Grant Writing Made Easy

We make everything easy these days. Microwave ovens made cooking easy. GPS relieved men from stopping to ask for directions after getting hopelessly lost. Some cars parallel park all by themselves. Debit cards all but replaced checks making it easier to get and spend money.

Most of our lives is so much easier now; it’s about time to make grant writing easy too. Here are ten ideas to make your grant writing easy. Don’t skip a step or you’re going to make your writing hard again!

1. Hire a grant writer; but, if you’re still determined to write the grant yourself, proceed to steps 2 – 9.
2. Get a really-really comfortable chair because you’re going to be there a while.
3. Get a second screen for your computer so you can have multiple documents open at once and still see at least two of them.
4. Get extra ink and paper for your printer so you don’t have to run to Office Max in the middle of production.
5. Get a grant outline or write your own.
6. Get one or two grant samples at http://grantsample.com/ to read before you start to write.
7. Push the DND button on your phone (that’s “Do Not Disturb”) and let the answering machine handle the calls from sales people and neighbors wondering why your lights were on until 3 AM.
8. Hit crtl-S every few minutes to save the work so you don’t experience the Prozac-inducing experience of a frozen computer and lost narrative.
9. Highlight in yellow the areas you need more information about so you don’t forget to go back to them and highlight in green items that you need to remember to put into the budget.
10. Plan ahead on how you are delivering the finished grant so you aren’t driving it like a maniac to beat a deadline at the last moment.

Even following all of the steps above aren’t guaranteed to make your grant writing easy. When you are writing grants you will find that some narratives just flow easily from your mind while others will cause writer’s block and even the most comfy chair won’t unblock you. If you are really looking for the easy button on grant writing, it’s hiring a professional to do it for you!


This post was written by non-profit consultant and expert grant writer, Derek Link.
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