Don't Neglect Last Minute Grant Writing Tasks: Double Check Names, Addresses and Phone Numbers

"Pacific Ocean Off Monterrey, CA"
by John Drew 20 by 16 inches oil on canvas.

To use your final minutes with your grant proposal effectively, it is useful to understand a little bit about human nature.

When you are first drafting the grant applications you are usually careful about addressing the letter properly and including the right phone numbers and e-mail addresses.  The temptation is to never double check these items again since they do not involve any cognitive ambiguity.  We assume we have the basic contact information correct and tend to consider rechecking this information to be a waste of time.

In reality, however, the various changes you have made to the document over time - or the changes injected by others - may have inadvertently allowed errors to creep into information that you assume to be certain and unassailable.

The problem here is that errors can pop up and when they do they create striking damage - both in terms of your charity's credibility with the funder and your own credibility with your employer or your client.
  

To my shock, I've often found the most crucial contact information to be filled with minor errors.  Since this is the information that the funder will definitely be using - if they skim everything else - I like to spend some of those final, precious moments reviewing the readily checkable contact information.  Above all, it is important to make sure that you have the name and address of your funder correct. At conferences, the funders take delight in making fun of charities that mess up these basics. Be wise and pay attention to these most important details at the last minute.