Following the Proper Steps

Summary covering Chapter 5 of Get That Grant Book  by Weisblat

When writing a grant proposal, understand that everything should flow and be well thought out. The funding agency should be able to review the proposal and understand the background research, how the program operates, and the ongoing process. Think of this as explaining every stage of your program as if it already exists. Funding agencies will not be excited to support a program that hasn’t been well thought out and planned. Without having a clear focus, process, and curriculum, your program impersonates failure before it even begins.

Holes and gaps are not acceptable in writing your proposal. Therefore, set the body of the proposal up as a step ladder, walking through the process of your program. Begin this method much like you would when doing an outline. Proceed by drawing a ladder, stair, or building blocks in order to sketch out each step. Your ladder should ultimately be created with your vision, goals, and objectives as its target. While establishing this process, you can evaluate if changes are needed. Until you submit your proposal, it’s never too late to revise.

Kick-off this building process with the research done for supporting the success of the program.

Step 1:  This includes, but is not limited to, other programs and statistics.

Step 2:  Establish guidelines, such as requirements for each player, expectations of individuals, manuals, handbooks and more.

Step 3:  This step should address the stakeholders or networking group as talked about in chapter 3.

Step 4:  Another vital step in the time, location, transportation and more of the program, known as logistics. Depending on the time, location, and transportation to and from, they can decrease or add value to the success of the program and its attendance rate.

Step 5:  Identifies the marketing strategy for growing your program. This may include fliers, social media, presentations, conferences, and more. Marketing holds value as it grows the program and those impacted by it.

Step 6:  Another key step to climb is properly evaluating the program’s time-line. The time-line shows the funding agency your time period for the growth of the program. To avoid setbacks and missed accomplishments, the time-line should contain weeks or months rather than dates.

Step 7:  Finally, never forget to strategically layout the details of the budget.

Once concluding this ladder process, anyone should be able to identify the path for acquiring the vision, goals, and objectives of the program.

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