How to Write Grant Papers

Grants provide financial assistance for projects - research, community, charitable and educational, to name a few. Grant providers often have a long list of criteria they follow when reviewing grant proposals to choose the best fit. Innovation, long term significance and chances of success are some of the factors benefactors look for. Writing your grant proposal around the specific guidelines that are suggested by the application will help you to create a winning proposal.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Grant proposal idea Deadline date Grant guidelines Grant mailing address and contact number

The Essentials

1. Set your page borders and fonts appropriately. A grant proposal should be professional and legible. Use a font that can be easily read such as, Arial or Times New Roman. Also, be sure to use a 12-point font and 1-inch page borders.

2. Read the requirements and instructions in the application. Every grant has explicit instructions that must be adhered to. Stay within the proper number of pages and use bold type for headings and words that you would like to emphasize, along with italics, and always left justify. Good grammar and spelling are also important.

3. Provide a clear and easily understood hypothesis or statement of purpose, but keep it brief in your opening section. Instead, explain the points of your grant proposal in separate sections.

4. Explain the methods that will be used to achieve your hypothesis or goal as well as specifics on how to correct any shortcomings. Also consider including legends, charts, graphs and tables to illustrate your data.

5. Proof your proposal carefully. Use spell check and have someone who did not write the proposal read it and mark mistakes so they can be fixed. Errors will hurt your credibility and distract the person who will make a decision on your proposal.

6. Mail your grant proposal. Allow plenty of time for it to reach its destination.

Inside the Grant Paper

7. Begin your grant proposal with goals in mind. Include an opening statement, goals and objectives, hypothesis, importance and the outcomes that should be expected. Keep the sentences smooth and informative and stay on topic. Also, keep in mind that when the grant providers read your grant paper, they are not mind readers. Therefore, it is important that you provide a clear enough explanation of your hypothesis that even someone who is not educated in your field of expertise can even understand it.

8. Follow up your opening with another section that explains the significance of your theory along with some background that explains what you hope to achieve. It is also a good idea to add a few cite references that will back up your idea, along with some statistics.

9. Add another section that includes your findings that were brought to light during your research and how you progressed through the research process. Include any pertinent data that backs up your hypothesis.

10. Provide a section that includes the methods that you have used to prove your hypothesis along with experimental design frameworks, and experimental approaches.

11. Include a timetable that will detail the specifics and clearly state the amount of time that you expect to need to achieve your goals.

Tips & Warnings

• If your grant is approved, it is important to get right to work. Remember to record all of your findings and keep accurate records of your procedures and results. Following strict guidelines, and keeping track of your work will help when rewriting your grant paper for renewal at a later date.
• Do not provide details or information that is not relevant to your topic when writing your grant paper. Avoid adding too many preliminary items that will take away from the main objective of your paper, and lose the reviewers attention because it has been diluted with facts. You want your paper to stay focused and on target, peaking the reviewers interest throughout the paper.

Resources

• Grant tip sheets
• Grant writing