Tips for Writing Successful Grant Proposals
Note: This handout is designed for Individual/Faculty Proposals, though much of it is also applicable to Program Proposals. For a more thorough "short course" on developing successful Program Proposals, see fdncenter.org/learn/shortcourse/prop1.html.
The Form
- If the funding agency has a specific format for proposals:
Follow instructions meticulously! Contact the program officer to obtain forms and ask questions.
- If the funding agency does not have a specific format for proposals:
- Make your initial
approach either through a phone call to the program officer or through
a short prospectus letter.
If the agency has no guidelines for a prospectus, make yours two pages long (no more than three), single-spaced. It should include the following elements:
Problem to be addressed
Proposed project to address problem
Intended outcome of project
How results (progress toward the intended outcome) will be measured
Request for further discussion of idea
Information about who to contact at University (with contact information)
Projected timetable
Brief budget
Sometimes a prospectus will also include the following:
Brief description of how proposed project fits mission of University
Brief description of how proposed project fits mission of agency
As you can see, this is a lot to do in two pages, so you must be brief. Agency program officers get a lot of these, and you want to make yours very user friendly, allowing a program officer to read quickly over it and get a sense of what you have in mind.
- After you receive an encouraging response to your initial approach, assemble a proposal. It should expand on the information outlined in the prospectus. Here's one good form for proposals:
- Executive summary: This is an umbrella statement of your case and summary of the entire proposal.
- Statement of need: Why this project is necessary. If a literature review is appropriate, this is the place for it.
- Goals: The overarching purposes the project is designed to achieve.
- Project description: The nuts and bolts of how the project will be implemented.
- Objectives: The concrete, measurable attainments the project will achieve.
- Evaluation: How the project's achievement of goals and objectives will be measured.
- Budget: Provide this in table form, accompanied by explanatory narrative and notes.
- Organization information: This varies depending on needs of funding agency. Sometimes it includes a one-paragraph description of SPU's mission (the kind found on our Web site at www.spu.edu/info/informationaboutspu.html#mission); sometimes this means enclosing a current catalog with proposal; often it includes a form letter from the IRS stating that SPU is a 501(c) (3) organization.
- Conclusion:
Include a summary of the proposal's main points.
You should be able to squeeze all of this into 8-10 pages, single-spaced.
The Content
The job of a proposal is to convince the grant-making agency of the following:
- The applicant has
identified a need of high importance.
Who will benefit from this project? Who will care about it? Do other experts in the field think this is an important need? (It's not enough to say that it hasn't been done before — there are a lot of unimportant things that don't really need to be done.) - The applicant has
the ideal qualifications to do the project.
How have your education and experience prepared you to do this project? What previous work has put you into a good position to do this project? - The applicant will
be able to finish the project.
Is your timetable for completing the steps of the project reasonable? Do you have a track record of finishing projects? Is the budget reasonable? If you receive the grant, will you have all the resources (time, money, help, scholarly sources) you need to finish? Do you really need the grant to complete this project? - The finished project
will meet the need.
Do the need and the project design match up? Have other experts in the field agreed that this is the way to meet the need? How the success of this project be evaluated? How will you measure progress toward goals? - The finished project
will achieve high quality standards.
Does your previous work show evidence of achieving high quality?
Note: Good letters of recommendation will address these very same questions.
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