Grant+Writing

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 * Letter of Intent (LOI)
 * Supplement Materials
 * Community Foundation -- community and private are the most given
 * human services, arts and culture, environment and religion
 * Private Foundation
 * Corporate Foundations - Competition is higher
 * health, international affairs
 * health, international affairs

The Process
 * Research (on school, grant-giving organization)
 * Be a grant reader (be a judge for a grant-giving organization, look at previous winners)
 * Get a team
 * Pick targets
 * Make timelines for deadlines (give enough time for each step)
 * Create an electronic library
 * Think innovation! - needs to be different from the rest
 * Proofread

Before Starting the Grant
 * Identify the school's strengths, things we already have successes for, look at weaknesses,
 * Identify and develop a project that supports your core mission
 * Identify foundations that fit your oganization

Develop a Team
 * Thank you team!!
 * Researchers (can be high school students)
 * Writers (only 1 person should be the main writer - the reader will know if multiple people have written the grant)
 * General admin tasks
 * Proofreaders (at least 2) - send to one person at a time! wait for the first proofreads to come back before doing the second
 * Letters of support - letters from principal, administration, PTA, local organizations, etc....from anyone and everyone - give them a template for the letter of support (just write letter of support for them)

Create Timelines
 * Give timeline/deadline for proofreaders/writers/
 * Pretend everything is due 1 week early (everybody likes to do it at the last minute)
 * Proofread twice - leave time
 * Call - make sure they've received it

Be a Detective!!
 * Research Application Guidelines and Information (regurgitate their mission and guidelines)
 * Call and talk to the grant coordinator to ask questions

Make sure to match:
 * Geographic requirements
 * Populations
 * Interests
 * Priorities
 * Activites
 * Funding range (if you already have grant commitment from other companies, you have a higher likelihood of getting a grant)
 * You can't say that you're being funded by someone if you haven't been guaranteed yet
 * "Only sell what you have"
 * Notifying the grant-giving organization after an application has been submitted (

Anatomy of a Grant Proposal
 * Executive Summary (1 page)
 * Statement of Need (2 pg)
 * Project Description (3 pg)
 * Methods, staffing, evaluation, and sustainability
 * Budget (1 pg)
 * Organization Information (1 pg)
 * Conclusion (2 paragraphs)

Writing
 * FOLLOW DIRECTIONS
 * Regurgitate
 * Tell a story
 * Inject excitement - find the "WOW!" (you don't want the grant reader to be bored - you also want them to have an emotional connection)
 * Proofread
 * Proofread again
 * Start wtih their mission and

Build a Relationship
 * Write letters
 * Call
 * Write more letters
 * Call again
 * Write letters!!! (the kids can do it - mail a letter a day to the grant giving office - hand written from the kids)

Create an Electronic Library of Supplement Materials
 * School demographics
 * Description of local issues
 * Project descriptions
 * Bios
 * Press releases
 * Press coverage (if you're going to do PR for them, they want to see a full process)

Judging Round 1
 * Typical first round is yes or no (no typos, proper grammar, reflect adequate page length, font size, etc)

Judging Round 2

Judging Round 3
 * Unique Plan, Unique Strategy

After the win
 * Thank EVERYONE
 * Press releases
 * Use social media/internet marketing
 * send progress reports (i.e. like a video recording - recorded before hte computers were in there, the first day, the first week
 * Deliver


 * Winning a grant is your leverage to win another!

Foundation Center - GREAT resource - can sign up for updates to come via email The Grantsmanship Center tgci.com (courses for learning how to write grants?) Grant Wrangler - can search for grants that are due by a certain date Technologygrantnews.com School Grants - preK-12 Donors Choose(specifically fund classroom projects) Kaboom - challenge grant for playgrounds

43 grants are run through the Digital Wish site (they negotiate educational pricing)

Flip - buy one get one now - needs to become the property of a school -ok to send a before picture Social Media Campaigns and Grants (someone from Digital Wish is specifically researching this) -public/community decides who wins -really start looking at this -a lot of companies are starting to do it this way too High school students as a resource!!! Lindsay McFillin Development Manager, Digital Wish lindsay@digitalwish.com 802-375-6721 x209