Grant Writing Made Easy

JULY 7, 2025

With public funding in flux, private foundations shifting priorities, and technology changing how proposals are crafted and reviewed, nonprofits need way more than strong writing to stay competitive. Make your proposals clear, structured, and scannable to meet the needs of AI-assisted funder review processes. Verify everything.

Grant

Grant Writing Made Easy

JUNE 23, 2025

With a clear strategy and a few innovative systems, even the smallest teams can write competitive, compelling grant proposals. It spreads your limited time and resources too thin, often resulting in rushed, unfocused proposals that don’t stand out. That can overwhelm grant writing for small nonprofits, but it doesn’t have to.

Grant Writing

Seliger + Associates Grant Writing

JULY 7, 2025

This post could lead to a 2025 sequel: The Incredible Shrinking Grant Proposal. Faithful readers also know that I started writing grant proposals shortly after the last Ice Age ended. As we’ve written about before, proposal formatting requirements change over time. single-spaced pages) for a total of ~ 7 single-spaced pages.

Proposal

Grant Writing Made Easy

JULY 9, 2025

Elevate your proposals using refreshed templates, updated data insights, and a stronger commitment to equity, ensuring your applications stand out in a crowded grant space. Audit your wins and misses Look at which grant proposals were funded, which were declined, and why. Were the successful ones better aligned with funder priorities?

Grant

Grant Writing Made Easy

MAY 19, 2025

Here are a few ways to use pen and paper when you’re stuck: Mind map your proposal section, drawing connections between ideas. Sketch a visual of your programmaybe a timeline, a logic model, or a community impact map. These five creative strategies can help you break the block and get your writing moving again.

Logic Model

Strategic Grants

JULY 9, 2025

Demonstrating value for money How your proposal provides value for money is a common tender question. Demonstrating value for money How your proposal provides value for money is a common tender question. Program logics are your blueprint for change This could be a blog post of its own. Is your logic model truly logical?

Government

Grant Writing Made Easy

JULY 31, 2025

The Shifting Landscape of Philanthropy Philanthropy is shifting from a model of gatekeeping and compliance to one of redistribution and relationship. One that centers transparency, flexibility, and truth-telling in your proposals. we end up with technically correct proposals, but spiritually vacant. Let’s dive in.

Readiness

Grant Writing Made Easy

JULY 4, 2025

Whether you’re a solo grant writer or part of a small, multitasking team, developing a clear process to evaluate grant opportunities can help you write stronger proposals, avoid burnout, and focus on the funding that truly supports your mission. Use this checklist to evaluate grant opportunities effectively and make informed decisions.

Grant

The Grantsmanship Center

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Category: Program Planning and Design Proposal Writing and Grantseeking There comes a time when a proposal needs to include a logic model. A logic model is a picture of how your program is intended to work. A speed bump for a lot of people is the “outputs vs. outcomes” element of a logic model.

Logic Model

The Grantsmanship Center

JANUARY 9, 2024

Category: Proposal Writing and Grantseeking Before campaign advisors, spin doctors, influencers or ad men, there was the Greek philosopher, Aristotle. As proposal writers, we sometimes get lost in the weeds of data, logic models, detailed methods and other granular stuff. The first of these is ethos.

Proposal

Think and Ink Grants

DECEMBER 2, 2022

Last year, I presented the session "Logic Model LIVE!". It shows how serious (or maybe crazy) I am about logic models. If you've followed me for any length of time, you will have come across a presentation or two about logic models. In logic models, each prior step informs the next step.

Logic Model

DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

The order in which our team recommends you approach pre-planning is to create drafts (not finalized, not set in stone, but working documents that are a starting point for the real application) of the three following elements: Logic model – A draft of the key elements of your program/project design.

Logic Model

Candid

MAY 7, 2024

A narrative that illustrates your nonprofit’s program impact The logic model is a classic framework for illustrating a program’s impact. A narrative that illustrates your nonprofit’s program impact The logic model is a classic framework for illustrating a program’s impact. What are your strategies for making it happen?

Proposal

DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

Becoming familiar with the theory of change and the logic model behind the program design can help us write a narrative that explains how we know that doing something in a certain way can be expected to achieve certain results. . We can expect certain results: participants will feel less isolated and more connected with others.

Logic Model

Peak Proposals

JANUARY 1, 2023

Like many of you, we’ve worked on grant proposals that have not come together easily, and the final product feels mediocre at best. Despite their weaknesses, sometimes the proposals still get funded, but that’s the exception, not the rule. However, this is telling the funder that your proposed project fits within their interests.

Proposal

Peak Proposals

JANUARY 1, 2023

January 01, 2023 Like many of you, we’ve worked on grant proposals that have not come together easily, and the final product feels mediocre at best. Despite their weaknesses, sometimes the proposals still get funded, but that’s the exception, not the rule. avoiding jargon). We see this come up frequently. All organizations need money.

Proposal

Grant Professionals Association

APRIL 4, 2024

It is the soul of your proposal, usually the first impression people have of your case, and the way you introduce your work to a funder. Everything should return to your stated need as it sets the tone for the rest of your proposal. And that is before you even get to character counts! Relevance: Why does it matter?

IT

Blackbaud

JANUARY 22, 2024

If that funder’s application includes lots of jargon or technical phrases such as, “Tell us about your Theory of Change,” or, “What is your program’s Logic Model?” Back in the mid-2010s, I served as chair of the selection committee for the Washington, DC region’s biggest award recognizing excellence in nonprofit management.

Logic Model

Assel Grant Services

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

Quartet Dry-Erase Whiteboard A place to jot down notes during a call or visualize a logic model as you talk through program elements. A Branch Ergonomic Chair Writers spend many hours behind a desk, piecing together proposals and researching new opportunities. Do I need more cozy socks? What about a trio of scented candles?

GPC

Grant Training Center

MAY 30, 2023

These are learned through experience, various proposal submissions, collaborative efforts with colleagues, and focus and determination. Clear and Concise Communication: Are able to communicate their ideas and proposals clearly and concisely. The end result is a well developed and polished proposal.

Grant

Grant Professionals Association

AUGUST 28, 2023

But with proposal narratives that can reach 60+ pages in length, adding creative touches to break up a heavy narrative can make a federal proposal more readable and thus easier for reviewers to assess. The following summarizes ways in which I try to make my proposals stand out. The logic model. My outline?

Federal Grants

Grant Writing Made Easy

JUNE 26, 2023

It has helped them streamline the grant writing process, increase writing speed and efficiency, and produce more detailed and impactful proposals. Harness the Power of AI for Your Grant Writing Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a mere concept of the future. The future of grant writing is here and it’s powered by AI.

Grant Writing

Think and Ink Grants

MAY 24, 2021

In logic model language (check this out to learn why logic models are essential), outputs are the direct results of your activities. It isn't easy to write a competitive proposal without them. Outcomes are essentially the desired change in the community your program is seeking to achieve. outcomes win grants.

Logic Model

Think and Ink Grants

OCTOBER 18, 2022

Learning the difference between goals, outcomes, and outputs is key to writing competitive proposals. outcomes in our logic models. Our next article will bridge this information and communicate how goals, outcomes, and outputs inform logic models, so stay tuned. This is the holy grail of grant writing.

Grant Writing

Think and Ink Grants

APRIL 4, 2024

Crafting a winning proposal within such a narrow window presents considerable challenges. However, the most triumphant grant proposals are those that have been meticulously developed months or even years ahead of the application deadline. Much of this groundwork can be based on the prior year's request for proposal (RFP).

Federal Grants

Grant Professionals Association

JULY 2, 2024

You might be tempted to paste the narrative part into your grant proposal as is!) GPC Competency: 4 Identify and cite accurate and appropriate data sources to support proposal narratives measurable data points for long-term program and impact assessments. What Is It?

Demographics

Grant Professionals Association

MARCH 15, 2024

This entails creating clear program logic models, outcomes frameworks, and evaluation plans that align with the organization's mission and vision.Partnerships and Collaborations: It cannot be emphasized enough that building partnerships and collaborations with other organizations, stakeholders, and funders is crucial.

Grant Readiness

Grant Professionals Association

JULY 10, 2024

Despite our best efforts and knowledge, sometimes sabotage can sneak in to derail progress on a project or proposal. This changed the language in other sections we had spent the previous week working on to align throughout the proposal. The Oxford Dictionary lists some common synonyms for sabotage as to undermine, cripple or impair.

GPC

Think and Ink Grants

MAY 4, 2024

Some may require developing a logic model, which is even more difficult. It makes it look like because they did not renew your proposal or lend a helping hand, they let the organization down, and, in response, people were unfortunately laid off. If you drop the ball on your reporting, that funder may never fund you again.

Federal Grants

Blackbaud

DECEMBER 18, 2023

When we momentarily set aside the many foundation models or toolkits for addressing a particular task, we start to remember that the essence of knowledge is shared meaning making—how we, together, come to understand and engage in community, in the world around us, and in change itself. Philanthropy loves “new” things.

Logic Model

Assel Grant Services

MARCH 31, 2024

We can’t come in on gameday and put together a proposal without any preparation and expect to win big. First, you want to look for open opportunities, commonly referred to as requests for proposals (RFP), notice of funding opportunities (NOFO), grant or funding cycles, or simply funding opportunities.

GPC

Blackbaud

JANUARY 16, 2025

Here are the four common pitfalls to addressing dysfunction in your grantmaking processes and how your organization can overcome them. How We Choose Challenges It may seem odd to say that we dont know how to identify and choose challenges when they surround us. I bet that right now you could easily name many.

Logic Model