Course Offerings

Advanced Grant Proposal Writing

Course ID: COM-3711RE
Overview
Course Outline
Requirements
Intended Audience
More Details

In this course, an experienced grant writer will show you how to research and write winning proposals that get funded. You will become proficient in the proposal format used by the vast majority of public foundations. Learn what to do and what not to do on your cover sheet, narrative, background page, and your stakeholder and third-party evaluation plan. Discover the quickest and most efficient ways to gather the information you will need to develop your proposal's attachments, including information on your organization's structure, administration, and finances. Gain a full understanding of the criteria funders use to determine whether your grant proposal gets funded or rejected. Before this course is over, you will have discovered a number of significant finishing touches that can give your project the edge over others. You will learn about the importance of obtaining community and political support before submitting a proposal to any government agency.

Course Objectives

Discover the quickest and most efficient ways to gather the information you'll need to develop your proposal's attachments, including information on your organization's structure, administration, and finances.

Gain a full understanding of the criteria funders use to determine whether your grant proposal gets funded or rejected.

Discover a number of significant finishing touches that can give your project the edge over others. You'll know the best type of paper to use, which buzzwords to include, which fonts work best, which types of graphics to include, and a variety of formatting techniques that will make your proposal more competitive.

Learn about the importance of obtaining community and political support before submitting a proposal to any government agency.

Outline of Instruction

Wednesday - Lesson 01
In this lesson, you'll learn the different types of grant proposal formats for corporations, foundations, and state and federal government agencies. This lesson is important because you'll discover who reviews your proposals at each type of funder, what format the proposal review staff expect to receive, and how and why decisions to fund or reject grant proposals are made.

Friday - Lesson 02
This lesson will teach you how to carefully research the funding agencies so you can match your grant funding needs to their interests. You'll learn how to find and use Internet research sites to identify multiple funders for grant proposal projects. And you'll learn how to spot the funder/project matches that result in a 90 percent or higher funding success rate.

Wednesday - Lesson 03
In this lesson, we'll focus on how to prepare the first section of the grant proposal narrative-the research and major accomplishments section. You'll learn how to sift through organizational documents and write useful information that will answer the dozens of questions that grant reviewers ask when reading your narrative. Most importantly, you'll learn how to avoid the mistakes that can cause your grant proposal to lose points during the initial stages of the funder's review process.

Friday - Lesson 04
This lesson will teach you how to develop a current programs and activities section narrative template. You'll also learn where to find the type of information a grant reviewer needs in this section of your grant proposal. And you'll learn how to stay on your toes to answer all of the questions that funders ask when they read this section of your grant proposals

Wednesday - Lesson 05
In this lesson, you will learn how to write accurate and magnetizing copy for the target population served section of your grant proposals. You'll also learn how to conduct extensive research on your target population and how to order, organize, and write the information for this critical section of your grant proposals.

Friday - Lesson 06
This lesson will teach you how to find the most current information on your organization's partners in the community, region, and nation. You'll also learn how to identify potential partners when your organization has few or no partners. Most importantly, you'll learn how to organize and present your partnership information in an appealing format for funders.

Wednesday - Lesson 07
In this lesson, you'll learn how to understand the needs statement section from the funder's viewpoint. You'll also learn the type of information to collect on the target population and your organization in order to glean language for this section.

Friday - Lesson 08
This is perhaps the most important of all our lessons. You are halfway through the main writing sections for your grant proposal narrative and gaining more confidence in your skills. This lesson will teach you how to show the funder that you have a well-thought-out plan for spending grant monies. You'll learn how to look at the program design section from the funder's viewpoint, how to collect the right information, and how to spot poorly written narrative in this section.

Wednesday - Lesson 09
In this lesson, you will learn to understand the thinking patterns of grant funders when they read the management plan section. You'll also learn how to avoid the most common types of errors made by other grant writers when writing this section, and how to cull the right information from your program staff or administrators.

Friday - Lesson 10
This lesson will teach you how to look at the evaluation plan section from the funder's perspective. You'll also learn how to steer clear of the age-old errors that other grant writers make when planning and writing this section. From learning where to find the information needed to write an award-winning evaluation plan to learning the common terms that funders look for in this section, Lesson 10 hits the target

Wednesday - Lesson 11
At this point, you're nearing the finish line for Advanced Proposal Writing. In this lesson, you will learn the standard definitions you need to know when it comes to planning your budget line items. We'll also look at examples of award-winning budget sections on the Internet. Most importantly, this lesson will teach you how to recover with the funder when you make a glaring budget error.

Friday - Lesson 12
Our last lesson will teach you how to view your entire proposal package from the funder's viewpoint. You'll also learn how to use words that work, some final formatting techniques, and how to prepare the supporting documentation for your grant proposal-the attachments. This final lesson will also teach you the ins and outs of signatories, copies, and how to mail your grant proposal the right way. Lastly, you'll learn how to follow up on all outstanding items, such as verification of proposal delivery and checking back with funders. Finally, I'll show you the next step to take when your proposal is either funded or rejected.

Contact Hours

CEUs

Industry Standard, State or National Certification

Certification

None

Website

None

Certification Learning Outcomes/Requirements

CE or CU Articulation

Prerequisites

Completion of an introductory grant writing course or equivalent experience.

Learning Supplies Needed

Hardware Requirements:
This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:
PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:
Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:
The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Clinical Site/Special Facilities

None

Requirements for Successful Completion

90% attendance
• Students must successfully pass 10 quizzes with a minimum grade of 70% by the second quiz attempt.
• If all quizzes are not passed with 70 or better by the second attempt, the final exam score must be 70% or higher on the first attempt for successful completion.
• The Final Exam must be taken by the Wake Tech course end date

Accreditation/Special Approval Requirements

N/A

Intended Audience

This course will provide you with a complete understanding of all the components used to determine whether to fund or reject a proposal and how to give your project an edge over others.