Grant Basics for Beginners
Beginners to the granting process, whether for business or non-profit, are often intimidated by the hard work that it takes to write a grant application. It is hard work and it should be. No grantor wants their money wasted on a project that has poor planning and little or no effort invested into it by a grant seeker.
• WRITE
Everyday you should be writing down your ideas and thoughts about your project. Saving them on a computer to a word file is preferable so you may edit, spell check, cut and paste, and reorganize them without having to continually retype.
• FIND A MENTOR
You should seek out and solicit the advice of a successful businessman or community leader whose judgment you respect. Find someone who is able to devote a few free hours a week to give you the advice and help you need with the basic fundamentals of developing a professional business plan.
• RESEARCH
Grantors already know the type of project you are contemplating. Researching the feasibilities of the success of your project and conveying that to the grantors is your responsibility. The time you spend working on your project and the information you acquire is an asset to you personally because knowledge and information is a powerful tool in business or non-profit grant seeking.
• START NOW
Whether you have a finished plan or not the time to start your grant seeking process is now. You can always work on your plan as you go. Imagine investing 6 months of your time into a project and have everything ready to go except for your grant application and then you find out that you missed the closing date of an eligible grant for your project by a couple of days. Just because you wanted everything to be perfect, now would have to wait an entire year for that particular grant application to reopen.
Notice that the letters of each hint do not spell out some cute acronym. Memorizing a list of steps just to complete a program that may or may not assist you in your goal is counterproductive. Always strive to achieve your grant through perseverance and pertinence. Nothing substantial is ever achieved overnight or through plain dumb luck.
