These industry insider grant writing tips will help you write a persuasive, compelling proposal that gets a grantor’s attention. Discover insider secrets …
Grant writing strategies to make the cut
Tackling your first grant application may seem daunting. Not only are you carefully weighing what information needs to be included, but you’re also considering: What writing style should be used?
Both questions are imperative. First of all, it’s important to remember that grantors will likely receive dozens of grant applications, plus a set dollar amount to be awarded. Funding every incredible program or project is simply not possible.
So, place yourself in the seat of the grant application review team and consider the huge task of reading multiple grant proposals. Then ask yourself what will make your grant application successfully stand out?
The following insider grant writing strategies were shared by grant writers and representatives of a community foundation on their experience in reviewing and determining which grant proposals to award. Check out these tips to perfect both the writing style and the details to include.
Grab their attention
In a nutshell, the grant proposal must be written using a persuasive writing style. Your goals are to:
Grab the grantor’s attention,
Persuade them to keep reading,
Convince them to support your project.
To write a compelling, motivational grant, the proposal must describe an urgent, dire need that must be addressed now. The “WHAT” to include in your grant proposal is based on the “WHY” your program is crucial.
“While national or global societal issues are important, when submitting a grant proposal it’s absolutely crucial to demonstrate that you understand what is taking place in your own backyard,” explains Rebecca Gilliam, Executive Director of Wayne County Foundation (Richmond, IN). What is your community’s dire need? What individuals within your own community are facing a challenge or need? How will your program address that need?
Wordsmithing also relies heavily on descriptive, emotive words. Check out our blog article, How To: Write Powerful Mission and Vision Statements, for a list of persuasive words worthy of bookmarking as a reference tool.
Fill the gap
Urgency is also established by time factors. Be sure your proposal highlights why the problem must be addressed now. In other words, what consequences will your community face by not addressing this problem immediately?
As you write, it’s valuable to include what is currently being offered in your community to address the problem. “Your grant proposal,” states Rebecca Gilliam, “must clearly explain how your proposed solution will fill the gap between what is already being done and what needs to be done.” Again, tell the grantor how you will do it.
Gilliam continues by explaining that grant writers should hone in on how the church and its programs are uniquely positioned to successfully offer the community a timely solution.
Documented need
Using relevant data to demonstrate and document a need or program is a good strategy. There is nothing like numbers and key metrics to verify how you know a need is real. Data and metrics accurately validate real people with real needs. Any data that is used should always be current, reliable, and relevant.
Relevant? The data and metrics used need to describe your own community. To review, it explains what is taking place in your own backyard, not nationally or globally. Comparative data at the national level is good, explains Gilliam, but you must bring it home.
“Local data is absolutely essential to include in your proposal. And, community foundations are excellent sources for discovering up-to-date and reliable community data,” she adds. Plus, community foundations are key sources for learning about what initiatives and target issues community leaders are already discussing.
Avoid overstacking your statistics. You don’t want the grant review team to get lost in excessive numbers and data.
Exousia’s Grant Writing Strategies for Churches and Worksheet Packet includes detailed information and a worksheet to help grant writers brainstorm and craft a succinct statement of need and impact.
Unique positioning
Another grant writing must-do is to describe how your church is uniquely positioned to intentionally meet a documented need.
What does this mean? Churches are already equipped to successfully deliver high quality programs and projects. Most churches have immediate – and free – access to classroom space and property that is predominantly unused during business hours.
Furthermore, churches have the luxury of being able to decisively act on how to utilize their facility without planned official meetings and voting protocols. Throw in a solid base of equipment, furniture, supplies, and a readily available volunteer base and it's easy to see how churches are valuable community responders. Churches can decisively and readily act!
First, examine your church’s facility and its location.
Is it centrally located to provide accessible programs?
Does your facility have unused space or unique features, such as gymnasium, kitchen, usable land, and parking?
What supplies and equipment do you already have ready?
What programs and projects are you already offering?
How many individuals do you already serve?
Do you have the capacity to serve more?
Secondly, reflect on the success of your church’s current programs and projects. How can you demonstrate readiness to accomplish new programs and establish credibility through past accomplishments?
Less is more
As you write the grant narrative, remember the time limitations of the grantor’s review team. You are not writing prose and are frequently given word count limitations within the grant application. The narrative must be both compelling and concise. Keep it to the point and easily readable by choosing each word carefully.
Pat Heiny, grant writer, community activist and influencer, and member of a local foundation, offers the following grant writing tip: “As both a grant writer and grant application reviewer, I appreciate the use of subheadings and bullet-point lists. Outlining key information by using easy-to-read lists makes it faster to read and easier to find responses to grant questions.”
Similarly, Kristan Casas, executive pastor of the Rock Church in Hobart, IN, has successfully landed recurring annual grants for her church’s programs. One technique that she regularly employs is to boldface and underline key answers to questions. “This emphasizes to the reviewer that grant objectives are being addressed. Plus, you don’t want to make a grant reviewer guess if you’ve answered a question.”
After writing a rough draft, ask someone else to proofread your proposal for clarity. The proofreader should consider:
Is the need clearly described? Did it convey a dire situation that must be addressed?
Was the narrative persuasive? Did it engage the reader and encourage them to keep reading?
Was a solution offered and clearly explained? How will the program do it?
Did it clearly identify a call to action?
What are you asking the grantor to do?
Why should the grantor care?
Would different words create more urgency?
Would highlighted words, subheadings or bullet points make it more readable?
And, or course, always double-check spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Realistic and attainable
Every grant application requires you to describe the program and how it will solve a problem, plus outline the program’s goals, objectives and outcomes, or deliverables. When writing descriptions and stated deliverables, keep in mind the S.M.A.R.T. acronym. This stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time sensitive.
Let’s refer back to the A for achievable. Another way to define this is: attainable and realistic. While every grant narrative needs to clearly explain how additional funding will enable your church to take its program to the next level, your program must remain realistic and propose an attainable solution.
“When reviewing a grant application, we examine whether the grant proposal is both realistic and attainable,” affirms Gilliam. “In other words, we carefully reflect on whether an organization is really qualified and able to address a problem, and whether it can realistically complete it. For instance, don’t state that your church is going to completely solve community hunger; tell us how you’re going to complete your piece of the pie.”
Another commonly used business phrase that is applicable: “Don’t overpromise, and under deliver.”
M is for measurable
Since we’ve mentioned the S.M.A.R.T. acronym, let’s take a look at the letter M for measurable. Every grant application will ask you to respond to the question: How will your program measure success?
Two commonly asked questions are:
What are your program’s goals?
How will you know that you have achieved them?
When crafting a measurable goal, churches need to consider which data and tools will be used to assess progress. You may choose to assess your program’s progress by using either qualitative or quantitative data.
Quantitative data often tracks the effort towards attaining a goal. For example, if a goal is to increase participation by a certain percentage, then attendance records will be needed. If a goal is to build stronger relationships by offering more connection points, then you will track the number of events offered, the length of events, and/or the different methods used to connect with participants (in-person events, social media, phone calls, conference call apps, etc.)
Qualitative data tracks whether the program had its desired effect. For instance, if a goal is to improve participants’ mental health or participation levels, then surveys or interview questions may be used to gain insight.
If incremental steps must be taken to reach goals, then clearly identify the steps required for implementation and success, says Gilliam. Don’t assume that grantors will read between the lines and draw the intended conclusions.
Use the grantor’s own verbiage
One persuasive writing technique is to craft a grant proposal demonstrating how your program closely aligns with the grant funding organization’s mission and goals. Your grant narrative should convey that your program will, in fact, enable grantors to likewise reach their organization’s own goals.
The best way to convey this message is to use the grantor’s own language. Grant funding organizations readily share important information on their websites. So take the time to research the grantor and make notes on the following information:
Mission and vision statements
Target goals and target initiatives
Target population to impact
Previously awarded grants and grantees
Request for proposal (RFF)
Jot down key phrases and words to incorporate into your grant proposal. Kristan Casas recommends that writers use the language from the request for proposals within their narratives. “Using the grantor’s own language clearly communicates answers to application questions,” she explains.
Exousia’s mission
Exousia’s team has written grant proposals for church congregations for the past seven years. While learning the art of grant writing predominantly through trial and error, our team has succeeded in nailing nearly two million dollars in grant funding for three congregations.
Our mission is to accelerate faith-based nonprofit growth by increasing the knowledge and resources needed to research, write and land grants. Our vision is to empower faith-based organizations to make world-changing dreams a reality.
To accomplish this mission and vision, Exousia offers three-tiers of monthly coaching plans. These coaching plans will build your confidence in writing grants and significantly reduce your grant writing learning curve.