Grant Writing Tips for Schools
Grants are proposals that aim to acquire funding from a certain organization for an activity, event, or program that will specifically fill what the requesting party needs, and most of thee reasons include Education and Educational Leadership. Through this grant you will be able to acquire funding to expand your school, build other facilities, and fill the needs of your school for the student's Education and Educational Leadership. As the applicant, it is your responsibility to present a strong case for a funder to grant your proposals. You should have enough research, and adhere to the certain guidelines. There is an exact format that you should follow to prove to possible funders that you are serious in acquiring a grant for an important cause.
You have to make sure that your planned proposal is granted. First, you should find out the foundations in your area that have given grants that are very similar to your planned proposal. This gives you a better chance of getting a successful grant. If you can, you should also research about the other organizations that got funded and ask for information about their successful grants and ask for advice. You can also ask for information about successful grants from other foundations and they will give you copies. Use the copy of successful grants for your model and work your way through the proper format and the strong points. This will give you better understanding of writing clearly the reasons to grant funds, and how strictly following the guidelines could lead to successful grants.
Different foundations also have different guidelines for grants that they can fund. It is also helpful to know what the foundation is willing to fund and build your grant along those guidelines. You should also keep your eye out for the amount of dollars that they are willing to fund. If the foundation you have chosen only have a funding capability for $10,000, then it is only logical that they will not grant proposals for $20,000 funding. Funders will also pay more attention for grants that followed their RFP's or Request for Proposals which very few organizations do. Take these RFPs by heart and use the same terms that the foundations have used here to define what you clearly need.
The grant proposal itself is a major factor for successful funding. Grant reviewers will find it hard to read endless stacks of grants while scrutinizing every detail. Successful grants don't have a lot of fluff and gets straight to the point. Grant reviewers learn to easily text and understand what they want from the little words that they read, thus making your grant as concise and precise as possible will give you better advantage over other grants. Review your grant several times before passing it and always have another person who is not connected to the building and beneficiaries of the grant read it and ask for their opinion of the grant just to get a better idea of what you can improve and what you should remove.
The Title of the grant should also pique the reader's interest. Though it does not need to be overly long, you should use as little words as possible while sending a good judgment of what the grant probably covers. First impressions of each grant are very important and memorable themes with beneficial and realistic outcomes give them a sense of pride if they decide to fund it. Being realistic is also important as funders will want to give funds to projects that are highly probable to succeed. Remember that each foundation will also want to promote your grant as one of its successful projects. Through these tips you will be able to write successful grants and give your students the proper Education and Educational Leadership through generous funds from foundations.
Grant Writing Tips
- The Grantsmanship Center
- What do winning proposals have in common?
- Writing a Successful Grant Proposal