Library Grant Writing

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Library Grant Writing

• From Idea to Proposal
• Writing and Pitching Your Grant

Mary Behrle Susan Babb March 2, 2006
NMRLS services are provided through state funds
administered by the Massachusetts Board of
Library Commissioners.
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Know Your Funders

• Corporate Foundations
• Family Foundations
• Stevens Foundation
• Peter Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation
• Community Foundations
• Boston Foundation
• Essex County Community Foundation
• Public funds (Local, State, National)

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Types of Grants

• Seed
• Training
• Matching
• Exhibition
• Special Project
• Special Audience
• Proposal Development

• General Purpose
• Consulting
• Planning
• Demonstration
• Challenge
• Endowment
• Operating

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Getting Ready

• The Need
• The Solution
• Your Partners
• Wish List
• Associated Grant Makers Common Proposal Form
• Boilerplate - background about your organization
• Resumes of those who will play a part
• Practice Have your ideas in mind and approach
  them from different angles. Use the Associated
  Grant Makers form and prepare your proposal for
  two or three different funding sources.

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Not All Proposals Are Created Equal Components
That Funders May Require

• Cover letter
• Background information
• Title page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Need
• Objectives

• Methods
• Project personnel
• Evaluation
• Budget
• Timeline
• Sustainability
• Appendices
• Letters of support

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Needs Statement

• Who?
• Where?
• When?
• What?
• Why?
• How?
• Impact if you solve the problem
• Practice Take your idea and develop it into a
  needs statement. Answer all the above questions.

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What Do You Want to Accomplish?

• Goal
• A broad-based statement of the result of the
  change your grant will seek
• Tied to your needs
• May be unreachable in the short-term

• Objectives
• More narrowly defined than a goal
• Measurable results
• Realistic timeframe
• Tied to your needs
• Stated in terms of outcomes
• Show impact

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Evaluation Planning What Does Success Look Like?

• 1. What questions will your librarys evaluation
  activities seek to answer?
• 2. What are the specific evaluation plans and
  time frames?
• 3. Consider outcome-based evaluation How will
  you change your target groups behavior,
  knowledge, skill?

• 4. What steps will you use to determine whether
  the program was implemented as planned?
• 5. Who will conduct the evaluation?
• 6. Who will receive the reports?

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What Funders Want

• A unique project.
• An honest display of what you will do.
• A project that will have a realistic impact on
  your target audience.
• Adherence to deadlines.
• A report of failures as well as successes.

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What Not to Do!Mistakes Grant Writers Make

• Submit an incomplete proposal.
• Ask for a type of grant your funder will not
  fund.
• Assume that the funder knows who you are.
• Raise questions that you dont answer.
• Overstate your needs.
• Talk about your programs uniqueness, without
  providing evidence.
• Exaggerate your outcomes.
• Be afraid to make a call to ask for more
  information.

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Pitch It!

• The elevator ride pitch
• Concise, 30-second summary
• Easy to understand
• There are lots of needy projects out there, why
  yours?
• Exercise Pitch us your grant!

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Help From NMRLS

• On the NMRLS Web Site
• Library Grant Links http//www.nmrls.org/grants/li
  nks.shtml
• Grant Writing Basics http//www.nmrls.org/grants/i
  ndex.shtml
• Available in the NMRLS Collection
• Bauer, David G. The How To Grants Manual
  Successful Grantseeking Techniques for Obtaining
  Public and Private Grants. 4th ed. Phoenix Oryx
  Press, 1999.
• Carlson, Mim. Winning Grants Step by Step. 2nd
  ed. San Francisco Jossey-Bass, 2002.
• Geever, Jane C. The Foundation Centers Guide to
  Proposal Writing. 3rd ed. New York The
  Foundation Center, 2001.
• Miner, Lynn E., et al. Proposal Planning
  Writing. Phoenix Oryx Press, 1998.

NMRLS services are provided through state funds
administered by the Massachusetts Board of
Library Commissioners.