The Secret to Writing Successful Grant Proposals

1
The Secret to Writing Successful Grant Proposals

• By Chris Whitehead
• TSYS Department of Computer Science
• Columbus State University

Fall 2005
2
Preface

• The Grant Institute
• http//thegrantinstitute.com
• info_at_thegrantinstitute.com
• [phone]

3
Overview

• Types of grants and sources of funding
• The most important components of any grant
  proposal
• Why projects get funded and why proposals fail
• The grant proposal development process
• Grant proposal resources
• How to build a grant proposal team
• The 10 most common elements of a winning proposal
  and how to improve your chances of getting funded
• Specifics in writing the grant proposal
• What to do when your grant proposal gets funded
• What to do when your grant proposal doesnt get
  funded

4
Common Type of Grants

• General purpose or operating support grants
• Program or project support grants
• Planning grants
• Seed money or start-up grants
• Management or technical assistance grants
• Facilities and equipment grants
• Endowment grants
• Program-related investments (PRIs) (loans)

5
Sources of Funding

• Federal
• Foundations (in Georgia)
• Corporate
• Individual

6
Important Components

• Expertise
• Put this expertise into a need
• Build a strategic plan
• Of institution
• Research agenda
• Focus
• Politics

7
Pieces of the Grant Proposal Puzzle

• Institutional description
• Need
• Plan of operation
• Goal
• Objectives
• Activities/methodology
• Key Personnel
• Cost/budget
• Dissemination of results
• Sustainability

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The Five Ws

• Who am I? (the organization/institute I
  represent)
• What is my project?
• Why do I need the money?
• When do I need the money?
• Who will benefit?
• Who will implement the project?
• Where will the funds be directed?
• What is my evaluation plan?

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Why Projects get Funded

• Social value
• Economic value
• Project is a model
• Powerful partners
• Statistical evidence
• Specific about a need
• Highly credible researchers or requesters

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Why Grant Proposals Fail

• Technical issues 25
• Misspelled words or grammatical errors
• Contact the program officer

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Grant Proposal Development Process

• Research sources
• Obtain announcement
• Form team
• Develop need, goals objectives
• Write first draft proposal
• Proofread
• Team meeting
• Write revision
• Submit proposal

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Resources

• Federal Register (periodical)
• Grants.gov
• Foundation Center (http//www.fdncenter.org)
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• Chronicle of Philanthropy
• Community of Science
• Grant Training Center
• Titlewave.com
• Grantsmart.org
• American Council of Learned Societies
  (http//acls.org)
• Idealist.org
• National Institutes of Health (grants.nih.gov/gran
  ts/oer.htm)
• National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov)
• Fundraising in an Electronic Age (book)

13
Where to Find Personal Donors

• Look in society page of newspaper
• Dont approach individual donors or foundations
  without going through university first

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Building the Team

• Stakeholders
• Content people - experts
• Partners
• Budget officer
• Supervisor
• Evaluators
• Editor

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10 Common Elements of a Winning Proposal

1. Clearly defines needs
2. Clearly describes what will be done
3. Presents the material in a logical manner
4. Written in positive terms
5. Does not overuse jargon
6. Presents detailed budgets that match the proposed
   program
7. Gives something back
8. Follows all the guidelines in the RFP
9. Professional looking
10. Not too short or long

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Elements of a Successful Research Proposal

• Clearly written
• Objectives stated clearly
• Presents a clear plan for carrying out research
• Spells out specifically and clearly the
  methodology and resources
• Specifies innovation
• States the following
• This is what I will do
• This is how I will do it
• This is what I have done
• This is what is being done now

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Improving Your Chances of Success

• Avoid the I am famous therefore I will get the
  grant syndrome
• Never complain about lack of resources
• Set realistic timelines
• Let colleagues review the grant before submitting
  it
• Remember that the review process is not blind
• Resubmit grant if not funded the first time for
  persistence pays off

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Improving Your Chances of Success (cont)

• To improve funding chances remember to
• Pick a good topic
• Be explicit in design and focus on quality
• Speak directly to the issue
• Add a senior collaborator as co-PI/consultant
• Talk to program officer in advance
• Carefully use reviews to revise submissions
• Work on something you are excited about

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Improving Your Chances of Success (cont)

• Get other people to read the proposal
• Become a reader
• Have a variety of people on the grant team
• Dont be self-servingserve the community
• Write a succinct question or problem statement

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Institutional Description

• Paraphrase mission statement
• Macro then micro
• Talk about strengths
• Incorporate the organizations strategic plan
• Do a needs assessment to validate the need
• Gear the description towards the need without
  specifying the need
• How does the project or research fit in?
• Partnerships always get more attention

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Needs Statement

• Tell the story in a compelling, convincing, clear
  and specific manner
• Answer the following questions
• What is the problem of my project?
• What is missing in solving the problem?
• What does it take to solve the problem?
• Its not about the money its about the program
• Provide evidence
• Surveys
• Case studies
• Maps
• Statistical data
• Models

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Needs Statement (cont)

• For a research project, needs should be based on
  literature review
• When you put in the proposal, remember that you
  wont be there to answer potential questions
• Why you, and only you, should get these funds

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Goals, Objectives and Outcomes

• Goal
• The purpose of the program
• Objectives
• Measurable result that will achieve the program
• Outcomes
• What will change and how you will know?

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Goals, Objectives and Outcomes

• To begin writing your goals, objectives, and
  outcomes, answer the following questions
• What is the purpose of your program?
• How will you achieve the purpose of your program?
• What will change?
• How will you know that substantive and important
  changes have taken place?

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Goals

• Should be one or two
• The general overall issue to be solved - the big
  umbrella
• Usually begins with an active verb
• Enhance
• Augment
• Expand
• Increase
• Strengthen
• Improve
• Promote
• For researchers, its the aim
• Expand the knowledge of
• To establish
• To create

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Objectives

• Objectives
• Have to be SMART
• S specific
• M measurable
• A achievable
• R realistic
• T time bound
• Multiple objectives should support the goal
• Also start with action verbs
• Little umbrellas
• Under these are activities
• The objectives are made up of activities
• Can put in a table or in a Gantt chart

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Timelines

• A realistic assessment of time to meet goals
• How long do you need to achieve your goals and
  why (one year, two, etc.)?
• Outline the time it will take to achieve your
  goal
• Why did you decide on this timeline?
• What is the timeline for spending the funds?
• Will you use graphics to describe the timeline?
• Gantt chart (Microsoft Project or Excel)
• Calendar of activities
• Program schema

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Evaluation

• How the project will be measured and the results
  given to the donor
• Quantitative evaluation hard data
• Qualitative evaluation soft data (e.g.,
  opinions, individual stories, surveys)
• Questions to ask
• What results will be evaluated in your project?
• How will you evaluate the results?
• Who will evaluate the results?
• When will the evaluation take place?
• What hard data will you use?
• What soft data will you use?

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Evaluation (cont)

• The evaluation is key
• You cannot tell the donor youve been successful
  without the evaluation
• Must be multi-faceted
• Talk about past successes
• Put evaluation instruments in appendix
• Take objectives to Institutional Research office
  and ask them to help develop evaluation
  instruments

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Evaluation (cont)

• Everything that you are doing will need to be
  evaluated in terms of how it supports the goal
  and objectives
• Look at what other similar organizations are
  using for evaluation
• Use an external evaluator has part of team
• Ask program officer to recommend an external
  evaluator

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Evaluation (cont)

• www.wmich.edu/evalctr
• www.cdc.gov/eval/resources.htm
• www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/measure.htm
• http//cecommerce.uwex.edu/

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The Logic Model
Resources Activities Evaluation Results
100,000 1.
2.

• Starts with an amount of money and then builds
  the activities, evaluation, and results given
  that sum
• www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/pubs/onlinepubs/rrb/learn
  ing.html

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Key Personal

• Who will be involved in the project and why are
  they qualified for this project
• Questions to ask
• Who will be involved in your project?
• What will be the function of those involved?
• What are the qualifications of the personnel?

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Key Personal (cont)

• People involved in the program
• Project director
• Content people
• Anyone directly involved in running the project
• Place resumes or CVs in appendix (project
  director first others in alphabetical order)
• If 30 people, take five strongest (a sample of
  those involved are)
• Highlight educational and experiential
  qualifications
• Only include those people getting paid by the
  grant

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The Budget

• Budgets vary according to donor and must reflect
  the donors specifications
• Questions to ask
• How much do you need to accomplish your goals?
• What are the budget items? (e.g., personnel,
  fringe benefits, equipment, space, consultants,
  etc.)
• What costs will you contribute?
• How much does your institution charge (indirect
  costs)?

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The Budget (cont)

• Personnel
• Include only the salaries and percentages of
  people working directly on the project
• Other direct costs
• Consulting
• Transportation
• Employee benefits
• In-kind gifts
• Contributions if necessary, estimate these
• Indirect costs
• What an organization charges for their lights,
  our time, the carpet, the bookkeeper, etc.

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The Budget (cont)

• See example Pleasant Valley Community Center
  budget
• Clean
• Footnoting
• Personnel costs
• Salaries
• Fringe benefits (38 for CSU)
• Check HR for value of benefits
• Include faculty salaries (and possibly even
  fringe benefits) as from institution to show
  support if matching required or encouraged
• Be sure to negotiate the results of the budget
  with those involved in implementing the project
• For partners, write memorandums of agreement
• Incorporate 10-15 for cuts

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Dissemination of the Results

• Remember that grants are using other peoples
  money so that other people will benefit from it
• Use numbers as much as possible
• Use a Web site
• Use newsletters
• To other similar organizations
• To the community
• At conferences and presentations
• Whatever impact has had on our organization will
  have the same impact on 235,000 people as
  described above.

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Sustainability

• If there are no more funds, where will you get
  the funds to continue the project or will the
  project support itself
• Become institutionalized
• Letters of support

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Before Submitting

• Talk with program manager
• Submit at least a week early

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Its Been Submitted!

• Blind
• Not blind
• Stay out of their business

42
Its Been Funded!

• If federal grant, get congressperson to come to
  campus to present
• For brochures and other materials, mention, this
  project was funded in part by a grant from
• Work the proposal

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It Wasnt Funded

• You have a partner the funding organization
• Call the program officer to find out
• Why not funded
• What ranking
• How to get funded next time
• Email all partners
• Reassure them that you will be working with
  agency to make chances
• Ask for their continued support

44
Summary

• Types of grants and sources of funding
• The most important components of any grant
  proposal
• Why projects get funded and why proposals fail
• The grant proposal development process
• Grant proposal resources
• How to build a grant proposal team
• The 10 most common elements of a winning proposal
  and how to improve your chances of getting funded
• Specifics in writing the grant proposal
• What to do when your grant proposal gets funded
• What to do when your grant proposal doesnt get
  funded