Grant Preparation Help
Charitable donations such as grants support the work of nonprofit organizations. Small or start-up nonprofit organizations seldom have a grant writer on staff and often have limited funds for hiring professional consultants. The grant application and award process is highly competitive -- many groups apply for limited funds. Nonprofits that submit a well-prepared grant proposal have a better chance of receiving funding. Several resources are available to provide grant preparation help.
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Funding Source
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Often the funding source provides seminars, workshops or detailed guidelines for preparing a grant application or proposal. For instance, Grants.gov, the online portal for federal grants, provides extensive online resources for preparing federal grant packages. Many federal agencies also provide online instructions and proposal writing suggestions for applying for their grants. Foundation websites also provide guidelines, and some provide sample proposals or budget documents. For instance, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation provides, on its website, a grant application that guides applicants through the process. Many foundations make their program officers available to talk with you about grant preparation.
Grant Writers
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Some organizations hire an outside grant writer, or nonprofit consultant, who researches potential funding, writes your proposal and guides your organization through the submission process. A grant writer might request an hourly rate for payment, or he might request a lump sum payment for the entire grant preparation job. The grant writer might request partial payment in advance of any work with the balance to be paid upon completion. Compensation promised or paid as a percentage of grant funds received is an unethical practice, according to the American Grant Writers Association.
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Internet Resources
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Extensive nonprofit resources are available on the Internet. The Foundation Center website provides a short course in online proposal writing that covers all aspects of grant preparation. Non-profit Guides provides an online resource for grant writing, including guidelines and sample documents. Universities often provide online grant preparation resources, and while many of the instructions are related to research grants, they usually contain standard grant preparation information and sample documents.
Community Nonprofit Resource Organizations
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A community nonprofit resource organization assists nonprofits in all aspects of management, governance and funding, including free access to funding databases and help with organizational development required to receive funding from most foundations. The Nonprofit Resource Center in Sacramento, California, provides services to nonprofit organizations in its community, including resources for locating potential funders and workshops to teach proposal writing skills.
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References
Resources
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