Grant Writing & Workshop
Grant Writing Workshops
All grant writers are strongly encouraged to attend one of these workshops as the workshop not only assists the writers in refining their proposals but deciding if applying for a Parents Association grant is the best option for your proposal.
Bring your grant ideas to these workshops, as we will be exploring the grant writing process from idea development to writing to your audience. The discussion will include what makes a strong proposal, writing competitively, demonstrating need, building an argument and assessment. Your specific proposal ideas will be discussed and sample grants will be available for review. No RSVP needed.
Bring your grant ideas to these workshops, as we will be exploring the grant writing process from idea development to writing to your audience. The discussion will include what makes a strong proposal, writing competitively, demonstrating need, building an argument and assessment. Your specific proposal ideas will be discussed and sample grants will be available for review. No RSVP needed.
Grant Workshop for Major Grants
Nov. 18th at 5:30, Memorial Union Building, room 302
Nov. 18th at 5:30, Memorial Union Building, room 302
Grant Writing
1. Discussion: What makes a strong proposal?- A well-defined need and a need that matches the grant criteria
- A persuasive request
- A specific and realistic budget
- A sensitivity to audience
- A professional presentation
- Demonstrate need / offer reasons for your proposal:
- How can you tell a need exists? List all reasons you can think of and choose your strongest reasons.
- Think through a refutation: consider arguments against your proposal.
- Whom does this need involve? Does this request really impact the university community? If the proposal is not aimed specifically at the large group, how can I bring this idea into to the larger university community?
- What is the impact of not addressing this problem / need? Describe the outcome: what will success look like? How will you know if you’ve accomplished your goals or met the needs you seek to address?
- Identify readers / award decision makers:
- What are their needs, their criteria for submissions?
- How informed are they likely to be about your request?
- What information do they need?
- Why would they care about funding it?
- Writing the proposal:
- Try it out: explain your proposal in conversation before writing it down. Collaborate with others to strengthen your prose.
- Make it different enough to get attention. Use a striking appeal strategy.
- Begin in the middle: choose your best evidence and most specific evidence to build an argument.
- Tell a good story.
- Write your introduction last: it should be the best writing in the proposal.
- Close effectively: Is there something particularly significant about the problem that I should remind readers of at the end?
- Establish your authority. Why are you the one to request this?
- Demonstrate an authentic voice. Don’t try to be someone else.
- Be positive.
- Review & Revisions:
- How clear is the request or need?
- Have you effectively defined what your organization? Find a non-campus audience and try them out.
- Does the beginning fit the ending? Read them together without the body to see.
- How convincing is the argument for the request? Try it on an objective bystander.
- Is the tone appropriate? Have someone read your proposal and describe your attitude toward it.
- How have you organized your proposal? Is the organization easy to follow?
- Is the writing free of error and is the proposal professional looking?
- Think about writing style. Have you
-eliminated passive voice
-cut out jargon and ambiguous words
-varied your sentences in structure and length
-used effective transitions
-made each pronoun reference clear
-used action verbs rather than linking verbs
-eliminated needless repetition
-read the proposal/request aloud without stumbling
Does It:
- Clearly define a significant present need?
- Describe the project persuasively?
- Does it say how many students and other members of the UNH community will benefit from your projects?
- Does it say how your project will immediately enhance the community or the environment of UNH and what the long-term impact might be?
- Does it show that the project is feasible and can really be completed with the established time frame?
- Include a specific budget, projecting how the requested money will be spent?
- Does it detail any other funding you have gathered for this project? Or explain why this should be funded by the Parents Association rather than by general operating funds.
- Reflect a consciousness on your part of who the Parents Association is and what their mission is?
- Does it summarize the need and objectives of the project?
- Does it describe the major features of the project, how they work, and the expected results?