Читать книгу Grant Writing For Dummies - Stan Hutton, Beverly A. Browning - Страница 25

Although government grant application formats vary from agency to agency and department to department, some common threads exist in the highly detailed, structured, military-like regimen that’s commonly referred to as an application package. These common threads include a standard cover form, certification and assurances forms, narrative sections, and the budget narratives and related forms. And of course, all government grant applications require mandatory attachments or appendixes, such as résumés of project staff and copies of your nonprofit status determination letter from the IRS. (Head to Chapter 5 for more about the application package.)

Always follow the pagination, order of information, and review or evaluation criteria guidelines. All government grants are awarded on the basis of your meeting point-weighted review criteria, which are written and published in each funding agency’s grant application guidelines. (Most grants use a 100-point system.) The review criteria tell you what the peer reviewers will base their ratings on in the application package. With the competition being so hot and heavy for all government grants, you want to carefully craft an award-winning narrative that scores at a minimum of 95 points. The grant applications recommended for funding typically score between 95 and 100 points.

Several federal grantmaking agencies issue grant applications guidelines where their scoring rubrics often have up to 1,000 points. While this is rare, expect anything and everything when it comes to federal grantseeking and award processes.

As you read through the application guidelines, highlight all narrative writing requirements and look for sections that tell you how the grant reviewers rate or evaluate each section of the narrative. By formatting and writing your narrative sections to meet the review criteria, you can edge out the competition and increase your funding success rate. (I tell you how to prepare and write for the review criteria in Chapter 11.)