Putting It On Paper: Successfully Applying For Government Grants

The first step for obtaining one of the many government grants available through federal and state governments is writing a good grant proposal. There are professional grant writers you can hire, but if you’re on a limited budget, or are an experienced writer yourself, it’s entirely possible to write a winning grant on your own. Regardless of what organization you represent or what type of grant you're seeking, you can follow these tips for success.

Most funders of government grants provide guidelines. These guidelines spell out exactly what the funder wants you to include in your proposal. It’s very important that you thoroughly review and understand these guidelines. Not meeting all of the guidelines set forth is going to seriously impair your chances of being selected—it will probably foreclose them altogether.

An important of all applications for government grants is the section where you tell the funder about your organization. This description should be about 2-4 paragraphs long. Give a thorough overview of your organization’s mission, goals, and accomplishments. You can support this description with newspaper articles and letters of recommendation from relevant sources. Give the specifics about the structure of your organization. Tell the funder who runs your organization, describing their duties and experience. You should also cover each of the specific programs your organization runs. For more complex organizational structures, charts could help the funder visualize your programs.

Also, you’ll want to demonstrate to the funder that you have given your need for this grant serious consideration. First, unless the grant is for a specific amount of money, be clear on how much money you’re asking for. Explain in as much details as possible, but also as concisely as possible, how you plan to use the grant money. It will go a long way if you can show the funder that you’ve begun researching the project for which you need the funds.

No matter how truly deserving your organization is, applications for government grants won’t be given serious consideration unless they are well-written. You can get all of your thoughts down on paper by writing out a rough draft. After you’ve spilled out some thoughts, you can start organizing them, paring them down, and polishing the wording. Ideally, you should draft and re-write your application several times. It’s also a good idea to have several other people look over your application and make suggestions. Two heads are better than one!

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Joseph is the proud owner of Grants Hut, a website that will explain everything you need to know about Government Grants. We invite you to visit our site today and see what we have to offer.

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