The Grantwriter’s Toolkit

Creating a proposal to raise the funds you need is both a science and an art. This series will provide you with a step-by-step approach to grant writing. You can think of it as your own own personal grant writer’s toolkit. 

The goal of this series is for you to become familiar and then experienced with the grantwriting process. If you are new to it, these articles will serve as a great introduction. If you have written a grant, this series will assist you in sharpening your skills and hopefully encourage you to create new programs and seek new funding sources. 

Our overall approach follows a toolkit model based on the business world and the work of Eric von Hippel, an economist and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known for his concept of user innovation. User innovation proposes that end-users, not manufacturers, are responsible for new innovation. Users are the ones that possess the knowledge about needs. We will borrow upon von Hippel’s perspective on user toolkits to guide our work. His process includes five components:

1. Learning by Trial and Error
This is the way research has shown that most problem solving is done. Creating a grant proposal is solving a problem. We will use trial and error to put the pieces of the proposal together.

2. An Appropriate Solution Space
The solution space will either limit or increase the chance of user innovation. A process that I use is what I like to call a “swiss cheese proposal.” This notebook approach will assist you in the preparation of a fundable proposal. More about that in future weeks.

3. A User Friendly Toolkit
In this model, we will build on skills you already know, to prepare winning proposals. The toolkit will be user-friendly, for example, as an educator you already know how to write a lesson plan. You will soon see how lesson plans and grant proposals are related. I like to say “If you can write a lesson plan, you can write a grant!” My apologies if someone has already been credited with this phrase.

4. Commonly Used Modules
As part of our work, we will use a library of standard modules, this way you can focus on the parts that may be truly unique to your proposal. The standard modules will provide you with a template to follow.

5. Results Easily Created
A toolkit allows you to go into manufacturing without error. For our work, we will use our toolkit as guideline for future proposals. Through authentic feedback we will be able to improve future proposals.

By Gary Carnow
From The Grant Guru on TechLearning.com