matt black jersey

matt black jersey -

There is a lot of advice in books and on the Internet about mistakes to avoid when writing grant proposals:

Do your research: Target your proposal to the right source.
Follow the application guidelines to the letter!
Ask your board members if they have contacts at local foundations.
Work with your program staff to make sure your information and data are current.
Send only the attachments that the grant maker requests.
If at all possible, don't wait until the last minute to send out your proposal. Don't send it Express Mail, because it leaves a bad impression about your organization's stewardship abilities.
If you are awarded a grant, be sure to send progress reports. Keep in touch with your funding sources.
If you are turned down for a grant, send a thank you letter and ask for information on how to improve your chances in the next funding cycle.

I see so many discussions and articles like this that one day I decided to turn the conversation around. I posted this question to grant writers in one matt black jersey of my LinkedIn groups: "What frustrates you most about grant applications?"

I won't generalize beyond the answers of my self-selected respondents but what I heard didn't surprise me.

1. Cryptic Instructions

Grant makers, if you're looking for well-written proposals, please do us a favor and generate well-written instructions. Nothing frustrates a grant writer more than reading the instructions and finding them obtuse and even contradictory. What adds to the frustration are instructions that don't offer a means to contact the funder with any questions.

On one Request for Proposals (RFP), I had to contact the grant officers multiple times because the RFP required the audit management letter as an appendix to the proposal. I knew that was wrong, since that's a confidential matt black jersey communication between a nonprofit's board and its auditors regarding deficiencies and weaknesses in the organizational structure. Surely they meant the audit opinion letter, which states matt black jersey that the financial statements are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. However, it took three e-mails just to clarify that was what they really wanted.

Different people within the same foundation can have very different interpretations of the instructions. I prefer mysteries that come in paperbacks, not grant RFPs.

2. Application Complications

Online applications are convenient for grant makers but they come with their share of headaches for grant writers. (By "online," I'm referring to the web-based proposal submission systems.) The technical challenges involved with using these systems―if we can even access them at all―place additional demands on the grant seekers' time.