Shelly Ferraraccio

Engl. 606

Presentation: Grants

April 4, 2001

Writing Grant Proposals: The Basics:

v Start by defining the need or problem you will address or framing the research question you intend to study.

v Familiarize yourself with the current research in the field.

v Involve people and groups who will be impacted by your project as early as possible.

Identify A Funding Source:

v The Foundation Directory: Published annually by the Foundation Center. This resource is the primary tool for finding major private foundations incorporated in the U.S.

v Annual Register of Grant Support: A Directory of Funding Sources: Details 3,323 grant programs of government agencies, public and private foundations of corporations, community trusts, unions, educational and professional associations, and special interest organizations.

v The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA): An annual publication of the Government Printing Office. The CFDA lists all the federal governments grant programs and describes the enabling legislation for each. There is also a fully searchable web version. http://www.gsa.gov/fdac/default.htm

v The Federal Register: Provides daily announcements of Requests for Proposals, Notices of Availability of Funding, and related notices. It is available in print or at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aaces002.html

General Guidelines to Remember Before You Start:

v Read the RFP carefully and follow all directions exactly.

v Pay attention to deadlines.

v Choose a concise, meaningful title.

v Use simple, direct language.

v Make effective use of formatting techniques like headings and bulleted lists.

v Use a legible font.

v Be sure to explain all abbreviations and terms early in the narrative.

v Plan on proofreading your completed proposal several times. Have others proof it too.

v Do not tolerate sloppiness in the narrative or the budget.

All the above information was taken from Writing Grant Proposals: The Basics by Cindy Martin and Eileen Slaven Proposal Writers and Developers Radford University Office of Research and Sponsored Programs September 1999.

I also visited the web site on the schedule portion of our syllabus. The Association for Teachers of Technical Writing has links to different web sites that provide information about how to find grants and advice about writing grants. The packets you receive in class are all from links I found on that web site. Some of the information was very helpful, but some of the sites like the Department of Education are not for the beginning grant writer. It was difficult to navigate. The link to pacbell was helpful and contained other good links to information about grants and grant writing.