Grantmakers tell us that many applications they receive are discarded as they fail to answer central questions or address priorities. Consequently, grantmakers choose from a small selection of well-planned and well-prepared applications.

There are a number of reasons why grant seekers are failing to produce precise and polished funding proposals.

• Short turn around times: Grantmakers use to give at least eight weeks from the date of announcing a grant call, until the deadline date. Now it is not unusual to see a call with only three weeks to the due date.
• Team approach required: Applications often require the contributions of more than one staff of an organization, requiring staff to engage in several collaborative meetings on top of their regular deliverables.
• Expertise sits with a number of departments or positions: Sometimes the responsibility of drafting the proposal sits with program-delivery managers, sometimes fundraising staff and often the Executive Director or CEO.  While the flexibility of the responsibility allows organizations to capitalize on individual strengths and talents, it also fails to focus and build the effort of grant seeking and writing.
• Overburdened and overworked staff: This is all too familiar.  Who has the time to write proposals and reports on top of regular responsibilities?

While we can’t change what is beyond our control, we can change what is within it.  We can improve our organization’s capacity to seek and secure grant money.  The first step is to think of grant seeking and grant writing as a strategic effort.

In Canada, grant writing is not a well-known profession or skill set. Most of the time, people respond with a “What is that?” after I tell them I am a grant writer. Unlike the United States where grant writing is an established industry, it seems to be an afterthought here.

That can change.  Maybe we can change it together. Helping individual organizations raise money to deliver better or more programs is fulfilling but does little to affect the whole sector.  After 15 years of writing grants, I’ve learned that there are five top tips for writing stellar proposals.

TIP 1.     Tri-alignment: Your project or program for which you are seeking funding needs to align with your agency’s mandate, the needs of your constituents (not the needs of your organization) and the grantmaker's priorities.  Gone are the days when you can make any program fit any priority.  

TIP 2.    Clear and Consistent Program Design: Your objectives address the need or problem; your outcomes follow from your objectives; your outcomes are measurable; and your activities are relevant, realistic and cost-effective.

TIP 3.    Clear and Consistent Writing Style: You have one chance to persuade the grantmaker with words. Make all the words count. Less is more. Write for a generalist. Respond to an anticipated thought of the reader. Minimize absolute terminology. Include a connection to a current event. Incorporate grantmaker language. Do not repeat answers even if the questions seem redundant.

TIP 4.    Partnerships: Secure partnerships that strengthen your project, your agency and sector. Partnerships should not be a last minute thought; rather, they are a necessity to bring the project to fruition. 

TIP 5.     Budgets: Make them real, cost effective for the grantmaker, worthwhile for your agency, and reflective of the narrative.  More and more grantmakers are not publishing the financial range of the grant.  They want to see a real budget, not one crafted around the expected grant amount.

To make these tips work for you, there are three one-day workshops to help you transform your proposals into winners. You can find workshop descriptions and registration information at annemorais.com.

Anne Morais has been writing successful grants for over 15 years. She has raised a total of 12 million dollars to support social service delivery in Toronto. You can reach Anne by email at: anne@annemorais.com or follow her on twitter @anne_grants