Grant Writing For Dummies. Beverly A. Browning

Determine the writing format for each funding source you identify. Carefully view each private-sector funder’s website, and if you’re still not sure about what to write or how to write it, make a quick call or send an email to the listed contact person. Governmental agencies have their own application kits, and you can submit applications to these agencies only at certain times in the year when there is a specific funding deadline published.

      Looking at the components of a grant application

      A government grant or cooperative agreement application is a written funding request you use to ask for money from a government agency. Government grant applications are specific to each of the federal grantmaking agencies. Even state agency grant applications that are funded with federal pass-through dollars closely mirror federal grant application guidelines and grantee requirements.

      Each federal agency has dozens of agencies under its wing that release Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs), Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs), Request for Applications (RFAs), Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs), or Request for Proposals (RFPs). Each NOFA, NOFO, RFA, FOA, and RFP has different funding priorities and guidelines for what you need to write in order to submit a responsive and reviewable grant application.

      Government and other types of grant applications generally require that you write narrative responses for the following sections (each of which I cover in more depth in Part 4):

       Executive summary or abstract

       Statement of need

       Program design or methodology

       Adequacy of resources or key personnel

       Evaluation plan

       Organization background/history or organization capability

       Sustainability statement

       Budget

      A foundation or corporate grant application typically takes the form of a proposal. A proposal is a structured document that must follow each grantmaker’s specific guidelines. Writing a proposal to a foundation or corporation requires the same adherence to the guidelines and incorporation of relevant information as completing government grant applications.

      Note: Some foundations and corporate grantmakers accept the Common Grant Application format; see the later section, “Getting your request in the door at foundations and corporations,” for more details on this format.

      Perusing government grant application guidelines

      Although government grant application formats vary from agency to agency and department to department, some common threads exist in the highly detailed, structured, military-like regimen that’s commonly referred to as an application package. These common threads include a standard cover form, certification and assurances forms, narrative sections, and the budget narratives and related forms. And of course, all government grant applications require mandatory attachments or appendixes, such as résumés of project staff and copies of your nonprofit status determination letter from the IRS. (Head to Chapter 5 for more about the application package.)

      

Always follow the pagination, order of information, and review or evaluation criteria guidelines. All government grants are awarded on the basis of your meeting point-weighted review criteria, which are written and published in each funding agency’s grant application guidelines. (Most grants use a 100-point system.) The review criteria tell you what the peer reviewers will base their ratings on in the application package. With the competition being so hot and heavy for all government grants, you want to carefully craft an award-winning narrative that scores at a minimum of 95 points. The grant applications recommended for funding typically score between 95 and 100 points.

      Several federal grantmaking agencies issue grant applications guidelines where their scoring rubrics often have up to 1,000 points. While this is rare, expect anything and everything when it comes to federal grantseeking and award processes.

      

As you read through the application guidelines, highlight all narrative writing requirements and look for sections that tell you how the grant reviewers rate or evaluate each section of the narrative. By formatting and writing your narrative sections to meet the review criteria, you can edge out the competition and increase your funding success rate. (I tell you how to prepare and write for the review criteria in Chapter 11.)

      Getting your request in the door at foundations and corporations

Before you even consider approaching a foundation or corporation with a grant request, you absolutely must research each and every potential foundation and corporate funding source. Don’t rely solely on online grant-research databases. Let your fingers do the typing to find each potential funder’s website. Read every link and become highly familiar with each source. Find out the organization’s funding priorities, the number of grants it awards annually, and the grant request range. Become very fluent in who they are, what they fund, when they fund, and their mission statement.

      

Whenever contract information is available, be sure to go out of your way to introduce your organization to the grantor before applying. It’s critical that you get a green light before submitting your grant application. Building a relationship before asking for a grant is the first step in this introductory process.

      

As a new grantseeker of a particular funder, make sure your grant request is near the low end of the grantor’s grant range. Private-sector funders don’t want to award mid- to high-funding award range amounts until after they test the waters with a small grant award. After you’ve demonstrated ethics, cost-effective grants management, and accountability to the funder, you can then ask for larger grants in future requests.

      In the past, some private-sector funders have been swamped daily with large volumes of unsolicited grant proposals. To circumvent this influx of steady reading and decision making, more and more private-sector funders have moved toward requiring an initial letter of inquiry, which is a brief letter asking about the foundation’s interest in your project. If the organization is interested, it then asks you to submit a full grant proposal. If you fail to submit the letter of inquiry, you may find the door closed to your unsolicited grant proposal. I give you a link to an online letter of inquiry template at the end of Chapter 2.

      Whether the private-sector funder is large or small, the attachments are a major portion of what counts with this group of grantors. The private-sector funder may ask for a copy of your organization’s IRS letter of tax-exemption, a board of directors roster, organizational and project budgets, a copy of the nonprofit’s tax return, Form-990, an organizational chart, and an audited financial statement.

      Your organization’s executive director or a member of your governing board’s executive committee should build a relationship with any potential private-sector funder before you start begging for a grant. Courtesy and protocol mean everything in the private-sector funding environment, so always establish communications via email, a letter