What Is Grant Writing?

In my world, grant writing is a highly collaborative process.  At its best, the development of grant proposals is an opportunity for me to help you say what you want to say, and to clarify and articulate your organizational mission and programs in an engaging and impactful way.  It can be a great venue for program development, particularly when responding to governmental requests for proposal.  Typically, we only think of grant writing as a way to obtain funding for organizations, and this is clearly central to its purpose, but excellent grant writing accomplishes much more than this.  In the early stages, grant writing is a means for organizations to introduce themselves to funders, whether they be charitable foundations, corporate philanthropies or governmental entities.  And, whether relationships are new or established, grant writing is always a venue for educating funders about the cutting edge issues in your area of service and expertise.  Funders should learn something new about you and your work each time you connect with them.  Finally, the most successful grant writing is accompanied by ongoing, reliable connections with your organization.  These can take the form of follow-up phone calls requesting feedback, reports and updates, invitations to events, visits or tours of your organization, or thank you notes.  Think of grant development as relationship building!