By John F. Sase
Most attorneys, whom I know well, write better than many of us. Perhaps, these professionals embrace the idea of giving back to their larger communities in ways that reflect their desire for helping not-for-profit organizations in their communities and beyond through being a volunteer or at a greatly reduced fee. As an economist, I have used my time to help Gleaners Community Foodbank, Focus Hope, The Freezer Theater, and other not-for-profit organizations.
As we wait for opportunities, we watch many not-for-profit endeavors struggle to survive (more than usual) due to the increased demand for their services during extended periods of funding difficulties.
These conditions suggest that we need to pull together as one. Our Democracy cannot fly without the unity of the left and right wings that are attached to our central body. Therefore, we need to focus on making united efforts to keep our social-benefit organizations aloft.
In writing the column as of this month, I and others prefer to share direct participatory experience, which hopefully contributes to the survival of some of these organizations. Between earning graduate degrees, I served through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in order to help Gleaners Community Food Bank, during the year that it had lost their accounting person six months earlier due to a prolonged illness.
Because Gleaners is a not-for-profit organization, founder Brother Gene Gonya needed to pull together their accounting records and food-donation valuations to ensure the flow of ongoing grants. Given my background at the time, I dedicated two years to developing a computerized desktop system, as well as to representing the Food Bank during the audits required by their major funders. At the end of my two-year stint, we united our online system with the emerging national network of food banks centered in Cleveland, OH, by which I (intentionally) put myself out of a job.
Throughout the years, I have involved myself with establishing and developing several small Not-for-Profits in the Arts, such as the Dramatic Research Company of Detroit (aka The Freezer Theatre) and the independent label Freezer Theatre Records. However, with my newly minted Doctorate in hand, I pushed myself forward by joining the Focus: HOPE organization.
This Detroit-based organization continues to pledge intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty, and injustice. Given my role as a Senior Program Developer/Head of Research, most of my work at Focus: HOPE contributed to focusing upon grant-writing efforts that led Grant-Writer Charles Grenville and the other team members during the years of leading founders Father William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitis. All of us who worked at Focus: HOPE viewed Charlie's grant proposals as virtual “works of art” which contributed to the maintenance our annual budget of $80 million per annum.
Our referees included Senator Carl Levin, his brother Representative Sander Levin, Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins, Rep. John Conyers, and similar public figures. Holding all these good folks in mind, I composed this article to share what I have learned through the decades. For additional background, please see the Focus: HOPE Collection, a compendium of records housed at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University (reuther.wayne.edu).
Drawing a Smaller Picture
Let us begin with the approach used by smaller organizations that need limited resources to achieve their goals. This arena serves the requirements of groups that seek approximately five to ten thousand dollars for limited, localized projects. Often, the funding agencies are found under the umbrella of a local government or university. The goals of these agencies focus upon helping smaller and start-up projects.
These actions seek to minimize agency overhead while supporting more modest worthwhile projects. To achieve their mission, these agencies usually provide “standard” forms for small-dollar simplified grants (for examples, search Google for “standard format for grant applications”).
If an agency posts its preferred standard Grant Application Form in a PDF format, this may serve as an excellent place to begin. Essentially, these common forms instruct applicants how to format a standard grant application that benefits grant-seekers, review organizations, and decision-makers who review the proposals. However, we (the writers seeking grants) still should compose a meaningful cover letter first. Second, we need to develop a brief but thorough Executive Summary.
Thirdly, the writers need to provide a Needs Statement as the meat of the grant application, one that describes the needs of our project thoroughly and clearly. Fourth, we want to summarize our reasons for submitting the grant application by making our goals and objectives clear.
We hope that this brief review of the basics of grant-writing gives some guidance for those starting out in the land of non-profit organizations. Furthermore, these essentials remain similar among funding agencies and applicant projects of any size. Nevertheless, greater-dollar grants require greater investment in time and money.
Learning to “Paint the Big Picture”
At the conceptual level, viewing the big picture requires a whole within the context of a larger field requiring the abstraction of what we do, how we do it, and why these bear significance. Like all writing, grant development requires a set of conventions that vary by discipline and by depth of knowledge. Therefore, we need to stand back from our projects, to abstract them and distill them toward more effective themes and methodologies while avoiding over-immersion in proposal details.
In the meantime, we need to bear in mind that proposals must demonstrate the richness and fullness of the proposed project while we reflect on our knowledge of relevant fields of thought.
Conceptually, we need to illustrate our approach with necessary and evidential precision. Generally, proposal writing does not demand a literature review as would more academic papers (such reviews often appear counterproductive to the purposes of grant proposals. Instead, our objective in writing requires the maintenance of a strong focus with minimal adornment.
Granting agencies concentrate their focus on documents that allow them to find evidence of well-established projects. Funders understand that some relevant form of public benefit and knowledge results from the grant. Therefore, these agencies must determine whether or not applicants understand the larger picture upon which their applied work contributes to the common good before, during, and after the proposed grant period.
The Introduction
Any grant proposal must explain clearly and precisely what the applicant, either individual or group, intends to accomplish while describing how s/he/they will do it. Agencies have come to expect a vivid opening paragraph that summarizes the above issues in a direct and concise manner. Submitters of proposals with such a presentation of essential information tend to organize these opening sections around a straightforward, overarching question or statement.
Alas, project proposals usually do not reflect any specific topic or thesis. Therefore, as applicants, we must focus this opening volley on the significant issue at hand, how we plan to address it, and what considerable contribution the expected outcome will make, both to relevant fields of knowledge, as well as to human society.
Statements that address the significance of any project must carry great importance. Therefore, we should explain what interventions proposed projects will make to ongoing debates within the immediate field of concern.
In addition, the writer should highlight the more significant contributions that the project may bring to humans and to scholarly knowledge. At this point, we may allow ourselves to “think big” as we communicate in a buoyant manner as to what we put at stake in the enormous scope of life. If we cannot achieve this, why would we expect anyone else to care about our project? Therefore, we should not assume any self-evident importance within our hopefully splendid ideas and plans. Rather, we need to explain the “whys and wherefores” for which our projects deserve the available funding offered.
From funders to those being served directly by the project, we need to consider all of the relevant stakeholders while developing projects that could lead to a grant proposal written for readers at the funding agency. We should ask ourselves early on: Does the road to approval require a tiered approach involving a multidisciplinary panel of outside experts along with Agency Program Officers.
Consequently, we need to learn more about the readership before we draft our proposals and even while we are writing them. Depending on the size of a grant, we must remain aware that Agency Program Officers often bring outside experts to their panels. Therefore, we need to write strong, understandable proposals that persuade a range of evaluators.
————————
Dr. John F. Sase teaches Economics at Wayne State University and has practiced Forensic and Investigative Economics for twenty years. He earned a combined M.A. in Economics and an MBA at the University of Detroit, followed by a Ph.D. in Economics from Wayne State University. He is a graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School (www.saseassociates.com).
Most attorneys, whom I know well, write better than many of us. Perhaps, these professionals embrace the idea of giving back to their larger communities in ways that reflect their desire for helping not-for-profit organizations in their communities and beyond through being a volunteer or at a greatly reduced fee. As an economist, I have used my time to help Gleaners Community Foodbank, Focus Hope, The Freezer Theater, and other not-for-profit organizations.
As we wait for opportunities, we watch many not-for-profit endeavors struggle to survive (more than usual) due to the increased demand for their services during extended periods of funding difficulties.
These conditions suggest that we need to pull together as one. Our Democracy cannot fly without the unity of the left and right wings that are attached to our central body. Therefore, we need to focus on making united efforts to keep our social-benefit organizations aloft.
In writing the column as of this month, I and others prefer to share direct participatory experience, which hopefully contributes to the survival of some of these organizations. Between earning graduate degrees, I served through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in order to help Gleaners Community Food Bank, during the year that it had lost their accounting person six months earlier due to a prolonged illness.
Because Gleaners is a not-for-profit organization, founder Brother Gene Gonya needed to pull together their accounting records and food-donation valuations to ensure the flow of ongoing grants. Given my background at the time, I dedicated two years to developing a computerized desktop system, as well as to representing the Food Bank during the audits required by their major funders. At the end of my two-year stint, we united our online system with the emerging national network of food banks centered in Cleveland, OH, by which I (intentionally) put myself out of a job.
Throughout the years, I have involved myself with establishing and developing several small Not-for-Profits in the Arts, such as the Dramatic Research Company of Detroit (aka The Freezer Theatre) and the independent label Freezer Theatre Records. However, with my newly minted Doctorate in hand, I pushed myself forward by joining the Focus: HOPE organization.
This Detroit-based organization continues to pledge intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty, and injustice. Given my role as a Senior Program Developer/Head of Research, most of my work at Focus: HOPE contributed to focusing upon grant-writing efforts that led Grant-Writer Charles Grenville and the other team members during the years of leading founders Father William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitis. All of us who worked at Focus: HOPE viewed Charlie's grant proposals as virtual “works of art” which contributed to the maintenance our annual budget of $80 million per annum.
Our referees included Senator Carl Levin, his brother Representative Sander Levin, Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins, Rep. John Conyers, and similar public figures. Holding all these good folks in mind, I composed this article to share what I have learned through the decades. For additional background, please see the Focus: HOPE Collection, a compendium of records housed at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University (reuther.wayne.edu).
Drawing a Smaller Picture
Let us begin with the approach used by smaller organizations that need limited resources to achieve their goals. This arena serves the requirements of groups that seek approximately five to ten thousand dollars for limited, localized projects. Often, the funding agencies are found under the umbrella of a local government or university. The goals of these agencies focus upon helping smaller and start-up projects.
These actions seek to minimize agency overhead while supporting more modest worthwhile projects. To achieve their mission, these agencies usually provide “standard” forms for small-dollar simplified grants (for examples, search Google for “standard format for grant applications”).
If an agency posts its preferred standard Grant Application Form in a PDF format, this may serve as an excellent place to begin. Essentially, these common forms instruct applicants how to format a standard grant application that benefits grant-seekers, review organizations, and decision-makers who review the proposals. However, we (the writers seeking grants) still should compose a meaningful cover letter first. Second, we need to develop a brief but thorough Executive Summary.
Thirdly, the writers need to provide a Needs Statement as the meat of the grant application, one that describes the needs of our project thoroughly and clearly. Fourth, we want to summarize our reasons for submitting the grant application by making our goals and objectives clear.
We hope that this brief review of the basics of grant-writing gives some guidance for those starting out in the land of non-profit organizations. Furthermore, these essentials remain similar among funding agencies and applicant projects of any size. Nevertheless, greater-dollar grants require greater investment in time and money.
Learning to “Paint the Big Picture”
At the conceptual level, viewing the big picture requires a whole within the context of a larger field requiring the abstraction of what we do, how we do it, and why these bear significance. Like all writing, grant development requires a set of conventions that vary by discipline and by depth of knowledge. Therefore, we need to stand back from our projects, to abstract them and distill them toward more effective themes and methodologies while avoiding over-immersion in proposal details.
In the meantime, we need to bear in mind that proposals must demonstrate the richness and fullness of the proposed project while we reflect on our knowledge of relevant fields of thought.
Conceptually, we need to illustrate our approach with necessary and evidential precision. Generally, proposal writing does not demand a literature review as would more academic papers (such reviews often appear counterproductive to the purposes of grant proposals. Instead, our objective in writing requires the maintenance of a strong focus with minimal adornment.
Granting agencies concentrate their focus on documents that allow them to find evidence of well-established projects. Funders understand that some relevant form of public benefit and knowledge results from the grant. Therefore, these agencies must determine whether or not applicants understand the larger picture upon which their applied work contributes to the common good before, during, and after the proposed grant period.
The Introduction
Any grant proposal must explain clearly and precisely what the applicant, either individual or group, intends to accomplish while describing how s/he/they will do it. Agencies have come to expect a vivid opening paragraph that summarizes the above issues in a direct and concise manner. Submitters of proposals with such a presentation of essential information tend to organize these opening sections around a straightforward, overarching question or statement.
Alas, project proposals usually do not reflect any specific topic or thesis. Therefore, as applicants, we must focus this opening volley on the significant issue at hand, how we plan to address it, and what considerable contribution the expected outcome will make, both to relevant fields of knowledge, as well as to human society.
Statements that address the significance of any project must carry great importance. Therefore, we should explain what interventions proposed projects will make to ongoing debates within the immediate field of concern.
In addition, the writer should highlight the more significant contributions that the project may bring to humans and to scholarly knowledge. At this point, we may allow ourselves to “think big” as we communicate in a buoyant manner as to what we put at stake in the enormous scope of life. If we cannot achieve this, why would we expect anyone else to care about our project? Therefore, we should not assume any self-evident importance within our hopefully splendid ideas and plans. Rather, we need to explain the “whys and wherefores” for which our projects deserve the available funding offered.
From funders to those being served directly by the project, we need to consider all of the relevant stakeholders while developing projects that could lead to a grant proposal written for readers at the funding agency. We should ask ourselves early on: Does the road to approval require a tiered approach involving a multidisciplinary panel of outside experts along with Agency Program Officers.
Consequently, we need to learn more about the readership before we draft our proposals and even while we are writing them. Depending on the size of a grant, we must remain aware that Agency Program Officers often bring outside experts to their panels. Therefore, we need to write strong, understandable proposals that persuade a range of evaluators.
————————
Dr. John F. Sase teaches Economics at Wayne State University and has practiced Forensic and Investigative Economics for twenty years. He earned a combined M.A. in Economics and an MBA at the University of Detroit, followed by a Ph.D. in Economics from Wayne State University. He is a graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School (www.saseassociates.com).
