Last March, I challenged myself to submit one grant proposal for every day I worked at Magik in 2009. It was a way to inject some verve into a process that can be a drudge -- when the economy's in the crapper, the rejection rate's high.
Result: I managed a ratio of 0.6 props per workday, or 3 props every 5 days. Not my goal, but not bad.
These were the final numbers for 2009...
Props submitted: 140
Days worked in 2009: 225
Props awarded: 23
Props rejected: 40
Props pending on 31 Dec: 66
No response (before project funding deadline passed): 11
My grant goals for 2010 aren't as numbers-based. They include submitting props early (using two weeks as a guideline), looking for more opportunities among federal and state granting programs, testing an 80/20 approach*, and using the same anti-distraction techniques to stay on task that I use for writing.
*As applied to grants, this might say: 80% of contributed funding comes from 20% of sources approached. The numbers might be 75/25 or 90/10. The idea is to focus on the few reliable sources (nurture those relationships to ensure funding doesn't stop), then try to duplicate them (find other sources with very similar attributes).
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Monday, January 4, 2010
Challenge Complete: 1 Proposal Per Workday
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3 ate pie:
Good luck on getting those grants! Pell grants is what paid for most of my education. Thank God too.
so how does that work? are you an independent contractor? how did you get involved in grant writing?
T. Anne - Thanks!
BettyBetty - Yeah, I'm an indie contractor (though I only write grants for one organization). I first tried it in 2002 because their grant writer at that time was transitioning to a different career, and I thought, I could probably do that. It's not what I want to be doing 5 years from now, but it's good for now.
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