Avoid These Five Mistakes When Writing Grant Proposals

Since grant writing is a tedious process that involves both human and material resources; it is, therefore, the responsibility of the grant writer to avoid the “culprits” usually involved when writing a grant proposal.

Here are some of the things that you should avoid when writing a grant proposal:

Mistake #1: Trying to say too much
Try to sort out the best information and those that are really relevant in proving the worth of your project. Make sure that you include only information that can boost the chances of your grant proposal to capture your reviewer’s attention. By incorporating too much information in your grant proposal, you tend to overwhelm your reader. This can result to a confusing grant proposal as you have tried to squeeze in too much information in a limited space.

Mistake #2: Not following directions
When writing a grant proposal, make sure that you read through the specifications and/ or requirements of your target funding institution. Read and understand the scoring criteria and tailor your grant writing to it. There are a number of instances that an organization looking for funding writes a grant proposal unmindful of the instructions specified on their prospective funder’s guidelines.

Due to the failure of an organization to follow the requirements of their chosen funding institution, an organization loses its chance of getting funded. If you find it difficult to tailor your grant proposal according to the scoring criteria, you may try changing the criteria into questions and answer the questions directly as you write down the texts.

Mistake #3: Assuming the readers know you
It is important that when writing grant proposals, you spell out every acronym included in your resume. Remember that not all people are familiar with the existing programs, acronyms, and local terms in your community. This is highly applicable for organizations targeting federal and international grants. Since your readers may not come from your state, there is a higher probability that he or she is not familiar with local terms and abbreviations. You can do them a favor by spelling out acronyms and elaborating on your projects.

Mistake #4: No clear connection with the need, plan, and budget
There are also instances when we focus on only one section of the grant proposal and fail to connect the rest of the parts with each section. It is very important that when you try to describe or state your needs in the needs section of your grant proposal, you can establish or provide a link that will connect it with the program methods and design section. You can connect your needs assessment to the program methods section by providing a plan on how you will address the stated needs. After connecting the needs and program methods sections, you have to establish a link for the program methods and budget. Make sure that only the needed materials necessary for the mentioned events will be provided in your budget plan.

Mistake #5: Failure to thoroughly proofread the document
We have to admit it: we’re all scared of criticisms that we tend to do things our way and avoid asking the opinion of other people. Since you have been working on your grant proposal for a couple of days or even weeks, there is a higher tendency that your eyes will get strained with the details incorporated in your proposal; thus, you won’t be able to pick up the errors or typos embedded on it. Hence, the need to have someone to proofread and edit your work is very important.

The process of editing requires two phases: one is the reading of the grant proposal for the accuracy of the content and two; for the proofreading. Initially, it is recommended that someone, other than the writer, should read the document to see whether the whole content makes sense and if it was able to follow the requirements and address the concerns as identified by the guidelines of your prospective funder.

Moreover, there should also be another writer that will check the document for any grammatical errors and typos. Spell check isn’t that reliable unlike its human counterpart as this application can easily skip words that should not be placed in your proposal like “hat” instead of “that” and many others.

Remember, that by carefully analyzing the requirements of your prospective funding institution and tailoring your proposal to their specifications, you can help increase the chances of your funding request to be granted.