Tips for Successful Grant Writing

Frequently people are looking for grants to start what will hopefully be for-profit businesses. “Where to go for funding and will a grant writing book be of use to them,” they ask.

On the federal and state levels, the Small Business Administration makes many loans to start up businesses. Government agencies on the local level may offer grants to start ups or to save businesses having trouble or to get them to locate in specific areas, frequently called Economic Empowerment Zones or Business Improvement Districts. Some quick research and/or calls to the offices of your elected representatives should reveal several sources.

And writing those grants will not differ from writing a foundation grant as described in the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grant Writing. In fact, one college was using my book as one of two required texts in a class on entrepreneurship.

For many people, there is nothing more frightening than staring down a blank page. Yet this is often the best place to start. Time and again, I have seen grant writers held back in their creativity because they take as their starting point the last proposal written for a project. Doing that perpetuates mediocrity and never results in a fresh, inspiring proposal.

Each proposal you write should address not only the organization but the specific person who will read your proposal, which is why you need a fresh start. If the person who will read your proposal is familiar with your program, don’t start out with a detailed description of how the program works — they already know that. Tell them first about all of the good that has been done as a result of their grant. If recognition is important to the organization, be sure to stress that near the beginning of the proposal.

If the sight of a blank page is holding you back, the The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grant Writing, 2nd Edition CD included with my book provides a Narrative Builder tool. It asks you to answer a series of questions. The Narrative Builder saves your answers and, when you have completed them, assembles them into a logical sequence, which serves as the first draft of your proposal. It’s a quick way to take a fresh look at how you describe your program and break away from deadly boilerplate text.