Know your audience. This is the number one rule in communications. At its core, grant writing is communication. Your application should effectively communicate your organization, program(s), goals, and outcomes to a targeted \u201caudience\u201d of reviewers, trustees, or foundation staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this blog post, we will help you think like a professional communicator, learn about your audience, and determine what they want to fund. You must dig deeper than surface-level information to craft the most effective application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Situation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You have a good core of content about your organization and feel ready to edit it to fit into a new foundation\u2019s online application portal. They fund multiple organizations doing similar work to yours, but you know your organization takes extra steps that will make you stand out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Best Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Best practice is to customize core content for each grant application. Looking more closely at how and why foundations fund and the decision makers can give you an edge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Funder Missions, Visions, and Priorities<\/em> Lacking a website to reference, look to the funder\u2019s form 990. You can do this through the 2. Who Else Do They Fund?<\/em> On a 990, Part XIV lists the previous awards with the \u201cpurpose of grant or contribution\u201d 3. Don\u2019t Neglect Decision Makers.<\/em> Look up each person through a quick internet search. Some have online presences where Spend at least 30 minutes researching your funder and the grant opportunity before writing for Know your audience. This is the number one rule in communications. At its core, grant writing is communication. Your application should effectively communicate your organization, program(s), goals, and outcomes to a targeted \u201caudience\u201d of reviewers, trustees, or foundation staff. In this blog post, we will help you think like a professional communicator, learn about your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,55,61,11,40,9,10,37,52,19],"class_list":["post-7240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grantpro","tag-grants","tag-grantwriting","tag-gpa","tag-grant-management","tag-grant-professional","tag-grant-professionals-association","tag-grant-strategy","tag-grant-writing","tag-grant-writing-basics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7240"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7339,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240\/revisions\/7339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boydgrants.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Look at funder websites, if available. Do they list a mission and vision? Funding priorities
and goals? Note these and the wording used to describe these topics. Decide which of their
goals fit your organization and weave in pieces of their wording to describe your work. This
will seamlessly show the foundation you both pursue the same vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IRS website or Pro Publica. Part XIV of a 990 can give you a mission or funding parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to know who else is funded. Again, a website is a good starting point if
available. Do they highlight grantees and their work? How is it similar to yours, and are there
ways yours stands out from these organizations? Use this in your request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
column, offering more details in some cases. Look up recipients to gain insight into the
funder\u2019s support preferences. You may find they fund outside of stated parameters and can
adjust your content slightly for better impact. Use insights to tweak your core content and
make your application more attention-getting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Staff screens requests, and trustees make final decisions. What you know about these
individuals can change your chances at an award. Visit websites and 990s\u2019 Part VII for
trustees and top staff lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
you can glean information. Where do they work and volunteer? What are their interests
outside of the foundation? Use this information to understand what drives them and what
about your organization may interest them. This can help you stand out rather than be just
another application in a pile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the best application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"