Blog: Fundraising for Nonprofits

Grant proposals should go through a five-step writing process:
•  Plan: Think through your proposal section.
•  Organize: Use the grant guidelines as your outlining guide.
•  Write: Write in a free-flowing manner.
•  Examine: Walk away from your writing and review it later
    while letting others review it too.
•  Revise: Emphasize clarity, conciseness, correctness, and persuasiveness.

One of my previous postings (Plan And Organize Your Proposal Before You Write) discussed Planning and Organizing. This time, I will focus on the third step – writing the first draft of your grant proposal.

These are the steps you should take to write a good first draft.

•  Write the first draft quickly
    Work from your notes and worksheet.
    Write heading and subheadings first and use them as a guide.
    Begin with the easiest parts of your sections. (It is estremely rare
       for a proposal to be written linearly … from first page to last!)
    Write quickly.
    Do not worry about formatting and errors.

•  Use your outline
    Focus on the funder’s hot buttons that you have identified.
    Focus on your organization’s solution.
    Validate, validate, validate!
    Do not make claims you cannot prove.

•  Use paragraphs effectively
    Limit your paragraphs to one main idea.
    Begin each paragraph with a thesis statement.
    Put the most important point first.
    Use plenty of bulleted and numbered lists.
    Put details at the middle and end of your paragraphs.
    Make sure that your paragraphs flow logically.
    Use transition sentences as your glue.

If you follow these steps to writing effectively, you should be able to produce a serviceable first draft of your grant proposal … in proper format.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.
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Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
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