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After writing Why Have a Grant Writing Mentor, Part 1, and reminiscing on how helpful my mentor was for me, I got to thinking that so many of the people asking me questions over the blog or via e-mail or Twitter are in the same boat I was when I wrote my first grant: inexperienced, confused and overwhelmed.

In fact, aspiring grant writers, some of whom have come to work for us at ERC, have asked me if they should take a grant writing class or attend a seminar. A class or seminar might seem like a good option. Here’s what I have to say about grant writing classes and seminars.

You could take a university course, but:

--You’ll waste too much time. You’ll do a lot of seat time and meaningless homework assignments spread out over an entire semester. 

--You may not get to learn from a working grant writing professional. The professor may have limited real world, competitive grant writing experience.

--You probably won’t even write a real grant proposal. Despite all the time you spend in the classroom, chances are you won’t get to write and submit a real grant to a real funding agency (for real money).

While there are many good grant writing seminars out there, here are potential problems with attending them:

--Most seminars go by too fast. They last anywhere from 1 to 5 days. In that amount of time, you won’t be able to get experience writing a grant while getting individual feedback.

--You’ll likely suffer from information overload, and leave overwhelmed with an avalanche of new information in a short period of time.

--It’s hard to learn in a crowd. Many major grant writing seminars are attended by a hundred people or more, which makes it hard to get the personal attention you need or get your questions answered.

I always tell those aspiring grant writers who have come to work for us at ERC not to attend a class or seminar until I or someone on our staff has a chance to mentor them first. The best way to learn grant writing is hands-on with a mentor. However, many grant writers may not have a seasoned mentor to guide them on their path. This inspired me to “create” This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Q&A at Smart Grant Writing as a way to be a pseudo-mentor to you.

The Novice Grant Writer is an amalgam of those from the various walks of life who have questions about writing a grant: someone just starting out as a grant writer, someone within an organization that wears many hats and must also write grants, or perhaps a student interested in learning more about grant writing.

The Novice Grant Writer is you. The Novice Grant Writer is someone who is going through the grant writing process and is dealing with the various issues that come up, from identifying and laying out needs, to calculating indirect costs in a budget.

The Novice Grant Writer is your platform to ask questions and get answers about grant writing. Your questions will be answered directly by Smart Grant Writing on this blog (and perhaps via e-mail if you need more in-depth help). This way, if you do not have the benefits of an experienced and successful mentor right in your own backyard, you have one at the click of a mouse.

Questions from the Novice Grant Writer will be posted regularly on the blog with responses from Smart Grant Writing. Submit your questions for Smart Grant Writing on behalf of the Novice Grant Writer This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . A Novice Grant Writer page is coming soon! E-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it now!

I started my career as a grant writing consultant by accident.

When I wrote my first grant proposal, I was an unemployed hospital chaplain trying to find a job. I had no idea at the time I wrote my first grant that I was starting a new business and career.

I had absolutely zero prior experience. I had never attended one grant writing class or seminar. Despite my lack of experience, I wrote my first grant proposal in under two weeks and it was funded for $300,000.

During my first year as a grant writer, I secured over a million dollars for a small, rural school district.  Sure, I had some basic writing ability, but I’ll have to admit there was a big secret behind my instant success in grant writing.

My big secret:  I had the mentoring and models of a seasoned grant writer.

I received helpful strategies and time-saving samples from an expert grant writer: my dad.

At the time I wrote my first proposal, my father, Dr. Steve Price, already had over 15 years of successful grant writing experience as an administrator for a large school district and a state university.

I used his successful grant proposals as models, and learned his grant writing strategies firsthand. I didn’t try to write my first grant proposal from scratch. I didn’t let myself get overwhelmed by the ominous RFP. I got his expert feedback as I wrote my first few proposals, section by section. This simplified the grant writing process, gave me a huge advantage in grant competitions, and led to rapid success.

I liken this strategy to traveling (or wandering) in a large, unfamiliar city. If you were lost and trying to find your way somewhere in a strange city, would you rather be given a map or a tour guide?  I would choose the tour guide every time. With a map you are still left to figure things out on your own. With a tour guide, you have someone who knows the city leading you through every step of the way to your destination. A tour guide would help you find the shortest route and make important decisions that a map will not—like how to avoid dead-end roads and dangerous streets. That’s the difference between having a mentor versus having a book or class to learn grant writing.

Experience is the best way to learn anything, and grant writing is no exception. With an experienced grant writer as a mentor, you will gain hands-on experience writing real grant applications to real funding sources for real money. You will get the personal attention you need to have your questions answered as they arise. You will also learn how to make all of the little decisions that go into writing a grant application, without having to learn the hard way, by trial and error.

Getting rejected is an inevitable part of the grant writing experience. No grant writer gets 100% of their proposals funded; in fact, if you can get a third of your proposals funded you are doing fairly well. Part of becoming a successful grant writer is knowing what to do when a proposal gets rejected.

I recommend different routes depending on whether your contact was with a private foundation or trust, or if you applied for a state or federal government grant. If you applied to a foundation or trust, make sure to read my blog post on creating a letter of inquiry and that you followed all these steps in your request.

If you applied to a foundation:

- Get any feedback you can that explains why your proposal was not funded. Call to ask for this information if you have to, but don't bug them too much. Some foundations just don't offer feedback. If you are able to get feedback, use the information to improve your proposal or letter of inquiry.

- Have another grant writer (or objective third party that is familiar with grant writing) review your proposal or letter of inquiry. They may have suggestions on how to better align your focus with that of the funding agency.

- Send your letter of inquiry to 10 more foundations, or as many as you can find that your proposal might be a fit for. A letter of inquiry is not the same as a grant proposal and it's okay to send letters to many foundations, as you want to try to attract interest. Just make sure that you are sending the letter to foundations that might be interested in funding. Make any individualized changes to your letter when applicable.

- Don't resend an application or letter of inquiry to the same foundation a second time. With foundations, a rejection usually means they will not consider your proposal again in the future. (This is not the case with government grants).

One note about foundations and trusts is that they often fund those organizations with which they have a personal connection. If you do not know someone within the foundation, it can be very difficult to get funding. That is why I recommend sending your letter of inquiry to many foundations or trusts, not just one.

If you applied for a state or federal government grant:

- Get a copy of the readers’ comments and review them carefully. Most government grant competitions will send you these comments or provide them on request. This will usually tell you exactly how many points you scored in each section and why. Reading this will help you find out if your proposal was consistently scored low in certain sections or if one "rogue reader" (as we call them at ERC) did you in.

- In the case of government grants, apply again on the next round. Most government grants are offered on annual or semi-annual cycles. Unlike foundation grants, the government might fund you on the second or even third try. At ERC, we commonly resubmit unfunded grants (after improving them based on readers’ comments), and get them funded on the second try.

- Be careful to reformat your grant to the new RFP if you submit it a second time. Often the government will change an RFP just to catch people who are being lazy and trying to submit the exact same proposal a second time without making any changes. They may reorder the questions or do something to make you do some re-writing or re-formatting.

Overall, the best advice I can give on working from this rejection is two-fold. One, study your desired funding source and make sure that your organization, project and needs fits with the motives of the foundation, trust or grant. And, two, make sure that your letter or proposal is written to the requirements of the funding agency or RFP. This includes using the grant writing tips you can find for free here at Smart Grant Writing. Do not get discouraged if your proposal or inquiry does not result in immediate funding. Use the strategies above and you’ll likely see improved odds of getting funded.

Do you have more questions? Ask them in the comments below.

Here’s what I have to say to that: You are not writing the next great American novel. You are not writing a column for the New Yorker. You are not entering an essay contest for English class.

What ARE you writing? A proposal for funding. Plain and simple. Grant writing is technical writing, and clarity is key.  All of those things that the English teacher taught you, like word variation, allusion, metaphor, or simile, will not help you in grant writing. They will only make your narrative cumbersome, waste precious space within your page limitations, and possibly confuse a less-sophisticated grant reader. In fact, your creativity can kill you in grant writing.

Here are some tips I give to English majors to turn them into grant writers:

1. Don’t worry about varying your terminology. Instead, use consistent wording. Say the same thing the same way every time. If objective 1a in your grant is “to increase the reading ability of school-age children” then keep saying “to increase the reading ability of school-age children” every time you refer to that objective. Don’t worry about being boring. Worry more about being clear and avoiding confusion.
   
   
2. Don’t worry about using big or original words, or impressing the reader with your terminology. Instead, mimic the terminology used in the grant application. Turn the questions into statements to use as section headings in the application. Blend the language of the grant application into your answers. This shows the grant reader exactly where you are answering each question and makes your grant easier to score using a rubric.
   
   
3. Use the fewest number of words possible to make your point. Period.
   
   
4. Cut out any adjectives that sound like opinion or exaggeration.  Don’t tell the reader your program is “amazing,” “exceptional,” or “one-of-a-kind.” State facts and cite hard evidence. Tell how many people your program has served and what the measurable effects were. Data is far more persuasive than opinion.
   
   
5. Don’t try to get creative by weaving answers to questions in the application together to make your grant narrative “flow” more smoothly. Present the information in chunks, answering one question at a time so the reader can easily match the information to the rubric and give you the points for each question. In fact, sacrifice flow altogether for the sake of visibility. Break up key information in bullet points if that’s what you need to do to make it jump out and bite the reader.
   
   
6. Don’t worry about redundancy one bit. If the grant application asks the same thing in two difference places, give the same answer twice. You’ll want to score the points for both questions.

A confident, persuasive writing style will certainly give you an edge in grant writing. But, the bottom line is that you are writing to a rubric. What’s most important is that you put the right information in the right places to score the points. Your content will help you beat your competition, not your creativity.

Thoughts or questions? Share them in the comments below.