Selling Charity: How to Write a Grant Proposal
The class for the week changed gears this week and instead of looking at past examples of philanthropic thought we focused on how to make a great grant proposal. In order to do this Dr. Claire Deal, a professor of Rhetoric and Public Speaking, came to the class and gave the class some key tips.
The first thing that Dr. Deal told us to do before writing our grant proposals was to think about who we are trying to help, what we’re trying to do in order to help them, when we expect to get help out to those that need it, and why helping out these people is important. These re all important things as Foundation, Grant, and Charity boards will all be looking at who is being helped, hat your proposed plan is, how long it will take to get running, and why they should give money to your plan as opposed to one of the other programs that could help people.
A second thing we were taught included Monroe’s motivated sequence. Monroe’s motivated sequence is an organizational technique used in persuasive writing that was developed by Alan H. Monroe of Purdue University in the 1930s. Monroe’s’ sequence goes in the order of Attention, Need, Visualization, and Call to Action.
- The Attention step is where one makes a connection with their audience while explaining what the specific problem they are trying to address.
- The Need step is where one explains what they’re trying to get from the donors, in this step it is advisable to use visual representations or testimonials to help tell the story of those you’re trying to help.
- The step of Satisfaction is where one introduces their specific plan to get things done, “We will be using X, Y, and Z methods to accomplish goals A, B, and C.”
- Visualization is where you talk about some of the things that are already being done to help out people, but still highlighting what things will be like for them after what YOU have proposed is done.
- Finally, the Call to Action is a step where it is key to congratulate/thank your audience for what they already do but to specifically state how many man hours, financial assistance, or materials you need to complete your current project.
After Dr. Deal finished her lecture Dr. Thornton came up and outlined some key issues to keep in mind when creating grant proposals. One thing that she stressed is how it’s necessary to follow grant guidelines or your proposal will likely be thrown out and lessen your own credibility as well as the credibility of your client organization. Avoid the use of jargon as your audience may not correctly understand what you are referring to or could take it as a sign that you are unprofessional. Furthermore, Dr. Thornton reminded us to make our proposals easy to say yes to as it’s hard to sell charitable giving towards people as it often doesn’t have tangible rewards.
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