WEIRD SCIENCE OF GRANTWRITING-PT 2 WHY do you want to write a grant?…
DONE! FINITO! FINIS! My application for the Heartland Grant is uploaded and in the Hands of the Grant Gods.
Part One of “The Weird Science of Grantwriting” focused on getting started and doing early research. I hope you read that entry.
Part Two asks “WHY DO I WANT TO DO THIS?”
If the answer is “Because I need a job and some income,” think again. Grants are given with loftier visions. It’s not about what YOU need or want. It is about how the funder sees NEEDS in communities. It is about how the funder wants to deepen their own mission by reaching goals to impact their chosen areas of concern. It is about how their chosen AUDIENCE can get their needs met, and whether or not YOUR ideas could make that happen. (Example: The Rose Foundation’s mission supports projects to foster stewardship of the land; building community groups; demand social justice. Their grants are usually small, but can give mighty presence to a cause. So, think about requesting grants for individual projects that fit into their mission. How about organizing communities to create initiatives? Creek clean-up of invasive species? Can you put together a performance that is about citizens’ action?)
Start thinking like your targeted funder thinks!
I can’t write a grant to pay my PGE bill or buy a car to get to work. But WHAT ARE MY SKILLS and WHAT IS MY PASSION? Can you imagine a dream that encompasses your passion, your skills, AND how you might be able to fill a need in your community where your skills and your passions intersect with community need?
————————
EXERCISE #1: Pen and paper ready! OR Memo Recorder on your SmartPhone! Set a timer for 5 minutes and WRITE or TALK about how your passion can find an audience in your own community.
Passionate about and skilled at making mosaics? Could you create a public art project that features a theme to tell your community’s or audience’s story? How would your public art change your town or neighborhood and impact the people who live around your mosaic? Write about how that would work for 5 minutes!
Passionate about gardening? Could you help create a neighborhood gardening service for low-income elderly people in your community? Write or talk about how that would work for 5 minutes!
Passionate about _____FILL IN THE BLANK___? Could you find a suitable audience, who could benefit from your involvement in this passion? Write or talk about how THAT could work for 5 minutes.
______________
EXERCISE #2: It is now the next day. Read your notes or listen to your recording, and reflect on how it all sounds the day after. Does it still seem like a viable idea? GOOD!
—————————-
EXERCISE #3: IT’S TIME TO REFLECT so that you can understand WHY your idea might qualify for a grant. The funder wants to create a circle of support around a chosen target audience. Those people and their needs need to be smack-dab in the middle of your project’s raison d’etre (reason for being). How will these peoples’ lives be better for their involvement with your skills and your passionate idea? Now write or talk about THAT!!!
______________
These exercises can help you home in on where you can begin. Here’s my own processing to understand what I can offer…
WHAT ARE BZ’s SKILLS?
I’m good at organizing events.
I’m good at keeping within a project budget and keeping receipts, documents, and other information that will be needed for reporting how I spent someone else’s money.
I’m good at staying within a timeline, or adjusting the timeline so that the project can be completed on time.
I know how to design entertaining programs for different age groups.
I’m good at telling stories that can be linked to a theme for a chosen target audience.
WHAT ARE BZ’s PASSIONS?
I love bringing people together to celebrate, to remember, to be in community.
I love to write.
I love to connect with people through stories
I love hearing that audible sigh and seeing the faces at the end of story.
I love listening to others talk about stories after hearing them.
I love feeling that I’ve had a chance to share a point of view with an audience.
I love knowing that I am willing to listen to other points of view.
UPDATE ON MY APPLICATION FOR THE HEARTLAND GRANT:
SO, IT’S BEEN A MONTH since I turned in my application for a very ambitious project with lots of moving parts. The good news is that I have NOT been asked to edit my application. That tells me that it sounds solid. So, THIS month the grant will move into a much more rigorous review process where the grant committee will decide which of the many grant applications is truly the most worthy and the most likely to succeed in reaching THEIR GOALS. That is fundamental: They offer funding to help meet their own goals. Essentially they source out the work in the form of grants to make things happen that fit within their own ideas of what will help make communities better and stronger.
It really is a process. Wish me luck!!
UP NEXT: CAPACITY TO DO THE GRANT!
