Moving from Research to Proposal Preparation
January 01, 2017
This post is the last in a four-part series on preparations to complete before preparing a grant application. To recap what has been covered:
STAGE ONE
The first stage of the process involves collecting the background information you'll need to write the proposal. This includes your funding needs, your organization's history and recent accomplishments, a project description, the names of the staff members who will work on the proposal, and the names of the staff who will work on the project. As part of the first-stage work, you'll identify relevant keywords to identify potential funders.
STAGE TWO
The second stage of the process is deciding which tools you'll use to conduct your research. There are both free and fee-based databases, or you can use Google or another search engine to get started. If you do not have the resources to pay for a premium database but want something more targeted than Google, check whether your local library has a subscription to a funder database such as GrantSelect.com.
STAGE THREE
The third stage of the process uses your list of keywords (generated in the first stage) and your chosen research tools (from the second stage) to identify potential funders. To reduce the list to a manageable size, review each foundation to determine whether it warrants further consideration or can be eliminated. Many of the foundations on the list can be eliminated immediately based on eligibility requirements. Others may require a little more time, but the goal is to review each foundation to determine whether your organization fits within its focus areas and eligibility requirements.
After you complete your scan of each foundation that has come up through your keyword search, you'll be left with a significantly shorter list. You'll use this list for your more in-depth reviews. The foundations that survive closer scrutiny will be written up in one-page profiles to inform later discussion about what you'll do next, which will be one of three things:
Apply for an open opportunity
Schedule a time to revisit the foundation to look for opportunities
Eliminate the foundation from your list
If you decide to eliminate the foundation from your list after reviewing it in greater depth, you can officially retire the foundation from your list of prospects. If you remove a foundation from the list, update your foundation tracker to note that the foundation no longer requires follow-up.
SUMMARIZING AN OPPORTUNITY
If a foundation has an opportunity you are interested in, your next step is to review the details. This includes everything from the application deadline and award amount to the expected results. The foundation summary is about the big picture and covers the foundation's program areas, interests, leadership, and history. The opportunity summary focuses on the details of a specific funding opportunity announced by the foundation. Some of the information may overlap between the two profiles, but the opportunity summary has a narrower focus.
What you capture in your opportunity summary will vary depending on whether the opportunity is a government grant or a foundation grant. If you want to create your own templates, you could create one for foundation-sponsored opportunities and a second for government grants. If you use a single template, ensure it is comprehensive and includes space for everything you'll want to evaluate across all types of opportunities.
USING THE OPPORTUNITY SUMMARY FOR GO/NO-GO MEETINGS
The opportunity summary should be referred to during go/no-go discussions. The go/no-go meeting brings together key stakeholders (program staff, finance staff, senior leadership, etc.) to decide whether to pursue an opportunity. Among other things, the meeting should review the opportunity costs and benefits, and whether the opportunity aligns with and advances the organization's mission. To keep the meeting on track, it helps to reference a written description of the opportunity that covers all key points. This is where the opportunity summary comes in handy.
When you review the specifics of an opportunity, you'll need to think through the resources required to respond (people, time, money, skills). If the opportunity costs are too high, or if the opportunity isn't a good fit with your organization's interests or direction, you can stop there and eliminate it from further consideration. You may decide to stop following the funder, or keep an eye out for future opportunities the funder releases that may be a better fit.
If an opportunity looks promising but you don't think you have the resources or expertise to compete, consider letting it go rather than investing in a response that has little chance of winning.
NEXT STEPS
If the opportunity aligns with your organization's mission and you have the resources to respond, you'll move into the next phase: managing the proposal's preparation.
If you are interested in the proposal management piece, keep reading! We'll cover the proposal management process in future posts.
Most grant writers have been asked at some point to “massage” unfavorable facts into preferred ones, or have seen their fact-based prose reworked by others into something that has the essence of truth but is not strictly true, or is at least less transparent. To some, this may sound like business as usual and what you need to do to win a grant. However, these little acts of truth-stretching, which can take the form of exaggerations, omissions, and misrepresentations, can exact a cost.