Grants Office

 

GRANT WRITING TIPS

It’s all in the story!  If you are a reviewer or program officer and you have been reviewing proposals all day, what is going to grab your attention?

General Tips:

• Know Your Audience
  • Focus Areas and Mission Alignment
  • Organizational Interests
  • Funding Capacity & Frequency (1 year vs. multiple years) 
  • Review Process

• Relevance
  • Define how your project aligns with sponsor's goals
  • Convey what sets your project apart – how is it different/innovative
  • Relay how the grant will make a difference

• Follow the Guidelines! 
  • It is simple, yet 50-70% of proposals are rejected because the sponsor's guidelines were not followed
  • Be sure to address all questions and respond exactly to what the sponsor is asking

• Don’t over promise
  • Make sure you have, or are requesting, the funds and resources to fulfill all deliverables

 

Writing Tips:

• Use clear, concise language - eliminate technical jargon and industry terminology and/or buzz words. Keep it simple.
• Avoid metaphorical language – it is not music to the reviewer’s ears.
• Omit needless (meaningful elements of writing used to form sentences) words.
• Use the Active Voice. Instead of: The student was given more work, Consider: The Teacher gave the student more work.
• Don’t use exclamation points or unnecessary BOLDED text!!!
• Match the subject to the verb (single v. plural).
• Limit the use of adverbs that convey “very” little meaning.