English 4510/6510
Grant & Proposal Writing
Syllabus Schedule Projects Handouts
Here, you will find various handouts I use in this class as well as sample projects. Each handout will have a brief description to let you know what it’s about.
Final Project Ideas
Below are the final project ideas I’ve received so far. If you’re interested in someone else’s project, contact that person directly. The names are the email links. Some of the projects, especially those proposed by graduate students that involve technical knowledge of their particular discipline, might not be appropriate for a group project. Once you have formed a group (not more than four people), notify me who the group members are.
| Name | Organization | Project |
| Chukwu, Keoshia J. | Homestretch, a transitional housing program that provides women with children a path out of homelessness to self-sufficiency | I have known the director of the program for years and they are always working on grants. I will be working with them on a federal grant that they are starting on. |
| Payton Dixon Jamir Coward Aliayah Ward |
Father | Start a non-profit (museum for under-represented artists) |
| Akitsugu Hiyashi | Closette, galary | fashion; |
| Kristina Jolly Aliah Browning |
Keep Carroll Beautiful | To secure funding for ten new community garden beds in their gardens. Each bed is $400, making the total cost $4000. They are also requesting $2000 for other gardening supplies |
| Brooke Langevin | ||
| Jordan Madden Kate Foley Nutaylah Mujahid Cameron Thompson |
Dept. of Sustainability Office at GSU | grant to update their bus infrastructure; have talked to them already |
| Victoria Minino Dajai Smith |
Canine Assistance | |
| Macyn Monegain | The Bakery Atlanta | a new gallery space solely dedicated to a revolving gallery space that showcases an exhibition from a local Atlanta-based artist each month. This will need to have availability for an opening reception, DJ, and overhead installation space to sufficiently accommodate each possible artist. |
| Report for the World, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project |
Partners with local newsrooms worldwide to place journalists in “underreported areas.” The program emphasizes unbiased ground-zero reporting.
I have not received a response to my inquiry about their need for funding. However, I have an idea to write funding for journalists within the creative media industries, “creating to inform rather than to entertain.” If they have a multi-creative media journalist (ie. Political cartoonist or animator) (will wait one more day to decide)
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| Nick Nguyen | ||
| Katie Nochols | HRPRE
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Option 1: Redeveloping Marketing and Awareness for a Commercial Real Estate Acquisition and Development Investment Fund. |
| Basil Vasileva & Vincent Zeno |
GSU Art Dept. |
Secure grant for art-related projects, specifically exhibitions, gallery, and archive management.
The grants we are most interested in researching include Terra (Foundation of American Arts), the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, The Andy Warhol Foundation of Arts, Fulton County Arts, or the City of Atlanta arts grants.
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| Shannan Harrington | Kennesaw State University |
Specifically, I plan to write one for the writing center, which supports student success through assisting students at any stage of their writing process and providing workshops, handouts, and other resources.
I plan to create resources on using AI ethically in academic to help with tutor training, and I’m applying for this grant: https://www.neh.gov/grants/odh/digital-humanities-advancement-grants
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| Kelly Kurtzhals | Kurtzhals Farm | to apply for $100,000 in a USDA FARE FUND rural development grant to purchase farmland that my father currently rents. Since the grant is through the USDA; prefers to work alone |
| Simon Okediji Sana Mashadi |
Soaring Scholars, a local nonprofit organization that provides pre-college educational support to students from underrepresented communities across the State of Georgia |
The grant application will be tailored to universities and corporate organizations like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, requesting financial and/or technological donations to support the initiative. Students will be housed for up to five weeks on campuses of two top-ranked universities in Georgia, offering classes in Writing, Calculus, and Coding. The donations will be used to fund traveling, feeding, housing, and staffing and recruitment expenses.
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| Kalin Williams |
RYSE Creative Atlanta |
An initiative to establish a physical space that provides Atlanta’s Creative Professionals a place to gather, create content, collaborate on concepts and monetize; will apply to South Arts for RYSE initiative’s labor costs, facility rents, and other operating and sustainability costs that may appear in the process of achieving RYSE’s stated mission objectives |
Introduction to Proposal Writing
A brief presentation on what is entailed in proposal writing as well as a couple of taxonomies.
ABC Figures (pdf)
Here’s sketch of the key figures in ABC, their work experience, their educational background, and the hierarchical relationship among them.
A Sample Harassment Policy
Here is a copy of a company harassment policy. Carefully examine this policy to see if it’s adequate or inadequate.
Baseline Logic
A summary of some of the aspects discussed in Chapter 2 of our textbook.
Writing Effective Junk Mail
A brief discussion of the various aspects of designing promotional and sales letters.
Writing cold call sales letters
10 Rules for Writing an Effective Sales Letter
Sample Sales Letters
- Classic Sales Letter Openings and Closings
- Subscription letter by 1-2-3 Contact (old style)
- Letter by Greenpeace (old style)
- Promotional email about golf swing
The Foundation Center: http://www.candid.org
The Foundation Center, one of the only four such centers in the nation, provides helpful resources for non-profit organizations in seeking grants. Arrange to visit the center at a time convenient to you.
The foundation center is located at 133 Peachtree Street NE, Lobby Suite 350, Atlanta, GA 30303-1804.
GSU’s University Research Services and Administration
This website offers helpful links to various resources that provide information on grants, foundations, and funding opportunities.
Writing the Letter of Inquiry
Below are a few links to several online articles on and samples of letters of inquiry. The fact that I’m providing these links here doesn’t necessarily mean these are perfect or good examples. I think every one of them offers something valuable. At the same time, always read others’ articles with a critical eye.
- How to Write a Letter of Inquiry to a Foundation by Joanne Fritz
- What Should Be Included in a Letter of Inquiry by Grantspace
- How to Write Winning Grant LOIs (with examples) by Angela Braren
Georgia Center for Nonprofits: http://www.gcn.org
This is another good resource in helping you identify potential clients for your final project. For starters, they have a list of nonprofit organizations in Georgia at http://www.gcn.org/joinlis.html. I’ve contacted this center and they will put in an annoucement for our class in their next newsletter due out on Feb. 16, 2004. This center is loacted in the same building as the foundation center: 50 Hurt Plaza, Suite 845.
Some Questions You Should Ask the Organization
- What’s your mission?
- What programs/services do you offer?
- What programs/projects are you seeking funding for?
- Do you have a project plan?
- Do you have anybody on staff working on writing grants?
- How much access would I have to information and the contact people?
- What’s the scope of the project and what’s the timeline like?
- How much access to us do you expect?
- What available information on the organization do you have that we can currently access?
- What’s your history of grant seeking? Any successful grants in the past?
Strategic Planning
Use this as a guide for your initial research. See if you have (or can easily obtain) all this information. There’s no need to turn this in.
Some Considerations and Expectations for the Final Project
Just some friendly advice on things to consider when you do your final project.
RFP Analysis
Here’re the RFP analyses by students in the current class. Go through the analyses not only to see how others have done theirs but also to see if there’s any foundation that could potentially be useful for your project. Click on the student’s name to see the analysis, and click on the foundation’s name to go directly to the foundation’s website.
Research Proposal Sample
Here’s a research proposal written by a chemistry professor at GSU.
Slots
Here’re some PowerPoint slides that serve as brief summaries of the chapters on respective sections.
Some Samples
Here’re some samples of the beginning sentences of various sections. Take a look to see what you like and don’t like and think about why.
Sample Grant Proposals
Here’re a few sample grant proposals, most of which were written by students from a previous class. Although there might be some minor problems, both proposals are well written, with a strong audience awareness, persuasive arguments, good supporting details, and good format design.
- Sample 1–By Jeremy Russie on behalf of Project Healthy Grandparents
- Sample 2–By Brian Clifford on behalf of the terminus magazine
- Sample 3 + Cover Letter–By Brian Clifford on behalf of Latin American Association; won $150,000 for the association
Research Papers by Graduate Students
Below are the research reports written by the graduate students in this class. Read through these, and I’m sure you’ll learn something new about grant writing.
- Deborah Guy–“Enhancing Communication in Proposal Writing Using Graphics”
- Huiling Lin–“Preparing the Budget Section in a Proposal”
- Romero Stokes–“Grant Proposal Formatting as Told by the Experts”
- Ron Walker–“Revising, Editing, and Proofreading the Grant Proposal”
- Chelse Weaver–“15 Reasons Why Proposals Fail”
Letter to Organizations
This is the letter I send out to organizations for whom we’re writing grants.
Final Project in Progress
Research Aspects
The following is a list of things a previous class came up together that typically should be researched for when you’re preparing for a grant writing project. It’s certainly not an exhaustive list, but nevertheless is a good starting point for research. We hope it will serve as a guide for your research plan.
- Expected cost
- Number and names of people working on the project
- Timeline
- Method for tracking outcomes, assessment, evaluation
- Whom the project will impact/benefit
- Goals and objectives
- Possible sources of funding
- Implementation plan
- Previous funding
- Location/facilities/equipment
- Partnerships and affiliations
- Finance management
- Expansion on their past projects/connection/relationship to other projects/programs at the organization
- Decision maker
- Budget
- Outline of research
- Sustainability
- Past performance records/achievements
- Competitors/competing projects and organizations
- Need/problem it addresses
- Dollar leverage for amount of service