GRANTS GUIDE - Grants Money Made Easy!

Understanding a grant proposal can be a little confusing at times. Grant proposal writing is the process of essentially providing the group or organization that is giving away the free money the information to let them know what you plan to do with the funds. The more detailed and accurate the information is the better the odds of your being awarded the funds to help you with your needs. Many types of grants and many groups require that a grant proposal be written and submitted with the application. There are several things that you can do to make the entire process more successful and go smoothly.

The first key element of a good grant proposal is to clearly define what your project is for the organization. After all the project as a whole is what will be funded and the organization needs a clear understanding of what you intend to do as a project. Define a broad project goal and then include several clearly stated objectives of the general project goal. For example, the project goal might be to increase line production of your company. The objectives could be train personnel on new equipment; offer personnel bonus for certain levels of production and give pay increases for perfect personnel attendance. In this example the objectives demonstrate that the funding would be used for personnel to increase line production as opposed to equipment needs or facility needs. Your objectives help to clearly define the over all project goal.

Timelines of project phases is imperative in grant proposal writing. It is helpful to see how the project will evolve and what phases the project will go through. It might even be necessary to update the timelines as the deadline for the grant proposal nears. Show in the timeline how others outside of the project will benefit from the timeline goals and objectives being met. After all the purpose of free money is to help the community and meet the objectives of the organization awarding the funding. In the example of increasing line production, when employees achieve perfect attendance the outside benefit is more money in employees’ pockets which in turn means more money going into the community. This would apply to the other bonus as well. Increased production would benefit the community with more products at a faster rate and products of equal or better quality than before. The purpose of timelines is to clearly show how objectives can be reached and then to show how these objectives will benefit others and not just you and your needs.

Do not just write your grant proposal completely by yourself. Find out who the grant processor or project officer is for the organization that you will be submitting the grant proposal to. Talk with this person and ask questions along the way. Some of these people are even willing to review drafts of the grant proposal and make suggestions of how to write it more clearly to increase your chances of being awarded the money. Pay attention to detail and even ask for a grant proposal guideline or formatting suggestions that many groups have available. Most importantly, make certain that all the paperwork is turned in by the deadline and to the right person in charge, at the grant administrator’s office.