Grant Writing: Tips and tricks

Being prepared for a funding opportunity is half the battle. Sometimes new and exciting opportunities arise and being ready to apply to them will help your organization be nimble and resilient.

General Project Information

Create a fact sheet for your potential project through answering the following questions:

  • Project Title: Create a concise project title. (Ideally with a 75-character limit, including spaces)
  • Project Sponsor: Who is the lead applicant and receiving the grant funding (taking on fiscal responsibility and management)?
  • Project Partners: Aside from the project sponsor, who will be responsible for project activities, or who will receive some of the grant funding?
  • Site Location: Where is the project occurring?
  • Project Short Description: Create a brief description of the overall project and environmental benefits. (Ideally 500-character limit, including spaces)
  • Project Long Description: Enter a more detailed description of the project’s purpose, benefits, background information, and other associated funding. (4,000-8,000 character limit, including spaces)
  • Overall Goal: Enter a short paragraph describing the overall goal and environmental benefits. (1,000-character limit, including spaces)
  • Community Planning: What community plans does this project align with or help fulfill?
  • Total Cost: Enter the total project cost. This includes grant funding and any other eligible or ineligible costs associated with the project. Identify match amount if required/known.
  • Total Eligible Cost: Enter the total amount of the grant request.
  • Project Duration: What is the timeframe for completion?
  • What are the project activities? Break each activity out with:
    • A short description of the activity
    • The outcome/goal of the activity
    • Estimated budget amount
    • Responsible partners
    • Identify any deliverables and/or metrics
  • Decision Points: Are there any sticking points to the project? If so, what are they? Does land need to be acquired? Does there need to be planning and community outreach before design work is started?  

Funding Specific Guidance

The following funding opportunity guidance is specific to the type of funding you are seeking. We have separated this down into two categories: smaller, private and foundation grants, and larger Federal and State grants.

Private/Foundation and Smaller Grants

  • Biographies and Resumes – Prepare small biographies and up to date resumes (one page). Different applications will ask for different formats.
  • Mission, Values, and Vision – Have access to the agreed upon language for these items.
  • Information on your Board – Prepare information about your board members, such as their experience, current roles on the board, and a statement of their involvement in your day-to-day operations and programs.
  • Experience summary and current project summaries – What are your current programs/projects and past successful programs/projects? Be prepared to write about these with their quantifiable outcomes.
  • Straightforward organization budget – Some applications will ask for your overall organization budget, not just project specific.
  • Copies of past successful grant applications – Ideally all this information (or copies of it) will be in one place for easy accessibility and capacity building.

 

Federal/State and Large Grants

  • SAM.gov account and UEI– Federal only, this process can take weeks to complete!
  • Biographies and Resumes – prepare up to date resumes (1 page) - different applications will ask for different formats.
  • Experience summary and current project summaries – What are your current programs/projects and past, successful programs/projects? Be prepared to write about these with their outcomes.
  • Call upon partners and connections you have established through other work and engagement if you need support in future opportunities.
  • Consider using your access or knowledge of partners or connections to assist with technical application requirements as needed.
  • Break your budget down into Object Classes: Personnel, Fringe Benefits, Travel, Equipment, Supplies, Contractual, Construction, Other, and Indirect Charges.
  • Ensure you are aware of community and regional planning efforts and where your potential projects may align.
  • Prepare copies of past successful grant applications – Ideally all this information (or copies of) would be in one place for easy accessibility and capacity building.

Federal Specific Grant Writing Tips and Resources

 

General Grant Writing Tips

Try to keep your overall narrative brief and supported. Explain the need behind the project and support any claims - Grant reviewers may not be familiar with your area or project context. Avoid filler words and cliches. Consider becoming familiar with “Business Writing”.

Use meaningful language or “buzzwords” from the funding opportunity. In a strategic and authentic manner, use meaningful words from the funding opportunity, specifically in a scoring criteria or in any funder or program priorities. If you find your project and proposal are not aligning closely with this language, consider reviewing it again to see if this is the right fit for your project.

Create an elevator pitch. It maybe not something you include in every narrative but consider creating an elevator pitch. If you do encounter character limits, being able to briefly describe the need, the project, and the outcome all in two or three sentences is powerful. Write the full narrative, then write a high-level executive summary that will be a standalone page or two, and then finally trim and narrow it down to the two or three sentences that gets to the root of your project. Again, you might not need it for the application but being ready with this to use it when you engage partners, or when you are talking with the funder can go a long way. This applies to your organization as well. What is your mission? What is your general body of work? How do you describe this to someone who knows nothing of your organization, all in two or three sentences?

Have a detailed budget. While most large grant applications will give you clear instructions on how to create a budget for their opportunity, small or private grant opportunities may give very little guidance. Candid Learning’s free “Introduction to project budgets” training is a great place to start. Taking things to the next level, their “Upgrade your grant budget to attract major foundation funders” training has applicable advice to take any grant budget to the next level.

Prepare an answer to the sustainability question. Funders want to know how your project will be sustained or continue to benefit the environment/community beyond their monetary contribution. Some may ask this directly whereas others may be vague. Take the time to think through an answer with your team that is realistic and shows the funder that this is not something that will disappear once funding runs out. If there is no continued funding source for after the grant money, describe the long-standing benefits of what the grant funded.

Transportation funding assistance

Are you applying for a transportation-oriented funding opportunity and have some questions about the application and approach? Contact the Strategic Funding Team’s Restoration and Transportation Funding Strategist for assistance.

Logic Models and Evaluation            

Logic Model

Are you unsure about some of the objectives and outcomes for your project? Make a Logic Model! A Logic Model is a visual exercise that can help your organization demonstrate how the activities in your project will achieve results. Consider it as a flowchart, of your project’s inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. It should be detailed, effective, and created collaboratively. 

  • Resources/inputs - all materials and personnel must complete a project, such as volunteers, staff, or match.
  • Activities - the specific work of your project, such as community meetings or riparian restoration.
  • Outputs - what will come directly from the activities such as river miles restored?
  • Outcomes - the short-term change that you hope to see through the activities of your project, such as improving water quality through riparian restoration.
  • Impacts - the long-term change that you are hoping to accomplish.
    • “A logic model is a relatively simple image that reflects how and why a program will work. It conceptualizes the resources needed, activities that will be initiated, outputs (services or products delivered because of activities) and both short and long term outcomes expected (evidence of change).” – Eastern Washington University

Helpful Resources and examples:

Evaluation

Building off the Logic Model, evaluation is a critical portion of your proposed grant application. A funder wants to know how you will evaluate the program they will be funding and how you are showing success. Clearly differentiating between Outputs, Outcomes, and Impacts presents a clear picture to the funder. If you are awarded and results and evaluation are not progressing as anticipated, do not worry. Regular communication with your funder, honest reporting, and pursing a holistic approach to determine where issues are arising from will help you adapt and continue to implement your program.

Contact

For more information or if you have any questions about your inquiry, please contact our Grant Writer and Strategist, Michelle Deckard at michelle.deckard@psp.wa.gov. or follow this link.

 

Last updated: 03/24/26

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