The manager of bibliographic services at the Foundation Center assembles actual grant proposals that have garnered money for nonprofit organizations, as a guide for newcomers to grant writing, presenting them in sections on special single-year and multi-year projects, endowment, building or renovation, general and operating support, seed money, and planning grant, and also providing examples of letters of inquiry, cover letters, and budgets.

In the fifth edition of our essential Guide, author Jane C. Geever provides detailed instructions on preparing successful grant proposals. Incorporating the results of 40 interviews with grantmakers across the nation, the Guide reveals their priorities in reviewing submissions and provides insight into what makes a winning proposal. The Guide outlines the entire proposal-writing process: Pre-Proposal Planning Tips - This helps you decide when your nonprofit is ready to raise funds and determine how to best define your project. Components of the Proposal - Review actual cover letters, project descriptions, budgets, and examples of important follow-up communications with prospective donors. Guidance from Grantmakers - Interviews highlight new trends in grantmaking: preferred proposal formats, funder cultivation strategies, tips on re-submitting a rejected request, and on how to capture and sustain a grantmaker's interest. To illustrate key points, excerpts from successful grant proposals are inserted throughout the Guide. And a complete model proposal is included in the appendix. An updated bibliography features selected resources on proposal development, including web and print sources. A new chapter focuses on crafting an effective evaluation component, addressing the heightened interest in outcome-based assessment of funded projects. Book jacket.

In the sixth edition of our essential Guide, author Jane C. Geever provides detailed instructions on preparing successful grant proposals. Incorporating the results of 40 interviews with grantmakers across the nation, the Guide reveals their priorities in reviewing submissions and provides insight into what makes a winning proposal. The Guide outlines the entire proposal-writing process: Pre-Proposal Planning Tips-This helps you decide when your nonprofit is ready to raise funds and determine how to best define your project. Components of the Proposal-Review actual cover letters, project descriptions, budgets, and examples of important follow-up communications with prospective donors. Guidance from Grantmakers-Interviews highlight new trends in grantmaking: preferred proposal formats, funder cultivation strategies, tips on re-submitting a rejected request, and on how to capture and sustain a grantmaker's interest. To illustrate key points, excerpts from successful grant proposals are inserted throughout the Guide. And a complete model proposal is included in the appendix. An updated bibliography features selected resources on proposal development, including web and print sources. Three new chapters are added to address the impact of online innovations on the grantmaking process, and to provide additional insights and tips on the funders' "due diligence" proposal review process. Established in 1956, the Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants-a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, educations, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthrophy at every level. Thousands of people visit the Center's web site each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of more than 450 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundation, and educational institution nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.org or call (212) 620-4230. Book jacket.

This book is a work of conscience. It is the product of a long-standing feeling of obligation on my part to write something useful for a special group of people to which you probably belong-individuals who seek grants. In my years as Director of the New York library of The Foundation Center, * each and every day I encountered numbers of individuals look ing for grant money. Although I tried to be as supportive as possible, in the face of the particular problems shared by this group of library users, my own reaction was one of relative helplessness. Simply stated, most of the fund-raising guides, printed directories, and computer files purport edly created to serve the fund-raising public are of little or no use to individuals who seek funding on their own. These resources are directed *The Foundation Center is the independent, nonprofit organization established by foun dations to provide information for the grant-seeking public. vii viii I PREFACE toward the nonprofit, tax-exempt agency, which is the most common recipient of foundation, corporate, and government largess. They are not designed to respond to the special requirements of the individual grant seeker. In the applicant eligibility index, the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance defines individuals as "homeowners, students, farmers, artists, scientists, consumers, small-business persons, minors, refugees, aliens, veterans, senior citizens, low-income persons, health and educational professionals, builders, contractors, developers, handicapped persons, the physically afflicted." In short, practically everyone qualifies.

In the fifth edition of our essential Guide, author Jane C. Geever provides detailed instructions on preparing successful grant proposals. Incorporating the results of 40 interviews with grantmakers across the nation, the Guide reveals their priorities in reviewing submissions and provides insight into what makes a winning proposal. The Guide outlines the entire proposal-writing process: Pre-Proposal Planning Tips - This helps you decide when your nonprofit is ready to raise funds and determine how to best define your project. Components of the Proposal - Review actual cover letters, project descriptions, budgets, and examples of important follow-up communications with prospective donors. Guidance from Grantmakers - Interviews highlight new trends in grantmaking: preferred proposal formats, funder cultivation strategies, tips on re-submitting a rejected request, and on how to capture and sustain a grantmaker's interest. To illustrate key points, excerpts from successful grant proposals are inserted throughout the Guide. And a complete model proposal is included in the appendix. An updated bibliography features selected resources on proposal development, including web and print sources. A new chapter focuses on crafting an effective evaluation component, addressing the heightened interest in outcome-based assessment of funded projects. Book jacket.

This book is an essential weapon for anyone looking for funding in the extremely competitive grantseeking world. It explains how and why to approach both public and private sponsors with not just information, but persuasion, for the best chance for success. How do you present the right balance of logic, emotion, and relationship-awareness to make a persuasive proposal? What is THE most important thing to do before submitting a proposal to increase your odds for funding success? What portion of the proposal must be stressed even when it has a low point value assigned to it in the reviewer's evaluation form? How can a site visit make or break the fate of a meticulously prepared application? Models of Proposal Planning & Writing: Second Edition answers all these critical questions and more for grantseekers, documenting how to write a proposal that will persuade a sponsor to invest in your projects and organization—and just as importantly, explaining why a properly persuasive application puts forth a seamless argument that stands the test of reason, addresses psychological concerns, and connects your project to the values of the sponsor. The book's comprehensive annotations provide practical information that walks readers step-by-step through a logical, integrated process of planning and writing persuasive proposals.

A companion to our best-selling Guide to Winning Proposals, volume II includes 31 new proposals from some of the nation's most influential funders, grouped by the type of funding requested. Each proposal, reprinted in its entirety, includes a critique by the decision-maker who approved the grant. In addition to sample cover letters and budgets, volume II includes winning proposals for capacity building, renewal support, and equipment.