COM-BSN8608 - Writing Effective Grant Proposals

Course Description

Learn to prepare grant proposals that get solid results for your favorite organization or charity. Over $200 billion annually is available for worthy causes and most people don't know how to prepare the application that will deliver needed funding. Avoid the mistakes that get applications for wonderful projects tossed into the wastebasket. Learn how to write professional proposals that actually succeed.

Course Outline

Lesson 01 - The Writing Style You Will Need for Your Grant Proposal

There's nothing magical about preparing a grant request, but in this lesson, you will learn some easy and fun tricks of trade that will help you with all sorts of writing projects, even those beyond grant proposals. Additionally, you will learn some special ways to practice these tricks.

Lesson 02 - Thinking About Your Institution the Way Grantors Do

People who work for causes that they believe in will often care about those causes in a very special and personal way. But grantors, who deal with literally thousands of institutions and causes, have a rather different way of thinking about them. In this lesson, you will put yourself in their shoes and learn how to effectively describe your own cause to anyone.

Lesson 03 - Information You Will Need for Your Grant Proposal

Now that you have tried on your grantor's shoes, it's time to talk about why those grantors look for certain kinds of information and documents. You will learn what these documents are, so you can dig them out and be ready to supply them when you prepare a grant request.

Lesson 04 - Special Characteristics of Non-Profit Organizations

There are lots of interesting things to know about each individual nonprofit organization, but all nonprofits share one thing: They're not in it to for the money. Generally, you can measure a good business by its bottom line—whether it makes money or not. But how do you measure the effectiveness of a nonprofit that needs money? In this lesson, you will start to look into it.

Lesson 05 - Finding Funding Sources—Foundations

The hunt for funding sources is the eternal game of hide and seek that grant writers have to consider. How do you find sources that might be appropriate for you? This lesson will point you toward the most effective research tools available.

Lesson 06 - Finding Out About Your Foundation Prospects

Once you find some foundations that you think might be a good fit for your cause, how do you choose among a field that might include hundreds? In this lesson, you will learn different ways to sift through these foundations, and in the course of this process, you may unearth sources you haven't even considered.

Lesson 07 - Finding Out About Your Corporate Prospects

You have looked at all the possible charitable foundations that fit your cause, but don't stop there. What about the corporate world? Corporations have foundations, but they also have other ways of giving. This lesson focuses on packaging your projects for corporations.

Lesson 08 - Doing the Numbers

Even if you're a word person, you'll need to learn another way to tell your story—by letting the numbers do the talking. The people who review your proposals will attach great importance to numbers, so you can't get away with only describing a project with words. In this lesson, you will learn about preparing numbers effectively. It's not hard to do, but it's essential to the success of your proposal.

Lesson 09 - Assembling Your Proposal

By the time you reach this lesson, you will have all the pieces you need for your proposal. Now it's time to put them all together and add the finishing touches so you can finally put a complete proposal in the mail.

Lesson 10 - So You Don't Get a Gift—What Now?

In the grant writing industry, you won't win them all. But when you do get a turndown, there are positive alternatives to doom and gloom. The suggestions in this lesson will help you deal with those inevitable turndowns.

Lesson 11 - So You Get a Gift—What Now?

Okay, just as you hoped—you did get a gift. There's an old saying in this business: Every gift paves the way to the next. This lesson will ensure you know just how to pave that road.

Lesson 12 - Some Thoughts About Writing Grant Proposals to Individuals

Now that you have all the elements you need for your proposal; can you also send it to an individual? Partially, yes. But you need to think about what would interest an individual and how you can best present your proposal to them; that's what this final lesson covers.

Learner Outcomes

Write for all sorts of writing projects as well as grant proposals
Learn effective ways to describe your own cause that will stand out to grantors
Discover what information and documents you will need to supply with a grant request
Learn how to find funding sources using the web
Create a complete proposal ready to present

Notes

This is an asynchronous online course offered through the third party vendor ed2go. This course may be taken on a PC, Mac, or Chromebook. The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online. There are twelve lessons in the course, and two lessons are released each week on Wednesdays and Fridays. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.