{"id":342,"date":"2019-05-13T02:49:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T02:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grantwriterteam.com\/blog\/?p=342"},"modified":"2022-03-29T14:24:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T18:24:45","slug":"grant-writing-process-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grantwriterteam.com\/blog\/grant-writing-process-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Rules for Grant Writers: Navigating the Grant Writing Process for Success!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This guest post article by Maryn Boess puts the fun back into grant writing.\u00a0 Amid the stress of deadlines and the many personalities we navigate as grant writers on GrantwriterTeam<\/a>, this article, from her website,<\/a>\u00a0reprinted with her permission, presents a novel approach to the profession.\u00a0 Maryn Boess takes her years of experience and puts it into a gameboard for grant writers.\u00a0 Enjoy!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my 20-plus\u00a0years of working as an active grant professional<\/a> \u2013 first as a program planner and proposal writer, more recently in my work as a trainer, coach, and grantmaker \u2013 I\u2019ve come to see clearly that grantsmanship is not an activity; it\u2019s a strategic, ongoing, systematic process.<\/em><\/p>\n

I like to call the process \u201cThe Grantsmanship Game.\u201d It\u2019s all about managing the details of your organization\u2019s grant seeking effort in a way that gives your proposals the winning edge \u2013 and helps them rise to the top when funders make their grant awards.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a serious game, to be sure: The well-being of many, many people can depend on the outcome.<\/p>\n

But just like any game, The Grantsmanship Game has several key elements that we need to learn \u2013 and learn to work with \u2013 if we want to not only stay in the game but win more consistently.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a few minutes to unpack them.<\/p>\n

Download a PDF of the \u201cGrantsmanship Gameboard\u201d!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Unpacking” the Game<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Basketball, checkers, Monopoly, hockey: Different games, yes – but they do share some important elements in common.<\/p>\n

The Grantsmanship Game shares these elements as well. Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll find when you pull the cover off your Grantsmanship Game box:<\/p>\n

A gameboard.<\/strong>\u00a0The gameboard is the playing field, or operating environment, in which the game is conducted. The operating environment is always unique to the game being played: It\u2019s pretty tough to play basketball on a checkerboard, or Monopoly in a hockey rink.<\/p>\n

In The Grantsmanship Game, the operating environment includes your community, your constituents, the regulatory and legislative environment, the socioeconomic and political climate of your community, even the culture and values of your own organization. All of these factors will significantly and dramatically influence the shape of your grant-seeking process \u2013 and the strategies that will help you be most successful.<\/p>\n

Rules<\/strong>. All games have rules. These are the non-negotiable fundamental must-dos and must-have’s of a particular game. If you want to play the game, you must agree to follow the rules. If you don’t follow the rules, either you never get into the game in the first place, or you find yourself “kicked off” the gameboard and out of the game completely. More about the five essential rules of The Grantsmanship Game later.<\/p>\n

\"TheMoves, or squares.\u00a0<\/strong>In many games, the players must make their way around the gameboard by moving through a sequence of squares, in some specified order.<\/p>\n

The same is true in The Grantsmanship Game. The moves or squares are the steps<\/em> that players must take to make progress toward the end goal. In The Grantsmanship Game, the squares represent the tasks or activities we teach at GrantsMagic U as being critical to a complete, rock-solid grants process.<\/p>\n

The moves don\u2019t necessarily have to be made in one-after-another sequence \u2013 but no skipping allowed! If a \u201cchance\u201d card (see below) jumps you backward or forward, you must go back and make sure you take care of all the steps you might have missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cChance\u201d cards. <\/strong>Guess what \u2013 we don\u2019t control everything! Monopoly has its \u201cchance\u201d cards: At any given moment in a game, you can draw a card that either propels you forward or sets you back unexpectedly.<\/p>\n

Grant seekers know this is true in their game, as well. No matter how carefully we plan and how conscientiously we follow the moves, the unexpected can happen: A key staff person gets sick just before the deadline; a major partner pulls out; another major source of funding comes through for you, completely out of the blue. When The Grantsmanship Game hands you a \u201cchance\u201d card like one of these, the layout of the gameboard makes it easier to figure out what you need to do to get back on track and back in the game.<\/p>\n

A \u201cwinner\u2019s\u201d goal.<\/strong> Most games have a clear-cut starting point; not all have a clear-cut end. Monopoly is one example: The game can go on and on until there\u2019s only one player left standing.<\/p>\n

The Grantsmanship Game is another example.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually a cyclical game: Once you\u2019re on the gameboard, you keep playing as long as you like, cycling through the same rules and the same steps over and over again, only with different corporate, foundation and government funders each time. The game is \u201cwon\u201d each time the process succeeds in producing a solid grant proposal that reflects your organization\u2019s very best efforts \u2013 one that represents your mission as a service organization, and at the same time connects with the philanthropic mission of the grantmaker.<\/p>\n

Strategies.<\/strong> Finally, it isn\u2019t enough to simply be familiar with the gameboard and have memorized the official, non-negotiable rules. To be truly, consistently, predictably successful in any game over time, we must also have practical knowledge about how to apply effective strategies.<\/em> These are the skills and understandings we bring to the game that dramatically affect how efficiently and successfully we address the challenges and decisions that arise as we navigate the gameboard.<\/p>\n

Many of the top strategies for The Grantsmanship Game are ones we learn over time, through experience and training. But I maintain that we all<\/em> start out with three of the most important strategies in our skill bank. These are:<\/p>\n