Grant Writing for Public Service: How to Secure Funding for Your Social Impact Project

Before beginning your proposal, you’ll need to identify the specific issue your project will address. Perhaps you want to develop a program that will improve reading and writing tutoring options at an underserved school. Maybe you have a solid idea of how to bring up employment rates in a particular area. Whatever it may be, it is best to get your head around the project as a whole before you start getting anything official down on paper.

• Understand the grant application: All grant applications are different. Be sure that you spend enough time reading through the eligibility requirements and guidelines before you start writing. A well-formed grant application takes time and energy. There’s no need to waste that on a grant that doesn’t make sense for your intended project.
• Prepare a summary statement: This statement both speaks to the needs of the project and your ability as an organization or individual to get it done. Even if you end up not using this summary statement in your actual proposal, it gives you an opportunity to focus on writing a concise summary that highlights all the important aspects of your project.
• Create an outline: Every project involves some kind of process. From preparation to execution, there’s at least a dozen signposts that you’ll need to hit along the way. Creating an outline that clearly illustrates the who-what-when-where of your project and how that information may need to unfold sequentially will help keep your proposal organized and on track.
• Determine whether your project is in line with grantor funding: Grantors have agendas, guidelines, and certain initiatives that they are willing to support. For example, if you are considering a grant that has historically never been used for a social justice project, it’s probably not a good candidate for your social justice-focused intentions.

• Cover letter: As with other types of applications, the cover letter gives writers the chance to introduce themselves and their idea. It identifies the individuals who will be making crucial decisions about the project.. In a cover letter, writers need to both clearly state the positive impact of the project and illustrate their passion for what they are proposing. Houston suggests that writers should think of the cover letter as comparable to re-working one’s resume or cover letter for different companies when they’re applying for jobs: “While the content may not change much, the delivery ought to be based on the audience. I keep a file of my own grant writing templates and use those as the basis for new proposals.”
• Executive summary: The executive summary may be the first section that a review committee reads. It needs to clearly state three particular points. You need to show that the project relates to an important aspect of the community, that the organization or individual has the experience and background to accomplish their goals and that the proposed plans are related to the funder’s interests. Houston suggests writing the executive summary first in a “working backwards” plan of attack. In part, she suggests writing this section first because it is one of the most time-consuming parts and requires a particular set of “creative writing skills” to be both concise and informative.
• Needs statement: The needs statement is often one of the bulkier components of your grant proposal because you will need to provide details about the urgency and need for your project. This is the section where writers need to convince the prospective funder that their project performs an essential function and that they are the correct group or organization to get it done. You should plan on the needs statement being about one page in length.
• Goals and objective: In this section, writers need to lay out what they plan to do about solving the problem or challenge at hand. It’s best to be explicit and state the goals that the project hopes to accomplish. Include a timeframe for these goals. Be sure to include specific results you plan to achieve. Richardson argues that using quantifiable goals or numbers is a useful strategy and makes the project feel more doable.
• Program design: When creating your program design, build upon the goals and objectives you just laid out and tell the funder how you plan to achieve everything. This is the moment where the writer tells the reviewer exactly how they expect the project to unfold and be effective at solving the stated problem.
• Evaluation section: The evaluation section shows the funder how you plan to assess the accomplishments of the project you are proposing. Review committees want to know what impact you will have and how you plan to evaluate these outcomes. To receive an unbiased assessment of what a project will cost, some grant writers will hire an outside evaluator.
• Sustainability: This section gives grant writers a chance to explain all the sources of funding that will support the project. In some cases, funders like to be part of collaborative projects in which they are not the only source of financial support. Traditionally, funders want to know if this project has an end-date or if it’s an ongoing effort that will extend into the future. If it is the latter, they will want to know how the organization or individual plans to continue supporting the project and if it’s a sustainable endeavor.
• Brief about your organization: This section should include a few paragraphs that provide a short yet detailed history of the organization, a mission statement, and track record of their work in the field. This helps the funder know that you have experience and can be trusted with the responsibilities outlined in your proposal and that you will use the funds efficiently.
• Project budget: The budget should show exactly how much the project will cost to carry out in its entirety. The budget is essentially a list of your expected expenses and if there’s any income or donations associated with the project. Writers need to include personal costs that they may incur, administrative expenses, and costs that come from the project itself.

Whether you are submitting a hard copy by mail or a digital copy online, make sure that all sections of the proposal are included and that you’ve covered all the bases as requested by the grantor’s original guidelines. It’s more important that your documents are free of typographical errors and easy-to-read than to have some kind of fancy presentation of the materials.

If there’s no clear timeline for when you might hear a response to your proposal, it is acceptable to send a well-crafted follow up email. This reiterates your interest in the funding and gives you an opportunity to quickly restate why your project is an excellent candidate for their support. Be sure that your follow-up is professional and consistently uses a positive tone.

Writers need to make clear to review committees why they’re telling a particular story and specifically why it is relevant today. Houston reiterates this point, stating that, “Narrative is a critical tool for writing grants. Use personal stories and examples to illustrate the need. Make those reviewers feel something!”

Thomas Richardson feels similarly and argues that the writing should be clear while still sounding natural and “like a human wrote it.” He emphasizes that, “It’s not leisure reading [for review committees]. Just having a narrative that sounds like a human wrote it is helpful to get the reviewer to stay with you and not glaze over while they’re reviewing it.”

Grant writers need to take the funder on a journey from the problem that needs to be addressed, through the planned approach, to a positive and logical outcome. Throughout her preliminary research before writing a grant, Houston keeps track of relevant stories from the community that the grant intends to serve. She keeps a running document with personal stories that help explain the benefit of the project. She also notes that it is important to protect people’s identities and to get permission to share their stories before you put them in a grant.

The story needs to include characters, especially the main players who will be making the project happen on the ground. In this way, be sure to include the project leaders, any kind of management team or task forces, as well as the people involved who will benefit from the project.

Sometimes it’s difficult to know if your proposal will be reviewed by a single individual or by a number of people on a review committee. Effective storytelling and knowing one’s audience are crucial but tricky aspects of grant writing. Knowing the funder’s areas of interest, funding objectives, and project guidelines is one thing. Knowing what will grab their attention and lead them to ultimately back your proposal is another. Richardson suggests casting a wide net that appeases both the qualitative- and quantitative-focused reviewer. Richardson suggests that grant proposal writers should pay equal attention to the budgeting aspects of the proposal as much as the engaging narrative to cover their bases. For him, this shows, “what the recipient wants to do with the money and if they are capable and responsible of handling it.”

Even the best stories can lose their impact if they’re not delivered well. Take extra care to craft thoughtful statements, tell your story clearly, and keep it interesting. It is possible to heed Richardson’s advice of writing with a natural, human-like voice while writing extremely well.