How to Win a Travel Grant

Grants offer key sources of financial support for travelers. Grants are awarded for travel research, humanitarian work, airfare, lodging, education, career advancement, and to cover living expenses while you are in another country.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Access to a computer and Internet
• Access to a library
• A Motivation to win free money to travel

1. Travel grants can help you to cover your expenses while you are in a different country. Winning a travel grant is a great way to get paid for seeing the world. Airfare, immigration costs, living expenses, health insurance, lodging, and visa costs are some of the expenses covered by travel grants.

2. 

   Typically, travel grants are related to education and research costs. You are more likely to win a travel grant to conduct a research project on lions and their breeding patterns in Botswana rather than to go on a one month long safari for fun.

3. People don't give away money merely for fun-related travel projects that fails to contribute to the enrichment of education or research. So, when you are submitting a travel grant request, you have to prove that there is some sort of educational or professional benefit from your travel project.

4. The grant proposal is the basic document that enables applicants to get money. The basic elements of a grant proposal are need statement, budget, methodology, and evaluation.

5. Some funders ask for a one page letter of inquiry first, before seeking a longer proposal. Others, advise applicants to submit the complete application right away. You must always check with funders to see their guidelines.

Tips & Warnings

• Always save receipts of how you used the travel grants funds. Some foundations ask for proof of expenses once the travel period is over. Grant recipients are asked to submit a short report of how the monies were spent.

Resources

• Associated Grant Makers
• Grants
• Gifted Hands Writing