Grant Applications Step by Step: The Main Sections of a Grant [Grant Writing Basics Series] | Teresa Huff | Skillshare
Search

Playback Speed


  • 0.5x
  • 1x (Normal)
  • 1.25x
  • 1.5x
  • 2x

Grant Applications Step by Step: The Main Sections of a Grant [Grant Writing Basics Series]

teacher avatar Teresa Huff, Equipping you to change the world

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      2:00

    • 2.

      The Hub of Everything: The RFP

      8:19

    • 3.

      Who Are You? Organizational Background

      3:00

    • 4.

      Why Should They Give You Money? Statement of Need

      4:43

    • 5.

      What Will You Do with the Money? Program Design & Evaluation

      4:39

    • 6.

      Can You Handle the Money? Capacity & Sustainability

      2:27

    • 7.

      How Will You Spend the Money? Budget

      2:47

    • 8.

      Forget Something? Supporting Documents

      2:01

    • 9.

      How Do You Send It in? Application Formats

      2:38

    • 10.

      Conclusion & Course Project

      2:48

  • --
  • Beginner level
  • Intermediate level
  • Advanced level
  • All levels

Community Generated

The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

622

Students

13

Projects

About This Class

Join expert grant writer Teresa Huff to learn the basics of a grant application - and walk away with strategies you can customize to your school, nonprofit, or grant writing business immediately.

-----

If you’re new to grant writing, you may be a little overwhelmed by some of the trainings and information out there. Before I started grant writing, I thought it sounded cool, but I had no idea what a grant even looked like, let alone how to start writing one.

In this course we’ll get down to the very basic parts of a grant application. We’ll cover:

  • The basic sections of a typical grant application
  • What funders expect to see in each section and some examples
  • Extra materials they might require with the application
  • The different types of application formats
  • How to review the RFP (we’ll learn that in class too!) and set up your application

This course is for:

  • Staff, volunteer, or board members of a school or non-profit
  • Those who want to learn grant writing as a career or side gig
  • Complete beginners to the grant world
  • Those who have tried writing a grant or two unsuccessfully and are ready to learn the foundational basics for getting started

I’ve been bringing in several million dollars of funding for schools and nonprofits since 2005. Now I’m here to help you get started with your grant writing career.

Make sure to download the Course Workbook and use it for reference as you go through the class. By the time we get to the Course Project, you’ll have a list of tips you can use on your next grant application.

Ready to propel your grant writing skills? I know you can do it. I can’t wait to hear about your cause and see how you’re influencing your community through grant funding.

Let’s get started – together we can do great things to change the world!

If you’d like more grant writing resources and support, head to teresahuff.com.

I’d love to hear your questions. Email me today at info@teresahuff.com.

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Teresa Huff

Equipping you to change the world

Teacher

Grant writing is a great way to have a big influence on a cause you care about – IF you know how. That’s where I come in.

How do you get started? Where do you find grants? How do you write a grant? Or if you’re like me when I first started out, what does a grant even look like? I’ll let you in on the secrets one at a time as we unpack the mysteries of grant writing for schools and non-profits.

Take advantage of my 20+ years of combined experience as a grant writer, special ed teacher, and development consultant to propel your own grant writing skills. I harness this with my Master's in Education to make practical courses that will equip you to change the world.

You'll walk away from each of my courses with a set of bonus tools and action step... See full profile

Level: Beginner

Class Ratings

Expectations Met?
    Exceeded!
  • 0%
  • Yes
  • 0%
  • Somewhat
  • 0%
  • Not really
  • 0%

Why Join Skillshare?

Take award-winning Skillshare Original Classes

Each class has short lessons, hands-on projects

Your membership supports Skillshare teachers

Learn From Anywhere

Take classes on the go with the Skillshare app. Stream or download to watch on the plane, the subway, or wherever you learn best.

Transcripts

1. Introduction: hi there. If you're new to grant writing, you may be a little overwhelmed by all the information available out there and where to even start. Before I started Grant writing, I thought it sounded cool, but I had no idea what a grand even looked like, let alone how to go about writing one. That's why I created this course. I want to really scale it down and take you through step by step. The parts of a typical grand application, what they look like and how to go about even starting right in this course will get down to the very basics of grant. Applications will cover the basic sections that air in a typical grant application. What funders expect to see an inch section, and I'll give you some examples. Extra materials that they might require, with some applications, the different types of application formats and how did review. The RFP will learn that in class, too, and how you can set up your application this courses for beginners to grant writing. This will be helpful whether you're wanting to find a grant writing job or branch out on your own. As a freelance Graham writer, I'm Teresa Huff and I'm a professional grant writer and development consultant. I've been doing this since 2005 and I've been through hundreds of grant applications myself . So now I have a pretty good handle on what you can expect. Your next steps are to download the course workbook and use that for reference as you go through the class, watch the videos in the course, complete the course project and posted in the community. Leave a review for the course and then go change your world. By the time we get to the course project, you'll be ready to create an action plan for your next step in grant writing. Be sure to follow my channel so you don't miss upcoming grant writing courses. I'd love to hear your questions, email me today or go to my website. Teresa have dot com for more support and tools for grant writing. Are you ready to propel your grant writing skills? I know you can do this. Let's get started today. Ready? Let's roll 2. The Hub of Everything: The RFP: the foundation. Any grant application stems from the R F P that stands for request for proposal. If you've listened to any of my other courses, I've talked over and over about follow the RFP, make sure you understand what's in it, read the guidelines. This is what I'm talking about, and I'm going to show you an example and walk you through it so that you understand how to do this on Europe. The RFP may be called a few different things. The request for proposals are, if a request for applications you know F A C f a. Or there may be a step in between the letter of intent before you submit the actual application. So just be aware it may be called different things. I typically refer to it as the RFP. It's important to understand what's in it because you'll follow it every step and refer back to it. Often as you're writing the grant, this will become the guideline and the basis for your application. Some applications will have a set form that you will fill in or even an online form. Others won't, and you'll have to come up with it on your own so rather than just starting with a blank page, you'll use the RFP toe. Understand how to start what sections you need. Any extra documents you should include. Start well in advance of the deadline. Don't wait till the last minute to review the RFP. Some of them can be pretty lengthy and a lot of details to follow, so you don't want to be having to revise a lot of things the last minute. Let's look at an example of one here, said Foundation that I had pulled as a sample online. They have several different grand opportunities. First, you'll go and find the foundation in the apply for a grant section, look at the different types of grants they have and choose the one that might fit what you have read as much as you can about the foundation before you submit your application to make sure you're a good fit and that you understand the direction they're wanting to go with her projects. So you'll look through their website, figure out the projects they're interested in. If that still fits what you're doing, keep moving forward. We do not provide support for the following, so make sure you don't ask for any of these types of projects, then this one has a drop down menu that explains more about their guidelines. Generally, it has the amount for this particular grant tells different types of things they will and won't fund. So read through all of this and then the timeline. Make sure that you follow that. Don't be light. If you are late submitting, they will throw your application out that get a lot of applicants, and that's one way that they can weed through those. Then this one has links to different P D efs. That gives you a new idea of what you need to fill in. So let's take a look at those the request application. This is important to note, and what I do is either paste some of this into a word document, since this one has a PdF or I'll start making notes in my notebook about the font size. This one's a minimum of 11 point font. Sometimes they'll even tell you what exact font style to use and then this tells you you're limited to a total of five pages, so don't cheat and try to go over you should have a two page narrative, two pages of photos if applicability and make sure to follow the format that they give you for those photos and then a one page budget. So follow those exactly. Here's your deadline that tells you exactly what format. Email one Elektronik copy in the preferred format. Also male. One hard copy postmarked by the deadline, and make sure you double check your address and then their awards will be announced by this date. So in between that time, don't bother them. Just send it off and move on to your next project. Then here's thing, a narrative that gives you an example afterwards. But this is what you'll just copy and paste this into a word document so you can start working. This gives you the outline to work from and tells you step by step, the information you need to gather, then also the budget. They want this one page in a spreadsheet or table format. Make sure you follow the format that they would like and provide the information they've asked for and then also notice on this one. Number three Drop down on to the next page, so don't miss that, Then here they give you an example format. You don't have to use this one because it's a pdf, but you'll duplicate this in your own document. In this case, I would widen these margins a little bit if I need more space. But don't cheat and whiten them clear out to the edge of the page. Still make it look nice and presentable. But here, where this one is very much indented from the rest of the fund, I would scoot that over and have a good one inch margin, maybe just a little less on this side or on the bottom, but still keep it pretty standard and professional. Sometimes they will tell you one inch margins all the way around. So whatever it is, you follow that, and then this one looks like they want the contact signature, and this should be an actual hard signature. Not just Elektronik, because I'm a freelance grant writer. I don't work directly for the organization as an employee, so I don't ever sign these applications myself. I always have either the director of the nonprofit, where the board member that's designated to handle grand projects or someone that is in charge of grants in the programs Sinus. Whoever works directly for the organization, I do not sign it as the freelancer. Now, if you're an in house employee as the grant writer, then that might be a different story. This might make sense, toe. Have you sign it yourself, But for me personally, I don't sign it as the contact I make sure and put the organization itself. And then that's also building the relationship between the funder in the non profit. So make sure to allow time for that within your organization. You don't wanna wait to the last minute and then realize, Oh, the person that needs to sign It's out of town and I can't get their signature And you're scrambling trying to figure that out. Start well in advance to make sure you have all those pieces in place and then also take a close look at their actual guidelines. This gives their vision statement their purpose. Read through that to make sure that it's a good fit for your project and your organization's mission. It tells you what they're not able to fund, just so don't ask for those things, and then this is some of the same information, but always read through it again because there could be some little twist here that they didn't include on the other page. Sometimes I'll print this out for references I working through it and then highlight those key details that I need to include, like 11 point fonds, the deadline and instructions and then other times all Like I said, make a note in an actual word document or in my notes, so that will get you started on the application to understand what you need to include. There's one other pdf here that I hadn't pointed out yet. It's the grant evaluation report now. This is not relevant when you're writing it, but it will be extremely relevant if you are to win the award. So I still like to take a look at it and review what the expectations will be. If we do get awarded the grants, what kind of reporting are we going to have to follow up with? It also can give you some insight as to what they're looking for as far as the project goes , which can help you with the grant writing itself. They want the basic information off the grant kind of a recap of the project than the program outcomes that they also want to know where those outcomes achieved, if not, why the community benefit conclusions about it. So this will give you a little bit of inside as your crafting your project itself as to what they're going to be looking for afterwards. By knowing that you can kind of designed it up front to make sure your accounting for some of these things and setting yourself up for success. If you do win the award, keep in mind this is for a smaller foundation grant. So if you get into, say, the big federal grandson grants dot gov or something, it will be much more extensive. These pages of instructions will probably be anywhere from 20 to 50 pages that you'll need to read through and understand about the program. That's why if you're just starting out as a grant writer, I strongly recommend you start with some small foundation grants like this or smaller corporate grants, rather than going to grant stock of and trying to tackle a big federal grant. So start here. You can see how doable it is the whole thing can only be up to five pages, and that includes two pages of pictures. Think about starting with one like this. It's not so overwhelming. It's something you can finish in a few hours, even if you're new at it, and it gives you step by step, the information they want to see for your program. 3. Who Are You? Organizational Background: the next element of pretty much every grant application you'll write will be your organizational background. Now, this may not be considered a section all its own, but it's information that you'll need to incorporate into the grant. Somehow they'll want to understand everything about your organization and your services. What you provide. You can collect this ahead of time. Most of this should already be available to you, and after you've written a few grants, you'll have a lot of it already in hand. Such as How long have you been running an operating? It's important to customize this for every application. Don't just cut and paste blindly and assume that it'll work. Always double check it, but you'll still use the same basic information. So here, the main elements that you can collect in advance and that way it will help you not run back and forth so much to your organization or to the director trying to gather information when you're trying to write the application under a deadline. And hopefully you already have several of these things. But if not, here is just a quick checklist. First, you should have the vision of mission. How long has the organization been running? Who do you serve? And how many clients do you serve? Describe that population and the demographics of hm? How many volunteers do you have? How many staff members are they full time or part time? What geographical areas do you serve? What programs and what services do you offer? What makes you unique? In other words, how does your organization fill a gap in the community? And what kinds of support do you have from other partners in the community? What kinds of donations? What kinds of in kind support? Those are just a few things that will help you get started. You can always add to it and change it as you need to for each application. Also, make sure you update this as your data changes as you serve more clients. Or maybe your annual statistics come in each month. Maybe you have different counts, and you try to keep an average of that, so make sure you update that for each application to You don't want to use outdated information. Keep in mind that you might want to highlight different information about your organization , depending on your application. For example, I write grants for a senior adults center. If I'm going to write a grant for exercise equipment, I'm gonna feature their attendance in their current exercise classes. How those classes are maxed out and they really need to offer more. On the other hand, if I'm writing a grant for homebound residents, I'm gonna feature the importance of home health and safety. How many residents there serving at home and how often they're receiving requests for home help. And then I'll incorporate statistics on how it helps them live at home longer. By having this support, so do you. See how you don't need to include all the information about your organization in every single grant your writing, but you need to have it compiled so you can pull out the relevant pieces that will go with your application and support your request for this particular project. 4. Why Should They Give You Money? Statement of Need: the Need section is probably going to be one of the first sections you'll see in the application. It may not be called the Need section or statement of need. It may be worded as a question like, Why are you requesting these funds? How will you use this grant funding? But what they're wanting to know is, why should we give you this money and what are you going to do with it? This is sometimes also called the case for support, and that's basically what you're doing. You building your case for why they should support your program. Why you need these grant funds. You need to really convey a compelling need and how this will make a difference in your organization and on the community as a whole. Put yourself in the reviewers shoes and think about it. If they've got several applications side by side, they're probably going to award the most compelling case and the most compelling need. Think through your need carefully to make sure you're really asking for something that's truly a need, not just a hey, it would be nice toe. Have funds for this. Make sure it's something that you really can back up. That brings us to the next point. You need credible research. The more credible it is, the more they're going to realize that this is a significant request that they need to pay attention to. You need to have good reasons for wanting this. If you're trying to keep from going broke, that's not a good reason. Can't pay your bills? Not a good reason. You need to have a balance of statistics and stories. You can't just say, Yeah, we really need this. We wanted a lot and we know it would really help us. That doesn't tell them anything. You have to have the numbers to back it up and also the stories that are compelling kind of tug at the heartstrings. You may be restricted as to space. There may be a word count limit or a page limit, so you'll have to do the best you can with the space you have. It makes you really learn to write tight, but incorporate as much as you can when it comes to the statistics. It's good if you can show a balance of local and larger scale data like regional or state or even National. Just make sure that the data you use is relevant and current. It needs to relate to the situation at hand into the request that you are needing. Show that your program is strong already, but you need to build it and that this would really help grow the program that they can become a part of what you're doing. Here's an example. And keep in mind this is for a very small grant of, I think, about $500. So it's much, much different than if you were writing a big federal grant. You could have a couple of pages of really complex needs statements and statistics. But this is just kind of a quick, small statement to give you an idea of a small grant of how you can get started and learn the process for the needs statement. I've already given a little bit of the organizational background in the previous section of the grant that let me explain. This is for a senior center, and one of their biggest services is the everyday lunch program. They offer a fresh salad bar and hot lunch for senior adults, and it's a really critical service for a lot of seniors in the community, some of them live alone. They don't have a lot of money. And so this hot lunch is first of all, healthy for them, healthier than what they would prepare at home. And it's also a good social connection for them to keep them active, get them out of the house and just helped keep their spirits up. So the lunch program is pretty critical to their organization into the services they offer . So this one describes why they're requesting funds. They want to upgrade the dishes and utensils for their daily lunch service. This explains why they need to upgrade their utensils. They're not even adequate to pass a health inspection. The scratches, and it's just not healthy. The center serves anywhere from I need to, ah, 150 adults every weekday. The attendance has grown tremendously. Sheikhoun, CIA. Use some statistics here. The inventory just isn't enough to keep up, so these will not only look more appealing, but they'll allow more efficient service. Then I can go into maybe a couple of testimonials from actual clients who attend the program and how much of a difference it's made for them how much they enjoy it. That's just a very basic idea of a small, small grant that you could get the idea of what I'm talking about with the statement of need. I've written a couple of longer grants for them where I've also incorporated state statistics about the number of seniors in the state. How many are participating in the program, how the healthy meals helped them, so just kind, depending on the length of the grant and the scale of the project. If I were asking for $10,000 I'm gonna incorporate a lot more statistics and reasoning where this one was only $500. I want to make sure and present the request, but I don't need to go overboard on pulling in. All the statistics used the amount of research in proportion to the request that you're asking for 5. What Will You Do with the Money? Program Design & Evaluation: the program. Design and evaluation is really at the core of what you're proposing to do. It's why you're asking for the money to begin with. This explains what you'll do with the funds. So you're gonna clearly lay out your plan so the funder can understand why they should give you this money and what you're going to do with it. Like the other sections I mentioned before, this may be broken out differently. Some of these may be combined together in one section, or it may be broken out into separate questions or separate sections altogether. But at least you can understand that these elements are probably going to be somewhere in the application. First, you're going to explain why you chose this option. Make sure it's well researched. Explain the what? Where, when and how it's going to happen. Tell them about your idea. Tell them what you want to accomplish and why. How it's going to improve things for your clients, for your community. For your organization. Make sure to use action words so that you can convey what's going to happen. Paint a picture in their mind of what your program will look like with these funds, there's always an element of goals and objectives as well. The program designed section can be several pages long. Sometimes, though, if you're just doing a smaller grant, it may be a couple of paragraphs. Either way, you've really gotta pack a lot of solid information in. This isn't the time for fluff, where you have to write a college research paper and fill it just to get your quota in. This is where every word counts, and you need to really make sure your design is solid. Here's just a very quick example that gives a brief overview of a program design. If the kids read Project, it tells what they will do. Improve reading skills off who, how many students and how they'll do it using iPads equipped with scanners and assist of reading software. Then it goes into why this program is good, what it will allow the students to do and how they will benefit from it. They'll increase their reading speed and comprehension, and they'll improve their subject matter Proficiency, then also includes other benefits that it comes with to show that the teachers will get the support they need to implement this program. We're not just going to buy some equipment, it's going to sit there in a box, and the kids don't know how to use it. The teachers will get specific training on this exact program. Then we get into the Goldson objectives. I've talked about this in another course, so I won't go into it quite as in depth here. But feel free to refer to that one. If you really want to dig deep, keep in mind the goals and objectives should directly align with the request with the thing that you're asking for. They need to show the progress you plan to make with this project and how you're going to measure that progress. Goals are very broad, and objectives are very specific. So the goal is just a picture of how you're going to make life better for the objectives. Tell step by step exactly how you'll get there. They tell the who, what, when, where, why and how and the objectives measured the degree of progress. So how much difference is it making? Here's an example Cold that goes along with the project I just gave as an example, The Kids Read Project will improve the reading skills of at risk students at North Elementary School. That's pretty broad. It tells you a general idea of what things are going to happen with this program, but you don't know specifics yet. This just kind of gives you a picture of okay. Now I know what the project is about. Here's one example objective that could go along with that goal By May of 2020 30. At risk, Students in grades three through five will improve their reading comprehension by 20% as measured by classroom reading tests. So this is giving you more of the who. What, when, where? Why details those specifics about the program and how you will know you've reached success . This also gives you a measurement. It's a very specific tool, your classroom reading tests. And by comparing the beginning and the end of the year, you'll have those benchmarks along the way so that you can see midyear. Our students making progress do we need to address the program. The goals and objectives are important so that you can know how you'll measure them, who will measure them and win, and what tools you will use to measure there could be a variety of different tools, depending on your type of organization and the project you're working on. This all comes together in the program design and the evaluation part. So whether the application has thes all lumped together in one section or if it's separate and laid out in completely different sections, either way, everything needs to align, and it needs to make sense together. Whatever you have in your program designed, the objectives and goals and evaluation process needs to follow along exactly with that same program design. 6. Can You Handle the Money? Capacity & Sustainability: the next section we need to talk about is the capacity and sustainability. Those are big words, but we're going to break them down. First of all, they may not outright ask for these things in so many words in the RFP, but you do need to somehow incorporate thes into the application. The capacity just shows that you can handle this project. It's not too big for you. It's not more than you can manage. A year from now, you won't be saying Oh no, we bit off more than we can chew. They want to see that you have what it takes and you have the people in place already to manage this program that you're proposing. You'll need to explain who is involved. That can be your staff, your volunteers, your board members. Who is it that's going to be working directly with this program and why are they capable of handling this? What kind of training do they have? What kind of background experience, whatever that may be explained that also, your financials explained that you can handle this program or that you have whatever it is in place that you may need to supplement the grant funds. Remember, grants don't want to be your only dollar. They don't want to keep your doors open. They want to help supplement the work you're already doing. So show that you have a good, stable financial base. You have donors, you have other projects. Other fundraisers, other sources of income show that you have a long term plan for this program. Whatever you're proposing to dio show that you have a way of outlasting the grant term. If the grant is for one year, go above and beyond and show how you're going to use this program even passed that year. If they invest in this one thing, what happens at the end of the year doesn't go away. Or are you going to be able to keep using it for several years down the road again? Think of it as the funder. Which one would you be more likely to fund? The one that's gonna go away or the one that can continue to have an impact long after this one year term, show what kinds of communities support you have? Do you have other partners in the community that you work with that help either financially or volunteering. Or maybe they give in kind support. They share materials, supplies other things from their programs, show those things anything you have to show your network and how you all are working together to fill this need in the community is going to help provide the funders with an idea and give them a picture of your sustainability and your capacity. 7. How Will You Spend the Money? Budget: the budget is obviously going to be a huge piece of your grant proposal. You're asking for money. So of course they want to see how are you going to use that money? Not just the explanation of it, but they want to see the numbers. Always read the RFP again the request for proposal to see what the budget requirements are . Sometimes they'll want to see your entire organizational budget. Sometimes they only want to see the grant program budget Just how you're going to spend this money that you're asking for. Other times they'll want to see both, so be prepared. Either way, you'll need to explain how you're going to spend the funds. Sometimes they will provide a template for this, and you'll just plug in the numbers in the categories other times you'll need to create your own. Either way, keep it simple and clear. Make sure that you're showing exactly what each line item is for. Don't try to muddy things together. Don't over explain with big, flowery words. Just keep it straight forward and always triple. Check everything in your budget. Make sure it's consistent across all documents. If you make one little change somewhere. Make sure that you've made that change everywhere else throughout your application. Always triple check after you're finished putting it together before you hit. Submit, go back and triple check again. The size of the grant and what you're requesting will make a difference on how complex your budget will be. If it's a really small grand, then you're probably gonna have a pretty simple budget. But if it gets really complex, then you might need to have quite a bit more explanation and breakdown of each category. Some grants will also request a budget narrative along with the actual budget. So by budget, I mean, like a spreadsheet or table format. The budget narrative is more of a written explanation, like in a document format where it explains all the details. And this is your chance to really go into those extra details and reasoning for each item. Sometimes I'll even include photos if that's allowed and explain why we chose each one. If there's any research behind it, any proof that this is the best equipment for this project because and go into that explanation, this is sometimes a good place to include research on best practices say if its foreign exercise program, you can explain why this equipment is best for balance and coordination and why you selected these particular items. So really, use this to help enhance your project and really solidify those reasons you laid out the need. You laid out your program design. Now is your chance to really justify those things through the budget and the budget narrative. It may also be called the Buttons. Your justification. Either way, make sure to use this and be thorough, and I'll say it again. Always check your work again one more time before you hit. Submit. 8. Forget Something? Supporting Documents: most grant applications will also require a few additional documents. Besides, the application itself thes will be included in your RFP, and they'll be explained there so that you'll know exactly what else you should include in the application. They may request things like your proof of tax status. So you probably got a letter stating that you're officially a five, a one C three nonprofit or whatever your organization is. You need a copy of that official letter. You might need the organizational budget. You might even need a proof of insurance. I don't see that very often, but I have filled out one that required. That depends on the type of grant. Often, they may want to see a board member list. They might want letters of support from community partners showing how they will participate and be involved in your program. If it's awarded, they might require an MOU, which is a memorandum of understanding again. That's from other partners who have a stake in the program. But this is a little more of a commitment that they are actually committing to be involved in your program in some way. If it's awarded, they will also partner and agree to do this. There might be a logic model requirement, and that's just sort of a graphic visual display of the main elements of your project. To think of it is kind of a mind map or a step by step, showing it a very condensed form, just kind of at a glance, giving a picture of what you're proposing to do. There might be other forms, signatures, dates, I say those because I have seen people forget them. It's important. Make sure you have all those things, the signatures, and don't forget to date it. If there's a form required, these won't all be in every application. But you may come across some of these or even other types of documents that are required, so don't miss this. Read the RFP carefully to make sure that you don't miss any one of thes because they could throw out the application. If you forget one and nobody wants that to happen, make sure you got them all. Go through your checklist again. Make sure everything is attached correctly 9. How Do You Send It in? Application Formats: Let's talk about the different types of application formats you might come across. Keep in mind, it's kind of like job applications. You know what her job application is and what it's for. You understand the basics of it. But each employer may have a slightly different process, and their application may look a little bit different, depending on how they've set it up. Grants are the same way some applications will be online. Some won't want a hard copy. Others might want a different format altogether. Just know that there may be different types, so you'll just again follow the RFP and go back to that for reference to tell you exactly how to apply and fill out the grant. There are several types of formats you might come across. The first would be an online form fill, and this is becoming more and more popular. There will be boxes for you to fill in, and these will often have a character limit or word count limit. To be aware of that when this is the case, I like to paste the questions into a word document. Sometimes they'll even let you download those as a word document and I can work on the application and revise it, spell check, do all my editing there and then just cut and paste the responses directly into the form. That way, I'm not trying to edit in a little tiny box and hope the website saves. And if something glitches there, I've lost all my work. I like to do it in a word document. Plus, it's easy to save for reference later. If I ever want to open it up and go back to the project, another type you might come across is just a document. This is like the example I showed you earlier, where they gave a PdF so you'll just prepare it in a word document or a Google doc and type out your application, get it already and then save it. As a PdF. They may want you to upload it to their website or email it to a particular location. The other option with that is, you might be required to print, and sometimes they'll give you the option of hand delivering of it somewhere local or to mail the application by a certain date. Typically, it has to be postmarked by that date, but Sometimes it will have to arrive at their office by the date. Be sure you've allowed plenty of time for that. Give yourself enough lead time. You don't want to be scrambling at the last minute and then realize, Oh, it's supposed to be there today, not postmarked today. That's pretty inconvenient. Then there might be other formats. It's very rare that you'll run into anything else, but you could, just to be aware one time I had to upload a grant in a very specific format on a certain type of CD Rahm and put it in a certain size three ring binder. There was a whole list of requirements, and it was just very unique. But be aware of those. And the devil is always in the details with the's grants to make sure you follow every specifications exactly like they say. 10. Conclusion & Course Project: and there you have it. By now, you should have a good handle on the basic sections of a grant application and how you can get started. Each applications requirements very a little bit from one to the next, but this will give you an idea of the kind of information you'll be collecting and writing about. You can then form your grant requests in a more effective way. Let's run through those key grant applications sections one more time. First, we have the RFP, the request for proposal, which is what everything will stem from. This is where you find all the instructions you need. Then you'll need to collect your organizational background. Make sure you fill in whatever is requested for each application. You have your statement of need where you present why you need this and the statistics and data to back it up. You'll have your program design and evaluation. What is it you're wanting to do with these funds, and how are you going to measure that? To be sure you were successful, explain your capacity and sustainability that you do have what it takes to implement this grant, successfully provide a budget for the program and also explain how you're going to use the money and what materials you're going to get with those why those materials were selected. Any supporting documents that may be required. Review the list of these and make sure you haven't left out anything, including signatures and dates, and be sure everything is in alignment. That means all sections of the grant needs all correspond with each other. You don't want to present something in one section and then not follow up in another. If you say you need it, then included in your program design, make sure you have a way to evaluate that show that that's what you're capable of implementing and then show that that's how you're going to spend the funds. So everything all works together now for your course project, you're gonna share three things with us. Number one. Which part of the grant application are you the most comfortable writing number? Two. Which part of the grant application are you the least comfortable writing? Number three. What is the next step you're going to take whether in learning to write grants or in actually writing a grant application? Share those with us and let's support each other in the community. Your next steps are reviewed. The notes you've taken in your coursework book complete the course project and shared in the community. Follow me on skill share so you can get in on future grant writing courses. Leave me overview so you can help others learn as well and go change your world. I'd love to hear your questions about Graham writing in your long term goals. Shoot me an email at info at Theresa dot com and let me know how you're making a difference in your community. If you're needing more support and tools to help with your grant writing career, go to Theresa huff dot com. Thank you for watching. Now go change your world.