Ten Tips for Grant Writing Success

Learning about grant writing in one blog post is a little like learning about an iceberg from seeing what's above the water line. This article just shows you part of what’s above the surface, the rest is deeper and there's a whole lot more to it. I encourage you to search our blog articles and look at our web site resources to learn more. I write whatever feels right at the moment, and this Friday afternoon, writing a simple post about ten tips feels perfect. Here goes:

1. Learn to write short, declarative sentences;
2. Correctly target your proposal to the right source;
3. Follow guidelines and restrictions scrupulously;
4. Create a writing outline;
5. Collaborate with your client on program design;
6. Write objectives that measurably impact the needs identified;
7.  Keep formatting simple and uncluttered;
8. Use the services of an editor;
9. Budget line items should never surprise the reader;
10. Check the proposal for completeness against a checklist.

Veronica put 101 tips into her book and some of these are probably repeats because they’re each so fundamental to grant development.

Success in grant writing does not happen by accident. Grants are successful because someone can write well, follow directions, and translate a lot of discussion and data into an actionable plan.

If you want to learn more about grant writing, polish and perfect your skills, we can help you do that with our online courses. We also give grant writing seminars on site for groups and we’d love to work with your agency when you need to train staff to write proposals.

Other articles you may enjoy:

14 Tips to Stay Off the Naughty List

Grant Writing - Five Last Minute Things to Check

Photo Credit - jacob gerritsen