Developing a Grant-Writing Plan
What could possibly sound more boring than developing a grant-writing plan? Plenty! (How about writing a summary of the American Institute of CPAs’ changes in accounting rules?) You’ll be surprised at how helpful it will be to assimilate all the information you’ve gathered into a plan. Your ideas about a proposal will coalesce, and any omissions in research, program descriptions, or budgets will become obvious.
Forming a plan also provides a mechanism for working with the program staff. They’ll appreciate knowing what’s expected of them and when. A grant-writing plan also involves working with finance and executive staff and possibly board members. You are the glue that holds all this together.
Articulating the Program
Before you can do anything else, you must know what you need to raise the money for, and this means working with program staff. Schedule time with the senior people involved with a program to discuss what they have in mind. Come prepared with a list of questions you’ll have to address in any proposal. Ask about items such as …
• The program’s mission (or purpose) and goals.
• Your charity’s history with similar programs and how it fits with your charity’s mission.
• Why the program is needed.
• Whom the program will serve.
• How the program will be run.
• Who will run it.
• How the program will be evaluated.
• How you will measure the program’s success.
WORDS TO THE WISE
Most program people won’t understand how you work, what you do, or what a grant proposal represents. It’s a fact of nonprofit life, and if development and program staff are working at odds, the charity will suffer. Do your best to educate them, but be prepared for misunderstandings. Although you certainly want your proposals to be an accurate depiction of what the program will finally be, details will undoubtedly change and funders understand this. Be sure program staff also understand there’s some flexibility with any funding request.
When seeking answers for these questions, don’t be content with hearing about what will happen over the next year. Get the program staff to lay it out for you for three years. Even though they probably won’t be able to give you very specific information about subsequent years, by forcing them to think in longer terms, you’ll get a clearer idea about how the program will function in the short term. And besides, the next step in this process is …
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