Author: Jayme Sokolow

When I was living in New York City from 1968 to 1976, the New York Knicks were one of the most feared teams in the NBA. With players like Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, and Bill Bradley, the Knicks were a joy to watch, especially during their 1969-1970 season when they beat the Los Angeles Lakers to claim their first NBA championship.

Although the Knicks had great basketball players, they also had a great coach and a future member of the Basketball Hall of Fame – Red Holzman. Holzman’s simple but difficult goal – “see the ball on defense and hit the open man on offense” – worked wonders for his players. Overlooked, however, was Holzman’s subtle managerial style, which has much to teach grant Proposal Managers.

I was reminded of Holzman’s coaching talents recently, when I read a stimulating article in the Huffington Post by Mike Berman, on the eve of the NBA playoffs, on Red Holzman’s leadership. I would like to use Berman’s article to distill the essence of Holzman’s approach to leadership because I think his managerial style equally applies to successful grant Proposal Managers.

Holzman’s Management Approach
• Be modest
Holzman said that “I don’t think there is such a thing as a coaching genius, just hard workers.” For Holzman, action, deeds, and credibility mattered more than words. He embodied the values he preached. Proposal managers should understand that their success depends on the quality of their proposal teams and the support of their nonprofit organizations. Because grant proposal development depends on teamwork, cooperation, and the skills of others, Proposal Managers should be modest about their successes.

• Know what you intend to accomplish when you assume a leadership role
Clearly state your goal and performance standards and reinforce them regularly from the beginning. Too many proposals begin without a clear plan and schedule, and too many grant Proposal Managers do not seem to understand that the quality of the proposal development process will determine the quality of the proposal. Establishing clear goals and performance standards will help improve your proposals.

• Maintain a focus on the fundamentals and what matters most
Avoid over-complication. There is a big different between attending to details and micro-managing.

• Monitor
Once the team has embraced your system, let go … and empower people to succeed. Good proposal development should include periodic reviews, milestones, and deliverables. This framework will enable a proposal team to succeed by creating a clear context for their activities.

• Achieve results by training, coaching, and mentoring
Help your fellow proposal team members to perform well. An important part of any grant Proposal Manager’s work should be to help improve the performance of team members and help advance their professional careers.

Sports analogies with the business world are often trite and strained or just plain silly and they seem to be a virtual monopoly of out-of-shape men. However, a great coach and person like Red Holzman has much to teach us about the essence of leadership. Apply his approach to proposal management, and you should improve your grant proposals.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop
successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
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Look for Jayme’s ebook on
Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and inexpensive ($1.99 – $4.99)
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

It’s been my honor to have served as board president of two nonprofit organizations – a synagogue and a music society.

I learned a lot during my terms with these organizations, but perhaps my most important lesson was the need to acknowledge people and express my personal appreciation of them, to them.

That is something we need to do a lot more of in our grant proposals.

The Importance of “Thank You”
Unfortunately, today we all are drowning in clichés and platitudes, many of them patently insincere. How many letters do you get a week from your bank or investment companies that tell you how much you are valued as a customer, and how many of these same banks and investment companies helped topple the economy in 2008 through their greed and criminal behavior? It often seems as if we are living in an age of insincerity.

As grant proposal managers, we are always under a great deal of pressure to adhere to schedules and milestones … and produce outstanding proposals. And, while immersed in those hectic work schedules, we often forget that our most valuable asset is our proposal team.

We cannot treat each other as tools or cogs in a gigantic grant proposal wheel. Instead, we must acknowledge what every study has demonstrated – that we all need to feel appreciated and valued.

We also know that when we acknowledge and thank a colleague, we feel better too. Expressing appreciation is a very pro-social kind of behavior.

Saying thank you increases the likelihood that your colleagues will not only help you but help other people too. Saying thank you is a form of social capital. It helps build trust and cooperation.

How to Say “Thank You” More Often
Mark Goulson in a Harvard Business Review blog has provided us with a good roadmap for providing a meaningful thank you. I will modify his suggestions and apply them to grant proposal development.

I encourage proposal managers, and everyone on grant proposal teams, to take these four steps to say thank you:
• The first and most important step is to be grateful for the work your colleagues
are doing. You cannot give a sincere appreciation and thank you unless it is real.
They will immediately see through any acknowledgement that is not genuine.
• Thank them for something very specific. For example, you could say, “Mary,
I really appreciate that you stayed late today and helped us finish
our red team review.”
• Acknowledge the sacrifices that people are making. “I know that you could be
spending today with your kids at the playground. I really appreciate you working
this Saturday afternoon to finish our grant proposal.”
• Tell people what their work personally means to you. “Mark, I couldn’t have
managed this proposal without your great work on resumes. You helped make
this a very strong proposal.”

Follow this simple rule: You cannot sincerely say thank you enough to your grant proposal team.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop
successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on
Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99 – $4.99) ☺
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

When hikers get together, many of them talk about their boots. When chefs gather, they swap recipes.

What do grant proposal professionals do? Many of us talk about the proposal-generating work environments at our nonprofits.

What Good Companies Have in Common:
Grant proposal professionals can learn how to create good work environments by looking at Fortune magazine’s the “2013 Best Companies to Work For.” These companies vary in their size, products, and services, but they have three things in common:
• Employees trust each other in the workplace.
• Employees have pride in their work.
• Employees enjoy their colleagues.

Salaries, benefits, and perks are important, but nonprofit employees also need to feel that they are appreciated. No holiday bonus or annual picnic can replace the feeling that their day-to-day work is valued and that they like working with their colleagues, whom they trust. It is difficult to develop good grant proposals when there is a deficit in trust, pride or conviviality among the members of the grant team.

Improve your Grant Proposal Environment
If your nonprofit has a good work environment for proposal preparation, you are very fortunate indeed. But if you believe that your work environment leaves much to be desired, short of moving on there are steps you can take to make positive changes:
• Don’t work in a “war room.” These places are awful. They have
no privacy, no opportunities for thinking and solitude, and no
opportunities to build social capital with your colleagues. By
definition, a “war room” is a demeaning and unprofessional
environment.
• Find out what the best companies do to foster/create great work
environments and copy them.
• Start small. Make small changes at first because they are easier
to implement and may have big consequences.
• Suggest policies to senior management that make for happier, more
productive work teams. Provide evidence to support your argument.
Expect skepticism and resistance, but be quietly persistent.
• Become the change you advocate. This worked for Gandhi, and it’s
still good advice. You will have no credibility if you do not model
the changes you want to see in your proposal environment.
• Lead the charge – offer to help make the changes by taking a
leadership role.
• Get social. A bowling night or a pot-luck lunch with a prize for
the best dish will help employees build trust and friendships … as
long as this carries over into the workplace. This is foundation for
making changes, not a substitute for them.

Your goal should be to create a proposal preparation work environment where people feel appreciated, trust each other, like each other, and take pride in their work. If you can improve the quality of your work environment, you are likely to improve the quality of your grant proposals.

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We’re taking a short break for the long Columbus Day weekend.
See you next Thursday.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop
successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on
Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap ($1.99 – $3.99) ☺
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Although everyone knows that benefits are extremely important in a government grant proposal, I am constantly astonished at how many proposals are all features and few, if any, benefits. This is a serious omission because the lack of explicit benefits almost always means that the proposal will be unpersuasive to reviewers.

Everything in your proposal has to answer a simple question – “So what?” Features are an important part of proposals but they cannot answer this important question. You need benefits to provide a compelling answer.

A feature relates directly to your services, for example:
• We have been a nonprofit organization for 15 years.
• We will allocate ten key personnel in the first year of the grant period.

In contrast, benefits are some aspect of your service that addresses an issue or problem of your funder. It provides some sort of value.

Creating Benefits
The first step in creating benefits in a proposal is to identify the government agency’s most pressing issues and needs. Next, you must reach a common understanding about these issues and needs. Why is the funder concerned about them? What parts of our services address these issues and needs? And how can we make our benefits compelling and persuasive to the funder?

Then you must clearly link the features and benefits in your proposal’s text and graphics. A great place to begin would be the Executive Summary.

Below is an example of how you would link a feature to a funder’s benefit (efficiency) in family planning.

Bad: We have provided family planning services for 15 years.
Marginal: Our family planning services are very efficient.
Better: Through our social marketing programs, our family planning services recover approximately 70 percent of their costs.
Great: Through our social marketing programs, our family planning services recover approximately 70 percent of their costs. Of all major family planning organizations, we have the lowest average cost per Couple Year of Protection (CYP) – less than $1.00.

Emphasize the Benefits Again and Again
Government grant proposals are 10,000 details, and so it is understandable why they often become little more than laundry lists of features. But features in and of themselves are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.

Your end is what benefits the funder and only what benefits the funder. It does not matter what you offer, only how you can address a funder’s issues and needs. After all, if there were no issues and needs you would not be reading grant guidelines from a government agency.

Focus on the benefits at the beginning of the proposal and tailor your most important features to address the government agency’s issues and needs. This will make your proposal more persuasive and more likely to be funded.

Remember – features tell, benefits sell. Benefits are very important because they tell reviewers why you should receive a grant.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop
successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on
Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap 🙂
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We take a break, here, for the Labor Day Weekend,
and we’ll resume our twice-per-week posting schedule
on Tuesday, September 3rd.
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

I recently finished a government grant proposal that had only a two-week deadline. Of course it required many hours, day and night and over the final weekend to complete. And, as you may have guessed, it was submitted at 2:00am on Monday.

It would be nice if I could take sole credit for this accomplishment, but that would not be accurate. As the proposal manager, I worked closely with a dedicated team of consultants and employees who put in as much time and labor as I did. It was a forceful reminder that in proposals, as in life, the most important resource we can call upon is the people around us.

This is hardly a piercing insight, but it is one that grant proposal managers and organizations may forget, often with unanticipated/undesired consequences.

There is a mountain of research demonstrating that nonprofit employees are likely to stay longer at their when they: (1) are matched well to their positions; and (2) feel respected and valued by management.

Sybil F. Stershie, president of Quality Services Marketing, tells her clients that there are three important points that organizations should learn: 1) “Mission matters;” 2) “The people-behind-the-mission matter;” and, 3) “Passion for the mission can’t be taken for granted – once engaged doesn’t mean always engaged.”

She recommends three approaches to develop committed and satisfied employees. I’ve added a fourth, and suggest how to apply them to government grant proposal development.

Four Approaches to Engagement
• Proposal teams must feel connected to the nonprofits that employ them.
• Proposal members must feel connected to fellow team members.
• Permanent staff and consultants must feel connected to each other.
• Proposal teams must involve young people if they want them to stay, learn,
   and advance in their professions.

The alternative to these four elements is a vicious cycle that begins with the inability to build successful grant proposal teams and ends with people leaving because they do not feel connected. This is not a staffing problem. It is an organizational problem.

Promoting Engagement
Here are some basic ways to can promote engagement and connection in your grant proposal teams:

   • Start every proposal effort with a kick-off meeting.
   • Get the support of senior management before you begin.
   • Provide the proposal team with adequate resources, especially office space.
   • Provide the team with a detailed schedule and proposal outline at the beginning.
   • Communicate frequently with everyone.
   • Solicit advice from everyone.
   • Listen and learn.
   • Mentor and coach those who need more assistance.
   • Lead by example. Arrive early and do what is most important.
   • Work as a team and through the team.

Find ways to connect everybody in your proposal team and you are likely to produce competitive proposals. It is that simple, and that difficult.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on
Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants.
It’s part of
The Fundraising Series of ebooks
They’re easy to read, to the point, and cheap 🙂
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

In the process of applying for government grants, we often talk about the need to address the specific agency’s hot buttons and issues in our proposals. But how many of us address the way in which reviewers of our proposals make decisions?

Over the past twenty years, there has been a great deal of research in the fields of psychology, cognitive science, economics, learning, decision-making, and others that should inform the way we design and write proposals. This field is called Heuristics, or the study of how people make decisions.

Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist, has been one of the more influential people writing about decision making. His many articles address the ways in which we think, and discuss the typical biases and errors that are part of that process.

He was the first psychologist to be awarded (in 2002) the Nobel Prize in Economics … for his pioneering work in that field, and his findings have important implications for proposal development.

Thinking, Fast and Slow
For a clear and enjoyable summary of Kahneman’s work, read his best-selling Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011). To summarize his themes, this is what he says about our decision-making processes:
• Most people use fast and frugal mental processes to make everyday decisions and
solve problems because their cognitive resources are limited.
• Most people make decisions and solve problems with the least amount of effort
and information possible. Good decisions do not always require amassing large
amounts of information.
• We use straightforward mental processes to make decisions because of time
pressure, incomplete information, and the inability to calculate consequences.
• These mental processes usually lead to accurate decisions.

Design Proposals from the Reviewers’ Perspective
Based on the research of Kahneman and his colleagues, you should design your government grant proposals with the following characteristics to help reviewers evaluate them:
• Make it easy for reviewers to read and understand.
• Make it easy for reviewers to gather and process information.
• Make it easy for reviewers to move through your proposal quickly and with
as little effort as possible.
• Make it easy for reviewers to quickly find and understand the information
that interests them.
• Make sure that all your major themes have solutions, benefits, and proof.
• Write your grant proposal for non-technical reviewers.
• Use good visuals to emphasize your features, benefits, and major themes.

In grant proposals, as in life, “cues and clarity foster recognition and recall.” A good grant proposal that is easy to evaluate is more likely to be scored higher than a great proposal that is difficult to evaluate.

Read Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow and learn how to design grant proposals that take into account the decision-making processes of the people who will be reviewing those proposals.

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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks

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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

This posting by: Jayme Sokolow

Ready to be a Warrior?

At the 2012 APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) national conference, participants were treated to a lively address … about proposal professionals as warriors, by Eric Gregory, Vice President for Business Development at CACI, Inc.

I do not agree with his metaphor or with everything that he said, but Gregory is a thoughtful person, a very successful proposal professional, and someone who has contributed a great deal to the proposal profession. For these reasons, his remarks should be taken seriously.

Although Gregory was addressing proposal professionals who work in companies submitting proposals primarily to federal agencies, his remarks also apply to proposal professionals working in nonprofit organizations who apply for grants from federal agencies.

Gregory wondered whether successful proposal professionals have a certain personality or perspective on their work? He concluded that there are ten attributes to a proposal warrior – as follows:

1. Courageous – a proposal professional performs well under difficult conditions, often by enduring criticisms, doubts, anger, disappointment, long hours of work, and difficult assignments.

2. Committed – to working on a team and winning bids.

3. Leader – leads by example and works at least as hard as anyone else on the team. As a leader, a proposal professional is an optimist and believes that his or her proposals can be improved.

4. Decisive – thoughtful but always action-oriented.

5. Agile –embraces change and reacts quickly when changes can improve a proposal.

6. Creative – capable of developing new solutions to problems and finding new ways to win bids.

7. Disciplined – very focused on winning bids and is relentless in taking action to achieve this goal.

8. Compassionate – works hard to defend his or her work and the team along with the best interests of the organization.

9. Intelligent – uses his or her intelligence to become more successful and create better proposals.

10. Resilient – works well under stressful and difficult conditions.

Gregory concluded his presentation by pointing out that proposal professionals often are underappreciated by their organizations. They must find ways to convey their value to senior management and make a strong case for their importance to their nonprofit’s success.

What do you think about Gregory’s approach? Is he accurate? Are there any traits you would omit or add? Are you a grant proposal warrior?

According to Dr. Heidi Grant Stevenson, a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of an intriguing new book, Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (2011), even very bright people often do not understand why they succeed or fail. Recent research on achievement shows that successful people reach their goals not because of any inborn traits or unusual intelligence but because of what they do inside and outside the workplace.

Like Dr. Stevenson, Gregory believes that a certain set of attitude and behaviors are likely to lead to success. Although Dr. Stevenson’s list of successful traits does not exactly match Gregory’s list, there is a plenty of overlap.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

This posting by: Jayme Sokolow

Being a Success
According to Dr. Heidi Grant Stevenson, a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of an intriguing new book, Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (2011), even very bright people are often clueless when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. Recent research on achievement shows that successful people reach their goals not because of any inborn traits or extraordinary IQs but because of what they do.

Dr. Stevenson identifies nine things that successful people do differently from their less successful peers. How many of these traits do you have as a grant proposal professional?

1. Get Specific
When you set a goal, you are specific as possible. Being concrete gives you a clear definition of success.

2. Seize the Moment and Act on your Goals
Because we are all very busy, we often routinely miss opportunities to act on our goals. To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take action to achieve a goal.

3. Know Exactly How Far You Have Left to Go
To achieve your goals, you must candidly and regularly monitor your progress and determine what remains to achieve your goal. “It will take 15 more hours to finish producing our grant application” enables you to adjust your behavior and strategies so that you are likely to succeed.

4. Be a Realistic Optimist
Positive thinking is very important in achieving goals, but you must be realistic about how likely you are to achieve them. Simply telling your proposal team that the “first draft must be finished today” is meaningless unless there is a high probability that this is possible.

5. Focus on Getting Better rather than being Good
Our talents and skills are very malleable. To improve, you should focus on getting better at doing something specific rather than just being good. This is a more realistic and motivating goal than trying to achieve some abstract standard of excellence.

6. Show Grit and Determination
Grit and determination are common characteristics of successful people, especially in the face of difficulties. By planning, by developing good strategies to accomplish difficult tasks, and by sheer persistence you often can succeed.

7. Build your Willpower
Successful people have strong willpower. They are determined to succeed. Identifying difficult challenges and satisfactorily addressing them will increase your sense of willpower and enable you to be more successful.

8. Have a Sense of Limitations
Today, it is fashionable to say that we all have unlimited potential. This is simply not true. We all have limitations, and we must understand and respect them.

9. Focus on What You Will Do, Not on What You Will Not Do
One of the best ways to succeed is to ask a simple question: “What can I do differently?” Focus on behavioral changes you realistically can make rather than on simply avoiding unproductive behaviors.

I think that Dr. Stevenson has identified nine important things successful grant proposal professionals do differently. As he concludes, “You usually do not have to become a different person to become more successful.”

All of us, however, need to do our grant proposal development differently – and better.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.

Grant proposals should go through a five-step writing process:
•  Plan: Think through your proposal section.
•  Organize: Use the grant guidelines as your outlining format.
•  Write: Write in a free-flowing manner.
•  Examine: Step back from your writing; review it later; then, let others review it.
•  Revise: Emphasize clarity, conciseness, correctness, and persuasiveness.

I already have discussed planning, organizing, and writing. In this post, I will outline the process of examining and revising your grant prose. The more kinds of effective reviews you receive, the better will be your final version.

Examine: The Big Picture

All reviews should answer these questions:
•  Can the focus on the funder be improved?
•  Is the funder focus communicated sincerely”
•  How can strategies and theme statements be strengthened with stories, data, and other kinds of evidence?

Revision Stage 1: Be clear

•  Write effective theme statements.
•  Keep introductions brief.
•  Keep the focus on the funder.
•  Organize according to the points emphasized in the grant guidelines.
•  Highlight key information.

Revision Stage 2: Be concise

•  Revise paragraphs.
•  Revise sentences.
•  Revise words.

Revision Stage 3: Be correct and compliant with the grant guidelines.

•  Check your sections against the grant guidelines’ evaluation criteria.
•  Check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
•  Use the shortest and most correct word.
•  Simplify, simplify, simplify.

If you follow these steps in revising your proposal writing, you should be able to produce a very good revised version of your proposal sections.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies.
Contact Jayme Sokolow.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.