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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781119267676 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 08/22/2023 |
| Series: | Wiley Nonprofit Law, Finance and Management Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 360 |
| Sales rank: | 992,038 |
| File size: | 20 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
How to Write a Grant Proposal
By Cheryl Carter New James Aaron Quick
John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-471-21220-2Chapter One
Cover LetterThe advantage of love at first sight is that it delays a second sight. Natalie Clifford Barney
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
Transmittal letter or letter of transmission
When Is It Used?
A cover letter should be sent whenever it is not prohibited. With some requests for proposal, there is a strict page limitation with explicit directions to follow for every page. In this case, a cover letter is not usually appropriate. However, you can leverage a cover letter to make an excellent first impression so it should be included whenever possible. Normally with proposal to a foundation or a state program, a cover letter can be included. Often with a federal grant program, a cover letter is not included.
Why Is It Used?
A cover letter is an introduction. It is a lot like making introductions in person. It is a way of getting started on the right foot by introducing yourself instead of launching into the request right away.
Key Concepts
Brief.
Positive and confident.
Concise and inviting.
Thank you.
Formatting Issues
Make the letter one page only, keeping it as brief as possible. The letter should be printed on original letterhead. The type should be a 12-point text font, and the margins should be generous, which means at leastone inch. We suggest you not fully justify your text (straight margins on both left and right). Use left justification and leave the right margin ragged (rag right). There should be a reference line between the inside address and salutation that clearly identifies the grant program for which the proposal is being submitted.
The salutation should be to a specific person. You may not use "To whom it may concern" or "Dear Colleague" salutations. They show that you have not done the basic research to determine the grant program contact person. The letter should come from (be signed by) the highest ranking person possible in your organization (the correspondent). The letter should be signed by a person, not a machine or a computer and preferably with blue ink. A letter signed with blue ink is indisputably an original. Don't forget to include the "prepared by" line at the bottom of the letter. Show professionalism in all ways-including the smallest.
Detailed Discussion
A cover letter is an opportunity for you to make an inviting introduction to the grant maker about your organization and also about your project. This is a place for creativity but not elaborate language. You want to warmly invite the reader to read about your excellent project.
The cover letter is one place to push the most obvious "hot buttons." What is a hot button? It is an issue that is critical to the funder. As we have explained in detail in our other books, you must meet the funder's agenda to receive an award. By reading every bit of information you can find on the funder, you will see recurring topics and themes. Perhaps the funder is particularly interested in diversity, or projects that promote preventive health care, or projects that promote family unity. These are hot buttons-issues that are at the heart of the reason the funder has gone to the trouble of setting up funds to grant.
Funders do not just decide to offer grants willy nilly. There is a problem or several problems they want to solve. If they had enough funding to solve the problem themselves, they would certainly try to do just that. For example, assume one grant maker wants to stop drug and alcohol abuse in the United States. How much money would it take to do that? More than even our federal and state governments have. So with the funds the grant maker has, they "seed" projects that, in their opinion, have a good chance of making an impact. They fund projects that can be modeled by other groups to help in their communities. Do they fund projects to set up animal shelters? Or water conservation? No, they fund projects that obviously and rationally directly impact drug and alcohol use in this country. This is just one reason why it is a huge mistake to write one proposal and send it to dozens of funders-you are wasting your time if your project does not match the hot buttons of the funder.
How do you find out about a given funder's hot buttons? You read their literature-all of it. You read about projects they have funded in the past. You read any articles you can find about the funder. Most funders have an Internet presence now and that makes it a lot easier, but some are glad to mail you information about their programs. Funders do not keep their key agendas secret and they are not playing a game with you-they want to invest in the very best projects they can.
Let's look at a couple of examples from actual information published by grant makers.
The Ford Foundation is a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide. Our goals are to:
Strengthen democratic values,
Reduce poverty and injustice,
Promote international cooperation and
Advance human achievement
This has been our purpose for more than half a century.
A fundamental challenge facing every society is to create political, economic and social systems that promote peace, human welfare and the sustainability of the environment on which life depends. We believe that the best way to meet this challenge is to encourage initiatives by those living and working closest to where problems are located; to promote collaboration among the nonprofit, government and business sectors, and to ensure participation by men and women from diverse communities and at all levels of society. In our experience, such activities help build common understanding, enhance excellence, enable people to improve their lives and reinforce their commitment to society. The Ford Foundation is one source of support for these activities. We work mainly by making grants or loans that build knowledge and strengthen organizations and networks. Since our financial resources are modest in comparison to societal needs, we focus on a limited number of problem areas and program strategies within our broad goals.
Let's look at what the Ford Foundation says about itself. What are its hot buttons? The obvious ones are the four bulleted items, but what are the less obvious issues critical to the grant maker, the Ford Foundation?
First of all they write, "we believe the best way to meet this challenge is to encourage initiatives by those living and working closest to where problems are located." What does this mean? It means that the Ford Foundation wants to fund efforts at the grassroots level. It is not going to look kindly on a proposal by a think tank in California wishing to solve a literacy issue in the rural Midwest. It will, however, consider a proposal that meets one or more of the obvious criteria (the ones in bullets) and that is submitted by a group of organizations actually located in the rural Midwest.
So how do you use this information in a cover letter? Well you might write an initial paragraph like the one below.
Our project will go a long way to effectively offering literacy education classes right in the communities in which our most rural citizens live. Our organization is located centrally among five counties with the highest poverty ratings and lowest educational achievement in the state. Our illiterate citizens have failed in school and thus do not want to go to a school house for help. They are much more comfortable in their churches, grange halls, and local grocery stores. So we are taking our programs to them.
Here is another example from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.
The mission of the Conservation Program is to ensure a healthy future for all life on earth. The Conservation Program embraces an ecological approach that draws together the people, institutions, resources, and ideas that can best address our environmental crisis. Our primary goal is to conserve biodiversity resources in our core geography of California, Cascadia, Hawaii, the Western Pacific, and Mexico. To accomplish that, we support field-based projects in those areas. In addition, other program areas address some of the drivers of biodiversity loss and environmental decline; these program areas include Marine Fisheries, Energy, Western Land Use, and, in conjunction with the Population Program, Population-Environment.
The primary goals are pretty well clarified in this statement. However, take notice of the phrase, "draws together the people, institutions, resources, and ideas that can best address." This indicates that this grant maker subscribes to the practice of partnering to solve a problem. This is a growing issue among grant makers around the world. The theory is that partnerships make best use of all resources and reduce redundancy in the use of resources. The following is a paragraph for a cover letter that addresses both the primary issues and the hot button.
In our coastal area, pollution from area industry has raised temperatures of the bay so that the native fish and shellfish are dying or are contaminated by bacteria. This interrupts the ecosystem and interrupts the carefully and environmentally sound management of our fishing industry. Through a coalition of concerned citizens, managers of the local fish processing plants, representatives of the fishermen, and key top managers of the local industries, we believe we have developed a solution to the problem-one with lasting effect.
What have you done with this introductory paragraph in your cover letter? You have let them know that you understand their agenda, and moreover, you meet the essence of their standard. In doing this, you are predisposing them to like your proposal because you clearly understand their key considerations and, moreover, you agree with them.
What is another thing your cover letter accomplishes? It places your organization and project in the state, country or world. You know your community intimately. But remember, the readers who read your proposal may not know anything about your type of community. Many government grant makers bring in people from all parts of the country and not one may be from your part of the world. Even within a state, one part of the state may not know a thing about the problems and pressures of living in another part of the state. So one thing you do in a cover letter is try to give a thumbnail picture of your part of the world and the target population your project intends to serve.
Here is an example of how you might briefly describe your location and target population in a cover letter.
Our area is rural and our population is diverse due mostly to a large number of migrant workers. There are few cohesive communities with recognizable structure. Our people mostly work the land or work in the few small industries scattered across the three counties we intend to serve. Most adults reached no more than eighth grade and most clearly live in poverty.
Here is another example from a different type of environment.
We are a second tier city of half a million people. Most of our citizens work in steel or heavy manufacturing facilities. During a significant portion of the year, the climate is such that citizens rarely get out except to go to work. Loose communities surround each manufacturing plant. Other than school, there is little for our young people to do and there are many hours of isolation without adult supervision. For these and other reasons, we have a growing alcohol abuse problem both with adults and, significantly, with our young people.
It is also important to state your purpose for submitting a proposal. You do not need to go into detail but you need to say something more than "we need money." They know that. Few, if any, funders will fund the entire budget of a project. This is not a money issue as much as a philosophy issue. If the grant maker funds the entire budget, what will happen after the grant funding inevitably runs out? The project will die. Other than entitlements, grant funding is not intended to go on forever. It has a limited time span and no grant funder wants to fund a project that dies when the funding runs out. They want to fund lasting efforts that are good investments.
So the grant maker wants to see your investment, and that of all the other partners and stakeholders in the effort. This is the overall project budget. There is a smaller budget that represents what you are asking of the grant maker. Here is an example of what you might say as a purpose for submitting the proposal.
Though we have funding internally and from our partners for the planning phase and for the actual structures within which the project will run, we do not have enough funding to cover all of the equipment necessary to accomplish the project mission.
Here is another example of a concise statement of purpose.
Our project is designed so that once it is implemented, project income and donated staff from our partners will insure continuation. However, for the project to be initiated, we need funding for staff training, for resource materials for our community resource center, and for the technology to manage the continuing project.
Next to last, it is important to thank the grant maker for the opportunity to submit a proposal. Everyone likes to be thanked and the representatives of the grant maker are no exceptions. It is an opportunity that you would not have if the people that set up the fund had not worked hard, first of all, to establish the fund and, second, to review, select and evaluate worthy projects.
Finally, give information on the project contact person. The project contact person is the one person in your organization who knows more about the project than anyone else. At this time, the contact person is probably the proposal writer rather than the project director. It is also probably not the cover letter correspondent. The contact person must be able to answer questions about the project, especially budget questions. Give the name, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address for the contact person. If there are any special directions for making contact, such as time restrictions, include this information also.
Continues...
Excerpted from How to Write a Grant Proposal by Cheryl Carter New James Aaron Quick Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
IntroductionChapter 1: Cover Letter
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Detailed Discussion
Putting It All Together
Authorship
Checklist—Cover Letter
Last Words
Examples of Cover Letters for Four Projects
Chapter 2: Table of Contents
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Psychology and Organization
Examples
Checklist—Table of Contents
Last Words
Examples of Tables of Contents for Four Projects
Chapter 3: Executive Summary
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Project Title
Contact Person
Proposal Submitted By
Mission Statement
Summary of Problem Statement and Project Synopsis
Expected Results
Funding Request
Your Investment
Checklist—Executive Summary
Last Words
Examples of Executive Summaries of Four Projects
Chapter 4: Project Summary
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Use Goals to Describe the Project
Examples
Checklist—Project Summary
Last Words
Examples of Project Summaries for Four Projects
Chapter 5: Problem Statement
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Describe the Problem
The Problem Is the Basis for Your Project
The Problem Is Your Connection with the Funder
Lack of Something Is Not a Problem
Include These Elements in the Problem Statement
Logical Narrative Description of the Problem
Statistical Backups and Comparisons
Results of Local Needs Assessments
Historical Data—How Did This Occur?
Statement of Impact of Problem
Checklist—Problem Statement
Last Words
Examples of Problem Statements for Four Projects
Chapter 6: Mission, Goals, and Objectives
At a Glance
What Else Are They Called?
When Are They Used?
Why Are They Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
A Goal by Any Other Name
Graphical Representation of the Mission, Goal, and Objective Progression
Mission
Goal
Objective
Checklist—Goals and Objectives
Last Words
Examples of Mission, Goals, and Objectives for Four Projects
Chapter 7: Project Description
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Goals and Objectives Can Be Used for Guidance
Cover All Major Project Events in Logical Order
Cover All Hot Buttons
Meet Any Special Considerations Listed
Special Budget Requests
Be Clear on Technical Issues
Checklist—Project Description
Last Words
Examples of Project Descriptions for Four Projects
Chapter 8 Project Management Plan
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Organization Chart
Discuss the Responsibilities of Key Personnel
Discuss Loaned or Volunteer Staff
Provide an Overview of Fiscal Management
Evaluation
Documentation
Checklist—Management Plan
Last Words
Examples of Management Plan for Four Projects
Chapter 9: Documentation Plan
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Project Planning
Project Set-up
Implementation
Results or Outcomes
Planning What to Share
Checklist—Documentation Plan
Last Words
Examples of Documentation Plan for Four Projects
Chapter 10: Evaluation Plan
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Assistance for Development of an Evaluation Plan
Connect to Goals and Objectives
About Measurability
Communication with the Funder
The Role of Documentation
Internal Evaluation Team
External Evaluation Team
Checklist—Evaluation Plan
Last Words
Examples of Evaluation Plans for Four Projects
Chapter 11: Dissemination Plan
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Local Dissemination
State Dissemination
National Dissemination
Consider Fees
Products To Be Sold
Checklist—Dissemination Plan
Last Words
Examples of Dissemination Plans for Four Projects
Chapter 12: Continuation Plan
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Why Do Funders Want to Know about Continuation?
What Are the Keys to Continuation?
How Do You Prove You Will Continue a Project?
What Is Evidence of Continuation?
Checklist—Continuation Plan
Last Words
Examples of Continuation Plans for Four Projects
Chapter 13: Key Personnel Biographies
At a Glance
What Else Are They Called?
When Are They Used?
Why Are They Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Who Are Key Persons?
Do Not Wait until the Last Minute
Interview
Name, Rank, and Serial Number
Specialties
Summary
Experience
Professional Activities
Education
Job Description
Checklist—Key Personnel Bios
Last Words
Examples of Key Personnel Bios for Four Projects
Chapter 14: Timelines
At a Glance
What Else Are They Called?
When Are They Used?
Why Are They Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Goals and Major Objectives
Milestones or Special Events
Major Reports and Evaluations
Important Deadlines
Special Requirements of Funder
Examples
Checklist—Timeline
Last Words
Examples of Timelines for Four Projects
Chapter 15: Budget Summary
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Budget Assistance
Introduction
In-Kind
Direct Costs
Indirect Costs
Overhead
Items Included in Budgets
Formatting the Budget
Checklist—Budget Summary
Last Words
Examples of Budgets for Four Projects
Chapter 16: Budget Justification
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Personnel
Fringe Benefits
Travel
Contractual Services
Construction or Renovation
Materials
Supplies
Equipment
Indirect Costs
Checklist—Budget Justification
Last Words
Examples of Budget Justification for Four Projects
Chapter 17: Appendix
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Items to Include
Biographical Sketches of Key Personnel
Organization Chart
Timeline
Letters of Support
Survey, Test, and Questionnaire Results
Equipment Descriptions
Lists of Advisors and Board Members
Checklist—Appendix
Last Words
Examples of Appendices for Four Projects
Chapter 18: Bibliography
At a Glance
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Include Only Recent or Landmark References
Do Not Include References Not Used in Your Proposal
Include a Bibliography, Even if You Have Footnotes
Quote Studies from the Potential Funder
Examples of Bibliographical Formats
Checklist—Bibliography
Last Words
Examples of Bibliographies for Four Projects
Chapter 19: Introduction and Forms
At a Glance—Introduction
What Else Is It Called?
When Is It Used?
Why Is It Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
Follow the Funder's Directions for Content
Describe Your Organization
Provide a Brief Summary of the Problem You Are Addressing
At a Glance—Forms
What Else Are They Called?
When Are They Used?
Why Are They Used?
Key Concepts
Formatting Issues
If Forms Are Required, Complete Each and Every One
Use the Forms You Are Given
Put Forms in the Proposal in Exactly the Order in Which You Are Directed
Complete Each Form Neatly and Legibly (You May Need to Use a Typewriter)
Checklist—Introduction and Forms
Last Words
Index