Grant Writing and Proposal Writing - White Paper

Grant writing and proposal writing are often viewed almost as a black art to those who are new to the idea - there are however, no dark secrets surrounding these things anyone who has a sound business idea or a sound research proposal can learn to write grant proposals and research funding proposals. If you follow the tips outlined in this paper then you should be able to write a reasonably good grant or research proposal.

Although grant writing and proposal writing are often used interchangeably, grant writing is most often associated with business or the voluntary sector in terms of a marketable product (other than personal grants which will be dealt with in another article) and a proposal is usually a bid for research funding. While the processes of writing a grant or research proposal are very similar in terms of things that should be covered, they each have different proposed outcomes. First the grant proposal:

Grant Writing

Grants are sums of money offered by federal, state and local governments for a variety of purposes; this might be a solid business concept, or a new building and perhaps a help line for the voluntary services. Most of the European funding for research would fit in here as the vast majority of projects put out for tender require a marketable product at the end of it; for example some years ago I worked with some other people on a bid to fund a self-help center attached to a women's refuge.

Proposal Writing

Research does not only take place in the medical or scientific arena people undertake research for all sorts of things and for this they need funding. Some people who want to undertake a higher degree can apply for funding for a PhD (education is a key area of interest in federal grants). For this you would write a proposal concerning the research you wish to undertake. Voluntary organizations, businesses and Government departments themselves will want someone to undertake research. Often the task goes out for tender and a huge number of people will bid for that funding, the successful candidate will then either undertake the research or hire a contract or freelance researcher to undertake the work for them.

Tips on Writing a Bid

Whether you are writing a grant application or a research proposal in theory both documents would be undertaken in much the same way and include the following:

1. Introduction

This section should give a brief overview of what the proposal is about. Government Departments and other funding bodies receive thousands of proposals for every pot of money or item out for tender each week; this means that the first few lines of your proposal will either make you a serious contender for the money or put you out of the running at the start. You must write a concise introduction that grabs the reader's attention straight away. You should follow your opening lines with any background to the project, if you are applying for money to fund your new business idea you need to be able to say something about existing businesses in that line and how your idea will add something new.

If it is an academic proposal or funding for an evaluation of services etc then you would need to be able in the former case to give an overview of the literature in that area and point to the gap that your research will fill, for evaluations you might need to say a little about how the project you are going to evaluate came into being. If you can provide illustrations such as statistics relating to a particular field then this will go down well - both research panels and grant panels like to see graphics in the form of charts etc.

2. Approach

How are you going to tackle the problem? If it is a business venture what do you see as the essential aspects of undertaking a business venture and what your methods would be. You will need to be as precise as possible here, if you start getting woolly at this stage then people on the funding panel will read no further. You have to have a concise business plan in place laying out major milestones, not only will this clarify your idea for the funders, it will also demonstrate to them that you are serious about the project as you will have done a significant amount of research and prior work.  

If this is a research proposal then this is where you will stipulate how you will undertake the research, who you will interview and where. Will you undertake face to face interviews or will you develop a questionnaire and use survey methods? You would need to give some indication of questions that might be asked and what you will do with the data. Will it go into a computer program for qualitative data or will you do it in the time honored way of bits of paper everywhere -  if you undertake a survey will you use a program such as SPSS for statistical analysis? Whatever you are doing you will need to consider these questions even before you get down to writing your proposal.

3. Deliverables

What will be the outcome? If this is a grant for a business or a voluntary sector project then you need to say what that is going to be e.g. restaurant fully staffed and ready to open twelve months from the start date, or meeting place with computers and trained staff to help long term unemployed with career changes and job searches.

If this is research then deliverables are often in the form of a written report with recommendations for the future. Occasionally the report will be accompanied by a tool box i.e. a set of principles or places that will help a project or service to continue functioning. Sometimes research is combined with a creative approach to the project whereby a cd or video is produced to stimulate creativity.

4. Time Scale

Whether you are writing a grant proposal or a research proposal you will be expected to have estimated how long the project will take from start to finish. Within your time scale you should be able to estimate when each particular phase of the project should be complete; up to, and including, the production of the final project. Some projects, certainly those concerned with research may require an after project meeting or presentation.

5. Costings

This is a very important part of your proposal; it should be as exact as you can make it while at the same time being flexible enough to accommodate the unexpected or miscellaneous expenses that occur almost inevitably in any project. If you are attached to a university and plan on using existing expertise, books and equipment available then there will typically be between twenty five and fifty percent of the total budget as on costs paid to the university.

6. Staffing

You should give some indication of the people who will be working on the project with you, many funding bodies now expect the resumes of all those involved in the project to be attached to the proposal.

If you bear all these tips in mind it doesn't mean that success is guaranteed but it does mean that you will have a fighting chance of your proposal receiving careful consideration, and if you are not successful an invitation to apply at a later date. 

Update on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 05:30 by Sue Jeffels

Many people just don't know where to start when it comes to bidding for funding; or the fact that there are different methods for different projects. If you are trying to find out more about Government Grant Writing then take a look atthis    There is a wealth of information in this easy to access ebook.