Episode Details

If you are looking to increase your grant writing skills to the next level, you are going to love these tips!

First off, do you already know how to write grants? If not, that’s okay! You might also want to refer to our article on the steps on drafting an effective grant application. 

In this article and podcast, I am going to go over some sidebar tips on grant writing that will increase your competitiveness for getting grant funding.

I’ve used these tips throughout my 16+ years of grant writing.

Grant Writing Tip #1

Sure, sometimes it may not be worth going after certain grants if they do not have the funding to support your program.

However, more often then not, I see nonprofit leaders just looking at how much money is available and then trying to fit their program into the funding source’s scope. This is referred to as chasing the money or mission drifting.

Your eyes might light up when you see all those zeroes in a grant announcement. However, this does not mean that the funding source is just pouring money out to anyone and everyone.

You will have better luck to secure grants when you apply for grants where you can show that your project is a good fit in one sentence. If you have to create complicated Venn diagrams and write more than a couple of sentences on why your project is a good fit, it probably isn’t a good fit after all.

Grant Writing Tip #2

This may seem like a no-brainer, but I can’t tell you how many nonprofit organizations come up with ideas for projects, but they don’t realize that the exact programs may already be operating in the neighborhood.

Here’s the thing. Just because you don’t know if a project exists, does not mean that it doesn’t exist. Do your due diligence to check and see if other partner organizations are already running that specific project.

Are you ready for the Catch-22?

Just because a partner nonprofit is running that same type of project, it does not mean that you cannot develop the project. Your project might serve a different demographic, or be able to serve a wider network.

However, it is important when writing your grant application that you demonstrate why there is a need for your project if there is already an existing similar project.

For example, your nonprofit organization may want to start a community garden. You do your research and find out that less than five miles away, another nonprofit is running a community garden. It does not mean you have to throw in the towel, but instea,d you can reach out to the nonprofit and find out more about who they serve and any existing gaps.

Let’s just say that they have a wait list for people wanting plots at the community garden. In that case, your project might be almost identical. In your grant, you could clearly state that there is a need for additional plots of land for gardening based on the wait list.

However, let’s say that t