[TEXT: Young African Leaders Initiative, Online Training Series]
[TEXT: Jasmine McGinnis Johnson, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University] Hello. I'm Jasmine McGinnis Johnson,
and this is Fundamentals of Grant Writing.
[TEXT: Fundamentals of Grant Writing — Writing a Grant Proposal] This lesson is entitled Writing a Grant Proposal.
Writing grants is like a muscle that you have to build and strengthen.
If you run an organization that is dependent on raising money, it’s a muscle that you will have to use often.
It is very likely that you will have to write many grants before you are successful.
But the more grants you write, the better you will get at grant writing.
[TEXT: Learning Objectives — Planning to write your grant proposal] In this lesson, we will define and discuss the key elements
[TEXT: What are the key elements of a grant proposal?] that make up a grant proposal.
including the narrative or project description,
[TEXT: How to write the narrative statement of need, overview, and budget] statement of need, organizational overview, budget and supporting materials.
Your written proposal is really an action plan for how you are going to carry out your project.
[TEXT: Guide for raising and spending money] It should be your guide for how you will spend the money you’re raising,
[TEXT: organizing staff and resources] organize and deploy staff and resources,
[TEXT: evaluating and measuring success] and evaluate and measure your success.
Since each funder has different goals, you will have to ask yourself, “Is what my organization doing going to match what this foundation wants to achieve?”
For example, if the funder is interested in leadership activities and your organization works with children who are intellectually disabled,
that is not a good fit and you should not apply for their grant.
The grant-writing process is about targeting each grant and compiling the proper documents for that specific grant.
[TEXT: Customize proposals to the funder] That means customizing each proposal for each funder.
This is not a one-size-fits-all kind of exercise.
You don’t have to completely rewrite a proposal on the same project for each funder,
but you do need to modify the proposal in each instance.
A typical grant proposal has some basic components.
All are important pieces that you should carefully draft, review, edit and review again.
It is a good practice to have someone with experience and whom you trust also review your grant proposal before it is submitted.
[TEXT: Review funder guidelines often] And when drafting your grant proposal, the funder’s guidelines should be close at hand
so that you can refer to them often.
The narrative portion of your proposal is where you write about your organization and what you have accomplished in the past.
This is also where you will outline your project, program and financial need, and what you plan to achieve.
It is important to note here that many grant writers make the mistake of focusing too much on the problem they want to fix and not the solution.
Funders fund solutions, not problems.
[TEXT: Elements of a grant proposal — Narrative, Organizational Overview] You should also include information about your organization,
[TEXT: Staff, Expertise on subject] your staff, your expertise, and why you are uniquely qualified to achieve the goals of your proposal.
[TEXT: Funding History, Budget] You will also note here if you have gotten previous funding, how much, how it was used and what it accomplished.
[TEXT: Other elements — Timeline] Your narrative should also include a timeline for your project,
[TEXT: Action steps] note the major milestones or action steps,
and answer the questions of when will your project begin and end.
[TEXT: Who performs what tasks] When will each task or event take place? What will be done when, and by who?
[TEXT: How and when will evaluation take place?] At what points will evaluation and measurement be taken?
Some important things to remember as you draft the narrative portion of your proposal:
Make sure it fits the size and scale of your solution.
For example, show that you want to provide sustainable agriculture training for a specific community of farmers, not that you want to cure global starvation.
[TEXT: Funders want to make an impact] Make sure you are writing in a way that the funder thinks they can have an impact with their grant.
Don’t make the situation seem so bad that a funder thinks their money won’t do any good.
[TEXT: Make your project sustainable] Also, be sure to indicate how this project will sustain itself in the long run.
Include details on how you will know if you’re successful.
[TEXT: Include plan for evaluating and measuring impact] Funders will want some amount of evaluation.
Determine how you will measure impact, both quantitatively with numbers and qualitatively with subjective stories of impact.
If you filled out your logic model, this should be fairly easy.
Ask yourself, for example, “How am I going to demonstrate to a funder that I have increased leadership of girls and women in civil society?”
Some funders require an executive summary be included.
[TEXT: Executive summary — Single-page overview of the proposal] This is a single-page overview of everything included in your written proposal.
It should be easy to read, provide a compelling review of the project and need, and include statistics to back up your assertions.
It should be free of basic spelling or grammar mistakes.
Fair or not, many funders will read this executive summary first and make their initial decision on your proposal.
You will want to catch and keep the reader’s attention.
A well-written executive summary will compel the reader to read the full proposal.
Another key element is the budget.
[TEXT: Budget should include revenue and expenses] Your budget should have both a revenue and expense portion.
How much money are you bringing in, and how much money are you spending?
Within the revenue and expense portion you are going to have a line for each source of money you are bringing in,
and for the expense portion you will have a line for each expense for which you anticipate spending money.
Many funders will want you to include a timeline of when you will accomplish the specific thing you are asking the funder for.
Make sure that timeline is realistic and you can actually do these things within that timeline.
Do not overpromise anything.
Your grant proposal should also outline your monitoring and evaluation plan.
According to Dr. Lee Mizell, a research and management consultant to public, private and nonprofit organizations quoted in a blog post for the Foundation Center,
[TEXT: Evaluation plan — Identify people being served] an evaluation plan should — at minimum — clearly identify the target population,
[TEXT: Specify program objectives] specify program objectives in measurable terms,
[TEXT: Identify indicators of success] identify key indicators of success,
[TEXT: Outline data collection and analysis] outline data collection and analysis activities,
[TEXT: Develop timeline for monitoring] and develop a timeline to monitor the success of the program on an ongoing basis.
The final elements are your supporting materials and documents.
Again, you should closely follow the requirements laid out by the funder.
[TEXT: Provide supporting materials requested by funder] Include all that they are asking for and little of anything else.
If you don’t have something they require, reach out to them and let them know.
Ask if you can submit something comparable. Never ignore a funder requirement.
Finally, do not worry about getting rejected.
There’s a saying that you have to submit 15 grant applications before getting one.
That’s okay; everyone gets rejected. Just keep writing.
[TEXT: Test your knowledge — YALI.STATE.GOV] After you’ve completed all of the lessons in this course at yali.state.gov,
[TEXT: Produced by the U.S. Department of State] you can test your knowledge and earn a YALI Network certificate.