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The DASCorps Survival Guide: Grant Writing

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Finding, writing, submitting, and winning a grant is not an easy task. It is time consuming, technical (not in the fun DASCorps sense), and complex. This section will try to break down some basics so you’ll know where to start and then go through the general steps towards receiving a grant.

If your workplan is or becomes heavily geared towards writing grant proposals, we strongly suggest that you ask your host organization to pay for you to take a grant writing course (usually offered online or at local colleges). You may even be able to get this paid for by Americorps using your IST funds.

Not all grants are created equal
There are many different kinds of grant opportunities out there from a variety of sources. These typically breakdown into government (federal, state, local) or foundation grant funding. Federal grants are much more time consuming and process driven than typical foundation grants, however they usually offer much larger funding and can fund an organization for several years.

What is an RFP?
RFP stands for Request For Proposals and generally means that a foundation is currently accepting grant applications for specific types of programs or organizations. Foundations also use RFP’s as a way to publicize new initiatives or programs sponsored or endorsed by the foundation. So do your homework to find out more on a foundation’s motives and new initiatives when they put out an RFP.

Planning
Before diving headfirst into a grant application, make sure you have these basic components already planned and organized:

  • Be able to explain the need for your project or program
  • Define your outcomes and how they will be measured (metrics)
  • How will you achieve these outcomes (methods)?
  • Demonstrate why your organization is the one to undertake this project or program (credibility)
  • How will you know when you’ve succeeded?
  • Generate a program or project budget
  • How will the program or project live on after the grant?

Optimally you will be matching a program that’s already been planned for to a grant opportunity. Unfortunately, sometimes organizations may look for a grant and then develop a program to fulfill that grant. Be careful as too often this leads to programs and projects that may be outside your organization’s mission and scope.

Finding Funders
Thankfully, researching funders and grant opportunities has been greatly simplified by many free online databases. Here a few of the best sites (see “Further Resources” at the end of this section for more grant databases):

To make life easier on yourself and the people you have to communicate to about your grant writing undertaking, create a thorough spreadsheet that will detail all your potential funders, grant due dates, contacts, type of grant, etc…

Found The Grant! Now What?
As tempting as it is to jump in and start writing the grant, pause for a minute and give the funder a call. There may be a contact person or phone number listed for posted grants. Personal contact is a great jumping off point.

When you get someone on the phone, give a concise “elevator pitch” saying “Hi my name is ____ and I’m an Americorps*VISTA with insert organization name and I’d like to talk to you about insert program name and purpose.” If nothing else you won’t get an outright ‘no’ from someone (since it will probably be lower level staff), and it will help get your foot in the door.

Query Letter
The first formal part of a grant application is the Query Letter, which grant founders will use to invite you to submit the full grant proposal. The query letter runs approximately 2-3 pages and typically includes the following (which should already be documented in your pre-planning):

  • Organization’s name, what you are seeking funds for, and how much
  • Your organization’s mission, history, and current programs
  • Definition of the community need (who, what, and where)
  • How you’re going to address the need and measure its success
  • Any other supporters you have or will approach
  • Wrap-up, restate goals, and thank the funder

Writing the Full Proposal
So the funder has invited your full proposal after the query letter or you’ve been lucky enough to find a grant that does not require one. Now it’s time to write the full proposal.

It is monumentally important before you even put your organization down in the name box to take a good deal of time and THOROUGHLY go over the grant’s guidelines and requirements. Many VISTAs have been torpedoed by the tiniest oversights on a proposal that would have otherwise secured a grant.

Once you know the guidelines inside and out, it is finally time to start the full grant proposal. Below is a general list of all the pieces needed for a full grant application:

  1. Title page and Table of contents
  2. Executive summary
  3. Background statement/Organizational qualifications
  4. Statement of community need
  5. Project’s large-scale goals
  6. Project’s immediate objectives
  7. Action plan
  8. Timeline
  9. Explanation of how you evaluate project’s success
  10. Budget
  11. Statement of how the project will be funded and sustainable into the future
  12. Any and all relevant attachments

Here are some general tips when writing the full grant proposal:

  • Write with some passion and conviction
  • Communicate that your organization is the best one for the job (demonstrate that your organization IS an authority on what you are pursuing)
  • Be honest and realistic in what you plan to do with funds
  • Echo the funder’s key words and phrases in your application
  • Do not spend a lot of time on the introduction, as funders look more to solid program plans, evaluation methods, and budgets