Fundraising Tip: 8 Steps to Writing a Good Grant Proposal

BDPA Foundation blog welcomes guest blogger Heather Johnson. She writes on the subject of California teaching certificates. We are pleased that she agreed to share information about grant-writing with us.

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Writing a Good Grant Proposal

The art of securing funding does not come easy to everyone; it takes a lot of painstaking work and an eye for detail to be able to come up with a grant proposal that’s a winner in every way. While each funding source has its own set of standards and guidelines that their grant proposals must conform to, there are general rules and principles that apply to grants as a whole.

1. Take care to ensure that you understand the mission and objective of the funding agency, be it government or private. If your aims do not correspond with that of the agency, there’s no point in applying for a grant.
2. Your proposal must be the result of intense research and enormous effort rather than a half-hearted appeal put together in an hour or two. You must believe that your proposal is the only way you’re going to get the money you need, and that no external influences are going to help you in this issue.
3. Start preparing the proposal even before you identify a potential funding source. Rework the specifics to cater to a particular agency once you identify which sources you want to apply to.
4. Do not waste time preparing proposals for every agency that offers funding; make sure that your needs and the organization’s match and that you stand a decent chance of being considered seriously for the grant.
5. Even though a grant is a sum of money that need not be paid back, make sure you do your homework when mentioning the tentative budget for the project you want the grant to sponsor. Be specific about amounts and break down the budget into smaller and more specific expenses. Include an estimate of the overshoot you expect if the project will span a long period of time.
6. Your project proposal must include a short summary of the project, a brief introduction to your organization, its members, goals and achievements, the problem that will be tackled with the money you get, the objective of the project at hand, the methods you’re going to adopt in order to achieve those objectives, the time frame in which you hope to reach those goals, and the methods of feedback and evaluation you will adopt in order to ensure that your project is on track and on time.
7. Make sure that all the information you include is authentic and true to the best of your knowledge and supported by relevant documentation.
8. Include any other documents or forms that are necessary including your resume detailing your qualifications, achievements and accomplishments.