The need for improvisation in grant writing is the logical consequence of the requirement to write long, original, persuasive documents under tight deadlines about topics that are unfamiliar. Due to severe time constraints, the grant writer will never have the time to adequately research their topic. If they are afraid of improvising, then they may deny themselves and their team adequate time to review and revise the grant proposal. After all, keep in mind multiple revisions are needed and will be made to make the document perfect. Below, I list my five most important tips for effective improvisation.
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| "Big Bear Lake Scene," oil on canvas 18" x 24" by John C. Drew, Ph.D. |
1. Trust Yourself
In an emergency situation, it always makes sense to begin by trusting your own gut instincts. Often the program managers at your charity may have no clue how to organize their work either. Your best guess at the way to proceed may actually win the team over and impress the funder. Plus, if you are sincerely happy with what you are writing then you are probably at least 80% of the way toward identifying the ideal elements of a winning grant proposal including the needs statement, the program solution, and the evaluation measures. Regardless, the key is to keep writing no matter what. When you read what you have written the next day you may be surprised by the quality of your work and the internal coherence of your arguments.
2. Play the Worst, Average, Best Game
If I am stuck about the best course to follow as I'm writing a grant, I like to play a little game called Worst, Average and Best. I begin by thinking about a serious issue and then ask myself what the absolute worst solution would be. I don't know why, but imagining the absolutely worst solution, the solution that would make things much worse tends to clear my mind and gives me a foundation on which to build. I then ask myself what would be an average solution to the problem. Here, my brain generates traditional answers to immediate questions. I have found that this question tends to trigger my existing memory and pull up ideas and procedures or thoughts which I hadn't previously considered. The next step, however, is what makes this game so satisfying. I ask myself what would be the best possible solution to the problem? Out of this question, I have often found surprising solutions that appear in my mind. These are ideas that are grounded in the literature and are simple, effective, and creative. Even if my idea is off base, however, I still go with it. The staff of the agency or its leadership may or may not agree with my take, but - at the very least - I have done my duty by providing them with my best original insight. In times of crisis, I have found that playing the Worst, Average, and Best game has often led me to powerful solutions that make me feel quite confident about what I am writing or doing for a client or for workshop participants.
3. Reverse Conventional Wisdom
One of the best improvisational techniques in my repertoire comes from my graduate school mentor, the late, Theodore J. Lowi. He taught me that it was frequently useful to take an idea and then explore the practicality of its complete opposite. For example, one of the truisms of grant writing is that the best pathway to winning is to follow the funder's directions. It would be folly to ignore this advice. Yet, we can imagine the creative ideas that might emerge if we reversed this saying and thought instead, the best pathway to winning is NOT to follow the funder's directions. How might that be true? As I ask myself the question it occurs to me that the best way to win grants, in reality, is to know a board or staff member of the foundation and have them recommend you to the funder. Some funders expressly ask you not to do this. Nevertheless, this is one sure way to win grants. This idea might not have occurred to me if I did not experiment with reversing the original shibboleth.
4. Makeup Facts and Figures Just to Keep Writing
The only practical solution is to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses and do your best at improvising when you run across mainly unfamiliar matters. Whatever inadequacies this creates are relatively minor since other readers on your team should be able to revise the document and make it more realistic. This is why, in my seminars, I recommend that you write a draft of the whole grant first and then do the research for the document.
5. Google It
The internet has been one of the greatest blessings for grant writers in a hurry. If I am stuck on something, I am usually pleasantly surprised when a quick Google search of keywords or a name brings up a Wikipedia article or some other resources which fill me in on the topic. The Wikipedia entries are particularly useful when they contain recent footnotes. Even so, I and you need to check those links. Too often the source cited in the Wikipedia article is no longer available, at least in its original form. When I bump up against paywalls, I usually just make do with the article summary and rely on the agency staff to verify my take on the article in question. My associate grant writers are particularly adept at finding key information on the internet. In one case, an associate grant writer found step-by-step directions for creating fish ponds. We were able to use this document in our draft grant proposal and the client, who built fish ponds himself, seemed perfectly okay with what was submitted.
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