INTRODUCTION

Grant Writing 101: A Guidebook will enable anyone to prepare their own grant proposal for funding opportunities.  The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic opened many doors for the novice to apply for grants to support the many needs that came out of the global nightmare. Responses such as food insecurity, housing issues, sanitization supplies, Personal Protective Equipment and facilities equipment needs, unemployment and health disparities were only a few areas that funders supported. With more than twenty-five years of experience, I have successfully assisted many individuals and grassroots organization with their contract, grant writing and development needs. As a former Graduate School Adjunct Professor, I taught my students to think about their project and to create steps to get it realized. I developed the step by step method outlined in this book to help anyone who wanted to write a winning grant proposal.  Sometimes, hiring a grant writer is not the option when resources are limited as entrepreneurs or at small, grassroots organizations. What about the joy of learning to write one yourself?  But learning grant writing from this book, will help you to think and put pen to paper and develop something that reflects what you want to convey to the funder.  Also, remember that grant writing is an art that needs to be developed with facts coming together in one place. Today, it is sometimes necessary to develop reference points and steps in order to complete a task successfully. This book will give you that “step by step” opportunity.

The guidebook is divided into five sections outlining the processes involved in preparing the document. Each section gives you information on how to research, prepare to write the grant (more often referred to as the proposal) as well as the actual writing (with a sample grant/proposal and budgets) and final submission of the document.

This guidebook is an empowerment tool which teaches you how to take tiny steps to achieve bigger rewards.