things about applying for federal grants that are remarkably different from applying for corporate or foundation grants.  It pays to know, for example, what some of these differences are if you want to get ahead.  For example, federal applications list their guidelines so that you can find out what criteria are used to screen your application, and you can even find the score attached to each separate criteria. 

It is best to request this on behalf of your agency, not as a consultant to an agency.  (I tried this as a consultant and federal staff frightened the nonprofits into backing down and not insisting on their rights.)  I have found it extremely profitable to pay great attention to the weighting of the different sections of a federal grant application.  There are also great advantages in answering questions exactly according to what the federal request for proposal demands from you: word for word.  This operating strategy can, at times, create an almost idiotic question and response style of writing useful to nobody in the real world.  As crazy as this sounds, perfect and consistent compliance will win you funding in the long-run.

In my experience, it seems to help to have a good friendship with your member of Congress, Senator, or other political official.  They and their staffs can be very helpful in assisting you in finding available pots of money.  Surprisingly, you can even include letters of support from local political figures in your applications for funding - a fact that first struck me as almost like cheating.

Finally, one good idea for winning money from the federal government is to focus on those programs which have the largest amount of money and the largest sheer number of potential grants.  I like looking for programs like Drug-Free Communities which offer up to 300 grants every year in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.  As a taxpayer, you may be very disappointed by how easy it is to receive funding from the federal government for your pet project.  As a recipient, however, I think you will be very happy.

Yes. There are Grants for Small Businesses

Red Onions with a Copper Pitcher by John C. Drew, 

October 2014.

Normally, I cannot provide much hope for small business owners seeking funding from the federal government. The idea that the federal government wants to help you start a small business is, for the most part, a complete myth. As the Small Business Administration notes on its own website, "SBA does not provide grants for starting and expanding a business."

Most of those who get support from the federal government do so by receiving loans given by private lenders that are guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. This guarantee lowers your interest rate, but it is not free money. 

Money for Scientific Research 

Nevertheless, if your small business is engaged in scientific research and development, then the federal government is interested in hearing from you. They have opened their doors wide to receive proposals in this area and they are more than willing to fund them if you are doing research which matches their own pre-selected research interests. 

The two most important programs you need to know about are the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT) programs. If you work on a SBTT grant application, then you will need to find a research institution like a major research university to collaborate with you on your research project. You will also need to share a least 30% of the research expenses with a collaborating research institution. Some of the best funders for business owners in the lucrative medical equipment field are the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Regarding the NIH and NSF

I was amazed to learn that you can send unsolicited applications to the NIH without worrying about their current research interests. The next deadline for such an application would be January 5, 2016. The initial Phase I grant would be for $150,000 and any subsequent Phase II grant would be significantly higher, up to $1 million. They make it easy to give them a phone call and check whether or not there is a match. One great thing I noticed about NIH is that there is a conference in Seattle between October 27-29, 2015 where you can learn about how to apply for the NIH’s SBIR funding.

Medical equipment inventors would also be eligible to apply for NSF funding under their various medical categories. 

Tips for Winning

In general, the NIH and NSF are looking for projects which are very near to the marketplace, but still need to be tested on human subjects. From what I understand, if you do a high quality application in an appropriate funding category you have a 50% chance of winning funding. It is best to plan your Phase 1 and Phase 2 research project as one entire research operation. It seems like you are virtually guaranteed to win the much larger Phase 2 funding as long as you can prove your mettle during the Phase 1 funding research. 

Assembling Your Grant Project Team: Balancing the Strengths and Weaknesses

One of the key points in Warshawski's book is that you need to make sure that you have excellent people in other positions if you have a new or inexperienced person serving as the director or producer of a film. For example, if you have a director who is just out of film school, he thinks it is extremely important to find a producer

who has a track-record of success in funding and managing successful documentary films. This does not mean that new people cannot get a break in the industry. It only means that you need to balance new people with more experienced people to create a credible application.

Oil Portrait of a Female Model 

by John C. Drew 

September 2015

The more inexperienced the director, the more experienced the producer or executive producer needs to be for your project.

Likewise, if you have a new director, then you also need to team him/her up with an experienced videographer so that your get quality shots for your film. However, a team led by an experienced director can get away with using a less experienced crew because the funder assumes the director will make up for their inadequacies.

In the same manner, I like to balance our grant project teams. For example, if I have an extremely experienced and skilled executive director, then I do not mind teaming them up with less experienced staff - especially if this means we can save some money. If the executive director is new, however, then I argue for adding to the grant project staff members with the strongest academic credentials and experience even if they appear over-qualified for their positions.

I think that this common sense approach makes more sense when you are thinking about documentary films because the  roles of the cameraman or the director are so specific and so differentiated. In the typical non-profit it often seems like everybody is doing everybody's job.

Writing with the Needs of the Foundation in Mind: Getting Money Quicker

My Drew & Associates team recently finished up a series of proposals designed to help a young film director, Maj. Lynette Jones win funding for her film called "The Truth Behind the Camouflage." This highly topical documentary film will investigate solutions for ending sexual assault in the Armed Forces.

One of our senior associate grant writers, Pearl Rothman, took on this project because of her own experience as a screenwriter for short films and commercials. I could not be more proud of the work she did on this project.

In the process, I learned a lot about what it takes to get funding for a documentary film based on an excellent book by Morrie Warshawski, "Shaking the Money Tree." Accordingly, I thought it would be fun to share some of the new insights I will be applying to my own grant writing in the years ahead.

Grant writing for a documentary film is kind of tough because so few foundations are sincerely interested in funding documentary films. My research team, for example, found it difficult to search out funders for Maj. Jones' project. As Warshawski writes: "Remember, many foundations are funding the film not because it is a film, but inspite of the fact that it is a film!" Below, I have inserted the trailer for the film, The Truth Behind the Camouflage. 

To address this challenge, Warshawski recommends seeking funders that are interested in the subject matter of the documentary and not for funders that express a specific interest in documentary films. This seems like sage advice to me. In my experience, it is a lot easier to win a grant from a funder that has a strong interest in your topic area. This is why, at times, it seems to me that the good research is more important than good writing when it comes to winning grants.

One of the unending debates in grant writing is whether you would tailor your projects to match the funders' previous project or else stick to your own programs and then work harder to find appropriate matches. In my experience, there are generally only a handful of funders in your region that give money for what you want to do. Accordingly, it looks to me like your best bet is to see what they want to do and to start doing that.

Knowledge of People is Power: Using Teamwork to Improve Your Grant Writing

As a graduate and undergraduate student, I thought of academic/intellectual production as a lonely, solitary occupation. However, when I wrote -- and later published -- my doctoral dissertation, I quickly learned that being a successful political scientist meant that I would have to get really good at working with small groups of people, highly skilled people. While my name was on the final product, I benefited from the assistance of a number of editors, proofreaders, research assistants, and mentors.

In a similar manner, I like to stress that grant writing is not a solitary exercise - it is in fact a team sport.

In my experience, it is not always the best charities or institutions that win the most lucrative grants. Instead, success goes to those folks who manage to pull together a broad range of information and produce a conforming document under the pressure of a tight deadline. In most cases, the grant writer is dependent on the accounting office for budget information, the executive director's office for goals and vision, the program administrators for day-to-day expertise, clients for practical insight, staff members for fresh versions of their resumes, and even the funder's own administrators regarding the details of the application.

In this context, I think the best grant writers have a knack for managing small, temporary workgroups. One of my secrets of success is to pay attention to the temperaments of the people involved in the process.

In Lao Tzu's book, The Art of War, the author writes there is a place for everybody when you are planning a military campaign.  He says that those who are impulsive and full of courage should be given the honor of leading the charge. He says that those who are naturally cautious and careful are better employed at logistics and planning. The challenge is to size up your group and make intelligent assignments quickly.

At the start of the grant writing process, I like to leverage the excitement and enthusiasm of the most outspoken proponents of the grant. I encourage them by rapidly creating a complete A-Z grant application that puts their biggest and best ideas into a rational, conforming framework.  I encourage them to shoot for the stars, apply the latest research, and compile their most inspirational wish list.

As I near completion of the project, however, I like to encourage the voices of the project pessimists, the ones who may have been indifferent, or actively opposed, to writing the grant in the first place. Frequently, I have found that those who were most resistant to even trying for the grant can be quite helpful in polishing up and perfecting it at the end of the process. I like to leverage the naysayers by encouraging their criticism, asking for their harshest observations, and implementing their most realistic perspectives.

One of the advantages of this approach, by the way, is that the most aggressive grant optimists have, in all probability, lost interest in the project and are moving on to fresh endeavors.

Accordingly, I think it is important to stress that grant writing is more of a team sport than a form of solitary contemplation. There is a lot of money to be made by paying attention to your team's personalities, strengths, and weaknesses.