Setting Your Grant Writing Goals for 2012

"You must know for which harbor you are headed 

if you are to catch the right wind to take you there..."

~ Seneca

I'm not really a fan of New Year's resolutions (even though I have made a few), but I'm a big fan of goal setting.  Why? Because setting a goal gives me a specific target to shoot for, rather than a general direction that is nebulous and probably impossible to achieve..

Here's an example:

Go west this year.

Get to San Francisco by January 30, 2012.

Which of those two is more helpful for my day to day planning and more likely to actually get me to San Francisco?

Right.  The more specific one.  The goal.

So, what are your grant writing goals for 2012?

Here are a few suggestions:

• Develop a realistic writing timeline for each project, and stick to it. This week, develop a sample that you can use as a template.
• Read at least 2 grant samples each week to improve your skill by taking in the successful grant writing of others. 
• Acquire at least 5 new clients between today and June 30, 2012.
• Reach out and develop professional relationships with at least 3 other grant writers this year.
• Read The Grant Goddess Speaks... every day (or at least once a week), either on line or on your Kindle (Ok, that might be a little self serving on my part, but it really will help you be a better grant writer).

Once you have selected a goal or goals (no more than three), write them down.  Write them down where you can see them every day. Yes, every day.

Next, develop a brief action plan for achieving each goal.  What are the actions you plan to take each day, week, or month to make that goal a reality? Having the goal is critical, but having a plan to achieve it is just as important.

Using the example I gave above, I can look at my goal of getting to San Francisco by January 30, 2012 as often as I want, but I also need to make sure the care is in good working order.  I need to get gas, plan a route, schedule the trip, etc. If I don't do those things, I'll be sitting at home later wondering why I never got to San Francisco.

So, what are your grant writing goals for this year?

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Related posts:

3 Grant Writing Resolutions You Shouldn't Ignore

Top 10 Lessons I Learned from My Grant Writing Mentor

Grant Writing Commitments for the New Year

The Difference Between a Gift and a Grant

Gifts and grants are completely different animals, yet they are often treated the same. Unfortunately, those who treat them the same usually end up in trouble.

A gift is just what you would expect it to be - a sum of money or a resource that is given to your organization with nothing expected in return or very little expected in return.  Most cash donations from private individuals fall into this category. Sometimes a donor may request that a gift be earmarked for a particular purpose (i.e., building fund, youth programs, etc.), and sometimes a donor may request a certain type of recognition or publicity (i.e., naming rights, public recognition, etc.), but that's about it.

A grant, on the other hand, comes with a contract and a set of expectations. A sum of money or a resource is given to you with the expectation that it will be used in a particular way, and appropriate performance is expected.  If you don't perform, the grantor (if it is a governmental agency) can take the money back. There are usually rules you are expected to follow as you implement the proposal that was funded.

Also, in most cases, a grantor expects that something measurable will change as a result of the money or resource you are given. Gift givers often don't expect change, but they are support the organization as it currently is (operational support).

Of course, there are some exceptions to the distinction I've just made, but the general rule is pretty clear.

Many organizations write grant proposals without understanding the difference, and then they are shocked at all of the :"strings" that come with the grant, even when those expectations were clearly delineated in the instructions before they applied. Part of the decision about whether or not to apply for a grant requires that you look into the future when that grant is funded and determine if you are actually willing to perform as expected.

If not, the grant you're looking at may not be the one for you.

Related Posts:

The Worst Reasons for NOT Writing a Grant

5 Mistakes That Can Lose Millions of Dollars in Grant Applications

If you need some successful grant proposal samples to help you along, visit GrantSample.com

Does Your Grant Writer Cost Too Much?

The cost of a grant writer seems to be one of the biggest issues involved in the decision to hire a professional grant writer. Many people look at the amount of the check they write to the grant writer and assume that is all they need to consider. But it's more complex than that.

A $2,000 grant writer costs you way too much if you don't get the grant, and a $10,000 grant writer is well worth the expense if she brings you $1,000,000 or more.

In short, if you don't factor in success rate, you're just guessing.

I have heard people say that they were going to go with a much less experienced grant writer on a large federal project because that person was less expensive than the much more experienced writer. Whenever I hear that, I just want to shake my head. You need to think of the fees you pay to a grant writer as an investment.  It's about the return you get on that investment. Period.  I don't care how nice he is or how much you enjoy playing golf with him.  If he can't show you the money, he's a bad investment.

Also, if you work with someone on multiple projects, you should compare the total fees you paid to the total amount she helped you acquire. That will help you determine the true cost and benefit of the grant writer.

Try not to look at the less significant intermediary issues, and keep your eye on your bottom line.

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Related post:

How Much Is Writing Your Own Grants Costing You?

How Much Is Writing Your Own Grants Costing You?

Some costs are easy to calculate.  You look at the price tag on something, and it's pretty clear. However, most people calculate cost only in terms of the cost of having something, rather than the cost of not having it.  For example, depending on the time of year, you may think that the cost of fresh fruit is pretty high, and that might lead to choose not to buy it. Sometimes, though, you'll think about the cost to your health of not having that fruit. When you weigh that cost against the dollar cost you have a more accurate picture of the real costs and you can make a more informed decision.

The same thing is true in the world of grant writing. People see the costs associated with hiring a professional grant writer and some decide it's definitely a worthwhile expense (the smart ones) while others decide that it's just too much and they'd rather do it themselves.

So, can you afford to hire a grant writer?  Before you answer that question, you need to ask yourself another very important question:  How much will writing your grant yourself really cost you?

First, consider the value of your time. Your time is definitely worth something.  If you'll be writing the grant proposal during your work hours, you can apply your hourly or daily rate.  If you'll be working on it beyond work  hours during your personal time, you'll need to assign a value to that time also.  What is an hour of time with your children worth to you? We're talking about opportunity cost here. If you're working on the grant, you're giving up time that could have been spent on something else. Everything is a trade off.

Next, you'll need to calculate the value of the time of anyone who will be assisting you - administrative assistants, accounting clerks, collaborative partners, etc. Their time counts, too

Then, figure out how many hours the project will take you to complete. This is not easy task.  I can tell you for certain that it will take you more time than you expect.  So, once you have calculated the number of hours you expect to spend, add 30%.

When you multiple the number of hours by the hourly rate, you'll have an estimate of the cost, in dollars, of writing your own grant.  At this point, most people realize that hiring a professional grant writer is definitely worth it, but we haven't even come to the most expensive part of the equation.

If you are successful with your grant application, the expense will seem worth it, right?  But if you are not successful, your decision to do it yourself will have cost you not only the time involved in preparing the proposal, but the amount of the grant award itself.

The truth is that professional grant writers who write grants for a living (as opposed to those who do it as a side job or as a hobby) have a much higher success rate than the average, so your chances of actually getting the grant are higher when you use a real professional than if you do it yourself.  That risk vs. success factor should also be calculated into your decision.

The next time you think that hiring a professional grant writer is too expensive, ask yourself how much doing it yourself will really cost you.

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Related Posts:

Grant Writing Training at Taco Bell?

Gauging the Success of a Proposal Writer

Grant Writing is a Team Sport

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Get a free e-book on Non-Profit Grant Writing to help you with your work.

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3 Grant Writing Resolutions You Shouldn’t Ignore

I have never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions.  I’m much more of a continuous improvement kind of gal.  I think the time to make a resolution to do something is any time that you see the need for improvement.

When it comes to grant writing, there are 3 grant writing resolutions that you shouldn’t ignore during any time of year.

1. Make grant seeking a priority. As much as it would be nice for great opportunities to just fall into your lap, they usually don’t.  You have to go look for them. Develop a plan for checking grant sources regularly throughout the upcoming year to make sure you don’t miss any opportunities. If you’re interested in federal grants, check grants.gov.  For private grants, take a look at http://foundationcenter.org/.  
2. Work with a professional grant writer this year.  Aren't you tired of spending all that time working on grant proposals that never get funded?  Even if you choose not to work with a professional for all of your grant projects, at least give it a try so you can learn how it works and what the benefits can be for you and your organization. 
3. Learn more about the grant writing process.  Whether you are writing your own grants or working with a professional grant writer, if you have never taken a course in grant writing, now is the time to do it. There are many options out there; just be sure the grant writing course you choose is taught by a successful professional grant writer who is still writing grants.  Try our Grant Writing 101 course at GrantGoddess University, or one of the other courses or seminars we offer.

These are the first steps toward being more successful with your grant efforts and bringing more money into your organization this year.

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Want to supercharge your grant writing work? Become a member at GrantGoddess.com! You'll have access to the largest collection of multi-media grant writing and grant seeking resources on the web.

Let's be Honest - You're a Lousy Writer

Ouch.  Was that really necessary?

Well, if you ever want to become a good writer, then yes, it was necessary.

Alright, I would never say it quite that way, but I have reviewed many grants and other writing samples, and it's the hardest thing to have to tell someone. If the basic writing is solid, it's easy to talk about structure, objectives, graphics, voice, flow, and responses to the scoring criteria. Having a discussion about poor basic writing skills, though, is very difficult.

I think it's hard for several reasons.  First, people take their writing very personally. Criticism about someone's writing feels a lot like criticism of them personally, even when it is not. Second, basic writing skills are the hardest to develop if a person doesn't already have them. It takes time, focus, effort, and patience. Someone who is a lousy writer can't just become a good writer overnight. Sure, it's possible to become a good writer, but not in a week or through a single revision cycle. Finally, anyone who comes to me with a writing sample usually assumes and thinks he is a good writer.  There's an identity and self-esteem issue in the mix. Getting through that without destroying the relationship and dashing a person's writing hopes and dreams is like navigating through a mine field in the middle of a dark night, while blindfolded, during a rainstorm.  Your chances of success are.....limited (See?  I'm not a complete pessimist.).

Still, knowing about any shortcomings in your basic writing skills is critical information if you're going to get any better. Writing is a craft that requires constant improvement. Everyone makes mistakes when they write. That's why we learn to proofread our own work and sometimes employ outside proofreaders, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about writing that is grammatically incorrect more than 20% of the time or that is riddled with punctuation errors. That kind of writing will not improve without a focused effort to learn what's wrong and to fix it.

Then, you have to practice writing.  Work through critiques and revisions, and practice some more.

At the same time, you need to read a lot so you can see examples of excellent writing of all kinds and allow the millions of structural variations to become part of your own language repertoire.

My suggestion is to find a friend or mentor who is already a good writer, and who will tell you the truth.  This is no small task (for the reasons I cited above), but it's essential if you want to become a good writer.

Anything worth doing requires effort.  Writing is no different. Get an honest assessment of your skill, and then don't pout.  Get busy making your writing better.

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The Accidental Grant Writer

I wasn't going to be a grant writer.  No, I was going to be an attorney.  That was definitely my plan as I was growing up.  It was still my plan in college.  That's what I thought the smart girls were supposed to do.

Then the twists and turns of life led me to the classroom at the age of 22 and I became a teacher.  I loved it.  It wasn't necessarily the kids I loved (but yes, I do love children), but it was that moment of epiphany when a child finally learned something new. I loved learning so much that it shouldn't have surprised me that I would enjoy helping others learn, too.

It was as a teacher that I wrote my first grant proposal. It was a $5,000 grant for some technology equipment.  Specifically, I wanted a videodisc player (remember those?) and a large screen TV (back before they were in anyone's home) to help my ELD students have more multimedia experiences (there were no computers in classrooms in those days - only small labs with Apple IIe machines) so they could understand the curriculum better. It required a 5-page narrative and it was very challenging for me, but I did it, and I was successful. The grant was awarded to my classroom!

Still, even though I had written a successful grant, I didn't think of myself as a grant writer.

After years as a teacher, I became a school administrator.  That's what I thought the smart girls were supposed to do. As a school administrator, I was responsible for overseeing several grants. It was interesting.  I enjoyed starting new programs from scratch, and it was in that capacity that a met a grant writer and program evaluator who became my mentor (Read about the Top 10 Lessons I Learned from my Grant Writing Mentor).

After several years, he asked me to do some grant writing for him on the side.  I discovered that I was pretty good at it, but I was still an educator who also did grant writing.  I still didn't think of myself as a grant writer.

A few years later, he asked me to leave public education and to come work for him as a full time grant writer and program evaluator. It was a big step for me, but he told me that's what the smart girls were supposed to do, so I did it.

A few years after that, I left his firm and started my own. By then, there was no question in my mind that I was a grant writer; however, there was no point in my life in which I said to myself, "I want to learn how to be a grant writer."  It just happened.  I stepped from opportunity to opportunity and learned what I could as I went along. There were no classes on grant writing offered in graduate school at that time. No one had even even mentioned it to me as a potential career path.

It was almost as if it happened by accident.  I was the accidental grant writer.

(Of course, I know there are really no accidents, but that's the subject of an entirely different post.)

Things are different today for folks who have some writing talent who want to make a difference in their corner of the world.  There are online courses in grant writing to teach you how to become an excellent grant writer, and there are even courses in how to become a freelance grant writer so you can learn the business side of the business. There are courses in colleges and universities, and even certification programs (although a certificate does not guarantee any success; the most successful grant writers I have ever known hold no special certificate). There are blogs, like this one, and websites to read to learn about the industry.

There is so much more support available now than when I started. Tapping into this support, well, that's just what the smart girls (and boys!) do.

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Related Posts:

Grant Writing: A Romantic Misconception

Think Positively and Make It Happen

So You Want to Become a Freelance Grant Writer: Are you Barking Mad?


Would you like the digital version of 101 Tips for Aspiring Grant Writers to download right now?  Download it now!

My Grant Writing Fantasy

My feet are firmly planted on the ground, and I am grateful for each and every one of my grant writing clients; however, I do have a bit of a fantasy life (shhhh...let's just keep that between you and me and the millions of folks on the internet, ok?).  This means, of course, that I have a grant writing fantasy, too. In the interest of full disclosure, I have decided to share it with you.

I get a phone call from a prospective client.  He sets up an appointment to come and see me about a new grant (instead of asking me to drive three hours each way to see him). I like him already.

When he arrives, he looks just like George Clooney (you don't have a problem with that, do you?  This is my fantasy, ya know...), and he has come prepared with a box of materials to share.  As we sit down to talk, the following things become clear:

1. He has already thoroughly read the RFP.
2. His organization has a well-developed vision and mission, and they have already been planning a new project that is a perfect match for this funding source.
3. He has already assembled a grant committee that has developed a detailed summary of what they want to do.
4. He has also already developed a draft budget.
5. His community partners are on board, and they have already written some draft letters of support for me to review.
6. The box he brought in with him also contains his organization's strategic plan (which has been updated within the last year), notes from grant planning meetings (along with sign-in sheets), recent outcome evaluation data documenting the effectiveness of his organization's services, and the results of a client and stakeholder survey he administered within the last month to gather information for this grant proposal.
7. He respects my opinion as an expert, which he demonstrates by asking insightful questions.
8. He has come fully prepared for the business side of the discussion. He has done his homework, so he knows our rates, and he has already acquired approval from his board to sign a contract - right now, today. In fact, he has a check in his pocket for the first payment.

Every now and then, he stops talking and just gazes at me with his gorgeous eyes (MY fantasy, remember?) and then he continues, staying on topic and respectful of my time.  He answers my questions about the project clearly and succinctly, and if he doesn't have the answer to one of my questions, he makes a note of it, and calls or emails me within a day with the answer.

As we start working together, he sends more helpful data and he is always available to take my calls when I need more information. 

He reviews drafts I send within 24 hours, and it is clear that he has reviewed them carefully because his comments are thoughtful, insightful, and useful. He trusts my writing process. 

As the deadline approaches, he remains calm and confident that we will get the job done well and on time. He doesn't start calling and emailing 20 times a day to ask the status of the project. He refrains from changing the project design after he has already reviewed the third and final draft of the narrative. He allows my staff the freedom to make minor budget changes, as necessary, to ensure that the narrative matches the budget (subject to his final approval, of course).

He reviews the final product carefully before submittal, fully understanding that he is responsible for the final product.

After the grant has been submitted, he makes his final payment in a timely manner - it actually arrives a day before it is due! He knows we won't have any news for several months, so he refrains from calling every week "just to see if we've heard anything yet." 

He does, however, call with new projects for us to work on together, all with the same planning, organization, and professionalism that he demonstrated on the previous project. Soon, he sets up another meeting to introduce me to a colleague from another organization who is also looking for a grant writer and has a specific grant project in mind.  He tells me that he taught his colleague everything he knows, so the process will progress pretty much as it did with his organization.

By the way, his colleague looks a lot like Brad Pitt.

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Related posts:

Our Favorite Clients 

Is Your Organization Ready for Grant Writing?

If They Made a Movie About Grant Writing Consultants...

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Download a free e-book:  Non-Profit Grant Writing.

Some Federal Grant Writing Resources You Shouldn't Miss

Ready or not, the federal grant season is coming. Every year at about this time, the calls start coming in from folks who want information about federal grant opportunities. I thought that this would be a good time to put together a list of resources that can help you in your efforts to secure federal discretionary grants for your organization.

Grantmaking at ED - This 69 page e-book from the U.S. Department of Education (2010) contains a significant amount of information about the grant making process for ED, and it also includes some good resources. The easy to scan Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format makes it easy to read, too.

Catalog of Domestic Federal Assistance (CFDA) - The CFDA contains detailed information on 2,073 federal assistance programs, including programs from the Department of Health & Human Services, Department of Education, Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture, and Department of the Interior.

Grants.gov - Your source to find and apply for federal grants.  You can search by topic, agency, or several other categories.

Office of Justice Programs Funding Resources - This page provides links to a variety of DOJ grant resources.

Applying for a New SAMHSA Grant - The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a page devoted to links to help you write a new grant proposal.

SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices - If you're writing a grant for SAMHSA or any other department that includes substance abuse prevention services or something related to it, you need to review the evidence-based programs in this guide. NREPP is an online, searchable guide of more than 160 interventions supporting mental health promotion, substance abuse prevention, and mental health and substance abuse treatment.

OJJDP Model Programs Guide - The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Model Programs Guide (MPG) is designed to assist practitioners and communities in implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that can make a difference in the lives of children and communities. The MPG database of evidence-based programs covers the entire continuum of youth services from prevention through sanctions to reentry.

This is not an exhaustive list of federal grant resources.  If you are interested in an ongoing stream of resources, find us on Facebook and follow the Grant Goddess on Twitter.

You should also consider becoming a member at GrantGoddess.com for the latest in grant news and information.  members also have access to a huge multimedia library of grant writing tips.

You may also want to visit our Federal Grant Resources page where some of these resources are repeated, but where other resources are included and where we add resources as we find them.
Finally, if you're new to grant writing or you want to brush up on your grant writing skills, consider taking an online course at Grant Goddess University. Learn grant writing on your time and at your own pace.

Grant Writing Success - A Numbers Game?

It is not easy to explain all of the factors involved in grant writing success. Certainly, experience and skill have a lot to do with it, but there's much more to it than that. In many ways, it's a numbers game.

First, there are the odds of how likely you are to get funded given the total amount of money to be awarded, the total number of grants to be awarded, and the number of grant proposals likely to be submitted. So, you combine these odds with your skill and experience and that should take you to grant writing success, right?

Not so fast.

You still have to deal with the vicissitudes of the readers. In a government grant competition, you will likely have three readers and scoring criteria that add up to 100 possible points awarded per reader. Hopefully, the readers will be carefully trained and will thoroughly understand the scoring criteria and how points should be allocated. Even in this ideal situation, there can still be dramatic differences in the points allocated by the different readers. In some competitions, the readers are required to conference with each other and bring their scores within a certain distance of each other, but sometimes the readers score independently and all three scores are averaged. This is how it's possible to get scores of 100, 98, and 85, knocking your proposal out of the funding range. It shouldn't be possible, but it is.

And the more extreme the competition is (see my discussion of the odds, above), the higher your score needs to be in order to be funded, which means that you need all three readers to award you exceptionally high scores if you hope to be funded.

Even then, it's no guarantee. In a recent grant competition I received scores of 100, 98, and 96, and our proposal still was not funded. When I looked back at the readers written comments, there were no suggestions for improvement. It kind of makes you think that the whole grant award process is more random than you thought, doesn't it?

Regardless of the odds and the biases of the readers, experience and skill still play the biggest roles in the grant award process. In the example I just gave you, as frustrating as it was to have submitted an excellent proposal that was not funded, the truth is that if it had not been an excellent proposal it would've had absolutely no chance of being funded. In that particular competition, only the absolute best, near-perfect proposals had a chance at being funded. While it may seem random, it's not.

Submitting a well-written, high-quality proposal is still the best way to negotiate the maze of the numbers game and reach the goal of grant writing success.

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Would you like to improve your grant writing skills?  Want to learn to be a great writer?  Try our Grant Writing 101 online course.  Learn at your own pace when it's convenient for you.

If They Made a Movie about Grant Writing Consultants......

It would be a thriller.  Yes, I'm sure of that. It would be an action-packed, intrigue-driven thriller that would keep you on the edge of your seat. I'm talking about the kind of thriller that is somewhere between Speed (with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves) and Matt Damon's The Bourne Identity, but it would have the heart of a drama - think about the perseverence of The Shawshank Redemption.  And it would also have some of the recklessness of Thelma and Louise.

I would be played, of course, by Kathy Bates, who would certainly win an Academy Award for her sensitive portrayal of such a complex character. Other grant writing consultants in the movie would be played by Brad Pitt and Shirley McClain, with supporting roles filled by Ben Affleck, and other fine actors. Richard Gere would be in it just because.

Here's the basic plot:

Our heroine, Kathy Bates, would get a phone call charging her to write a very competitive grant in a very short period of time. She would argue briefly that it couldn't be done, but she'd be told that it must be done and it must be successful because the fate of free world is in her capable hands. She would call her colleagues Brad Pitt (who's having a beer at Rubicon) and Shirley MacLaine (who is somewhere in the moutains firewalking and getting in touch with her Chi) who would rush back into town to help.

Brad Pitt would work with the client to get the data needed for the grant, but it wouldn't arrive.  Kathy Bates would yell, "But tell them we must have it!" and Brad would valiantly declare, "Don't worry, I'll get it," as he hopped on his trusty steed (old Honda) and headed out to pick up the data personally. Richard Gere would just massage Kathy's back while she wrote, whispering, "You can do it.  I know you can," into her ear while she writes.

Tight shot on the clock spinning wildly as the time passes, and the calendar as the days fly by....

Shirley MacClaine tirelessly does research while support staff member Tina Fey works on the budget. Ben Affleck answers the phone with expert skill, keeping would-be interrupters away with a polite, but firm, "No, you can't speak with her.  She's saving the world!"

As the deadline draws nearer, the pressure mounts.  Shirley floats in and out picking up pieces here and there and offering her expertise.  Brad  remains calm on outside while expertly assembling appendices. Kathy's fingers sieze up from the pain, but Richard massages the pain away.

As the first draft is complete, in walks Helen Mirren, competently and calmly proclaiming, "I'll take over from here," as she sits with the narrative and begins proofreading and editing, her pen flying across the page as Richard offers Kathy cool grapes, Tina wraps up the budget, Shirley finalizes the abstract, and Brad  talks to the client on the phone, assuring him that all is well.

Suddenly, Tina shouts, "Nooooo!!!!! The web portal is down!" Kathy rushes into her office, knocking Richard down on the way (sorry, Richard). "But it can't be down!  The grant is due in 2 hours!" Tina just rocks back and forth, "It's down, it's down, it's down, oh my god it's down....."

Helen retains her predator-like focus on the editing task.

Tina says, "Wait!  I think I can hack into the portal through the government's evaluation site..."

"Do it!" shouts Kathy, "Do it NOW!"

Ben shouts at someone on the phone, "New phone service?  Are you crazy?  This is no time for solicitation!  She doesn't want to talk you.  She'll never want to talk to you!"  As he slams the phone down, Tina explains, "I'm in!"

"Great," sighs Kathy, "Let's get this baby uploaded and put to bed."

"Ready!" says Helen, as she hands over a perfectly edited draft to Kathy.

Shirley calmly floats in, "I knew everything would be ok."

"Don't be so sure," cautions Kathy. "We're not out of the woods yet."

Tina, Brad, and Helen work together to get all the documents uploaded, while Shirley and Kathy sip some tea.

Tina announces, "Done! The grant has been submitted...on time!"

Helen adds, "And it's a good one!"

Kathy comments, with a matter of fact tone, "Of course it is."  Then she looks around for Richard....

Ben answers the phone and tells Kathy, "It's Mr. Non-Profit. He says he has a challenging project for you.....and it's due next week."

Kathy sips her tea, raises and eyebrow, and says, "Oh?  Sounds intriguing.  Brad, Shirley, we have another assignment!"

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The Worst Reasons for NOT Writing a Grant

I hear all sorts of reasons for not pursuing grant opportunities. To be fair, they are very real for the person making the excuse at the time, and grant writing is not easy.  If it were, everyone would do it.  It's difficult and time consuming.  There are some good reasons for not writing a grant, including a mis-match between your organization's mission and the purpose of the grant program, changing organizational priorities, and the implementation of a well-developed fund development plan that calls for a focus on other sources of income. However, most of the reasons I hear are not the good ones.  Here are the worst reasons for not writing a grant that I hear most:

1. We don't have the time. Are you kidding me?  Who does have the time?  No one.  If you want to bring in additional resources to your organization, you have to make the time. It's all about priorities.  Instead of saying you don't have time, tell the truth.  Say, "We are choosing to spend our time doing other things."
2. We probably won't get it. As my mother would say, with an attitude like that, you probably won't. My mother also used to say, "No guts, no glory!" The bottom line is that if the purpose of the program is well aligned with your organization's mission, and if you have a solid idea, you have a very good chance of being funded., but you definitely won't get it if you don't make an effort.
3. The grant will just end in 3 years anyway. Believe it or not, I hear this one a lot.  Those who say this seem to forget that between now and three years from now, your clients will benefit from some great services. A lot can happen in 3 years (or 2 years or 5 years), and you can make a big difference in the lives of people over a year or two. Why would you give up that opportunity just because you may not have the resources to do it forever?
4. We don't have anyone who can write it.  This falls into the same category as "we don't have the time."  You probably do have someone in your organization (or a team of people) who can write it if you just restructure the schedule for a while. And don't forget. you can hire professional grant writers to help if you need to.

Yes, there are some good reasons for not pursing some grant opportunities, but none of these fall into that category.  Get your priorities straight and focus on overcoming the barriers that prevent you from bringing n the resources your clients deserve.

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The Best Ways to Learn Grant Writing

Let's face it.  Grant writing is not rocket science, but people are always asking me how they can learn grant writing.. I consider it a craft because it includes elements of both skill and art, but anyone with good basic writing skills can learn to be a decent grant writer.  Of course, there are some notable characteristics and "secrets" of really successful grant writers, but those, too, can be learned for the most part. The most important thing is a willingness to learn.

So, what are the best ways to learn grant writing?

I learned grant writing by jumping in and writing one.  I was fortunate enough to be successful on the first try, but I would have kept trying anyway.  After a while, I found a grant writing mentor, an expert in the field who took me under his wing and taught me the craft. I learned many things from him beyond writing. While I strongly encourage people to take grant writing seminars and workshops, I didn't take my first one until I was already a professional grant writer.  The individual attention, instruction, and support I received from my mentor was exactly what I needed.

If you don't know someone you can ask to mentor you, you may want to take a grant writing course first.  That will increase the chances that you'll meet a mentor (your instructor) and it will provide you with the basics of what you need to know to be successful, allowing you to maximize your time.

There are many grant writing workshops you can take; however, if you are serious about really learning the trade, I recommend that you take a full-blown course.  Our Grant Writing 101 course is an example of a comprehensive course that will give you an excellent foundation.

Once you have the basic foundation, the best way to improve your skill is to write.  Write grants.  Write many grants.  I suggest that you start with mini-grants.  They are quick and easy and you'll get to experience some success quickly.

As you move on to larger grants, be sure to review the feedback from the funding source (regardless of whether or not you were funded) to learn from your mistakes as well as what you did well.

If you focus on taking advantage of the available learning opportunities, you'll be able to learn grant writing in no time.

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Grant Writing Success is Just the Beginning

Hearing that your organization has been awarded a grant is exhilarating!  You want to tell everyone.  You want to celebrate your success.  Then it hits you ---grant writing success is only the beginning.

That's right.  While you were focused up to this point on all of the work involved in getting the grant, the real work hasn't even started yet.  The "real work" is all about turning that vision into reality.  It's at this point that you learn some valuable lessons about grant writing, and now is the time to make note of those lessons so you don't have to learn them again, again, and again.

Here are some post-award lessons clients have learned that have helped them to be better grant writers:

1. A realistic implementation plan and time line are important.  It sounded like a good idea at the time to say that you would get everything going within the first six months of the funding period, but now that you have the money, you understand how impossible that is.  It would have been much more helpful to have a realistic plan and time line to begin with.
2. Accurate estimation of salary costs can save many headaches later.  Many grant writers like to squeeze more room into a tight grant proposal budget by including salaries at the low end of a salary schedule.,  The problem with that is you rarely hire people at the low end of the schedule.  If there isn't enough wiggle room in the budget to be able to cut elsewhere, you can run into some real trouble when you don't have enough money to hire all the people you said you would.  It makes more sense to use accurate salary estimates and develop a realistic program from the beginning.
3. Planning the goals, objectives, and evaluation activities to fit the funding source's requirements would have been helpful.  Doing a little bit of extra homework up front to align your project objectives with the required performance measures of the funding source (if there are any) can save many hours of extra work later.  The same goes with evaluation data collection and reporting procedures.  If the funding source has some requirements, learn about them before you write the proposal.  Then you won't have to be scrambling and revising later.
4. Communicating with all of the project partners and stakeholders in the grant development process saves a lot of explaining later.  Board members don't like to be surprised by things that are in grant proposals - especially when they are asked about them in the community.  Keeping everyone in the loop and involved during the proposal development process saves time and effort later.

A little bit of advanced preparation can help your grant writing success be something you can really celebrate!

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Grant Writer Stalked by Client

I knew it would happen eventually. It was just a matter of time before my public presence on social media would push me over the line from happy grant writer and evaluation consultant working in the solitude of her office to victim of a stalker client.

It happened quietly one day last week. I was busy writing a report and I took a break for a few minutes.  During that break, I updated my Facebook status, checked Twitter, and responded to a comment on my blog. Then I heard the little twinkle sound my computer makes when I get a comment to a Facebook status update.  When I'm working, I usually ignore them until later, but since I wasn't engaged back into my report writing task yet, I took a look.

It was my client.  She wanted to know why I wasn't working on her report. That's when I knew my life had changed.

Part of the skill of a good consultant is helping every client believe s/he is your favorite and most important client (in this case, my stalker actually is one of my very favorites). They want to believe (and, truthfully, you want them to believe) that you have nothing else to do other than their work, and you certainly don't have anything more important to do than their project.  I've had a client text me after midnight on a Saturday night asking when he'd see a draft that was promised for Monday. Of course, I sent a return text with a polite response that indicated there was no higher priority in my life than his project.

There's no escaping it.  The very tools that have allowed me to communicate better with my clients and get the word out about my services also make it easier for my clients to express their needs, desires, satisfaction, and (gasp!) dissatisfaction.

And it makes it easier for them to stalk me from the comfort of their homes or offices.

Now that I know I'm being stalked, I have to be more careful about my social media and other online habits. It's not enough to get the work done, but now I also have to avoid the online appearance that I'm not working.

To my stalker (and you know who you are and I'm sure you're reading this) - I wrote this after hours late at night and electronically scheduled it to be released this morning.  As you read this, rest assured that I am busy working on your project, and only your project, the most important project I have on my desk.

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In the Grant Writing Business, the Customer is Always Right...Even When He's Not

We got some really good news this weekend.  I learned that one of the federal grants I wrote last spring was funded. This was not the only good news we have received or will receive from the latest grant writing season, but it was particularly satisfying because of how much this client really needs the program we wrote.

Because the client is in such need to get the program going, the program administrator hit the ground running today to get the budget in the system and get the program up and running as soon as possible.  His plan hit the skids, though, as soon as it hit the desk of the head of the fiscal department who informed him that the amounts we had budgeted for personnel and benefits were too low.  So, he set up a conference call between me, the fiscal person, and himself to try to work it out.  I gave the best advice I had for revising the budget quickly so they could get going.

Then my client (the program administrator) said something interesting.  He said,"I don't know how this happened because I know we gave you the correct numbers when we were in the grant development process." That's one of those moments when what you want to say and what you know you have to say are different. What I wanted to say was, "Are you kidding? I can prove that we used the numbers you sent.  I have the old emails...."  But no, that's not what came out of my mouth.  I knew this was a "fall on your sword for your client" moment.  I really hate those moments, but I said it anyway, "I'm really sorry.  I can't explain how we made such an error, but I can certainly help you move forward from here and I'll do my best not to put you in this position again."

Like in every other business, in grant writing, the customer is right, whether or not he really is.  Preserving the relationship is the important part, not being right.

This has been a particularly hard lesson to learn for me because I really, really like to be right.  Don't get me wrong - I have no problem standing up to my clients when they need some corrective direction in the planning or evaluation processes, but those of in business for ourselves need to be able to discern when it's appropriate to correct the client, and when it's appropriate to help them look better with their own organization so the relationship can continue smoothly.


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Rantings of an Opinionated Grant Writer

I try to keep the posts of this blog positive and informative, and I do my best to keep my whining to a minimum, but today I have a few rants to put out there in the world.  Maybe someone will be able to learn from them.

Every now and then someone tells me, "Veronica, maybe you shouldn't be so outspoken about your opinions.  Won't you risk losing business?"  Maybe, but I like to remember what Bill Cosby said -- "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone."

So, here are the rants running through my mind today:

1. Why do the people doing the best work in the community seem to have the hardest time to getting money to fund their work?  I see it over and over again. Small non-profits that are really doing amazing work who struggle to stay afloat while large organizations with tremendous waste seem to have more cash than they can use. Of course, I know the answer to the question.  There is much more to the funding equation than just doing good work. And never forget the other explanation:  Life isn't fair.
2. Speaking of tremendous waste.  I have a client (a public agency) that is giving $700,000 back to the federal government at the end of a four year grant period because they have a lousy fiscal accounting system and they didn't spend all of the $6 million grant they were awarded.  It's not that they couldn't use it or that there isn't plenty of need in their community, but the combination of poor accounting, poor communication among administrators, and incompetence has essentially stolen almost three quarters of a million dollars from folks who desperately need the support.  As the grant writer and evaluator for that program, I'm disgusted.
3. Speaking of being disgusted, I'm currently working with a school district that seems to be doing everything it can to keep the public away.  One day they say they want parents more involved, and the next day they take actions to make it harder (sometimes nearly impossible) for parents to be involved. Then we loop back full circle to their finger pointing at parents for not being involved.  Enough already!
4. I was at a meeting yesterday discussing some pretty significant changes to a local school for students who have been expelled from their regular public schools.  We were discussing incentives for students and I had the wild and crazy idea to ask the students what incentives would inspire them. I got that condescending, "awwww, the poor woman doesn't understand the real world" look from one of the school administrators present.

OK, I'd better stop now.  I think I've been reading Cranky Blog too much.

Now I'll get back to my regularly scheduled positive and uplifting posts......

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Four Grant Writing Ethical No-No's

There are actually many ethical issues involved in grant writing, many more than I expected when I first began my journey as a professional grant writer. Here are four of the most common ethical issues you need to avoid if you are a professional grant writer:

1. Lying in a proposal.  I have to admit that I have always assumed that everyone would know that lying in a grant proposal is ethically wrong, but you'd be surprised how many times I have heard people try to justify it. Don't try to exaggerate your need for the grant or include program activities that you don't intend on implementing. Just tell the truth.
2. Reusing narrative written for another client. It's very tempting, especially when you're overworked and tired, to just lift some narrative that you wrote for another client for the same grant last year to put in someone else's narrative this year. Don't do it.  If you get caught (especially by a reader scoring the grant), you risk not being funded, but it's just plain wrong anyway. If you are being paid for original narrative, write original narrative.  If you can't think of another way to say what you need to say, don't take the job.
3. Poaching funding sources.  I heard this horror story when I met with a local non-profit administrator last week. A private funding source had invited the non-profit to submit a proposal.  This particular funding source does not accept unsolicited proposals.  The non-profit asked its grant writer (an outside consultant) to write a proposal to this funding source.  The grant writer wrote a proposal and submitted it. A couple of weeks later, the non-profit administrator got a phone call from the funding source saying that the grant writer had actually submitted several proposals - the one the funding source had requested as well as proposals on behalf of several other organizations the grant writer worked with.  None of these other proposals were part of the solicitation.  The grant writer had just taken it on herself to try to squeeze in some of her other clients in competition with the client making the original request.  I'm sure she assumed they would not know or find out.  To make matters worse, the representative from the funding source told the non-profit administrator that of the several proposals submitted by that grant writer, the weakest one from from the original agency requesting the work. The non-profit organization that originally asked the grant writer to submit the proposal was ultimately not funded.
4. Telling a client that they can pay for grant writing services out of the grant when they can't. There is some debate in the field about whether charging a contingency fee for grant writing services is ethical or not.  Some people insist that contingency fees are unethical, but then call it a "bonus" for getting funded and call that ethical. The real issue, though, is not whether or not it's a contingency fee, but where that fee comes from. If you tell someone they can pay the fee out of the grant when they can't, you have essentially lied to them. Very few funding sources allow you to pay for grant writing services out of a grant itself (there are, however, some that do). 

The bottom line is that integrity matters. Trying to cut ethical corners may seem like a profitable decision at the time, but in the end it is not the way to build a successful grant writing career.

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A Real Life Parable about Data and Hearing What You Want to Hear Regardless of What Has Been Said

A school district contracted with a research firm to conduct a telephone survey of local residents to determine if there was enough support for a parcel tax measure to move forward with it. The research firm was paid over $18,000 to conduct the telephone survey over a five day period. A total of 400 surveys/interviews were conducted and factored into the results. Fifty-five percent (55%) of those surveyed said they would support the measure, which falls short of the two-thirds required for the measure to pass, so the school board chose to abandon the measure at this time.

The survey also revealed that "only 14 percent of those surveyed think the district is doing a good job of providing high quality education or preparing students for a job," and 60% of those surveyed believe that overall management of the district is poor.  Sixty-four percent (64%) believe that the district is doing a poor to only fair job of managing public funds.

Ouch.

Now, there are many things about this whole process that I could discuss, from the fact that $18,000 is an exorbitant fee to pay for a telephone survey of 400 residents (yes, many reputable research firms, including my own, would do an excellent job for much less) to the fact that the district had other no-cost and low-cost ways of getting pretty close to the same information, but I'm going to focus on the response to the survey results.

Just about anyone I have discussed this with says something like, "Wow. It's pretty clear that folks in that town think the school district is doing a lousy job. The public doesn't trust them with their money."

Interestingly, though, that's not what the school superintendent got out of those results. Here's what the local newspaper had to say about that: "She was interested to learn that, based on the survey, the community most valued tutoring for students, curriculum that uses science and technology, and more opportunities for students to take advanced classes."  And then the superintendent was quoted, "We need to continue to help kids that need extra help, continue to challenge kids that need more (rigor), and we need to do that with current technology."

Huh?

While all of that may be true, it seems to me that the real message to get is that the community doesn't trust the school district and thinks it's doing a lousy job.  That's what needs to be addressed.

We could debate the value of spending a lot of money on data gathering efforts.  As an evaluator, I'm a believer in investing in data collection to help you demonstrate the value of your programs and evaluate their effectiveness so you can improve them. The questions that comes up is always, "How much money is too much to spend for evaluation and data collection?"

But even that is not the moral to this story. 

The moral to this story is this:  If you're going to spend anything on conducting a survey, be willing to really listen and hear what people are saying.  If you're not going to learn from what has been said, even a dime is too much to pay for the information.

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Federal Government Grant Priorities.....Whose Priorities?

I was scanning the grant opportunities at grants.gov this morning, and I noticed something that I have noticed for years, but today it struck me a bit differently. I'm accustomed to seeing hundreds of grant opportunities that don't apply to my clients.  Many are amusing (I've posted on Facebook about competitions for funds to save particular obscure animal species, etc.) and some are just incomprehensible. However, at a time when our economy is in trouble and people are suffering, some of the federal grant priorities seem just wrong.

Non-profit organizations that are often the last line of support for our most needy citizens are struggling for every dime these days, yet here are just a few of the hundreds of things that the government is choosing to fund instead:

Inventory of Cave Dwelling Animals in Wet Caves Grant - I think we could just go with last year's inventory numbers, don't you?

Azerbaijan New Media Project - This is $4,000,000 to support the development of new media and online communities in Azerbaijan. Supposedly it will help with the distribution of US aide there.

Establishing a Global System of Regional Wildlife Networks: Providing Support for Central American Wildlife - Wildlife here are so well protected that we have extra cash to be protecting wildlife in Central America?

Mexican Spotted Owl Grant - This announcement lists only "Mexican Spotted Owl" in the full description of the project.  Are we buying a Mexican spotted owl?  Several? Are we protecting it? Feeding it? Whatever we are doing to it, is it more important than $280,000 worth of food for the homeless?

Youth Empowerment Program in Kenya - $14,000,000 for this one, folks. I guess all of the youth in the US are empowered and well-educated, so it's time to move on the youth of Kenya.

Decentralization Enabling Environment - I find this one to be particularly ironic. This grant provides $2,000,000 to a nongovernmental agency in Honduras to help develop the "environment necessary for decentralization of government services to the local level in order to better respond to citizen needs." At a time when local organizations in the U.S. that do this very thing are suffering and the U.S. is going through a dramatic centralization of services and resources, we're giving money to another country to do the opposite.

MERIDA Small Grant Program for Community Youth at Risk - This one is for community-based programs for at-risk youth in Panama. See my comment above about the Youth Empowerment Program in Kenya.

Please don't misunderstand.  I am sure that there is some value in each of these programs. What kind of human being would I be if I didn't think doing something to or with Mexican Spotted Owls was important or that we shouldn't have an accurate inventory of wet cave dwelling animals?

Even so, I think we need to do a much better job of prioritizing.  Every family knows that you can't have everything. Some things that you think are important have to be put aside or postponed until you can afford them in favor of funding things that are much more important.

As for the grants I just cited (and the hundreds of others like them), just whose priorities are those, anyway?

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