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Writing a Grant Proposal

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Steps to Writing a Grant Proposal
Grants provide monetary support to human service organizations to launch new programs, purchase equipment, publish collateral material, start a fund-raising program, etc. It is estimated that 33,000 human service organizations have government contracts and grants and is the single largest source of revenue for 60 percent of these organizations (Boris, Leon, Roeger, & Nikolova, 2010). Grants play a critical role within human service organizations, which permits them to offer services and programs that meet the needs of the community.
Writing a good grant proposal is essential as many funding sources are highly competitive and only fund a small percentage of applications. The proposal must contain a message that is easy to understand and believable. Successful proposal writing does take a good amount of preparation and organization. One needs to have an understanding of the organization’s mission and goals, as well as knowledge of its administrative, fiscal, and programmatic capabilities (Rinehart & Bouie-Scott, 2003). Proposals include a lot of detailed information and can be challenging as there is much more to submitting a grant proposal than writing it.
Creating a timetable and planning schedule where there is a detailed list of all tasks needed to be done, along with specific due dates, and which team member the task has been assigned to will help monitor the progress of the proposal and keep everyone on track. The tasks need to be put in order, paying attention to things that have to be done before other tasks can be completed. The following are some basic steps on how to prepare a successful grant proposal and the needs and problem statement.
1. Conduct Research – This is the step where all background research will be done. Data will be collected by using both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

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