Helpful Grant Writing Suggestions

• Grants are not as hard to write as you may think.
• The person or persons who write the grants must have good writing skills as well as have the ability to be factual -- and have good planning skills.
• The grant writers should work closely with the person or persons who will implement the grant so that they are thinking the same way and have the same goals.
• The grant expectations need to be realistic.
• The grant reviewers are usually people who have written grants, implemented them and, may be experts in the field, or business people who sell or use the product.
• Beware of conflict of interest issues. Groups who give money are very careful to watch for this issue.
• Most grants have a requirement of match dollars which can come from other places but sometimes you can use kind services to match as well.
• Many grants now have to be a collaborative piece where other agencies, schools, or businesses are involved. This again can not be a conflict of interest.
• Grants now require some sort of evaluation, assessment, or tool that can be used to measure the effectiveness of the grant and how the money is used. It is important that the grant writer or member of the grant writing team has knowledge of this aspect of the grant.
• It is best to look in your own community, city, and town area for money you want to use locally. Local funding is the easiest to acquire.
• Do a computer search, ask around, talk to local companies, banks, etc. to see if you have any local foundation in the community.
• Check with your local library, they usually have a list of foundations that provide grants.
• Some car manufacturers have national foundations, but also do local grants as well.
• The Federal Registry at the library would have a list of Federal grants available.
• Federal Grants usually require a professional grant writer since these are in competition with the whole country. The guidelines and restrictions for Federal Grants can be overwhelming for a novice writer.
• Most larger school districts have a grant writer, tap into their knowledge for input.
• Give yourself enough time to write the grant, don't think you can do it in one or two days.
• There are many loose ends with grants, the research, and the plan, who will implement it, and who will oversee it.
• If the monies are not used properly they can be asked to be returned, there are monthly reports that someone will be responsible for and there is usually a year end report that the foundation will require.
• Someone will have to collect data and be knowledgeable about how to budget the money.
• There should be grant writing classes available at your local community college or an agency somewhere in your area. Grant writing is a big business and has now become a living for many people. Like everything, there are good and bad writers.
• Grant writers need to know the jargon of the area they are going to write the grant for. Research, facts, and needs are important parts of this process.
• The grant writers need to know if this has been done in the area before, and who did it, was it successful, is any one else doing this at the same time? People who give money do not like to see duplication of services.
• Most of the time the grant you write now is for the next fiscal year.
• Different foundations run on different fiscal years, they are not all July and June -- beware of that when writing the grant especially if you have a time sensitive area that you are looking at. Sometimes school years are more difficult.