PRDV009: Writing Grant Proposals

Grants are non-repayable funds or products disbursed or given by one party (grant makers), often a government department, corporation, foundation, or trust, to a recipient, often (but not always) a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business, or individual. To receive a grant, some form of grant writing, often referred to as a proposal or an application, is required.

Most grants are made to fund a specific project and require some level of compliance and reporting. The grant writing process involves an applicant submitting a proposal (or submission) to a potential funder, either on the applicant's initiative or in response to a Request for Proposal from the funder. Other grants can be given to individuals, such as natural disaster victims or individuals seeking to open a small business. Sometimes, grant makers require grant seekers to have some form of tax-exempt status, be a registered nonprofit organization, or a local government.

For example, tiered funding for a freeway would require a very large grant to be negotiated at the level of government policy. However, smaller grants may be provided by a government agency (like a municipal government). Project-related funding involving businesses, communities, and individuals is often arranged by application, either in writing or online.

United States

In the United States, grants most often come from a wide range of government departments or an even wider range of public and private trusts and foundations. According to the Foundation Center, these trusts and foundations number in excess of 88,000 and disperse in excess of $40 billion every year. Trusts and Foundations are a little more complex to research and can be found through subscription-based directories.

Most often, education grants are issued by the government to students attending post-secondary education institutions. In certain cases, a part of a government loan is issued as a grant, particularly for promising students seeking financial support to continue their educations.

Grant compliance and reporting requirements vary depending on the type of grant and funding agency. For research grants involving human or animal subjects, additional involvement with the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) and/or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is required.

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): NASA receives and evaluates solicited and unsolicited grant proposals. The NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) currently awards all new grants for NASA HQ, GSFC, NMO, Stennis, and Dryden. Awards are made in accordance with the NASA Grants and Cooperative Agreement Handbook.
  
  
• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• The Center for Scientific Review (CSR) is the focal point at NIH for conducting initial peer review of grant and fellowship applications. It implements ways to conduct referrals and reviews.
• The Office of Extramural Research (OER) guides institutes in research and training programs through extramural (grant, contract, cooperative agreement) programs.
  
  
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Most NSF grants go to individuals or small groups of investigators researching at their home campuses. Other grants provide funding for mid-scale research centers, instruments, and facilities that serve researchers from many institutions. Still, others fund national-scale facilities shared by the research community.
  
  
• The NSF receives about 40,000 proposals annually and funds about 10,000 of them. Those funded are typically the projects that are ranked highest in a merit review process. These reviews are carried out by panels of independent scientists, engineers, and educators who are experts in the relevant fields of study and selected by the NSF with particular attention to avoiding conflicts of interest. (For example, the reviewers cannot work at the NSF or the institution that employs the proposing researchers.) All proposal evaluations are confidential (the proposing researchers may see them, but they do not see the names of the reviewers).

European Union

The European Commission provides financing through numerous specific calls for project proposals. These may be within Framework Programs. However, many 7-year programs that are renewed provide money for various purposes. These may be structural funds, youth programs, and education programs. Occasionally, one-off grants deal with unforeseen aspects or special projects and themes.

Most are administered through what are called National Agencies, but some are administered directly through the Commission in Brussels. Due to the complexity of the funding mechanisms involved and especially the high competitiveness of the grant application processes (14%), professional grant consulting firms are gaining importance in the grant writing process.

Another funding body in Europe is the European Council. Similarly, this council funds calls and various projects.

United Kingdom

Grants are available in the United Kingdom for a variety of business, charitable, and research purposes. The biggest grant distributors are government departments and agencies, which offer grants to third-party organizations (often charitable organizations) to carry out statutory work on their behalf.

Other major grant distributors in the United Kingdom are the National Lottery, charitable trusts, and corporate foundations (through Corporate Social Responsibility policies). For example, Google contributes to the grants process through its Google Grants program, where any charitable organization can benefit financially from free Google Ads advertising if they share Google's social responsibility outcomes.

Grants are time-limited (usually between one and three years) and offered to implement existing government policies, pilot new ways of doing things, or secure agreed-upon outcomes. A grant is usually only given for a specific project or use and is not usually given for projects that have already begun.

Over the years, the discipline of writing grant bids has developed into a specialized activity. Many organizations employ fundraising professionals to carry out this work. In the United Kingdom, the Institute of Fundraising governs the fundraising profession. The grant writing process generally includes search, proposal, and accounting for competitive grant funds. Traditional search methods – for example, referring to the Charities Aid Foundation Directory of Grant-Making Trusts – are quickly being replaced by online fundraising tools.

Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_(money)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.