It’s that time of year again where many of you may be involved in putting proposals together for a grant for your organization. Grant writing is a process. Like any other skill, it takes passion, preparation, credibility, and perseverance. If you are writing your first grant proposal, it is extremely important you remember the following key factors.
Key Factors for Grant Writing Success
- Read your Grant Guidelines. Make a list of all “fatal flaws” and keep that in mind as you construct your application.
- Create an Outline of your project, including all required elements from the Grant Guidelines.
- Build your budget. Understand fully budget limitations on indirect costs, equipment, operating costs, etc.
- Write Your Organization’s Story: Whether it be a school, hospital or state facility, the story behind your needs is compelling.
- Paint a Vivid Picture for the Reviewers. Summarize your project and lay out your needs as well as your intent for the project. Make sure your goals are measurable.
- Develop a Graphic Depiction of the relationships between resources, activities, outputs and outcomes of your program.
- Incorporate Case Studies when available to demonstrate the work you’ve been doing and its efficacy.
- Reference Research on similarly implemented programs to demonstrate.
- Complete your Grant application with a Project Summary
Superior grants are well-prepared and demonstrate strong attention to detail. Grant proposals should be viewed as business plans designed to make the funding partner confident in the success of your project. Your proposal must convey the overall impact of resolving difficult problems for your organization. It should also relay the importance of the befitting of the student/constituents/member that you serve.
At the same time, your submission must be passionate. You must convince the reviewers that your proposal matters by addressing the impact, the “so what question”, and the paradigm shift you will make in the field.
At the end of the day, superior grants are a product of preparation, preparation, and more preparation. Once you are prepared, credibility, attention to detail, passion, and conviction will enthuse, and ultimately convince your donors.
Checklist for success:
- Prior to even drafting the proposal, research the grant-making organization’s mission and funding interests thoroughly. Look for key phrases and try to integrate these into the text of your proposal.
- Check the organization’s website to see if there’s an archive of previous winners. See how well your idea lines up with what’s been funded in the past.
- Pay very close attention to the guidelines. Make sure to look into any internal requirements or deadlines for the opportunity.
- Get as much feedback as you possibly can. Give yourself enough time to write multiple drafts of your proposal.
We wish you much success with your grant endeavors. Zunesis hopes to partner with you on any future grant projects.
Additional Resources:
Grant Writing 101
Tips and Resources for Successful Grant Writing
Ten Tips for Getting your School Grant Funded
Grant Eligibility
GovEd Customers in Colorado Now Have Access to an HPE-Aruba Networking Contract Vehicle.
Zunesis is pleased to announce that we are now able to provide Aruba Networks (an HPE Company) wireless equipment, software, and support service to our valued education (K-12, Higher Education, etc.) and government (state, local, districts, etc.) customers and prospects in Colorado!
The contract, Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), extends competitive discounts to our Colorado GovEd customers without the need of a time-consuming and exhaustive bid/RFP process, and brings the added benefit of working with an in-state small business, Zunesis, Inc.
According to Aruba and HPE sources, campus technology leaders are demanding that mobile devices enable protection of both their network and the data within the devices on campus. The trend of using mobile devices is ever growing. Educational institutions must rapidly accept the Internet of Things (IOT) within their technology solutions. The Aruba portfolio enables institutions to accommodate this trend while maintaining the security of data and networks.
With the influx of mobile and internet enabled devices on campuses, there is a huge need to enhance current networks and ensure network security. The capabilities that Aruba brings to the table are truly game-changing. Aruba’s approach allows organizations to securely connect mobile and IoT devices coming onto the network to existing infrastructure, delivering visibility and policy control.
Zunesis has also been awarded Aruba Silver partner status, which means that you can work with Zunesis with the confidence that we are providing best-in-class pre-sales engineering consulting, ongoing technology training internally, and keeping our customers up to date on what is new and developing…in addition to the important facet of providing the best pricing available to our customers.
Coupled with our existing Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Platinum DataCenter Elite status and our existing NASPO ValuePoint indirect contract fulfillment vehicle for industry leading ProLiant server, storage (3PAR, StoreVirtual, StoreOnce, MSA), and wired networking solutions (along with related HPE services and software), and our existing MHEC contract vehicle for VMware’s suite of data center optimization software (and services), Zunesis can now provide a full end-to-end data center to end-point solution with popular contract vehicles to our Government and Education customers in Colorado.
Contact your Zunesis account manager for more information on these programs, and learn how we can help plan and develop together your IT infrastructure strategy!
See below for more information:
