If you are applying to get a grant it is important to learn how to actually leave yourself out of the application. This might sound absurd but the proposals that get the money are the ones that tell the evaluators how giving you money will benefit them. They should be so satisfied with the results of reading our proposal that they will think that you are a mind reader.
One of the biggest mistakes that applicants of grants make is to beg for money. You need to explain how this money is for a good cause and if it is a business grant, how you are going to show a profit, contribute to the community and give the organization its money back.
Grantors prefer to do business with people and organizations that are outward looking and professional in tone. You need to have a business plan that expresses your mission and that benefits all concerns.
There are some very practical ways that you can leave yourself out of the grant application process. You can avoid using the first person you and I can avoid self pity as you write it. You should also avoid getting too personal with your language or mentioning too often how the grant will benefit you.
One way to write a great application is to a bit of market research and includes statistics that show why your business is needed or why it will profitable. It is important to be persuasive yet not in a way that causes the reader’s eyes to glaze right over. Do not bore your evaluators with long rambling sentences. Use stylized, succinct language to sell your ideas to them and make sure that these ideas are about them. This is especially important if you find yourself writing a grant application that has a limit as to how many words you can use to apply to each field.
It can be a challenge and a blessing to have to keep your words to a minimum and still get your message across. One way to deal with the writer’s block that sets in is o set up a problem in the first paragraph and the suggest your solution in the second. Keep in mind that while you do this that both the problem and the solution should be all about the evaluators and not your needs.
Remember that if you write a grant proposal that is all about how it will benefit you your chances are less than if you create a bit of a sense of urgency about why the world need you to develop this business or idea!
