Is This You?
Do you need directions as you embark on your grant-writing journey?
You know the scenarios all too well:
You started planning your proposal a month ago. But last week’s committee or council meeting and this week’s crisis left you no time to write. You can practically hear the clock ticking as you debate whether to pass up this funding opportunity or accept that the proposal you submit will not be as strong as possible.
You and your staff have taken several workshops to learn to write better grants, but still you struggle to translate your ideas, values, and project plans into the goals, objectives, benchmarks, performance measures, and outcomes that funders expect. You’re good at planning and managing new programs; yet you feel frustrated and stymied every time you sit down to write a proposal.
Your tribe is committed to accomplishing development from within and to finding tribal solutions to the issues you face as a community. Yet you often find yourself caught in the bind of either abandoning tribal values in the interest of writing proposals that will appeal to non-Native funders or remaining true to your values and not winning needed funds.
You’ve attracted new funds to undertake new projects, but you’re exhausted by the extra work you’ve created for yourself and your staff, and you feel distracted from your true mission. Sometimes it seems that in order to survive you have to meet your funder’s goals rather than your own.
You’re dreading telling your staff that the money just isn’t there to continue all of your current projects. You’re going to have to let some people go and increase the workload of others. You promised yourself you would never let it come to this, and now you feel that you’ve failed and let others down.
You’re thinking about hiring a professional grant writer to assist you in grant writing, but you hesitate. How can you be certain that this writer will convey your excitement and passion about your work and your future? How can you be sure that her proposals will capture your special mission and role in the community?
As a tribal leader, you struggle to keep to the funder’s pace for planning and change. You revere the connections among people past and present. Yet respecting the tribal importance of consensus-based decision-making often has you biting your fingernails as the deadline approaches.
Grant Central Station can help you write outstanding proposals that your board, your tribal council, and your constituency will support and that will increase your chance of winning funds.
Successful clients include:
- Public sector agencies, such as school boards, fire departments, and arts boards
- Grassroots organizations Nonprofits that serves a special interest group or cause
- Tribal governments or coalitions
- Organizations that are new to grant writing
- Well-established organizations with a history of strategic planning
- Organizations that are on the cusp of increasing capacity
- Organizations that need to maintain current levels of funding.
Grant Central Station's approach to writing proposals will help you reach your destination if you value:
- A partnership-based approach
- Long-term working relationships
- Keeping the fun and excitement in your work
- The importance of evaluation and outcomesKeeping the passion in your work
- Long-term planning
- Making a difference through your work.
Start on your journey to better grants by downloading this free booklet, Writing Letters of Inquiry That Get a Response.
Just in case you’re still wondering whether Grant Central Station’s approach can take you the full distance, click here to find out some of the people who have benefited from our help.