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 had in mind much more narrowly defined project that what I was expecting ahead of time. 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.

Lightning Fast Grant Writing Tips: Give Your Charity an Advantage by Starting on Your Budget Early

One of the most important things I like to teach in my Lightning Fast Grant Writing Workshops is the suggestion that 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 which 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 to work off of...

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

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 budget examples from other agencies, off of the internet, or from your own agency's previous grant applications.

A Couple of Great Ideas for Researching Grant Possibilities

My aim is to speed up the process of winning grants. This means that I like to bring fresh eyes to the grant writing process and place my stress on techniques that make it easier for you to move decisively and quickly when it comes to researching funders and preparing applications for them.

One of the ironic things about teaching "grant writing" classes is that a lot of the success you experience is actually due to "grant researching." Accordingly, it is important to know where to look for funding for your project.

In my experience, people who dive into the Internet searching for grants are quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available to them. I like to simplify things by recommending the three most important sites I use to get information about potential grant opportunities.

I turn to the Foundation Center in New York for information on corporate and foundation grants.

http://www.foundationcenter.org

I turn to the federal government's special site for federal grants.

http://www.grants.gov/

And, finally, I look to another site for full information on potential scholarship applications.

http://www.fastweb.com/

With these three sites at hand, you'll have about 90% of the resources you need to find grants for yourself, your clients, or your non-profit agency. Also, please don't forget that it is okay to ask other for help. In a fix, I like to contact the staff members of your Congressional representative for your district or your city manager's office for assistance.

Making Sense of Political Turmoil: The Grant Writer's Role in Politics

After the Scott Brown win in MA, I think it is normal for grant writers to wonder about the nation's political situation and ask how it affects them and the charities they work for as consultants or employees. The first thing I like to point out is that I have won federal money from Democrat administrations and Republican administrations. Despite what people say, I've found the federal government contests to be some of the most fair, easy to access, and reliable grant money to obtain on behalf of charities. As far as I can tell, the reason the federal government is fair is that control over it changes frequently enough that rules have been established to prevent the worst forms of political abuse. In addition, there is a great deal of attention focused on federal grants. This high visibility will also protect you from the worst abuses of partisan politics. Finally, federal grants are generally idea driven. If you have an idea backed up by research, then I think you will be fairly surprised by how well your idea gets funded. Despite all the political hype, the quality of your ideas does matter and fresh programs based on the latest research will always have a profound advantage.

For Charismatic Leaders: The Book Preceeds the Charismatic Power

I just finished reading a touching book by Bryan Nash, called "A Phoenix Rising the Defining Moments: The True Story of a Child's Triumph over Abandonment and Abuse." Bryan's story touched my heart, in large measure, because he is the same age as me and because I know that the experiences he describes as growing up as an abused child in Orange County, California ring true.

I remember what it was like to feel the February 9, 1971 earthquake rattles through our home in Newhall California like a freight train running through the front yard. I've been in a couple of earthquakes since then but never anything like that.

Today, Bryan is using his book to call attention to the plight of children who age out of the foster care system without the normal tools to find work, settle in apartments, and maintain the financial security needed to become a safe and secure member of society. This task is not all that easy even for those of us who have reasonably loving parents.

Like George Washington or Mahatma Gandhi, Bryan is starting to discover that having a book published opens doors for him and attracts followers to his charity and larger cause. Also, I think the practice of writing out your life as a book has a certain healing impact on the individual psychologically. It allows them to reframe their life in terms of their present success and their aspirations for the future.

Although I make a living as a grant writer, I can't help but think that the founders of charities would be greatly advantaged if they set aside time each morning to work on writing out their life story. In the end, this simple practice might be more important to the financial success of their charity than anything I can do as a grant writer.

Quick Overview of Foundation Center's New Mapping Capacity

For a long time now, I've been sold on the advantages of subscribing to the services of the Foundation Center in New York. This year, their Professional-level services gives you access to the Foundation Center's latest tool, the Map of Cross-Border Giving. I checked out their webinar and I can see that the Map of Cross-Border Giving will be a powerful tool for me as I teach workshops on grant writing because it illustrates U.S. grantmaking to non-U.S. recipients.

The Map of Cross-Border Giving is limited to the top 30,000 grants totaling more than $8.5 billion.

This new feature should be particularly helpful to those of us presenting seminars on grant writing. For example, you will be able to show your clients and your students:

•See grants from U.S. grantmakers to non-U.S. recipient organizations.

•View grantmaker data from independent, community, company-sponsored, and operating foundations as well as corporate giving programs and grantmaking public charities.

•Filter your map view by fiscal year, grantmaker type, or giving based on recipient type, primary subject, or type of support.

•Mouse over a country to see the total dollar amount and number of grants awarded, along with the number of grantmakers and recipients giving and receiving funds. (In my experience, this is particularly useful in illustrating the uneven distribution of grants - particularly for countries in the Middle East.)

•Change your display options to see grantmaker or recipients lists, and then click to see descriptions of the grants awarded to recipients in each country.

This tool is also useful for illustrating the concentration of grants from places like the Ford Foundation. To get started, log in to FDO and look for the Map of Cross-Border Giving box on the left, then click the "Visit Map of Cross-Border Giving" link.

What's the Wrong Way to Do Lightning Fast Grant Writing?

Out of necessity, I think folks have developed some rough and ready techniques for speeding up the grant writing process. How many of these are evident in your shop?

1. Save time by waiting until the last minute to write the grant so that your are forced to go with your first draft and complete it in a minimal amount of time.

2. Save time by not writing the grant at all. This is when the agency decides as a group that the grant is not worth going after at all because of the risks involved, the lack of a perfect fit, and the high costs of administering a successful grant.

3. Assume that your Jedi mind powers have made it impossible for you to make a spelling or grammatical error.

4. Just copy, word for word, what someone else wrote the year before or on behalf of another agency.

5. Work really hard over a long period of time because - in comparison to the slackers - your efforts are actually extremely fast.

The truth is that we are all working in an extreme crisis atmosphere when we write grants and we need to use unusual techniques and planning to make things work. Ideally, my Lightning Fast Grant Writing Techniques workshops teach ideas that are more effective and more humane in the long-run.