Question Category: Grant Writing
Question
What are the most important things to include in a grant proposal?
Answer
BEE met with a grant expert extraordinaire last week and he shared these words of wisdom with her about writing grant proposals...
If the first sentence of your proposal does not read something along the lines of "as you have instructed me" or "it was so good to meet with you" then you really do not need to bother writing the grant. In other words, BEE's grant writing experts say that you should never write a grant to someone with whom you have not met.
With that in mind, here are BEE's three most important things a foundation should see in your proposal:
- That by funding you, the foundation will accomplish one or more of its stated objectives, goals, etc.
- That you are capable of doing what you say you will with the funding.
- That you know how much the program will cost and how you will fund it (especially if you are only asking the foundation for a portion of the costs).
Or, better, the three most important things to include are the things that the foundation representatives have told you to be sure to include in your proposal.
Read the guidelines carefully, talk with foundation representatives and see what really interests them and include these things in your proposals. Some foundations want a lot of facts and figures and information on how you will report to them. Others, typically smaller family foundations, just want to know that they will be making a difference.
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