Know Your Audience
When writing a grant proposal, it is easy to know the name of the organization you are writing to. For example, it may be your local community foundation, the Ford Foundation (a national foundation), the Nebraska Department of Education (a state agency), or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (a federal agency).
It is important to understand that grant reviewers—the people who score and rank your proposals—are people too! They may be volunteers or paid staff at the agency or foundation.
Volunteer reviewers are people involved in the community and/or that have content expertise in a particular subject area. Regardless of whether they are paid staff or volunteers, it is important to write your application with the reviewer in mind. You want to make their job of understanding and scoring your application as easy as possible. Here are some tips to achieve this in your writing:
- Treat each application like a fresh slate to educate the reader. Do not make assumptions that the reviewer knows your organization, community, the need, or how you are implementing your...
