Grant Writing

Chapter 1
The practice of grant writing

Always say thank you, be specific and ask for more when available

being persuasive with numbers is just as important as being persuasive with words

Grant writing is the skill or practice of asking for money in the form of a grant from a foundation, corporation, or government agency by crafting a well-considered document that outlines how the money will be used, but receiving the money will come first, and who will undertake the tasks described in the proposal.

it is not mailers or junk mail

Chapter 2
ABC's of grants

Project Support

By far the most common type of grant is made to support a particular project, as opposed to operating, capital, and challenge grants, which I'll describe in the following sections. Fortunately, a clever grant writer can make almost any need into a "project."

Funders like projects because projects have defined beginning and end. This makes it easy to judge if a project has been successful. Funders of a charity coming back are wary
again and again expecting support for the thing. Although renewal grants are fairly common, the funder will almost always make it clear in your grant letter that their grant does not imply any promise of future funding

funders especially like grants that help a nonprofit build earned income

Operating Support

General operating support also known as GOS are the needs of the organization of function daily including programs, staffing salaries, rent, utilities, office supplies these are very valuable finder most grants from these types of founders will be small as little as a thousand dollars. having a bunch of smaller donors is not a bad thing considering eggs in one basket. Spend some time every month looking for new GOS

Capital Support

Grants for new buildings (bricks and mortar grants). For anything with some durability like buildings all the way to computers

Challenge Grants

Some funders Dont want to be the only funders so they will challenge organizations to raise 1x, 2x, or even 3x their grant before funding their own grant.

they can seem like more trouble than they are worth but they are not. understand the implications of a challenge grant ($ you must raise for the match, time period and from whom you must raise the money)

What funders look for

1. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS: You followed the rules putting the proposal together

2. DO YOUR RESEARCH: grant writing is not about the shotgun approach but research and focused writing. send a proposal to a funder who doesn't fund your type of project will result in a rejection and a reputation of not doing your research.

Place the technical term second. It indicates that you, like the reader, are more comfortable with the plain language description. Example, "25 thousand different people, or unique users, visited our website."