Grant/Proposal Writing Workshop

This is not my most exciting entry. But- I did go to a grant writing workshop and this is a summary of the event. Now what? Well I guess try to write a grant. I have gotten in touch with our Research, Grants, and Contracts Office here at Northern. They are going to help put me in touch with a good grant to begin with. And more grant writing workshops...

Proposal and Grant Writing Workshop

An effective grant/proposal development process takes a comprehensive view of an organization and a project creation. Many of the pit falls of unfunded projects are due to missing components that a grant funders program find crucial. Though not all of the suggestions covered below are in themselves essential, they are helpful in the creation of the right environment for good proposal writing to take place.

One of the first elements in effective grant development is to take a team approach to the project. By moving away from the proposal writer working in isolation, a team engaged in the project writing process increases quality, productivity and the overall implementation of a funded grant. By including more knowledge resources in proposal development, a more effective ‘fit’ between the organization and the proposal can be established.

A project profile is a program planning/development process that identifies the problems your organization is try to help solve. It is the starting line for the proposal process. By identifying a strategic plan and the audience that the organization plans to service a proposal is on its way to becoming well defined. Once this profile is established the organization can proceed with confidence in its ability to create a proposal that will speak directly to it’s purpose and mission. At this point funders can respond directly to an organization’s core value.

Many proposals go unfunded due to organizations writing in a response to a funding opportunities rather than matching the organization’s mission to a funder. By matching a funder to a project proposal helps facilitate the clarity of an organization’s goal and objective. Identifying an organization’s main objective, the development of a solution to the problems of its audience is clarified. The organization can develop strategies and methods to create short, medium and long term impacts on the audience. It is these impacts that funding agencies evaluate.

There are thirteen components to a well written proposal, the most important of these components are need assessments, evaluation of outcomes, and lastly a survey of budget effectiveness and the budget narrative.

The evaluation process of a grant proposal is very important. This is where the effectiveness of the goals and objectives of the project are what the funders evaluate. Having measurable outcomes are vital to a successful project. There are tools such as The Community Toolbox, an online resource for evaluation techniques that can help you to find evaluations that work. It is also important to support the evaluation process though out the proposal writing process, or keeping the end in mind.

The budget and the budget narrative are the last components of the proposal. Being aware of the projects’ overhead, cash and non-cash funds are important in the development of the organizations ability to be established and secure to funders. Careful attention to these details can be of great benefit to the organization. In-kind contributions, such as volunteers/student workers and established overhead costs that you are not looking for the funder to fund, such as rent are valuable in the budget. Funders look for self-reliance in an organization, it does not want to be the primary funding an organization gets.

In conclusion, proposal writing is a process that includes detailed research and rigorous organizational commitment. What I found most valuable in my grant/proposal writing conference was a confidence that I understood the process and could undertake such a project. It also instilled in me the importance of an organization’s commitment to the process.

Stability of an organization’s mission and the identification of goals by establishing a project profile to create a clear understanding of what a proposal writer is writing and also establishes a directions for the organization to seek the right funders for their establishment.