ENG 301 7.W: Introduction to Grant Writing

Today’s Plan:

Today’s Plan:

• Parts of a Grant
• General Strategies
• Grant Research / Tools
• Revising a Grant Application for Concision and Readability

What Do Grant Writers Do?

Being a grant writer generally involves doing 4 things:

• Meeting with organizations to determine their needs
• Researching funding opportunities for specific organizations
• Develop grant proposals with funding organizations
• Developing and even implementing grant assessment strategies with organizations to inform funders of a project’s outcomes (and hopefully success!)

Parts of a Grant

Let’s take a look at the Community Resource Center’s Common Grant Application. While there:

• User’s Guide
• Tips
• Length of a Narrative: 4 pages, single-spaced

Grant writing 101: A Few Introductory Tips

• Invention/Organization: Always be sure to read an RFP / application form extremely carefully and provide exactly [only] what the app / prompt is asking for
• Invention/Diction: Always scan an organizations website and promotional materials for language and terms
• Research: It is easier to find funds for “new” projects than for “general operating costs”
• Style: Your prose must be concise, yet detailed and engaging. Every word or sentence has to count (because)
• Organization/Style: Your reader is under no obligation to read your entire proposal. They will likely skim. We have to do everything we can to make the most important part of our application the most prominent and accessible. We cannot waste words or lose attention. Every sentence, every word, has to be as sharp, engaging, clear, and accessible as we can make it.

Grant Writing Research Tools/Process

We’re not going to go through this whole list today. But if you choose to work on the grant research project, then you’ll be familiarizing yourself with this stuff.

• UNCo Library: CRC Database (I’ve got the username and the password)
• Denver Library, Foundation Directory Online (tutorial video if needed; let’s watch the first 3 minutes in class). Let’s talk about the 24 hour day pass.
• CRC Grant Writing User’s Guide, a handy step-by-step guide to the sections in the CCGA
• The CCGA itself
• < ahref="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o71V26Tjzy5kNtPANdcINXOTHAuFfnLG_PVstOInXEU/edit?usp=sharing">I organize grant research into a spreadsheet. It is just easier to organize than a Word Docx.
• We collect data from the Foundation Directory in a Google Slides
• Here’s a professional example of what I am training you to do.
• Here’s an example of a completed grant application project
• Here’s another example