Tips on Grant Writing

1. Tips on Grant Writing • Secondary Reading Interest Council, MRA on February 19, 2013

2. Basic steps of grant writing • Agree on a problem that has a positive and measurable affect on your school or community. • Describe outcomes. • Design your program as the best path to the outcomes. • Locate funding sources. Learn about the process and time required. • Tailor your proposal to each possible funding source. iPads for informational reading? http://www.arc.gov/funding/HowtoWriteaGrantProposal.aspext

3. Agree on a problem that has a positive and measurable affect on your school or community. • Involve all stakeholders. • Define the problem. (Involve stakeholders.) • Describe the problem’simpact. (Show how it has affected the way people live.) • Investigate the problem’s possible causes. (Seek formal agreement with as many stakeholders as possible.)

4. 2. Describe outcomes. • Identify key outcomes, changes that result from your program’s activities. • Work with stakeholders to determine 2 or 3 key outcomes. • Set realistic outcomes • Set achievable outcomes. • Identity outputs, measures of the program’s activities. • Set output measurements • Set output measurement timetable. If you can’t measure it, don’t include it.

5. 3. Design your program as the best path to the outcomes. • Best is not always easiest, quickest, simplest, or cheapest. • Get expert opinions from grant makers. • Research what others have done, their failures and their successes. (similar organizations, professional journals, popular press, nearby college or university’s faculty) • Get stakeholder buy-in and letters of support (time, money, labor, space, materials, and so forth). • Clearly describe your situation with key stakeholders’ and experts’ assistance.

6. 4. Locate funding sources. Learn about the process and time required. • Start with organizations and people you know, then target your search by organizations who have gotten similar funding, then by geographic area. • Use the Internet to search for several grant makers. • Do you want to work with this organization? • Does it typically fund organizations and projects like yours? • Do you qualify for a particular program? • Can you meet all of the grant requirements? • Develop a relationship with the Grant Program Officer.

7. 5. Tailor your proposal to each possible funding source. • Follow instructions. • Study the criteria. Create a checklist from the grant maker’s criteria. • Edit carefully. • Have a “cold reader” review your proposal. • Meet deadlines.

8. Resources • 1. Agree on a problem that has a positive and measurable affect on your school or community. • 2. Describe outcomes. • http://www.cdc.gov/eval/resources/index.htm • In Search of Technology Treasures: An Online Grant-Writing Seminar • 3. Design your program as the best path to the outcomes. • http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/tutorials/shortcourse/index.html • http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-do-winning-proposals-have-common • http://www.mcf.org/system/article_resources/0000/0325/writingagrantproposal.pdf

9. Resources • 4. Locate funding sources. Learn about the process and time required. • “Foundations” • “Digital Resources for Evaluators” • 5. Tailor your proposal to each possible funding source.

10. Contact information • Brad Biggs • Reading Coordinator, Center for College Readiness • brad.biggs@minnesota.edu • www.centerforcollegereadiness.org • Jan Schendel • Jan.Schendel@anoka.k12.mn.us