Throughout this course, GrantStation President Alice Ruhnke will guide you through the entire grant proposal process step-by-step. You’ll learn how to craft an organizational background, compelling statement of need, process and outcome evaluation, approach, and budget with detailed videos, downloads, examples, and other resources.
You’ll be introduced to a proposal writing framework that can be used repeatedly and will help save you time, write better proposals, and get funded more frequently.
Writing a compelling need section is a critical part of writing a successful grant application. The need section must be well researched, developed, and planned because it sets the stage for other parts of your application and demonstrates how important it is for a funder to support your cause. This course will walk you through the steps to create a high scoring and impactful need section.
With all the responsibilities of staff and volunteers in a nonprofit organization, the idea of writing a grant proposal can be overwhelming. You may be asking yourself how to even begin developing proposals without being consumed in the process. This course was developed to provide practical information and strategies you can implement today to prepare strong, successful proposals tomorrow. We will walk you through proposal writing fundamentals to get you in the right state of mind and address key areas that can be tackled and shared by multiple individuals to make the process manageable and even fun. (Okay, maybe not fun, but not unbearable!)
Creating a high-quality budget is important for both the success of your grant application and the success of implementing your project. You want to craft a budget that is inclusive of all the costs or expenses of your project, is reasonable and prudent, and is justified. During this course, we will address the common components of a budget; explain the reason for, and how to write, a budget narrative; discuss the importance of matching funds and how to find them; define and explain indirect costs; and touch on sustainability of your projects.
Evaluation is a vital component of a grant proposal because it tells the funder how you are going to determine the success or failure of the program. During this course, Crafting a Process and Outcome Evaluation, we will clarify terminology and learn how to measure what you are doing (process evaluation) and the changes participants experience because they are engaged in your programs (outcome evaluation).
Once you have captured the attention of the reviewers by clearly and effectively documenting the need for funding (see Writing a Compelling Need Section), you will present the details of how you plan to implement your project in the approach section. This section of your proposal should guide the reviewer step-by-step through all activities needed to achieve your outcomes and indicators in a way that will continue to engage the reviewer's interest and excitement. Furthermore, the approach section will serve as a road map while you are implementing your project, so it will be something you use to guide your activities once you receive the grant.
Establishing that your organization is trustworthy to receive funding
from a grantmaker is vitally important. There are a number of ways you
can go about this—including establishing an ongoing relationship with
the grantmaker—but that isn’t always possible, at least not right away!
This training focuses on building credibility into the grant proposal
using those documents and sections of the proposal you can build ahead
of time. This includes how and where to use your mission statement most
effectively, how to relate the history and present circumstances of your
organization, how to demonstrate board and staff competency, and how to
demonstrate accountability and transparency in all you do. This
training is filled with examples and “how to” lessons that will help you
prepare engaging documents before you begin writing proposals.
It is very common for an organization to simply fall into the
grantseeking mode. First one proposal is written, and then another, and
it goes on and on like this. But this sort of approach will inevitably
run into trouble. Why? Because the grantseeking program was not built on
a solid set of policies and procedures. Policies discussed and adopted
by your Board of Directors will keep your organization out of trouble
with the IRS and grantmakers, guaranteeing that you are audit ready if
need be. The procedures you adopt will help you handle all grant awards
consistently, especially in your communications with grantmakers and
promises made. This training will cover how to build a solid foundation
of policies and procedures that will guide your grantseeking program.
An information packed training, this module demonstrates how to find the
data you need to develop a strong statement of need, and how to present
that information to the reader in an engaging way. This module will
share with you many ideas on how to gather information via the public
sector and the media, as well as from your community and individuals.
The need statement should reflect a variety of research, setting the
stage so the grantmaker feels that this problem needs to be addressed
today. And, of course, it’s important to connect the problem you’ve
identified with the project you want them to fund, and demonstrate that
the project will actually address the issue!
Sometimes you need to dig deep to find the organizational courage to
aggressively address your organization’s mission. As you uncover
problems or needs that you feel your organization should tackle, then
the next step is to develop a bold goal that will not only energize your
work but will attract funders. This module is all about empowering
your leadership to be confident in their ability to attack the
demonstrated need, and learning how to walk hand in hand with
grantmakers to achieve the bold goal(s) set by your leaders.
Writing a compelling statement of need can be tricky. The key is to grab
the reviewer’s attention early on and keep them engaged. There is
nothing more boring to a reviewer than to read the same information
they’ve read a thousand times before. You want to avoid that by building
some character into your statement of need, presenting information in
an interesting and engaging way, and using both quantitative and
qualitative data to engage the reader and encourage them to read on.
This module covers the basic ingredients you need to build a strong
needs statement, as well as how to spice it up a bit to make for
interesting reading.
Developing your request for support should be an enjoyable task that
allows you to creatively connect your organization to the business from
whom you will request funding. Keeping the business’s perspective in
mind as you write the request will help you determine what you can offer
them in terms of public recognition and how you will draft a Memorandum
of Agreement to solidify the deal. Much of this module is about
customizing each request for support in order to significantly improve
your chances of receiving ongoing support from each business.
In this module you will be guided through the process of how to
identify the best potential businesses to fund your organization and
learn new ways to develop your request for support. Not surprisingly, it
all comes down to research. This module will help you determine a
process for undertaking research on each potential business donor and
what information you need to build a comprehensive profile on each one.
It will also cover how to prepare a rational request for support and
generate a compelling recognition package. After finishing this module,
you should have a pretty good idea on how you will go about identifying
new prospects and creating that all important customized request.
Developing or expanding any fundraising program requires adopting
policies to guide the program's growth, as well as establishing
procedures so the results are consistent and of high caliber. There are
many benefits to having written, well-defined policies and procedures
when establishing a Corporate Solicitations Program (CSP). If you are
interested in growing your CSP without dramatically increasing the
burden on your staff, volunteers, or Board of Directors, then I
recommend you implement policies and procedures that effectively guide
your CSP. This module will help you think through the policies and
procedures you should have in place before launching a new or expanded
CSP.
The main focus of this module is to help you understand the
importance of tracking current trends in corporate giving, and
understanding how these trends can positively affect the solicitations
you make to businesses both locally and regionally. Regardless of the
size of your organization, understanding these trends will help you make
wise decisions when it comes to setting your corporate solicitations
goal for the year, and these trends can influence the language you use
in your written and verbal requests. This module has numerous links to
resources you may want to use to track trends, as well as suggestions
on how to use these trends in your corporate solicitations.
You can minimize the amount of time you spend looking for the right
grantmaker for any given program or project, as well as identify new and
exciting funders, by adopting a consistent research process. Learn new
and comprehensive ways to approach grants research and develop your own
set of resources you will use every time you begin research on funding
any given project.
Adopting a sound approach to researching grantmakers is key to
establishing a successful grant seeking program. This short module
will help you adopt a process for doing your research, and determine
those ever so important key terms you will use to identify the right
grantmakers!
Thinking critically and creatively about securing grant support for your
organization takes time. It also requires understanding the steps
involved when developing a strategic approach to securing the funds
needed to do your good work. This module will help you
compartmentalize your thinking so you are comfortable that you've
developed a strong approach to raise the funds needed.
The Grant Decision Matrix is an analytical tool that you can build to
help you make quick, objective decisions about which grant opportunities
you ought to pursue, and which ones you should not. Adopting and using
this tool requires some concerted brainwork and a little time. Once the
matrix is developed you can run application guidelines through it to
determine if an opportunity is a good use of your time and energy and
has a good chance at a positive outcome.