Elements of a Grant Proposal

All Proposals will address a basic set of items:

Why are you doing this project?
What will it do for the people?
What will you be doing?
How will you be doing it?
Who will be doing it?
Where will it be done?
How long will it take?
How much will it cost?
How will you know the objectives are met?
How does it fit the Grantor's goals & Objectives?
How will you share & broadcast your evidence of success?

Planning

Understand the grantor's goals, and the Terms of the grant
Complete a Gavilan Request for Grant Approval for permission to apply
Research
Budgeting
Writing Guides
Samples
Outcomes Evaluation & Logic Models (pdf)

Grant advice from federal agencies

Many federal agencies provide grantseekers with information on best practices and effective strategies for success. Several examples of this advice appear in the article, "Agencies Highlight Best Practices" (Local/State Funding Report, September 14, 2009):

The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (ETA) suggests developing an outline following the required elements of the application. This allows different people in your organization to work simultaneously on the proposal.
ETA also advises you to thoroughly describe the work you will do with other organizations, should you receive the grant, making it clear how that partnership will work.
The Environmental Protection Agency says budgets in grant applications should reflect the most precise estimates possible for necessary expenses; they will take anticipated adjustments into account.
Many agencies recommend asking for copies of successful grant applications; the Institute of Museum and Library Services actually puts these on their web site for easy access.

Submitting a Proposal

This may take any of several paths:

ED e-grants
- Qualify as an e-grant submitter
Grants.gov
NSF Fastlane

electronic document submissions:

- may require creating a PDF version of your wordprocessor file,

(and in some cases may require abandoning one's Macintosh for a more compatible PC-based wordprocessor and office suite)

Paper proposals - a.k.a. " Letters of Inquiry" - still used by many Foundations, Corporate and local grantmakers

This page last updated Nov 10, 2009