Professionalize your Approach to
Grantseeking
Stanley Geidel
Sponsored Projects Administration
Professionalizing your Proposal
• Context
– Sponsors receive many more proposals than they
can fund
– Many worthy proposals go unfunded
• How can we better position our grant
proposals for success in the very competitive
world of external funding?
Understanding Sponsor Expectations
• How can we fully professionalize our proposal
such that it meets sponsor expectations?
• What are sponsor expectations?
• What are the elements and characteristics
that sponsors often look for in a proposal?
• How can we represent those elements in each
of the documents that form the proposal
package?
Preliminary work:
Before you apply
• Get to know your sponsor’s recent funding
history
• Obtain copies of abstracts of funded grants as
well as funded full proposals
– Abstracts of funded proposals
• Sponsor websites and annual reports
• Grants Resource Center
– Funded full proposals
• SPA
• Reach out to proposal authors
Language and Ideas
• Reading funded abstracts and proposals illustrates the
language and ideas to which the sponsor responds
– Proposal language
• Discipline specific?
• General audience?
• If a general audience, how is the language of the discipline translated
to reach those outside the discipline?
– Proposal ideas
• Seeing the ideas that are funded helps identify the sponsor’s current
funding priorities
• Does your idea align with the funded ideas your are seeing in the
proposals of others?
– Proposal characteristics
• Are there elements that are included in funded proposals above and
beyond the guidelines?
Steep yourself in the culture of the
sponsor
• Connect with the sponsor via
– Social media
• glasspockets.org
– Sponsor meetings, events, webinars
Get personally involved with your
sponsor
• Serve as a reviewer
• Talk with a Program Officer about your project
idea
The Elements of a Proposal Package:
The Sponsor Perspective
• The common elements of a proposal package
– Project summary
– Biographical Information
– Literature Review
– Project Description
• What are sponsors looking for in each of these
documents?
Project Summary
• Also known as an abstract or executive
summary
• One page or less
• Typical Elements of the Project Summary
– Needs Statement
– Goals and objectives
– Summary of the Project Plan
– Anticipated impact
How do sponsors use the
Project Summary?
• Be cognizant of general sponsor characteristics
– Sponsors fund their needs, not yours
– Sponsors are risk-averse problem solvers
• In the project summary
– Connect with the sponsor’s mission, goals, and values
• State your project idea as the answer to a question; or the solution
to a problem or need
• Explain the linkage between the sponsor mission and values and
your project idea
• Echo (but do not parrot) the sponsor’s language
– Demonstrate a basis for success
• Pilot data; earlier phase of the project; a basis in the prior work of
others
Next:
Two Critical Documents
• The next two documents are key
documents that tell the sponsor why they
should fund you
– the literature review
– the biographical sketch
• Do not underestimate the crucial importance
of these two documents to the sponsor
– Be certain to devote sufficient care to the
preparation of these documents
The Critical Importance of the Lit
Review / Review of Prior Work
• The lit review is not a perfunctory, annotated
listing of relevant publications
• A good lit review reads like a narrative and should
lead the sponsor to conclude:
– that the next logical step is to fund your proposal idea;
– an idea that includes a novel, innovative approach;
– an idea for which there is early evidence for a
successful outcome
• The lit review tells sponsors why they should fund
your idea
The Lit Review:
Where does your project fit?
• Why should a sponsor fund the work you
propose?
–
–
–
–
–
–
Are you filling a gap in the literature?
Are you building on prior work?
Are you at the leading edge of innovation?
Are you addressing a new problem?
Are you addressing an old problem in a new way?
Are you applying known solutions to new situations or
conditions?
• The lit review creates the context for the sponsor
to say yes, we should fund this work
Biographical Information
• What does a Biographical Sketch or Statement
of Qualifications look like?
– May either be a short narrative statement or in
itemized format
– If a statement:
• Normally no more than 1 or 2 paragraphs
– If in itemized format:
• Normally no more than 2 pages
• A full CV is normally not appropriate
How do sponsors use the biosketch?
• The biosketch is not simply a recounting of
your education, experience, and
accomplishments
• Helps the sponsor determine your capacity to
produce outcomes and deliverables
Shaping your biosketch
• Your academic products
– Focus on experiences, publications, and
presentations that are relevant to the proposed
project
• Can be useful to include activities that
demonstrate your capacity to deliver results
– Leadership roles
– Project management experience
Shaping your biosketch (2)
• Helpful to include experiences that
demonstrate your ability to work on a team
– Collaborative successes; successful partnerships
– Remember, you are proposing a partnership with
the funder!
• Funding history
– Indicates good stewardship of sponsor funds
• The biographical sketch creates the context for
the sponsor to say yes, we should fund you
The Project Plan
• Also referred to as the Project Description or
Methodology
• Conceptualize this as an detailed activities
plan that will, via a set of objectives,
contribute towards a larger goal, thus creating
one or more specific impacts
The Project Plan:
General Concepts
• Demonstrate that your project has a manageable scope
given the boundaries of your proposed project
• Grants, by their very definition, are mechanisms with
several limitations and boundaries
– Specific activities; project period; funding level; project
team
• Make certain your goals and objectives are aligned
with the limited resources defined in your grant
– Don’t promise too much with regard to outcomes and
deliverables
The Project Plan:
Specifics
• Operationalize every element of your program
• Give special attention to explaining your
innovative approaches
– What are they; what is new and different; how
they will advance your processes and outcomes
• Place each activity on a timeline
– Narrative, with clear milestones
– Chart (e.g., Gantt chart)
Include an Evaluation Plan
• Strengthens your proposal by adding the
element of accountability
– Provides accountability for you
• Proves to the sponsor that you are accountable for
delivery
– Assures accountability for the sponsor
• Sponsors are accountable to their agency directors (and
ultimately, the public) or to foundation boards to
display due diligence with regard to assuring outcomes
Who Should Evaluate?
• You? Internal evaluator? External evaluator?
• Factors to consider:
– Sponsor’s requirements
– Cost
– Availability
– Knowledge and experience within the program
area
– Neutrality / perceived objectivity
• Make the best choice for the project
22
Writing the evaluation plan
• Examine the RFP/Guidelines Document(s) to
determine the weight given to evaluation in
the overall scoring rubric
– Keep the scoring weight in mind when
determining the proportion of your narrative
devoted to evaluation
– Example: if evaluation counts 20% of your score,
devote 20% of your narrative to the evaluation
component
23
What should an evaluation plan look
like?
• The strongest evaluation plans proceed in
parallel with the project
• Allows you to make course corrections during
the project, thus maximizing outcomes and
subsequently delivering to the sponsor the
best possible results
Helpful Additional Considerations
• Dissemination; sustainability
Include a dissemination plan
• How are you going to share your results to
maximize the continuing benefits of your
work?
• Do you have a credible dissemination plan?
– Publication
• Will it occur?
• Will it hit the target audience preferred by the sponsor?
– Symposium; forum; public presentations; webinar
• Invite the sponsor
Include information on project
sustainability
• What happens after the money runs out?
• Primary: programmatic sustainability
– Will your outcomes be preserved?
– Will your new processes and innovations be
integrated into ongoing work?
• Secondary: funding sustainability
–
–
–
–
Will be project become self-sustaining?
Will the university support a continued effort?
Can fees for services be charged?
Can the work be transferred to the community,
business & industry, non-profits, or other sectors?
Summary:
Sponsors want to know…
• Why the work you propose should be funded
– Lit review or review of prior work
• Why they should be the ones to fund it
– Abstract – via a linkage to their mission and values
• Why they should fund you to do that work
– Biographical sketch – via relevant education, experience,
academic products, project leadership experience, funding
history
• How you will accomplish your work
– Methodology or project plan – an innovative approach
that focuses on fully detailed processes and activities
Sponsors want to know…
• Why their investment in you will be successful
– Proof of concept
• How you will be accountable for results
– Evaluation plan – runs in parallel with your project
• How the results of your work reach their
maximum potential
– Dissemination plan and sustainability plan
• credible dissemination plan
• Sustainability plan that focuses on retention of outcomes
and integration of new processes
Funding is achievable
• Get involved with your sponsor
–
–
–
–
Study prior funding
Keep current with their priorities and activities
Serve as a reviewer
Work with the program officer
• Understand the sponsor’s perspective
– Their mission, goals, values, and purposes
– The questions, needs, and problems they are trying to address
– Their nature…often risk averse, typically detail oriented
• Understand what sponsors look for in a proposal
–
–
–
–
–
Linkage with their mission
A novel approach
A manageable project
A basis for your project’s success
Accountability for delivery of outcomes