How to write and win the grant

Introduction
Grant writing is an art form. Why? Because the grant writer who wins the grant is the one who writes the best need story, and who also comes up with the best action plan to fill that need.

If nonprofit or social entrepreneur organizations need a grant, there are some procedures they can use to speed up the process. The first thing to realize is that there is a secret to winning great grants. That secret is that sponsors don’t give money to the organization for what the organization wants to do, they give them money to do what they want done.

So what does that look like on paper? Well, it’s a quaint display of writing that lets the funder know that he wants to provide the program, product, or service that he’s willing to pay for. This becomes a marriage, and as you know, without the compatibility of a good partnership of the grantee, the grantor, and the stakeholders who benefit from the services, the marriage, or in this case, the grant funds, will not can take place.

Before writing the grant
Before attempting grant writing, it’s important to understand the vocabulary used in the grant writing community. This is as easy as going online and researching grant writing terms.

Second, you want to make sure that you meet the regulatory requirements to legally operate your organization. This includes your licenses and permits, EIN number, Duns number, and state and federal recognitions.

When you’ve located your organization’s records and records, you’re ready to organize your team. Your team should include representatives from all stakeholders. When soliciting stakeholder engagement, look for partners who complement your program, including potential members, their contributions, and their contact information. Once this is established, you will be ready to assign tasks to the final grant team that will help with research and grant preparation.

write the grant
Before you write anything, you want to make sure you have a grant that will go all the way. That means taking what I call the grant test. Here are some questions to ask before writing.

1. What is the name of the grant?
2. Who is the agency that awards the grant?
3. What is the grant’s identifying information?
4. When does the grant expire?
5. Is a match required?
6. How many grants are you funding?
7. What is the maximum award limit?
8. What is the award floor?

Once you’ve answered those questions and you’re happy with your answers, it’s time to get your grant writing team involved. Otherwise, you could be wasting a lot of time, energy, or money on a grant that just doesn’t fit your situation.

Once you’ve found the perfect grant, you’ll want to determine what the organization’s requirements are and develop the components of your grants to match.

Although the grant proposal instructions are technical and each one is different, this is not rocket science. You can take the mystery out of grant writing by understanding that there are really only 4 components to most grants, as detailed below:

Part 1: Executive Summary
Part 2: Narrative
Part 3: Budget and budget narrative
Part 4: Supporting Documents

In Part 1, the executive summary briefly answers the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how much money you need.

Second, Part 2 or the Narrative fully expands on the previous answers and adds the questions about how you will develop, implement, and evaluate the program to meet the needs of your target audience.

The budget and budget description explain in detail how you will spend the money during the grant period.

Lastly, supporting documents will support and verify all of your claims within the grant.

Finally, if you use the tips and tools above, writing your application should be much easier. You can also search for sample grants similar to your project to use as examples using your favorite search engine.

Happy grant hunting!