September 20, 2001 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Grant Writing for Dummies
By Beverly Browning
“Back in the third grade, when your classroom had career day, did you dress up as a grant writer? For show and tell day, did you bring a grant writer to class?” asks Beverly Browning, a proposal-writing consultant. “Probably not! The occupation of grant writing is not one that most small children, teenagers, or even young adults list as one of their life goals.”
Nevertheless, many people end up as grant-proposal writers because the organizations they work for need money from foundations and corporations in order to do their good works. Ms. Browning seeks to help board members, administrators, staff members, and others at nonprofit organzations who were “hired for one job . . . and asked to take on the additional role of grant writing.” She also says she hopes to help the curious, those who want to gain new skills, and even the veteran grant-proposal writer.
The book is divided into five sections, with chapters arranged to walk readers through the process of planning for, organizing, writing, mailing, and following up on grant proposals. Each chapter contains icons drawing attention to tips that can save time, important information, common mistakes in preparing grant proposals, and traits to make a grant proposal stand out.
Section One discusses the basics of preparing a grant proposal, including how to talk “‘grantlish,’ the language of the world of grants.” The second section explains how to find out where federal money is available and how to format and submit a grant proposal to the government.
Section Three, “Putting Together Your Grant Application,” explains how to prepare cover forms, write abstracts and executive summaries, and develop tables of contents. This section also includes chapters to help charities highlight their accomplishments, convey the need for funding, and present a budget for the project. In Section Four, Ms. Browning explains what grant-proposal writers should do after they finish writing, including submitting the proposal over the Internet, following up with foundations and corporations, and exploring international grant makers.
The final section contains lists of 10 or more tips for grant-proposal writers, such as “Ten Grant Writing No-No’s” and “Ten Tips for Organizing Your Writing.” “Ten Tips for Handling a Rejection Letter” says grant-proposal writers should request reviewers’ comments, and “don’t cry.” An appendix includes two successful grant proposals, one to a private foundation, the other to a federal agency.
Publisher: Hungry Minds (formerly IDG Books Worldwide), 909 Third Avenue, 20th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10022; (212) 884-5000; http://www.idgbooks.com or http://www.dummies.com; 302 pages; $19.99; I.S.B.N. 0-7645-5307-0.
