No matter whether you are approaching public or private sponsors, this thorough and detailed step-by-step guide will enable you to plan and write winning proposals.
Grantseeking is always a competitive process. As organizational needs outstrip resources, groups turn to grants as a means of strengthening their financial footing while pursuing their missions. This book draws on the authors’ three decades of grantseeking experiences in writing successful proposals, conducting grant workshops nationwide, reviewing government and foundation proposals, and critiquing application guidelines for grantmakers to lead readers through the process of planning and writing successful proposals.
The authors first provide practical strategies for project planning, including identifying sponsors, matching grantseeker needs to sponsor priorities, and qualifying prospects through pre-proposal contacts. The authors then guide users systematically through proposal writing, including introducing a template for letter proposals to private foundations and corporations, describing the primary elements of government proposals, and providing tips for constructing a realistic budget. This advice as well as the key questions to answer before you begin writing; actual proposals that were declined, with rejection reasons; and complete sample letter proposals comprised in this volume will help both beginning and experienced grantseekers to better plan and develop fundable projects.
Features
- Discusses resources to identify the tens of thousands of grantmakers that award more than $350 billion in philanthropic funds annually
- Provides a time-tested template to write proposals for private foundations and corporations, with samples to illustrate how the template can be used in different grant writing situations
- Features new examples of and strategies for increasing the overall quality and competitiveness of grant applications
- Addresses sponsors’ increased attention to evaluation and their desire to move beyond counting participants and activities to measuring a project’s impact
- Looks at different types of sustainability and interrelationships among grant proposal narratives, logic models, and budgets
- Offers new strategies for engineering and reverse engineering budgets to help maintain alignment between costs and activities and insulate against potential requests for budget reductions
Jeremy T. Miner, MA, is president of Miner and Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that provides grantseeking and fundraising services to nonprofit organizations. He is also director of grants and contracts in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. In addition to developing and administering proposals to public and private grantmakers, he has served as a reviewer for federal and state grant programs, helped private foundations to streamline their grant application guidelines, and presented grantseeking workshops nationally and internationally to thousands of grant-getters.
Kelly C. Ball, PhD, is institutional researcher at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, Green Bay, WI. She has helped organizations to successfully secure tens of millions of dollars in grant funding from both government agencies and private foundations. Public sponsors include the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and National Endowment for the Humanities. Private sponsors include Lilly Endowment, Hearst Foundations, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She regularly presents workshops on grantseeking and writing persuasive proposals.
Reviews
"At one time or another, all writers experience myopia—getting so close to their work that they cannot see it anymore. Proposal Planning & Writing clarifies approaches to identifying and addressing the big-picture themes and small- picture details funders expect in grant proposals."—Christina Ellis, Program Director, Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment
"The fundamentals of Proposal Planning & Writing are as true today as when the book first came out 25 years ago. With samples and practical advice on finding and applying for public and private grants, it's no wonder that this book is popular among Foundation Center patrons."—Sandy Pon, GrantSpace Specialist, Foundation Center
“Federal funding agencies are now requiring more evaluative rigor in their grant proposals. Proposal Planning & Writing helps you to identify critical evaluation considerations, including when to engage external experts and how to use them effectively.”—Lana J. Rucks, PhD, Founder and Principal Consultant, The Rucks Group LLC
"Rather than throwing a Hail Mary, hoping that a grant will score, first read Proposal Planning & Writing, now in its sixth edition, to gain the tools and confidence necessary to systematically move the chains to a funding victory. It is a book that can be read again and again with benefit; it is inexhaustible."—Dr. Rama Yelkur, Dean of the School of Business, St. John Fisher College
