A Grant Writing Guide for Non-Grant Writers
This page is the first step to assist you in developing your idea into a proposal for funding support. After reading this page, you will have a basic understanding of:
1. The Fundamentals of Grant Seeking
2. The Responsibilities of the College and the Office of Institutional Advancement
3. The Grant Development Process Used by the Office of Institutional Advancement
4. Self-Determining the Suitability of Your Project Using the Grant Decision Making Matrix
5. Your Role in the Grant Development Process
1. The Fundamentals of Grant Seeking
Grant writing is a process that’s part craft, part discipline, and a whole lot of common sense. When planning and creativity come together in a directed process, good ideas can become funded projects that can do a lot of people a lot of good.
Writing a grant first requires making a critical review of the College’s mission and, taking your concept, developing it in a way that advances the College’s organizational objectives and philosophical purposes. The second part of successful grant development is in knowing the intent of the funding source and their priorities before developing an idea into a full proposal. The Office of Institutional Advancement coordinates grant development by matching ideas with funding initiatives from federal, state, foundation, corporate, and other sources. The typical flow of this process is the following:
The process structure remains the same with each proposal developed and submitted by Heart of Georgia Technical College. The Office of Institutional Advancement is the clearinghouse for all projects developed and submitted by the College. A decision-making matrix is used by the Office to help determine the feasibility of a project’s potential for development and placement on the schedule of projects developed each year.
Anatomy of a Grant Proposal
In the most general terms, grant proposals consist of eight basic components:
1. A proposal summary
2. An introduction to the organization
3. A problem statement or a needs assessment
4. Project objectives
5. Project methods or design for implementation
6. Project evaluation
7. Plans for sustaining the project
8. A project budget
2. The Responsibilities of the College and the Office of Institutional Advancement
The College is responsible for:
• the overall direction of external funding as it pertains to the College's mission statement and annual and strategic goals,
• the submission of proposals and letters of solicitation for external funds,
• the sustainability and institutionalization of project and fundraising activities,
• the supervision of selected grant projects,
• the review and approval of proposals,
• monitoring of cash and non-cash matches, and
• compliance with the terms and conditions of the granting agencies' contract, regulations and other stipulations.
The Office of Institutional Advancement is responsible for:
• leadership in the development and management of a comprehensive grant resource development system,
• coordination and writing of college grant proposals and project plans,
• the timely identification of federal, state, and private funding sources and maintenance of a resource development database,
• support in maintaining solid relationships with funding sources,
• technical and writing assistance in the development of College proposals,
• management and supervision of selected grant projects, including project implementation, evaluation and dissemination,
• grant development workshops and web resources, and
• authorized signatures for federal and state compliance.
3. The Core Process of Grant Development Used by the Office of Institutional Advancement
Overview
There are hundreds of potential programs for which the College is eligible to apply. For a project idea to be considered, the project must meet the following criteria:
- The project is consistent with the College’s mission and has the potential to advance institutional goals
- The project addresses a critical institutional need
- The College has financial and other resources to adequately support the implementation of the project
- The project has the potential to be sustained after external support has ended
- The project has the potential to serve as a replicable model
- The College has, or may have the ability to obtain, suitable expertise in developing a competitively funded proposal
- There is an adequate and appropriate amount of time to research and develop the project
The Director of Development and the President review the proposed grants and approve the recommended projects to be developed. Not all worthy projects make it to the development stage.
Projects may always be added or dropped from the schedule at the discretion of the Director of Development. Typically, these instances may occur at times when approved projects on the schedule have been abandoned and the schedule opens up to accommodate a new addition. Projects from the priority list for development will then be pursued. In the meantime, the Office of Institutional Advancement assists anyone with a viable project idea with research planning, and writing guidance for the project’s future submittal to funding sources.
Process for developing your project idea
Since a grant schedule is very aggressive, the best strategies for getting your project from an idea to a grant is to PLAN EARLY and do your preliminary work using the
Grant Decision Making Matrix.
What happens when you have an idea that you’d like to develop into a full proposal? Discussing your concept with your department and division leaders and getting their support are the first steps in the process. From there, the Office of Institutional Advancement strongly urges this recommended path and process for development:
- Take your idea to the decision-making matrix. Complete it to the best of your ability and self-score the result of your concept.
- If your project scores in the POTENTIAL range, contact the Office of Institutional Advancement.
- If your project scores in the ALMOST range, review the areas of deficiency identified in the matrix. Take the steps necessary to raise the score to a POTENTIAL score, or contact the Office Institutional Advancement for help if you’re “stuck.”
- If your project scores below the ALMOST range, review this site and the associated links for grant development tips.
4. Self-Determining the Suitability of Your Project Using the Grant Decision Making Matrix
5. Your Role in the Grant Development Process
Most people don’t know what to expect when developing a grant proposal. Don’t feel intimidated! Your role in the grant writing process is as principal investigator, or the PI. The Office of Institutional Advancement takes the style of each principal investigator into account with each new project. There are no special skills required or experience in grant writing needed. All you need are your grant idea (and your completed grant decision making matrix) and a willingness to work within a designated grant development team.
Some PI’s prefer to do a lot of their own writing. Some prefer to let the Office of Institutional Advancement write the first draft, while they serve as an editor. At the initial grant development conference, options will be evaluated and the best work plan will be developed in order to clarify roles, responsibilities, and the project deadlines that must be met. Depending on the complexity of the project, one may expect to be asked to develop or provide such items as:
- The initial project concept that articulates a real problem to be solved
- Supporters (internal and external) who may have interest in this project’s development and implementation
- Information sources that show the best practices in the field and about emerging trends related to your topic
- An assessment of the current problem you are hoping to address and how you suggest we measure change (i.e., project outcomes)
- An estimated budget that is based on a reasonable cost to implement your project
- A good sense of humor
From time to time, individuals may be asked by the Office of Institutional Advancement to participate as part of a grant development team. The Office of Institutional Advancement constantly seeks to improve proposals by involving people with a variety of perspectives – academic, administrative, and student services – to look at organizational challenges and to help design creative solutions.
How to Find Funding Opportunities
There are many ways to locate available grants. This page can give you some ideas to locate funding support. There are links to funding agencies that fund programs of interest to postsecondary institutions.
The best methods to find out about funding opportunities, in no rank order, are:
- By discussing grants with peers at other institutions
- By becoming involved with professional associations
- By attending conferences where funding agencies will have representatives to talk about their programs
- By contacting the Office of Institutional Advancement
- By visiting the links listed below
How to Think Like a Funding Source
There’s no greater secret to successfully obtaining grants than to precisely match what you can provide to a funding agency in exchange for their money. From the eyes of the funding source, winning a grant has very little to do with what you need, or what you want. With competitions for dwindling funds becoming greater and more challenging, the applicants that make the most compelling cases for using grant money to promote the funding source’s mandates will have the strongest chance for success.
It is critical to remember that the grant process only works when you are able to look at your project from the values, vision, and the agenda of each funding source you consider. This requires learning what each funding source holds to be of importance by conducting some research about their missions, their priorities, and their funding history… in addition to their funding opportunities.
There are many good strategies for learning about funding sources. Here are a few:
Talk with your peers, especially those at other institutions, to learn of their experiences with the funding source. Ask if they, or someone they know, have been successful with obtaining support from the funding source. Oftentimes, people will share their funded proposals with others who seek to replicate their project or do similar work on the same topic, so ask if they might share theirs with you. Reading proposals funded by the funding source is a quick way to understand the proposal style expected by staff readers there.
Talk with the Office of Intuitional Advancement staff to learn about their experiences with specific funding sources that interest you. The staff can assist you or put you in touch with resources that you may find helpful.
Contact the funding source directly. Before picking up the phone, do a little research before making that call. Identify one or more of their programs of interest to you. When you’ve gotten a short list of questions to ask, call and ask to speak with a program officer who can assist you with your questions about your idea and their interests. Information about foundations and corporate giving programs are available at their websites. Their Annual Reports and lists of awards made in recent years will give you an idea of how they have given their money on the projects important to them. (Note: most foundations and corporate giving offices have few employees, so be prepared to wait a while before having your call returned.)
Talk with leaders in professional organizations in your field. Most of these people will know others who have been successful with funding sources and can put you in touch with people who have won grants, and share tips, about your list of funding sources. Several funding sources use field readers in their proposal review process; people with such experience are generally well known among the members of professional organizations.
Subscribe to list serves and other discussion groups. Many funding agencies and professional organizations have groups that frequently post information and discussions about their programs and their philosophies.
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