1. Read the criteria thoroughly, and address the criteria in the order presented. Your Reader Panel will be using the criteria as a guide when they read your proposal, so make it easy for them to give you full points.
2. Learn to navigate the grants.gov website, as nearly every federal granting agency uses grants.gov to announce solicitations and post modifications.
3. Have someone read your proposal as a panelist would, with a copy of the criteria as their guide. Ask them to note inconsistencies and ambiguities.
4. Make clear to your Reader Panel what makes your proposal worthy of funding. For example, your rural area may seem bucolic to an urban Reader; tell your Reader why there’s a socioeconomic need for what you propose.
5. Follow submission instructions exactly.
6. Even if the odds seem great against your proposal being funded, remember that you will receive Reader Comments to aid you in your next submission.

www.grants.gov

“Grants.gov allows organizations to electronically find and apply for more than $400 billion in Federal grants. Grants.gov is THE single access point for over 1,000 grant programs offered by all Federal grant making agencies.”

www.cfda.gov

“The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, compiled and maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA), profiles all Federal grant programs and lists a specific contact for obtaining additional information and application forms.”

www.foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp

“The Foundation Center is the most authoritative source of information on private philanthropy in the United States. We help grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the general public better understand the field of philanthropy.”

www.ed.gov/fund/landing.jhtml?src=rt

“The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is providing nearly $38 billion this year to states and school districts, primarily through formula-based grant programs, to improve elementary and secondary schools and meet the special needs of students.”

www.raconline.org

“The Rural Assistance Center (RAC) was established in December 2002 as a rural health and human services "information portal." RAC helps rural communities and other rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding, and research that can enable them to provide quality health and human services to rural residents.”

www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ana/programs/program_information.html

“ANA promotes the goal of self-sufficiency for Native Americans by providing social and economic development opportunities through financial assistance, training, and technical assistance to eligible Tribes and Native American organizations.”

www.epa.gov/ogd/competition/open_awards.htm

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Grants and Debarment (OGD) Grants Competition web site provides information about the Agency's Policy for Competition in Assistance Agreements. It also includes information on competitive grant opportunities at EPA.”

www.nea.gov/grants/apply/index.html

“To explore available funding opportunities, click on link above. In most areas, funding is limited to organizations.”

www.neh.gov/grants/grantsbydivision.html

“NEH offers grants in the following categories: Challenge Grants, Education Programs, Public Programs, Digital Humanities Initiative, Preservation and Access, Research Programs, Federal/State Partnerships and We the People.”

www.nsf.gov/funding

“The National Science Foundation promotes and advances scientific progress in the United States by competitively awarding grants and cooperative agreements for research and education in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering.”

Grant writing is an acquired taste – often by necessity! But to some it is a calling – this was passed on to me several years ago following a brutal deadline, and it always makes me smile.

• You do your best work at 4 A.M. when you haven't slept for 24 hours.
• Your Internet provider's help desk people know you by the sound of your voice, and they don't like you.
• All your favorite web site URLs end in .gov or .edu
• You speak educationese, and computerese is your second language, which means you suffer due to multiple barriers which you must overcome in order to achieve your objectives.
• You have a love/hate relationship with the spelling/grammar editor in your word processor because it doesn't speak your language.
• Deadlines to you are like the finish line to a marathon runner.
• Your mate doesn't understand you because you speak in acronyms.
• You have a love/hate relationship with your clients.
• You have a very understanding mate, or you are single. Or divorced.
• Some day you will write a novel. You rehearse by writing grants.
• You cry if your mail server goes down.
• You keep spare parts for your computer the way an auto mechanic keeps timing belts.
• You plan your vacations around proposal deadlines.
• Your doctor tells you that you must eliminate some of the stress in your life.
• Your cholesterol count is 340 because you live on a diet of fast food, meaning anything you can grab from the frig or cupboard, like hunks of cheddar cheese, which you bite off because you don't have time to cut it, and other finger foods, such as fudge brownies, and peanut butter cookies.
• You put off surgery until after deadline, then you take your laptop to the hospital with you.
• You wonder how anyone ever wrote anything with a typewriter.
• You threaten suicide if your computer crashes.
• It's a week before deadline and you haven't showered for two days.
• It's three days before deadline, and you can't remember the last time you changed clothes, combed your hair, brushed your teeth, or saw daylight.
• Your accountant says you make $1.50 an hour. You think it's worth it because you get to stay home, work in your underwear, and never punch a clock. Never mind that the lawn is waist high, the carpet hasn't been vacuumed in a month, and your plants are all dead.
• An award letter to you is like an Oscar to an actor.
• You scream at the auto-formatting feature in your word processor and wonder why your computer thinks it is smarter than you.
• Each grant cycle, you say "never again."