How to Craft a Killer Grant Application

A well-written grant can bring big bucks to your non-profit organization.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Many non-profits have a specific team or department responsible solely for fund-raising.

These activities can include special events, small businesses like thrift stores, soliciting individual donations and acquiring grants from federal and private sources.

Based on my experience as a former grant writer at a Seattle non-profit with an annual budget of $25 million dollars, I’d like to share the following thoughts to help you and your non-profit organization increase your percentage of successful grants.

Re-read the grant instructions

Read it more than once, and if possible, have more than one person read it. Together discuss it to be sure everyone involved understands the project.

Think about how you will answer the questions

You want to research and understand as much as possible about the non-profit organization you write about. You want to be organized. If you are writing more than one grant application for the same organization, create a “swipe” file of generic answers you can copy and paste and tweak to adapt to specific questions.