Category Archives: grant writing success

Grant Writing Success – A Numbers Game?

It is not easy to explain all of the factors involved in grant writing success. Certainly, experience and skill have a lot to do with it, but there’s much more to it than that. In many ways, it’s a numbers game.

First, there are the odds of how likely you are to get funded given the total amount of money to be awarded, the total number of grants to be awarded, and the number of grant proposals likely to be submitted. So, you combine these odds with your skill and experience and that should take you to grant writing success, right?

Not so fast.

You still have to deal with the vicissitudes of the readers. In a government grant competition, you will likely have three readers and scoring criteria that add up to 100 possible points awarded per reader. Hopefully, the readers will be carefully trained and will thoroughly understand the scoring criteria and how points should be allocated. Even in this ideal situation, there can still be dramatic differences in the points allocated by the different readers. In some competitions, the readers are required to conference with each other and bring their scores within a certain distance of each other, but sometimes the readers score independently and all three scores are averaged. This is how it’s possible to get scores of 100, 98, and 85, knocking your proposal out of the funding range. It shouldn’t be possible, but it is.

And the more extreme the competition is (see my discussion of the odds, above), the higher your score needs to be in order to be funded, which means that you need all three readers to award you exceptionally high scores if you hope to be funded.

Even then, it’s no guarantee. In a recent grant competition I received scores of 100, 98, and 96, and our proposal still was not funded. When I looked back at the readers written comments, there were no suggestions for improvement. It kind of makes you think that the whole grant award process is more random than you thought, doesn’t it?

Regardless of the odds and the biases of the readers, experience and skill still play the biggest roles in the grant award process. In the example I just gave you, as frustrating as it was to have submitted an excellent proposal that was not funded, the truth is that if it had not been an excellent proposal it would’ve had absolutely no chance of being funded. In that particular competition, only the absolute best, near-perfect proposals had a chance at being funded. While it may seem random, it’s not.

Submitting a well-written, high-quality proposal is still the best way to negotiate the maze of the numbers game and reach the goal of grant writing success.

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Would you like to improve your grant writing skills?  Want to learn to be a great writer?  Try our Grant Writing 101 online course.  Learn at your own pace when it’s convenient for you.

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

Grant Writing Success – A Numbers Game?

It is not easy to explain all of the factors involved in grant writing success. Certainly, experience and skill have a lot to do with it, but there’s much more to it than that. In many ways, it’s a numbers game.

First, there are the odds of how likely you are to get funded given the total amount of money to be awarded, the total number of grants to be awarded, and the number of grant proposals likely to be submitted. So, you combine these odds with your skill and experience and that should take you to grant writing success, right?

Not so fast.

You still have to deal with the vicissitudes of the readers. In a government grant competition, you will likely have three readers and scoring criteria that add up to 100 possible points awarded per reader. Hopefully, the readers will be carefully trained and will thoroughly understand the scoring criteria and how points should be allocated. Even in this ideal situation, there can still be dramatic differences in the points allocated by the different readers. In some competitions, the readers are required to conference with each other and bring their scores within a certain distance of each other, but sometimes the readers score independently and all three scores are averaged. This is how it’s possible to get scores of 100, 98, and 85, knocking your proposal out of the funding range. It shouldn’t be possible, but it is.

And the more extreme the competition is (see my discussion of the odds, above), the higher your score needs to be in order to be funded, which means that you need all three readers to award you exceptionally high scores if you hope to be funded.

Even then, it’s no guarantee. In a recent grant competition I received scores of 100, 98, and 96, and our proposal still was not funded. When I looked back at the readers written comments, there were no suggestions for improvement. It kind of makes you think that the whole grant award process is more random than you thought, doesn’t it?

Regardless of the odds and the biases of the readers, experience and skill still play the biggest roles in the grant award process. In the example I just gave you, as frustrating as it was to have submitted an excellent proposal that was not funded, the truth is that if it had not been an excellent proposal it would’ve had absolutely no chance of being funded. In that particular competition, only the absolute best, near-perfect proposals had a chance at being funded. While it may seem random, it’s not.

Submitting a well-written, high-quality proposal is still the best way to negotiate the maze of the numbers game and reach the goal of grant writing success.

—————————-

Would you like to improve your grant writing skills?  Want to learn to be a great writer?  Try our Grant Writing 101 online course.  Learn at your own pace when it’s convenient for you.

Grant Writing Success through Thoughtful Planning and Preparation

Grant Coach MaryEllen Bergh knows a few things about achieving grant writing success through planning and preparation. In this post, she shares some of her valuable knowledge and experience with you:

A successful grant proposal is one that is thoughtfully planned, well prepared, and concisely packaged. When you have found a funding source that is a good fit for your proposed project, the temptation is strong to immediately begin writing; however, your proposal will be much more effective if you take some time up front to plan.  Thorough planning helps you determine where to start, where you want to go, how to get there, and how to know you have arrived. Grant writing success requires that you communicate your proposed project effectively and in enough detail so the funder has a clear understanding of all the components of your project, how it fits their funding priorities, and how you will carry out your program or service over the project period. Writing successful grant proposals requires preparation, attention to detail and a great team with passion and perseverance. Here are 3 tips to prepare for a successful grant proposal:

  1. Gather your proposal team. Most successful proposals are written by teams. The team members each contribute specific expertise, so that the organization can prepare its proposal more efficiently.
  2. Read the funding guidelines. The most important step in writing a successful grant is thoroughly reading the funder’s Request for Applications (RFA) or Request for Proposal (RFP) before you start. Since you will be responding to the guidelines established by the funder, you want to make sure that each member of the team understands the funder’s priorities and instructions for submittal. If the RFA includes a reference to a website or publication, it is often helpful to read that as well.
  3. Complete a proposal outline. The outline gives you and your team a roadmap to follow. Establish a timeline for gathering information and input needed to complete each section of the proposal.
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There is still time to sign up for Grant Writing 101 at the special reduced rate.  Don’t miss out!
Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Grant Writing Success through Thoughtful Planning and Preparation

Grant Coach MaryEllen Bergh knows a few things about achieving grant writing success through planning and preparation. In this post, she shares some of her valuable knowledge and experience with you:

A successful grant proposal is one that is thoughtfully planned, well prepared, and concisely packaged. When you have found a funding source that is a good fit for your proposed project, the temptation is strong to immediately begin writing; however, your proposal will be much more effective if you take some time up front to plan.  Thorough planning helps you determine where to start, where you want to go, how to get there, and how to know you have arrived. Grant writing success requires that you communicate your proposed project effectively and in enough detail so the funder has a clear understanding of all the components of your project, how it fits their funding priorities, and how you will carry out your program or service over the project period. Writing successful grant proposals requires preparation, attention to detail and a great team with passion and perseverance. Here are 3 tips to prepare for a successful grant proposal:

  1. Gather your proposal team. Most successful proposals are written by teams. The team members each contribute specific expertise, so that the organization can prepare its proposal more efficiently.
  2. Read the funding guidelines. The most important step in writing a successful grant is thoroughly reading the funder’s Request for Applications (RFA) or Request for Proposal (RFP) before you start. Since you will be responding to the guidelines established by the funder, you want to make sure that each member of the team understands the funder’s priorities and instructions for submittal. If the RFA includes a reference to a website or publication, it is often helpful to read that as well.
  3. Complete a proposal outline. The outline gives you and your team a roadmap to follow. Establish a timeline for gathering information and input needed to complete each section of the proposal.
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There is still time to sign up for Grant Writing 101 at the special reduced rate.  Don’t miss out!

Grant Writing Success is Just the Beginning

Hearing that your organization has been awarded a grant is exhilarating!  You want to tell everyone.  You want to celebrate your success.  Then it hits you —grant writing success is only the beginning.

That’s right.  While you were focused up to this point on all of the work involved in getting the grant, the real work hasn’t even started yet.  The “real work” is all about turning that vision into reality.  It’s at this point that you learn some valuable lessons about grant writing, and now is the time to make note of those lessons so you don’t have to learn them again, again, and again.

Here are some post-award lessons clients have learned that have helped them to be better grant writers:

  1. A realistic implementation plan and time line are important.  It sounded like a good idea at the time to say that you would get everything going within the first six months of the funding period, but now that you have the money, you understand how impossible that is.  It would have been much more helpful to have a realistic plan and time line to begin with.
  2. Accurate estimation of salary costs can save many headaches later.  Many grant writers like to squeeze more room into a tight grant proposal budget by including salaries at the low end of a salary schedule.,  The problem with that is you rarely hire people at the low end of the schedule.  If there isn’t enough wiggle room in the budget to be able to cut elsewhere, you can run into some real trouble when you don’t have enough money to hire all the people you said you would.  It makes more sense to use accurate salary estimates and develop a realistic program from the beginning.
  3. Planning the goals, objectives, and evaluation activities to fit the funding source’s requirements would have been helpful.  Doing a little bit of extra homework up front to align your project objectives with the required performance measures of the funding source (if there are any) can save many hours of extra work later.  The same goes with evaluation data collection and reporting procedures.  If the funding source has some requirements, learn about them before you write the proposal.  Then you won’t have to be scrambling and revising later.
  4. Communicating with all of the project partners and stakeholders in the grant development process saves a lot of explaining later.  Board members don’t like to be surprised by things that are in grant proposals – especially when they are asked about them in the community.  Keeping everyone in the loop and involved during the proposal development process saves time and effort later.

A little bit of advanced preparation can help your grant writing success be something you can really celebrate!

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There is still time to sign up for  Grant Writing 101!

Free webinar — 10 Tips for Effective Data Management

Free e-book – 12 Secrets of Successful Grant Writers

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

Grant Writing Success is Just the Beginning

Hearing that your organization has been awarded a grant is exhilarating!  You want to tell everyone.  You want to celebrate your success.  Then it hits you —grant writing success is only the beginning.

That’s right.  While you were focused up to this point on all of the work involved in getting the grant, the real work hasn’t even started yet.  The “real work” is all about turning that vision into reality.  It’s at this point that you learn some valuable lessons about grant writing, and now is the time to make note of those lessons so you don’t have to learn them again, again, and again.

Here are some post-award lessons clients have learned that have helped them to be better grant writers:

  1. A realistic implementation plan and time line are important.  It sounded like a good idea at the time to say that you would get everything going within the first six months of the funding period, but now that you have the money, you understand how impossible that is.  It would have been much more helpful to have a realistic plan and time line to begin with.
  2. Accurate estimation of salary costs can save many headaches later.  Many grant writers like to squeeze more room into a tight grant proposal budget by including salaries at the low end of a salary schedule.,  The problem with that is you rarely hire people at the low end of the schedule.  If there isn’t enough wiggle room in the budget to be able to cut elsewhere, you can run into some real trouble when you don’t have enough money to hire all the people you said you would.  It makes more sense to use accurate salary estimates and develop a realistic program from the beginning.
  3. Planning the goals, objectives, and evaluation activities to fit the funding source’s requirements would have been helpful.  Doing a little bit of extra homework up front to align your project objectives with the required performance measures of the funding source (if there are any) can save many hours of extra work later.  The same goes with evaluation data collection and reporting procedures.  If the funding source has some requirements, learn about them before you write the proposal.  Then you won’t have to be scrambling and revising later.
  4. Communicating with all of the project partners and stakeholders in the grant development process saves a lot of explaining later.  Board members don’t like to be surprised by things that are in grant proposals – especially when they are asked about them in the community.  Keeping everyone in the loop and involved during the proposal development process saves time and effort later.

A little bit of advanced preparation can help your grant writing success be something you can really celebrate!

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There is still time to sign up for  Grant Writing 101!

Free webinar — 10 Tips for Effective Data Management

Free e-book – 12 Secrets of Successful Grant Writers

Grant Writing Success – A Non-Profit Walmart State Grant

Non-profit consultant and expert grant writer Derek Link shares a grant writing success story:

A couple of years ago I was contracted to write some grants for a non-profit organization named Challenge Aspen in Colorado. My grant research led me to the Walmart Foundation’s State grant program and I was soon on my way to a grant writing success story.

The grant proposal we submitted secured a grant of $30,000 to support an important outdoor Challenge Aspen Military Options (CAMO) program for disabled female veterans. The program supports courageous women striving to re-build their lives after being disabled in the wars.

There were a number of important factors that contributed to this grant writing success:

  1. Challenge Aspen does great work and documents what they do.
  2. Challenge Aspen has a staff and a budget which ensured the work would get done that the $30,000 was targeted for.
  3. There was a clear mission and measurable objectives for the proposal.
  4. Challenge Aspen staff provided the documents I needed in a timely way and they gave me excellent feedback to ensure that the narrative accurately reflected the needs of the program.
  5. Challenge Aspen had a competent grant writer (moi!)

Each grant writing success story involves a partnership between a functional non profit organization and an expert grant writer. It is always a joy to write for a non profit that is dedicated to its mission and can prove its effectiveness!

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Improve your grant writing by looking at some successful grant samples.

Want more grant writing tools?  Become a member of GrantGoddess.com!

Free webinar – Grant Writing Tips

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

Grant Writing Success – A Non-Profit Walmart State Grant

Non-profit consultant and expert grant writer Derek Link shares a grant writing success story:

A couple of years ago I was contracted to write some grants for a non-profit organization named Challenge Aspen in Colorado. My grant research led me to the Walmart Foundation’s State grant program and I was soon on my way to a grant writing success story.

The grant proposal we submitted secured a grant of $30,000 to support an important outdoor Challenge Aspen Military Options (CAMO) program for disabled female veterans. The program supports courageous women striving to re-build their lives after being disabled in the wars.

There were a number of important factors that contributed to this grant writing success:

  1. Challenge Aspen does great work and documents what they do.
  2. Challenge Aspen has a staff and a budget which ensured the work would get done that the $30,000 was targeted for.
  3. There was a clear mission and measurable objectives for the proposal.
  4. Challenge Aspen staff provided the documents I needed in a timely way and they gave me excellent feedback to ensure that the narrative accurately reflected the needs of the program.
  5. Challenge Aspen had a competent grant writer (moi!)

Each grant writing success story involves a partnership between a functional non profit organization and an expert grant writer. It is always a joy to write for a non profit that is dedicated to its mission and can prove its effectiveness!

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Improve your grant writing by looking at some successful grant samples.

Want more grant writing tools?  Become a member of GrantGoddess.com!

Free webinar – Grant Writing Tips


Grant Writing with Authority (Cite Your Sources)

Have you ever been reading a narrative in which someone states something as fact and you wonder to yourself, “How do they know that?”

That is not a question that a grant writer wants the grant readers to be asking. It’s important to cite sources of data and research and do it using the proper format. Yes, readers care about the sources, and they care that the grant writer takes the time to properly record the source material for facts and resources that are presented.

There are different ways to cite different materials and sources so it’s valuable to have a resource for finding the proper format. I did a quick Google search in researching this post and I came up with a very nice table giving formats for everything from books to online sources. The article by Steve Volk of Oberlin College  provides a nice compilation of citation styles and there is even a link in the article to another online source.

Here are some good reasons why citing sources adds authority to grant writing:

  1. It helps the reader connect to the grant narrative, especially if they hold the source/research author in high esteem (so be sure to use the best sources).
  2. It helps the grant reader see that the program plan is based on research and not a pipe dream.
  3. It helps the reader understand that the design is based on the most current research.

An effective grant is one that presents a believable plan to the reader even though the grant is for a new program that does not exist yet. This often means that the program is one that someone has implemented before and that is modified for a new location and unique circumstances. Telling the reader that the program is based on successful models that have been validated by research adds strength to the program design and builds confidence in its feasibility. Citing relevant sources and research is part of the glue that holds the program together in the minds of the readers and will raise the scores and the likelihood of an award.

By:  Derek Link, Non-profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer
 
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Need to see a successful grant sample to get a good idea of how to best present your proposal?  Check out GrantSample.com.

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

Grant Writing with Authority (Cite Your Sources)

Have you ever been reading a narrative in which someone states something as fact and you wonder to yourself, “How do they know that?”

That is not a question that a grant writer wants the grant readers to be asking. It’s important to cite sources of data and research and do it using the proper format. Yes, readers care about the sources, and they care that the grant writer takes the time to properly record the source material for facts and resources that are presented.

There are different ways to cite different materials and sources so it’s valuable to have a resource for finding the proper format. I did a quick Google search in researching this post and I came up with a very nice table giving formats for everything from books to online sources. The article by Steve Volk of Oberlin College  provides a nice compilation of citation styles and there is even a link in the article to another online source.

Here are some good reasons why citing sources adds authority to grant writing:

  1. It helps the reader connect to the grant narrative, especially if they hold the source/research author in high esteem (so be sure to use the best sources).
  2. It helps the grant reader see that the program plan is based on research and not a pipe dream.
  3. It helps the reader understand that the design is based on the most current research.

An effective grant is one that presents a believable plan to the reader even though the grant is for a new program that does not exist yet. This often means that the program is one that someone has implemented before and that is modified for a new location and unique circumstances. Telling the reader that the program is based on successful models that have been validated by research adds strength to the program design and builds confidence in its feasibility. Citing relevant sources and research is part of the glue that holds the program together in the minds of the readers and will raise the scores and the likelihood of an award.

By:  Derek Link, Non-profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer
 
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Need to see a successful grant sample to get a good idea of how to best present your proposal?  Check out GrantSample.com.