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The Brain Science of Grant Clients

Sometimes a grant writer is faced with an agency which has a Threshold Guardian beyond whom no man, woman, nor beast with an RFP shall pass. This can be explained by brain research about the left and right side of the brain.
The Threshold Guardians are usually Left Brainers. Left Brainers are hostile toward grants because they detest them more than an unbalanced checkbook. They may even experience a phobia about grant writers, because of their association with grants, causing them to dart furtively into maintenance closets.
I think of these grant-phobic-types as Left Brainers because the real reason they’re rankled by grants has nothing to do with the potential good a grant may do; they abhor grants because grants add uncertainty and complexity to their work lives in areas they need to control; that is, keeping the x’s and o’s in the right columns; and dotting all the I’s; crossing all of the T’s; and getting out the door promptly at quitting time. These functions give a Left Brainer pleasure and a reason to get out of bed; a way to maintain control; and the means to draw small boxes around their jobs or the missions of their organizations.
On the other side of the client brain types are grant champions, those charming and beautiful, grant loving people whom I lovingly refer to as Right Brainers. These are the big picture dreamer types who can accommodate the new ideas, change, and creativity that grants produce. Right Brainers express earnest intentions to willingly accept the extra drudge work that a grant entails; the accounting, the personnel functions, the labeling of equipment; and the cooperative planning. Right Brainers understand that extra work goes hand-in-hand with making things happen (as opposed to maintaining the status quo), which is what grant lovers are all about. The Right Brainers are entrepreneurial grant people.
To be fair, not all Left Brainers are entirely grant-phobic; but I believe a scientific study would reveal that grant phobia is in direct proportion to a person’s level of activity on the right side of their brain. I’ve never met a Right Brainer that didn’t love a good grant (although a few shouldn’t be running a carnival booth much less a grant program, but that’s another post entirely).

Left Brain grant misanthropes wear striped pajamas and block your path with crossed swords while Right Brainers welcome you in and offer you tea and shortbread (and contracts); so preferring Right Brainers is a No-Brainer for a working grant writer.

For further reference on the difference between Left and Right Brain functions, see below:

Description of the Left-Hemisphere Functions
• Constantly monitors our sequential, ongoing behavior
• Responsible for awareness of time, sequence, details, and order
• Responsible for auditory receptive and verbal expressive strengths
• Specializes in words, logic, analytical thinking, reading, and writing
• Responsible for boundaries and knowing right from wrong
• Knows and respects rules and deadlines

Description of the Right-Hemisphere Functions
• Alerts us to novelty; tells us when someone is lying or making a joke
• Specializes in understanding the whole picture
• Specializes in music, art, visual-spatial and/or visual-motor activities
• Helps us form mental images when we read and/or converse
• Responsible for intuitive and emotional responses.
• Helps us to form and maintain relationships

(Connell, Diane, Left Brain/Right Brain: Pathways To Reach Every Learner, accessed 1/24/12)
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Photo Credit: Attilio Lombardo

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Do I Have Your Full Attention? Ten Grant Writing Tips

I’ve been writing grants for a living since before the turn of the century; that makes me rather old. Before I became a professional grant writer, I moonlighted as a grant writer for years; that makes me even older.
But guess what? Older is better. Today I type faster, am more efficient at research, more inquisitive in questioning a client, more effective at editing, revising and narrating. I tend to get grants funded more often than I used to with a lot less outside assistance.
Here are some long-in-the-tooth tips for you young grant writing whipper-snappers out there.
  1. Spend more time reading the Request For Proposals (RFP) before you start writing than you think you need to.  Reading an RFP once is never enough for me.
  2. Spend more time talking to your client about the proposal than they want to.  If getting their attention means you have to buy them lunch, do it.
  3. Write a detailed outline for the proposal. Follow the RFP outline carefully.
  4. Collect all the research you think you need first and understand it before you begin to write. Everything you collect should be the most current literature in support of your design.
  5. Cross out blocks of time on your calendar and hold those times sacred. Turn off the TV, the radio, and send the kids out to play.
  6. Stop writing when you become unclear about any element of the project design and call your client to ask questions. If you are unclear, your narrative will be too.
  7. Employ a trusted editor to review your writing.
  8. Communicate with your client early and often about what they are required to provide and do during the process.
  9. Overestimate the time that ancillary pieces of the grant with take you to complete, they always take longer than you expect.
  10. Always obtain and keep some form of verification that your grant was submitted.

We have many distractions these days from cell phones to messages that pop right up on your computer as you write. You won’t be a successful grant writer if your writing does not receive your full attention. It may sound kind of like I am an old fuddy-duddy about those dang electronic deeee-vices, but I am not at all actually.  I love my electronic devices and I am a better grant writer because I use them. Electronics can get in the way if you aren’t careful so be sure you are giving your client 100% of yourself when it’s time to write.
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Photo Credit – Leroy Skalstad
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Should You Write Grants in Exchange for Evaluations?

I get asked on a regular basis by potential grant writing clients, “Will you write the grant for the evaluation?”
“No,” is the answer I give.
I have a good reason for saying no and not negotiating the point.  In the Middle Eastern bazaar that is grant consulting negotiations, a grant writer must be clear on what they’re selling.
I write about this today because I’ve spent the last two days slaving over a hot copy machine scanning thousands upon thousands of surveys. Stacks of surveys that are crumpled, mis-marked, unmarked, sticky; surveys printed on multicolored paper that threw the scanner into photo-static conniptions, surveys that are un-scannable because some staffer decided a significant portion didn’t need to be completed by respondents because there was a sticker affixed with the same information – a sticker that can’t be read by the scanning software (genius) so that data for a thousand surveys now must be hand-entered.
And don’t get me started on the scanning software which can’t always read a clearly marked dot due to some mystery of arcane software programming.
It’s all well and good if one is paid to do this evaluation work, which we are; it is entirely another thing to do this work in exchange for writing the original grant application – which we are not.
“What does any of this scanning work or the analysis and interpretation of this data, have to do with grant writing?”
“Nothing.”
That’s right.
“Nothing.”
That’s why I always say no.

A grant writer who takes a grant in compensation for the evaluation is doing two jobs for the price of one. That grant writer may also be guilty of one or all of these things:
  •          Being a foolish business person;
  •          Undervaluing their services;
  •          Being complicit in breaking some laws depending on the funding source;
  •          Undermining the general value of grant writers in the marketplace.
As the Grant Goddess would tell you, “Grant writing and program evaluation are different disciplines.”  A client who asks a grant writer to write for free in exchange for the evaluation contract is comparable to a homeowner telling a landscape architect that she should design and install the landscaping free of charge in exchange for a contract to maintain it. That’s the kind of suggestion that could merit a leaf blower up the nose.
Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

What Do You Do?

“I’m a grant writer,” a statement I’ve become hesitant to make because I tend to get one of three reactions.
Reaction 1 is a glazed over look from people who tried to write a grant once (usually a five page mini grant that was not funded) and hated every sentence of the experience. I imagine these people see me through mutant lenses as if I, and my large egg-shaped head, recently stumbled out of a broken silver spaceship in the New Mexico desert.
Many grant writers may have stumbled out of a space ship but like Roswell, the evidence is probably secreted away in an Area 51 vault.
Reaction 2 is a look of superiority from people who’ve written one more grants and have been successfully funded (almost always five page mini grants). It resembles the knowing-simpatico look that a firefighter gets from the guy who put out a grease fire on his neighbor’s stove, it is the “I can do that” sort of look.
You are not a grant writer or a firefighter unless you make a living at it.
Reaction 3 is a look that is at once rosy charm and mystical attraction. People who never tried to write a grant may give me this look.  These are well-intentioned, but uninformed, people who loved English courses and who once received an A+ on a paper about their kitten “Boots” (that A+ given by a cat loving English professor who was later committed for living with 123 feral cats and a mummified Pekinese named Boots). I imagine these folks see grant writers a technical writing Ernest Hemingway living an exotic lifestyle. They can imagine themselves drinking red wine in Pamplona until dawn.
Grant writing is sitting in an office for 14 days in a row writing a 40 page narrative for a client whose main idea for the program design is not to make anyone do anything new. That is not romantic; although, it could impel you to buy several bottles of wine and search out Jake and Brett.
Grant writing is real writing, mind you, though a bit stilted and constrained in style and form.  But there are no kitten stories to be written. Most grants are written about programs, the minutia of which is adequate substitution for cerebral Novocain. I read once that some people having brain surgery did not need general anesthetic; I surmised they were forced to read poorly written grant narratives before being wheeled to the operating room thereby dulling their senses to a dramatic extent.
I do what most writers do, I wrestle with my narratives until a deadline forces me to give them up. I get stuck and am too close to the narrative to make sense of it.  I curse at my edited copy, and, I drink to my editor’s continued good health. The narrative always pins me because it is never quite finished.
There is a 4th reaction, that of utter disinterest, like the young woman years ago at a club who when told what I do turned up her nose and asked me what kind of car I drove. The next time I am asked what I do, I shall make something up that squelches conversation, like life insurance salesman or telephone solicitor.
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Photo Credit – Brian Lary
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Grant Research is a Steep Climb

Looking for foundation grant funding is laborious even if you know what you’re doing. There’s a lot of ground to cover if you’re going to find a match for your program or organization. It’s tough work and it takes a lot of time.


Did you know that there were 1,617,301 tax-exempt organizations registered in the United States in 2011, including:

    • 1,046,719 public charities;

    • 115,915 private foundations;

    • and, 454,667 other types of nonprofit organizations, including chambers of commerce, fraternal organizations and civic leagues?

(Source: http://nccs.urban.org/)

That means you’re going to sift through a lot of foundation records to find a few that are a good match for your purpose. Even when you find one that funds your field of interest, there’s no assurance that the foundation will review your application.


You need to find those foundations that: A) accept unsolicited applications (or you need to attend the right cocktail parties/golf tournaments where you might gain an invitation to apply); B) have money to give this year; C) offers a funding cycle that gives you an opportunity to apply.



Did you know that Foundations gave $42.9 billion in 2009? According to The Foundation Center, this represents a decrease of 8.4% from 2008.


You need to know who’s giving the money so you can budget your research time wisely.  The Foundation Center goes on to report that the total foundation giving in 2008 was distributed as follows:

    • 72% came from independent foundations;

    • 10% came from community foundations;

    • 10% came from corporate foundations;

    • and, 8% came from operating foundations.
According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the number of 501(c)(3) organizations in the United States grew from 631,902 in 1999, to 1,006,670 in 2009.  That’s more than a 59% increase in the number of non-profit organizations. Those organizations gave 42.9 billion dollars in 2009 alone.  This figure should encourage you to keep researching to find the right match for your organization.

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Grant Writer in a Hammock

Monday morning, great weekend, gaining my bearings here, 3rd cup o’ Joe, and my other eye is starting to open at last. Dreary and rainy outside, feels like Seattle this morning, but this is the perfect weather for grant writing actually. It is hard to concentrate inside when it’s a gorgeous spring day outside.
This quote by Thomas Edison perfectly describes my transient ability to write well, “There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”
The labor of thinking is what makes it a challenge to be a freelance grant writer.  Grant writing requires intensive thinking for extended periods of time. It requires fastidious attention to a thousand details. It requires the mental flexibility of a Chinese acrobat in editing and revising. It requires holding the whole in your mind while crafting the specifics.
Grant writing  makes my brain sweat.
I treat the hard work of thinking like exercise sometimes; I defer the pain and sweat. I find distractions that are as Edison would call them, “expedient.” A trash can that needs emptying – not customarily high on my list of priorities – can suddenly bolt to the forefront of my mind as a convenient escape from a stubborn program design.
Every freelance grant writer needs an inner drill sergeant.  I need that intimidator inside barking at me to push harder, not to give up, to exceed my perceived limitations. Ignore the trash can! Ignore the breezy weather and sunny garden outside!  My job is to grind out the narrative and slow up only to wipe the sweat off my cerebrum from time to time.
So today I endeavor to engage fully in the labor of thinking and avoid the delicious appeal of the day and thrust aside the mindless diversion of menial chores that would satiate my brain’s desire to swing in a hammock.

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craig toron

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Signs of a Professional Grant Writer

I have high appreciation for professional people. Now before you think I am an elitist, white-collar snob, allow me to state that my use of the word professional is equally applied to anyone of any craft, trade, “profession”, or art. The label must be earned through demonstration of diligent effort and adherence to principles. The title Professional is not awarded on sheepskin or vellum and it is not donned via fancy suits and ties.
I consider a professional person to be someone who earns the title.  Professional people are not hard to identify because they stand out, there few of them.
A grant writer must act as a professional person or soon be out of work. Here are some areas in which a grant writer must earn their professional stature.
  •   Confidentiality – A grant writer sometimes privy to information that an agency shares with few employees.  This information often includes needs data and fiscal information required to write applications. A grant writer often gains “insider” information about an agency that should never be shared. To do so only feeds the ever hungry gossip grapevine.
  • Honesty – A grant writer must resist pressure to write inaccuracies or exaggerations about an agency to improve their appeal to the grant maker. 
  •  Integrity – A grant writer must be reliable because they often work alone. Grant writers must possess the inner drive to complete difficult revisions and editing out of a desire to do a professional job of writing. A grant writer must charge fees that represent fair market value for services rendered.
  • Expertise – A grant writer must complete highly technical narratives. A grant narrative requires excellent writing skills and technical ability to write with authority.

I was enrolled in a summer University course many years ago toward my Master’s degree.  The instructor’s husband was visiting the class one afternoon and we met by chance on a balcony at break.  We spoke of my future plans and he gave me words of encouragement. He urged me to set my mind on becoming a professional, “It doesn’t matter what you do, but be a Pro at it. If you do, you’ll be a huge success, because there are so few Pro’s out there.”
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Photo Credit – Ali Farid
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Mini Grant Announcements for Youth

In this difficult economic environment, all program managers should learn how to write and submit a mini grant.  Here are a few mini grants currently available.

Disney Friends for Change Grants

The Disney Friends for Change program will award 50 – $500 grants to youth-led service projects around the world that demonstrate youth leadership, creativity, and the commitment to making a positive impact on the environment.

ING Run for Something

The 2011 ING Run For Something Better School Awards Program will provide a minimum of fifty (50) up to $2,500 grants to schools that desire to establish or expand upon an existing school-based running program. Programs must target K-8th grade students and be a minimum of eight (8) weeks.

Sparking Innovation and Lowering Barriers

The Impact Fund is designed to support youth-serving organizations with the resources they need to get underserved youth connected to the outdoors. Program funding from $15,000-$50,000

Kohl’s Kids Who Care

Every year, Kohl’s recognizes and rewards young volunteers (ages 6-18) across the country for their amazing contributions to their communities. This year Kohl’s is recognizing more than 2,100 kids with more than $415,000 in scholarships and prizes.

The ESA Foundation

The ESA Foundation is a philanthropic vehicle of the Entertainment Software Association, is dedicated to supporting programs that make a difference in the lives of America’s youth.

The foundation is accepting grant applications from nonprofit organizations that provide programs and services utilizing technology and/or computer and video games to educate America’s youth and young adults (ages 7 to 18).

Learn How to Write Grants
If you need assistance learning how to write a grant, we offer many free grant writing resources on our Resources pages.  If you really want to tune up your skills, consider taking one of our online courses offered through Grant Goddess University.

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5 MORE Mistakes that Can Lose Millions of Dollars in Grant Applications

As we learned yesterday, the level of competition for grant writers is intense and the economy is making grant funding ever more competitive. Yesterday I discussed five key mistakes that must be avoided to win grant funding. Five more key mistakes to avoid are discussed below. Keep these in mind as you prepare for the 2011 grant writing season.

Mistake 6 – Improper formatting can lower your score. It hardly needs to be said that a grant writer must follow the FRP guidelines to the letter. If formatting requirements do not specify “no condensed font” it does not mean using a condensed font is a good space-saving idea. It isn’t. You’re only going to make the readers angry who are trying to score your grant. A grant writer’s first priority should always be to make the readers’ jobs easy. Condensed fonts only make reading a lot harder. Never submit a 32 page proposal when the limit is 30 pages. If you are so foolish – some may say bold – as to do this, one of two things will happen and they’re both bad. Either the proposal will be thrown in the trash – or – the excess pages will be torn off and thrown away leaving your proposal short of critical information and thereby lowering your score.

Mistake 7 – Making the readers’ job harder. No grant ever lost points for including a table of contents when one wasn’t specifically requested. A table of contents helps a reader jump around your grant easily to find something when they want to. You’ll make the reader’s job easier if you include a TOC and make certain that it follows the RFP outline.  Other ways to make the readers’ job of scoring a grant easier are to used the exact headings for each section that are used in the Request For Proposals (RFP), follow the exact organization of the RFP, include only what is required, and make all graphics black and white-friendly.
Mistake 8 – Poor editing can kill a proposal. It is hard to take a writer seriously when their making lots of mistakes in they’re writing an grammer is very awful and maybe its even simply wrong altogether and it could be making your job of reading a peace of narrative harder than it has to be because then yer gonna get scord reel lo and you don’t want that to happen do you?

Mistake 9 – Failing to explain graphics and tables in narrative form can leave readers confused. Have you ever looked at a piece of artwork that for all the world looks like a collection of empty tissue boxes stacked oddly with a spotlight on them. But the friend you’re with likes it and it makes you wonder what they might have been smoking in college? Often when we’re creating a visual image of something or creating a table of figures, it makes sense to the creator but others need a little help to understand it. Always include a brief description of the image or table to help the reader understand what it means and why it is significant to their understanding of the proposal.

Mistake 10 – A late application is a dead application. Some grants have postmarked deadlines, some have “on my desk” deadlines, and others have online submission time deadlines. If you miss any of these your grant won’t get scored at all, even if you wrote the finest proposal since Aristotle and your agency is more deserving of assistance than Mother Theresa.

You may be asking yourself after the last two days of morbid blogging about making mistakes whether you are brave enough to submit a grant application? Why of course you are! Now you know about ten key mistakes to avoid, so you’ll only have to guess about the other ten.  Maybe you’re already thinking to yourself, “Hey, they forgot about #13!” Please feel free to comment about other key mistakes we all need to avoid.