Read the Grant Guidelines Carefully.  The Guidelines are designed to help you through the grant application process.  It is easy to omit information or misread the instructions.

Contact Grant Operations Staff if you have questions.  Seek help early to give you time to assemble all the necessary information for your grant.  Be sure to contact staff AFTER you have read thoroughly all the grant guidelines.

Give concise and clear answers to all the questions.  Your application should be written in a straight-forward manner and answer the questions of why it is important for you to undertake this project.  Be sure to address how the project success will be evaluated and what is the main target audience.

All supplemental materials need to be clearly marked with proper headings and best represent your organization’s strengths.  Also make sure you keep a copy of the entire grant application including supplemental materials for your records.

Collaborations or letters of support are generally a good idea unless the granting organization does not accept supplemental materials.

COMMON GRANT-WRITING MISTAKES

• Grant Application does not align with the mission of the granting organization
• Application does not follow the grant guidelines.  Be sure to follow all the instructions
• Application doesn’t address the how, when and by whom the project meets the specified objectives
• Grant application does not include evaluation process – how you will know that the grant objectives have been and the project has or has not been successful.  Be sure to include the lessons learned – even obstacles contain a lesson for future work
• Grant application is not complete – all required information is not provided including any additional copies of the proposal as requested
• Grant application is submitted after the deadline
• Proposal budget contains math errors
• Document not signed by the authorizing agent