Tips for Writing Federal Grant Proposals

In the course of my career, I've written dozens of federal grant proposals for different departments and agencies. Each time I finish one, I am convinced that, NEXT TIME, the process will be smoother!

While federal grants are far less intimidating to me these days, the process is never very smooth. I can count on one hand the times I have submitted the grant before the last day - typically my clients and I are still scrambling around the deadline day making final changes and edits. But they are typically just small things and we are able to submit several hours before the cut-off.

Yes, there can be an effective method to the madness of preparing a federal grant proposal. But, no matter what your method, I believe there are some traits that will help you succeed:

• Time Management - Putting together a federal proposal takes a great deal of time and you MUST block that time in your schedule in order to get it done. How much time depends on the proposal, and each one is different. As a rule of thumb, I base estimates on the page limit of the narrative. For clients I've worked with a long time, I estimate a base of thirty hours, then an additional half-hour for each narrative page (double spaced). For new clients, it is one to 1.5 hours per page.
• Organizational skills - I have put together proposals with more than 300 pages of documentation. You must be able to organize and manage these elements in order to be successful.You've also got to develop and manage an effective set of tasks and internal deadlines for your team.
• Detail Oriented - Information must match across several documents. If you change one element in the budget, you will have to make the same change in several others. You must be detailed enough not to miss those - or have a team member who is really good at spotting those details.
• Patience - Federal Opportunity Announcements are often 90+ pages long. Federal grant webinars are how I envision the 7th ring of hell. But participating in these is vital to success. You must have enough patience to slog through them.
• Grace - After submitting a grant, I often find several things I wish I had done differently. When the review comes back one of those as a stated weakness, I want to kick myself. However, it's important to offer grace for those things. I've written some fairly flawless grants, with great reviewer comments, that DIDN'T get funding and I've written some last-minute, cobbled together proposals that DID get funding. Offering yourself and your team some grace is vital to surviving.
• Management Skills/People Skills - Federal grants typically take teamwork from several departments (finance, personnel, programming, executive) to complete. You must be able to manage each team member's expectations and time.
• Writing Skills - Notice how that's last? As a writer, I always think good writing is the most important element, but Shakespeare himself would not be able to write a good federal grant proposal if he didn't have the other traits listed here.

In my next entry, I will list the process I use for tackling the federal proposal.