Читать книгу Grant Writing For Dummies - Stan Hutton, Beverly A. Browning - Страница 28

After you submit all your funding requests, you need to develop a tracking system that helps you keep up with their progress and cues you when the period of silence from grantors has been too long. Most public-and private-sector grantors specify a timeframe for when they will announce grant awards somewhere in the application packet or in the published description of their application process. At the federal and state levels, you can even enlist tracking support from your legislative team. To do this, you can directly call or write. However, at the corporate and foundation levels, you’re on your own (unless, of course, members of your board of directors have friends and associates on the grantor’s board of trustees).

The old-school approach is to develop a manual or electronic tracking system to monitor what you’ve written, who received it, and the status of your funding request (pending, funded, or rejected). However, the new and easier way to keep track of submitted requests is to purchase grant management or tracking software. Look at lots of cloud-based grants management options to meet your needs. You can find out what’s available by typing “grant management systems” into your favorite web browser. These systems can cost thousands of dollars. However, many offer a free trial or demonstration, so you can see whether the program suits your needs before you buy.

Keeping track of how many grant requests you submit on an annual basis is a best practice. You also want to know how many of those requests were funded. For example, if you wrote 20 grant applications and 10 were funded (at any level), one-half or 50 percent of your requests were successful. Your success percentage is interpreted as your funding success rate. When you’re looking for a raise or promotion, or simply trying to start your own grantwriting consulting business, everyone who has control over your future will ask you for your funding success rate. Track it; know it!