Grants

Budgeting Projects

A well-written budget can be the strongest part of a grant proposal. Funders can see from a budget whether an organization is putting their money where their mouth is. If your organization's goals are to hire a new employee, the budget should reflect that.

Needs Statement

Goals and Objectives

Program Evaluation

The first thing to know about grant writing is that anyone with a passion for a project can have a good chance of writing a successful grant. The three things you need are a good idea, an attention-to-detail in following the grant's directions, and pristene, free-of-error prose.

The components of every grant are different, as each funder has their own instructions and criteria. While not all elements will be in a grant, and there will likely be more that are not discussed here, below are some of the common elements involved in making a grant, with links to more information.

Overview

General Writing Tips

Needs statements are used for presenting the greater problem that your organization is hoping to address in part. The needs statement is where you can put statistics, facts, and studies to make your problem real to the funder and put it in a national and local context. You might reference national statistics and then bring up local statistics if available, or problems in areas like your own in demographics, infrastructure, socieconomics, etc. Be sure to use some kind of reference system in the statement so the funder can see the data is real and you are credible.

The goals and objectives are where you finally address the main concern of the grant: what is that you ae going to do about the problem you introduced in your needs statement? What do you need the funding for? Your goals and objectives will not be identical: Your goals will be abstract, while your objectives will be specific. This is true whether you are applying for funding for a specific program or for general operating costs. In either case, remember to relate your goals to the stated goals of the funder, and to make your objectives S.M.A.R.T.

Writing that is easy to read and free of flaws is essential to writing any grant, as funders will see that you did, or did not, give the time to make your prose clean and clear. The Purdue OWL and Grammar Girl are two good popular sources for writing tips. Another resource is the Hartford Foundation, which provides useful tips for people submiting proposals. Remember to always ask someone else to read over your piece to help you catch errors.

Most funders require the organization seeking the grant to have a plan for evaluation. Evaluations are also sometimes required of the organization's past efforts to prove to the funder they have an impact. The evaluation methods should be realistic and whenever possible should be more than one kind. Having more than one method of evaluation (survey, observation, looking at outside data to see change in numbers that can associated with organization's actions, etc.) makes for a more compelling argument.