Judy Tremore - The Only Writing Series Youll Ever Need--Grant Writing: A Complete Resource for Proposal Writers

The Only Writing Series
You'll Ever Need

Grant
Writing

A Complete Resource for
Proposal Writers

JUDY TREMORE & NANCY BURKE SMITH

Copyright 2009 Simon and Schuster
All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any
form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are
made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by
Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Contains material adopted and abridged from
The EverythingGet Published Book, 2nd Edition
by Meg Schneider and Barbara Doyen,
Copyright 2006 Simon and Schuster, ISBN 10: 1-59869-633-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-633-2.

ISBN 10: 1-59869-869-9
ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-869-5
eISBN: 978-1-44052-037-2
Printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Introduction

The term grant writing is a misnomer. No one actually writes grants. Those who seek funding write proposals; those who give funding write grant agreements and checks. But despite this fact, grant writing is the term everyone uses to describe the process of writing a proposal for funding a nonprofit organizations programs, operations, or construction projects. And grant writer is the term that everyone from the nonprofit sector will understand when you use it to describe your work.

By itself, reading a book will not make you a competent grant writer. Applying what you learn will. Practice will. Asking questions will. And you must start somewhere. The Only Writing Series Youll EverNeed: Grant Writing provides a solid base of knowledge from which you can learn, practice, and develop intelligent questions to pose to seasoned professionals. This is a comprehensive how-to book that draws on the expertise of grant-writing professionals. Youll receive advice throughout the book from foundation program officers, grant reviewers, and a number of experienced grant writers. Youll read success stories, and youll read stories about failures so you can learn to avoid the pitfalls. Youll get the know-how you need to effectively complete grant proposals to obtain the funding you need, to establish and build a thriving freelance grant writing business, or to qualify for a full-time, paid staff position as a grant writer in a large nonprofit organization.

This is your first step into this rewarding, satisfying career. Enjoy the journey, and good luck!

Chapter 1
Grant Writing 101

Grants are gifts made by a charitable-giving foundation or the government, most often to a nonprofit organization; that is, an organization designated a 501(c)(3) by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Grants are most often made to support the operations, special projects, or other activities of a nonprofit organization for a specific period of time. Grant proposals are submitted as requests for grant funding. Proposals include a narrative, forms, and attachments. It is the grant writers responsibility to create, complete, and compile these documents.

What Is Grant Writing?

Grant writing has become the popular description of the process of writing proposals for funding, but it always comes down to this: No one actually writes grants. Those who seek funding write proposals applying for grants; those who provide funding write requests for proposals (RFP), grant agreements, and checks to projects that answer their RFPs and meet their standards. Hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations are looking for funding and thousands of grant providers are looking for projects to fund; but only a few hundred matchmakers bring them together, i.e., the grant writers.

What Does a Grant Writer Do?

Grant writing is the term everyone uses to describe the process of writing a proposal for funding a nonprofit organizations programs, operations, or construction projects, but a grant writer does far more than write proposals. A grant writer studies the philanthropic landscape of her community, enrolls to receive e-mail notices of grant funds, understands how to search for foundation and government grants, and knows how to cull through the search to select the most appropriate candidates. She is also a creative problem solver, a detail-oriented project supervisor, and a strong writer with a knack for brevity and clarity.

Who Applies for Grants?

While some individuals, such as inventors, and some businesses particularly those in product development, research, defense, and constructionapply for grants, nonprofit organizations account for the majority of grant seekers for one simple reason: They need grants to develop new programs or sustain operations. In general, the following people involved with nonprofit organizations write grants:

Executive Directors: In smaller nonprofit agencies, the work of grant seeking and grant writing is often assigned to the executive director.

Fund Development Officers: Larger organizations often hire a fund development officer to seek and write grants.

Program Directors: On occasion, youll find program directors assigned responsibility for seeking grants to support the organizations programs or ideas, usually because the nonprofits board of directors requests that staff pursue a specified number of grants or raise a specific amount of money through grant writing in any given year.

Freelance Grant Writers: As executive directors of nonprofits have become busier and busier, the need for professional grant-writing services has grown consistently in the past several years, and shows no sign of slowing.

Is Grant Writing the Same as Fundraising?

No, each has distinct responsibilities. A grant writer is most often a writer with a specialty, though she may also do fundraising. A fundraiser may write grants as part of his job, but he is usually a person on staff who is assigned to general fundraising duties.

Fundraising duties can include nurturing long-term donors, developing candidates and plans for bequests, planning and executing fundraising events or speaker series, managing a database of donors, developing year-end and midyear letter campaigns, and other similar responsibilities. Larger organizations usually have someone on staff assigned to fundraising, and often that person is called a development director.

While many development directors can and have written grants, they become so busy with the other requirements of their jobs that grant writing becomes a sideline for them or something they seek from an outside source, such as a professional grant writer.