Back to school marks the start of a very busy season for teachers and principals as they put all their energies into helping their students learn and thrive. For administrators, however, particularly those who manage grant applications and proposals, they’re experiencing a bit of a lull.
With the spring/summer grant application season over and the winter season still a few months away grant administrators are free from the pressures of looming deadlines. But rather than get complacent, the best thing to do is to get grant ready!
As anyone who has ever been responsible for managing a grants application knows, the process can be incredibly complex, time consuming, and stressful. By getting grant ready proposal managers can mitigate much of the complexity and stress that comes with the development of a compelling grant application and a winning proposal.
The goal of getting grant ready is to establish four things:
- A critical assessment of performance of previous grant applications.
- A library of commonly requested information such as an organizational chart, IRS determination, biographies, and organizational history and mission.
- Documentation of statistics of school, district, state and regional metrics for demographics and standardized tests or other benchmarks that can support grant proposals.
- A list of target grants covering opportunities from both foundations and government agencies.
With these elements accounted for, grant managers and proposal teams are ready to face the busy fall/winter season from a position of preparedness.
“While this type of planning is time consuming upfront, it takes the weight off their shoulders,” shared Elizabeth Evans from the Grants Office, LLC. “When a proposal window opens instead of searching for basic data, the team is able to focus on tailoring the application information. In being able to focus on the personalization of the application so that it speaks directly to the need or opportunity that the grant supports and will have a greater chance for success.”
Want to learn more about education grants? You can do that here.
