Grant Abstract Writing

An abstract is an arcane term synonymous with summary/executive summary. It is a summary of a grant proposal and it is generally written last. The abstract is important if it’s scored or not because it may be the first thing that the person scoring your proposal will begin reading. The abstract is rarely included in the scoring used to rank proposals.

Most abstracts follow a typical format -

1. Introduction - Intro sentence or two – Name the project, who is applying, where it is going to happen, what it will do, and for whom.

2. Goal(s) and Objectives – This may be an outright listing of these components or it may be a summary of the key points of them. It will depend on how much space you have to work with and the Request For Proposals (RFP) directions.

3. A summary of how effective management of the project is ensured.

4. A summary of the evaluation measures that will ensure achievement of the objectives.

It's a good thing that this is all that's required because generally those items are going to take the full page usually allocated for an abstract. Sometimes the abstract is even limited to 300 words. This is the case when the agency intends to use them as PR copy to describe the successful applications on a web site or in a brochure.

Related Posts:
 
Five Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Grant Objectives
Preparing for the Grant Writing Process
 
Helpful Grant Writing Resources:
 
Federal Grant Resources eBook - Helpful in finding those government grants.
101 Tips for Aspiring Grant Writers  - A book to help you with all the various sections of the grant.  This is written by Veronica Robbins, a highly successful grant writer.

Tweet

Grant Writers Must Know Their Limits

A freelance grant writer needs to develop a specialty area. It’s all well and good to say that you can write any kind of grant, but it’s not really true. I’ve taken on two grants over the past five years that were out of my area of expertise; these were medical grants. The Doctor who directs the clinic was pleased with my services and my writing. But I did not feel comfortable about the end products because the terminology, concepts, equipment, and processes of a clinic were so foreign to me that I struggled to put it together.

I learned that I just can’t write all grants for all people. Everyone has their field of knowledge and mine is definitely not the fine points of optical evaluation equipment. My Masters is in administration so I know management and change process well, but I am weak in designing programs for diabetic immigrant farm workers.

Freelance grant writers with the highest degree of success stay within their field of knowledge. The reason most organizations hire a writer isn’t because there's no staff member with the ability to write a grant (most non-profit leaders have done plenty of grant writing). The reason organizations hire a grant writer is to give the job of writing to someone else. A shallow knowledge base in the area you are writing for will cause problems because the staff simply won’t have the time to bring you up-to-speed. Let's face it, if they had the time to write it, they'd write it.

I suggest you find grants which your training and experience give you in-depth knowledge about and write those. If there are enough grants in that area to make a living, you'll do fine. Don’t define yourself too narrowly and rely on one grant program either, or you may end up quite narrow (hungry) yourself!

Does anyone else have a comment about writing outside your area of expertise?

Related Posts:

Grant Writing - A Romantic Misconception
Lessons Learned from Failure

Grant Writer on a Pre-Spring Saturday

Grant writing can be an obsessive thing to do; especially since there are seasons for it. Government seems to release Requests for Proposals (RFP) in a flurry of activity that is not dissimilar to the sudden bloom of spring.

We are waiting for the grant bloom this year. It hasn’t started yet. Some of us may be wondering if there will be one or if in the midst of budget cuts grants will be a fatality.

My experience tells me that this isn’t so. My experience tells me that we will see the grants sprout up soon enough. The reason is simple, even when there isn’t enough money for an entitlement, there are still grants.  The government always has enough money to plant a few bulbs.

Government and politicians love to DO something, (even if it’s the wrong thing). Politicians hear from people about the problems of society every day. They are charged with doing something about the ills. Their answer is to spend money to change things. They are charged to make laws and to allocate money to change things.

But there’s never enough money to do it all is there? So grants are one way that some money can be used to produce change that gives hope and promise. Grants are limited in geographic impact, yet the impact of a grant can be huge. Grants can point the way.

Politicians like huge impact because it helps give direction to future expenditures while at the same time the stories of change and impact gives them something to point to they can be proud of. That’s why often with Federal grants the first person to call the grantees with the good news of successful funding is the local Congressman’s office.

Grants are a good way for the government to experiment. Grants give the opportunity for testing new ideas and grants don’t cost much when compared to national programs. Grants are good business for government.

So grants will continue. Grants will be funded this year. Grants will be announced soon even if other programs are cut. Oh sure, the number of grants funded may decline, so you better write better this year. But the best grant writers will still make a living.

Don’t worry all you grant writers. The RFP’s are coming soon, and soon enough we’ll all be spending Saturday behind a computer writing about objectives and qualifications of key personnel. Enjoy the lull, it won’t last. Write for your blogs while you have the luxury to do so.

Related Posts:

A Grant Writer's Holiday
Grant Writing is No Mystery

Photo Credit-Makio Kusahara

Avoid Grant Application Mistakes using Replacement Piles

Working alone on grants created anxiety that I would leave something out when assembling a complex grant application. Nobody was there to double check my work so I needed a way to minimize the possibility that I’d forget a required piece of a grant.  Relying on memory or luck to get everything put together was not an option, I needed a system.

Experienced grant writers know that deadline day can be a bit frenetic, especially if you’re writing multiple proposals. The blizzard of paper and the press of time can cause high anxiety and the possibility to overlook some crucial detail is always lurking in the back of your mind. Many things can go wrong that you can’t avoid but assembling a complete application does not have to be one of them.

To solve my problem and reduce last minute anxiety, I created s simple system I’ve called a replacement pile. The replacement pile is a just a stack of scratch paper on which I’ve written in bold, colored marker - in capital letters spanning the blank side of each page - the titles of every piece of what will be a completed grant application. A separate page is used for each section, form, etc.; hence, there will be one for the abstract, one for the table of contents, one for the narrative, and so on.

After I’ve created the replacement pile I place a copy of the Request for Proposals (RFP) checklist on top of it which I will use as my fail-safe double-check-off process to ensure that the replacement pile, once fully replaced, contains everything that the grant maker is requiring in the application. I also put a copy of the transmittal instructions on top of the pile so on the last day I am not paging through the RFP to find them, as Forest Gump so famously said, “One less thang.”

The way I use the replacement pile is simple. As a piece of the grant is completed, or as forms signed by the client are received, I pull the paper with the title of that component out of the pile and insert the finished piece of the grant. When all the scrap papers are replaced the pile the grant is ready to duplicate. Before going to the copier, I page through this original grant application using the RFP check list as a final review to ensure it is complete.

After photocopying the grant, I look through each duplicate copy to make sure that the demon copy machine didn’t suck two pages through as one and secretly sabotage my duplicate copies (copy machines can be cold and stealthy saboteurs). Since I almost always add consecutive numbering to each page in my grants (unless forbidden in the RFP) I just have to page through the completed copies to ensure there are no numbers missing.

My deceptively simple replacement piles force me to follow a process that has helped me avoid ever having a grant rejected for lack of required components.  Maybe the system will work for you too!

Related Posts:
 
5 Mistakes that can Cost Lose Millions of Dollars in Grant Applications
 
Tips for Preparing Grants with Short Deadlines
 
Success is in the Details
 
 

Ten Quick and Easy Ways to Make Any Grant Application Better

A professional grant writer pays attention to detail. Grant scorers can testify that there is a big difference between a professional’s grant application and one that is thrown together by an amateur or a committee. My experience reading grants confirms that a professional's grant is a whole lot easier to score.  I appreciate that about professional grant writers when I am scoring grants.

Your already know that your job as a professional grant writer is to get your client funded. Accomplishing this goal requires that your grant makes the job of person scoring it easier. You can help ease the scoring of your grant by paying attention to details.

Here are a few suggestions that will improve your grant applications. Some of these suggestions are easier than others but all of them are easier than making a call to your client to tell them a grant was rejected.

1. Create a logic model for the grant program before starting to write the narrative. Include as an attachment if allowable.
2. Create a table of contents that follows the key narrative headings, required forms, and all other mandatory components described in the RFP. Do this even if it is not required.
3. Add consecutive pagination throughout unless the Request for Proposals (RFP) includes directions about pagination.
4. Ask someone to review your narrative who is not involved in the writing.
5. Use the scoring rubric included in the RFP to grade your narrative.
6. List objective numbers in a column beside each item in your budget.
7. Add explanatory text for each graphic, chart, and table.
8. Add an introductory paragraph that “sets the table” for the reader before jumping into the RFP outlined narrative.
9. Add a detailed management plan for both the grant and a separate one for the evaluation. If there’s no room for these in the body of the narrative, add them as attachments if allowable.
10. Use proper formatting for all citations.

Your grant applications will be more competitive if you do these ten things. It may not seem easy to add steps to the grant development process, but my goal in writing this is to make it easier for you to get funded. Good luck with your proposal!

Related Posts:

Top Five Mistakes of Novice Grant Writers

How Can You be a Better Grant Writer? Part I

How Can You be a Better Grant Writer Part II