Autograph Grant Proposal Made Easy

Esign grant proposal template

hello my name is Jessica Venable and I am the grant and research analysts in the office of the vice president for research at Virginia Commonwealth University this workshop is designed to unravel some of the mysteries of grant writing for those who are new to the process it's not meant to be an exhaustive overview of all of the things you need to know to write successful proposals that comes with a lot of practice patience and willingness to accept critique instead I'd like to introduce you to the key concepts that are generally accepted rules that may give you a leg up as you begin grant writing so the question is where do you start there are a lot of grant writing manuals available in bookstores and even free on the web many of those present grant writing is a cyclical process you begin with your project idea and find a great opportunity from a federal or private sponsor that looks like a good match they offer tips on writing and submitting your proposal which hopefully will get funded if it's not funded you start the process again and find another funding opportunity once you get the award you implement the project and start over again with a new or enhanced idea I often view grant writing as an iterative learning process where any stage may change the cycle entirely the project may influence the type and style of grant that you're writing and thus open up a whole new population of funders or a conversation with a program officer at the funding agency may change the project and thus the proposal or in researching a funder you may discover that a previous grantee has already been funded for a similar project you may choose to partner with that grantee thereby changing the nature of your project or apply to another funder who has a different requirement and thereby changing your narrative and proposal entirely again regardless of the approach you take today's session will instruct along two major themes that will help you better understand grant writing number one you cannot be a successful grant writer without understanding grant makers the first step is to understand what sponsors want and how to align those with how to align yourself with those stated missions the second step is that you cannot be a successful grant writer without being a successful storyteller we'll talk about grant writing your proposal in a clear and compelling way and some questions you can ask when you get access to sample proposals so first of all what is it that grant makers fund well before you even ask that question get your own ideas down on paper write a prospectus that describes your project that you want to be funded try to keep that prospectus to one page as difficult as it may be describe what you know the idea and the project explain what is needed and what makes it an innovative approach describe who will be affected by the project the activities and who will be implemented by the who will implement the project finally explain how much it will cost for your own purposes also jot down what you don't know if there are resources and expertise that are required to make the project's asset successful but they are not currently in place be transparent about that and do you have any questions about the grant making process that still need to be answered this prospectus will be used to determine if your ideas about funding match what grant makers want I'm sure you have an idea of what could be funded but does this actually match what is funded most sponsors publicize who their grantees are as well as the description of their sponsored projects go to various sponsors websites and research these award lists take note of several things one if there seems to be any pattern in the funding for example did the XYZ foundation appear to fund health-related projects until 2002 but then change their focus afterwards towards education to what is the scope of the funded projects do the projects seem to involve many more or many fewer stakeholders than you anticipated three does there seem to be activities that are not allowed for example it's important if none of the projects mentioned scholarships or conferences on the other hand the descriptions may yield surprising information that you want to investigate further the XYZ foundation's website may state that they do not make grants to Virginia organizations but looking at the awards lists you might find that six schools in Virginia have actually been have actually received grants this is worth looking into this is a list of a few websites that will give you access to federal and private sponsors from there you can research their grantee lists and databases so on to rule to tell a good story give the grant maker something compelling to read and stand behind if they make the award to you one of the fatal mistakes that you can make in crafting your proposal is telling a sloppy story one that has no facts or slippery evidence one that has no internal consistency one that has weak support from others and one that shows little impact to strengthen your storytelling make sure that your interests align with the sponsors interests this will be an exercise in checking and rechecking your facts and looking concurrently at the forest and the trees so while you're arguing that the park the problem is compelling the approach is interesting and that it can be achieved given your human and material resources sources this must match with a grantmakers organizational and programmatic vision it must also fall within their budget limitations and answer the questions that they ask so what questions are they're going to ask the following sections we'll review some of the common elements that are required in most proposals we won't have time to go over all of them so please refer to other grant writing guides for additional details also note that depending on your sponsors requirements a proposal can range anywhere from a one-page letter application to a hundred and fifty page application so the advice here is meant only to be a guide titles are the reviewers first introduction to your proposal so here you have to make a good impression do not try to be overly fancy or wordy aim instead for accuracy this is important because oftentimes it's the title that determines who is the reviewer or the review panel make sure you read the guidelines closely because there may be specific instructions about how the conceal needs to be constructed the abstract is a lay language description of your project anyone who is reading the abstract should be able to understand the project and take something away from it therefore be compelling and engaging in this language present the project in a logical and succinct way that may be different from how it's presented in your proposal narrative that said cutting and pasting language from the narrative does not always work well make sure that you write your abstract as a separate and independent section I advise that you write the abstract last remember also that abstracts are often published so present yourself in the best light the neat statement is the rationale for the project this is your opportunity to demonstrate your expert understanding of the situation support this at this understanding with hard evidence use current and relevant statistics where appropriate use qualitative data such as quotes this is your opportunity also to cite reports that the funder deems appropriate make sure to check their website for references also document how the intervention will be important on multiple levels to the community to your partnering organizations and to the funder again do your background research on the funder it's fine to pull quotes from their mission statement or annual reports or from their website to show how the project aligns with your purposes goals and objectives are so critical to good grant writing because everything about your project hinges from them your activities your outcome and evaluation plan are all related to specific goals and objectives when you stray away from them your storytelling becomes messy and confusing first educate yourself on the difference between goals and objectives which are often confused with each other remember that objectives are measurable quantifiable traceable practical and terminal like research questions these become the anchor for your storytelling also make sure that your goals and objectives align with the mission of the sponsor finally don't be over ambitious three well-crafted objectives are better than nine poorly crafted ones a red flag to the reviewers will be that you cannot accomplish all nine the meet of your proposal is in the project plan which is also called the approach or the design this is the place where you explain how the project is going to be carried out these are your activities that you'll implement remember the questions that you are given when we when you first begin writing papers who what when where why and how these simple questions still work for the purpose of writing a proposal to a major funder it's critical that this section meets three minimum criteria one your project plan should make sense to your project plan should be reasonable and three your project plan should be feasible sponsors guidelines for these sections are oftentimes confusing internally contradictory or make it difficult to tell your story in a manner that seems illogical for your own storytelling purposes please resist the urge to ignore the sponsors guidelines it will make the job for the reviewers very difficult and you may inadvertently leave out critical information if you have questions about the requirements call the program officers most funders also require you to address sustainability a sustainability plan is a strategy to assure long-term success of a program after the requested funding ends the quick answer may be to apply to for other funding from other sponsors but there are many many ways to approach sustainability for example dissemination creating products such as publications or curricula capacity-building train-the-trainer models and partnering with industry are all viable approaches to sustainability this is a serious section that is often treated lightly by applicants think about it and discuss it with your partners saying that you'll apply for Gates Foundation funding in one year does not always make sense for the project that you're proposing a budget should be thought of as simply another format for presenting your proposal narrative it should provide enough information for the reviewer to determine the focus scope activities timeline and stakeholders of your project therefore don't treat your budget as an add-on it's not something to be created the morning that the proposal is due if they do not give you a form for the budget make sure that you present the budget in an easy-to-read format it should also be easy to interpret line item budgets become very complicated if you have entries for matching support in program income so practice with several different formats make sure everything that you're asking for is allowable some costs that are often disallowed or renovation tuition and international travel also verify the sponsors policies on indirect costs and cost-sharing as they may not be allowed include specific and detailed budget justification this is a narrative version of the line-item budget that provides an additional explanation of the costs research the cost carefully so that they make sense and are reasonable and always always check your math throughout the entire proposal including the budget and the budget justification all figures must be consistent and although your style is your own there are some rules that can make your storytelling more compelling and competitive make sure that you're clear in your own thinking that your partners are clear in the idea and that all those who are contributing to the grant writing process are on the same page if you're a visual thinker draw diagrams and sketches to affirm the logic of the project these diagrams may even make their way into the proposal to help the reviewers better understand the project and writers often hide behind flowery and tedious language like using the passive voice this only takes up space and makes it difficult to understand what you're actually trying to say be explicit write simply was strong declarative verbs like identify test establish use develop conduct determine design assess show confidence but not arrogance and remember that the reviewers are reading your entire application the budget shouldn't ask for t-shirts if the project plan shows no reason for them the organizational chart should not include a key expert if that person CV is not in the application an activity cannot be evaluated if it's not being implemented so be internally consistent with your proposal application and there is a lot of power in white space our viewers are reading a lot of proposals so make the reading experience a little less arduous for them make the proposal skimmable use section headers like and also use bold or bullet bullets for notable points use graphics to reduce what I call the wall of words one of the best experiences for grant writers is to serve as a grant reviewer that way you can understand what happens to your proposal after you hit Send or after you put it in the mail and therefore it can employ some of the strategies that you see in winning proposals in the early years of grant making review panels consisted of a team of experts experts sitting around a table assessing the marriage and worth of the proposals that they received you see mostly men in suits surrounded by piles of paper fifty years later they're still teams of experts assembled around tables surrounded by piles of paper discussing the proposals with each other the technology has improved a bit and the panel's are a bit more diverse but all of the essential features remain the same for over 50 years it's important that you know the reviewers in order to get a leg up on the review process panelists are often doing their reviewing duties alongside their full-time positions whether it's in as faculty positions or in industry so they read your proposals in evenings after work on the plane on the on their way to the review panel and in hotel rooms on average they commit about 30 minutes to each proposal despite the many hours that you put into writing the proposal most of them will not be experts in your sub discipline so you have a lot of compelling storytelling to do in a very short amount of space but always consider that there will probably be one expert on the panel who knows exactly what you're talking about so the best advice I can give you is speak like a reviewer speaks know exactly what the funding agency expects from the reviewers by obtaining a copy of the rating rubric if you can find one or most certainly the review criteria which every funding agency agency should publish talk to people who have served as reviewers or ask for a copy of the reviewer comments from someone who's applied in the past and remember you can always contact the program officer remember that reviewer comments are not personal attacks they are meant to be constructive and to be used for you to improve your submission if you have questions about reviewer comments for example if they seem to contradict each other contact the program officer for clarification you can build your grant writing skills by accessing sample proposals preferably get access to many proposals from a variety of funding agencies you may be tempted simply to get one funded proposal from the agency that you're hoping to apply to there are samples online you can google sample funded proposal and come up with many but you can also ask your colleagues for their own for copies of their own in addition you may consider contacting the principal investigators on the grantee list of agencies that you're considering applying to once you get your hands on a sample proposal there are some questions you should ask to critically review the sample proposals even if it's been funded you might not like it so the first question is did you like or not like the proposal what did you like about it what didn't you like about it make sure you're being critical what were the proposals strengths and weaknesses not only in terms of its writing style but also in terms of its storytelling did the did the applicant address the sponsors guidelines are there elements that you could adapt for your own needs even if you didn't particularly like the proposal perhaps there are parts of the proposal that you could adapt for your own needs such as did they use a well formatted timeline or budget format are there elements that you could change if there if you are in a position to rewrite this proposal what do you think you would do differently and finally what do you think that the reviewer said about it put yourself in the position of being in that room around that table surrounded with all of those proposals and what do you think the reviewer said about it in conclusion the only way you can align your project with the sponsors expectations is by knowing the funding agency intimately read everything you can about the sponsor remember that the RFP the request for proposals or the guidelines are your holy book do not deviate from them make sure you know them backwards and forwards read them with a highlighter with red pens with sticky notes if you have questions or need clarification go to your colleagues and ask the funding agency make sure that you're telling a good story if your story is too big in scope or wanders or short on details you'll lose your audience the story has to be important to the funder if it's not important they have no reason to make an investment in your project and also place your story within the context of larger societal issues to show that it's not only important to the funder but it's also important to society and finally write a lot get a lot of critique you don't have to take everyone's advice but don't be insulted by anyone's input best of luck on your grand writing