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This week, we will be spending some time talking about the areas of a grant where we tend to go overboard, or overindulge.
Overindulgence can be tempting (mmm, white chocolate chip cookies), but as in life, overindulgence in your grant usually does not end well.
It is very tempting to share needs or activities you are passionate about in a grant application; after all, your passion is why you work for your organization. However, there is a line between sharing what is relevant to the grant and going on and on about certain grant sections that you are more passionate about than others.
So this week, we will discuss three common areas of overindulgence in a grant narrative: the needs statement, the organizational capacity, and the program activities.
In general, here are some key items to keep in mind to avoid overindulgence when writing a grant narrative:
-Time limit: Usually when we begin a grant narrative, we are aware of the looming deadline. You only have so much time to work on the application. With this limited time, make sure you are answering the questions the funding agency wants answered. You don’t have time for anything else.
-Page limit: Grant narratives can only be so long before you begin to go on and on about unnecessary program details—or you exhaust the grant reader. Understanding the limits of a grant before you begin can help you hone in on the most important items.
-Points vs. Passion: Along with the general grant page limit, each section has a page limit—even if it is not explicitly stated. Consider the space limitations for the grant and break down the use of space by the number of points awarded to each section. For example, consider a grant worth 100 points with a 20-page limit. The application’s scoring rubric indicates that the needs statement is worth only 10 points, while the project goals and objectives are worth 25 points. This means that the needs statement should only get one-tenth of the total space, while the goals and objectives require one-quarter of the space. In this example, the needs statement can only justify 2 pages, while the goals and objectives justify 5 pages.
This last philosophy is called the “Rule of Proportion,” one of the 7 Golden Rules I’ve identified for writing a successful grant. For more details on this rule and the other Golden Rules, sign up for the FREE e-book at the sign-up box to the right.
I’m looking forward to avoiding going overboard with you this week!
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