Grant proposals should be customized to a funder’s guidelines and priorities, with some funders using specific formats. The Common Application Format is a model proposal used by many private foundations. It includes a cover page, summary, narrative, evaluation, and attachments. The proposal should be no longer than five pages.
You can write a grant proposal by determining a funder’s guidelines and priorities and preparing a narrative about your organization and programs in response. Some funders have a specific grant application format, while others allow applicants to use any reasonable format that presents the most salient information. Traditionally, applicants prepared grant proposals in report format and submitted them in hard copy to the funder. With the popularization of the Internet, many funders are transitioning to an electronic application process that allows applicants to submit their applications online.
There is no single, universal way to write a grant proposal. Instead, there is a list of narrative themes applicants are expected to tackle, regardless of format. Each grant proposal must be customized to the funder’s specifications and priorities. The applicant provides any subset of information from the standard narrative themes that is needed to complete the application. By preparing a sample grant proposal for your organization using the standard themes, you’ll be equipped with the information you need to customize the narrative for any proposal format.
The disparity in the formats has led commercial non-profit organizations to devise a model proposal known as the common application. Many private foundations that have not transitioned to an electronic application allow nonprofit organizations to submit grant applications using the common application. The best way to learn how to write a grant proposal is to use the common application format because it represents the industry estimate of the ideal presentation of information.
A grant proposal using the Common Application Format has a cover page and three main sections. The cover page includes basic information such as contacts, grant request amount, project name, and verification of tax-exempt status. The first section is a summary of the proposal. This section summarizes your request in a few words and should not be longer than a few paragraphs.
The second section of the common application is the narrative. This is the main presentation of the information, but it should only be a maximum of five pages. The narrative includes background information on the organization and introduces the funding request, which can be for general operational support or for a specific program. If the request is for program support, a description of the need for the program and its functional design is expected.
A section on evaluation is the last part of the narrative. Here, you present a plan to establish the effectiveness of the program. After the narration, the final part of the proposal is the attachments section. In this section, you’ll present your organization’s program and budgets and a series of standard attachments that most funders expect to see. If you prepare a full common application for your funding application, you can extract it to prepare an application in any format.
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