Grant Writing Tips

Writing Hack: Don’t Start from Scratch

One of my favorite parts of grant writing is that there are very few times throughout the grant writing process that you actually have to start writing from scratch.  By the time you get to writing the actual grant, you already have all of the information that will make up the content of the writing.  You already have the project plan.  You have information about the population served, the organization or entity, and project partners. 

To kick this up a notch, I always start with an outline built on the parameters set forth in the NOFO.  From there, I fill in the sections from the information collected throughout the course of researching to write the grant.  From here, I can build a narrative by massage the information I already have.  Grant writing can be as architectural as you need it to be.  Rely on the structure for support, and the narrative will flow.

When you get in the cycle of writing more and more grants, you will have past grants applications to pull from to get information needed for current grants.  Always read feedback from grant makers, regardless of whether or not the grant was awarded. 

It may seem counterintuitive, but the more grants you write, the less writing per grant you will have to do in the long run…the more grants you can write!