Grant Writing is just Good ‘ol Project Management
The Giant Squid Group team writes a lot of grants, and we have a running joke: “Hey, what's it like to be a grant writer?” Because good grant writing is about a lot more than just writing grant narratives!
A lot of grant writing is about following directions a.k.a the rules, especially when you’re first starting. Do you remember in high school - or whatever your place of residence’s equivalent is of high school - when your teacher would remind you to write your name on a test because it was an easy 10 points? This is the energy you must cultivate to be a successful grant writer.
That said, I promise there will come a time after intentional cultivation with a funder when you can rock the boat and challenge their processes.
In my opinion, effective grant writing is 20% writing and 80% project management. What do I mean by that? Well, most proposals follow a similar format:
Organizational information
Proposal Information
Organizational Finances
Attachments
Depending on the funder and the application's popularity, the sections may require more or less info. But, the above format is standard. Sections one and three should be easily pulled from your boilerplate - if you don’t have one yet, make one, it will truly save you so much time. Check out this article on the Giant Squid Group blog to get you started with a boilerplate. It also includes a FREE boilerplate template!
Read more: Writing your Grant Boilerplate
Here is where project management comes into play. You gotta break it down into pieces. Generally, I like to start one month before the due date. If this is a new funder, give you and your team (Executive, Development Director, and Programs Staff) two months before the due date to put the application together. The following is a general management plan:
1-2 months before the due date
ED/Dev. Director reaches out to the funder - This is key! Why? Because if the funder doesn’t think ya’ll would be a good fit, it saves you time and resources!
If available, pull the grant application from the funder’s portal and identify areas to review with your team.
Meet with the team to discuss the application priority. Will it be a GenOps (general operations application) or a programmatic ask?
If major finance items are missing, loop in your organization’s finance department to help you gather that information.
One month before the due date
Assess remaining items to complete the application? Do you still need program updates from the programs team? Do you still need budget info from the finance department? Do you need any letters of support? Now would be a good time to send out reminders.
Complete any remaining programs narrative - the 20% of writing I mentioned above - and share the entire application with your team to start making edits.
Two weeks before the due date
Do you have all the required attachments? Are there team members you need to ping again?
Finalize your draft and get it approved by your Executive Director.
One week before the due date
Submit!
The hardest part of grant writing is making sure you get the items you need on time. This is why we say it's more about management than writing. Nonprofits and start-ups are usually run by small but mighty teams who have a lot on their plate. Reminders, assignments, and constant communication are essential to submitting an outstanding and thorough grant application on time. You may be the grant manager or writer, but you are in no way meant to do it by yourself. And, if anyone ever makes you feel that it's your responsibility to navigate it all by yourself, well, they just don’t have the organization’s mission at heart.
Lastly, whether you’re a $10K budget organization or a $5Mil organization: stay organized. Giant Squid Group is entirely remote, and we use some of the following management tools to stay organized:
Google Drive: To keep applications organized and collaborate on drafts with teams.
Asana: To create calendars, keep track of deadlines, and assign tasks to teams.
Trello: To organize multiple client boards, calendars, deadlines, and tasks.
Last Pass: To save passwords to portals and easily share with team members.
Calendly: To schedule and track meetings.
After a couple of successfully submitted applications, you’ll begin to streamline your process and figure out what works best for you and your teams. Then, the process becomes more plug-and-play than starting from scratch. We hope this helps, and best of luck out there!