This past week I have been knee-deep in grant reviews.  While I love reading other people’s program designs, my absolute favorite part is seeing the strengths and weaknesses of other proposals.  Not that I’m trying to pick apart another grant writers writing ability, but I am able to learn what makes for a weak response vs. a strong response.

This week I realized, no matter if you are an obscure nonprofit or a well-known entity, the quality of your program design is what sells the reviewer.  For example, a well-known entity responded to this RFP and on the surface, it was a great application…until you walk away and process what they were saying.  That is all it was, a surface-level response.  People harp on goals, objectives and project design but it is truly what makes a proposal!

So, I hope you take away two things from this little post:

  1. Become a grant reviewer!  It will definitely enhance your writing ability!
  2. Seriously focus on good project design, this includes goals and objectives…it will save your proposal!