Anybody who has ever written more than a few grant proposals knows what a big, sometimes boring chore it is. But it’s an instructive chore: It forces you to articulate exactly what you plan to do and why it’s important. And that makes your work even better.
Each grant-maker has their own particular guidelines, but most of them will ask at least the following three questions.
The first part of a grant proposal discusses the need or problem that you’re responding to, or the opportunity you’ll fulfill. Let’s say you’re working on poverty among women in Nairobi. That’s a good start, but you have to get at the causes behind urban women’s poverty. Maybe your target population doesn’t have the skills to get living-wage jobs; or maybe they have the skills but don’t know how to find work; or maybe have the skills and the information, but they’re discriminated against in the job market. These and other factors may be at play, but you should state only the ones that correspond to your solution, which you’ll write about in the next section.
About the author
Paul VanDeCarr
Paul is a writer, editor, and communications trainer who has worked for the U.N. Development Programme, UNFPA, UNICEF, and the U.N. Secretariat. He authored a pair of guides on "Philanthropy and the SDGs" for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and has consulted with foundations on how to align their work with the SDGs. Previously, he has worked in the fields of oral history, theater, and documentary film, and wrote a guide for Working Narratives on "Storytelling and Social Change."
