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I recently finished a week of confinement to a hotel room just outside of Washington DC reviewing grants
for the FDIC’s CDFI Fund. I want to share some of what I’ve learned with you while the experience is still
fresh in my mind.

For the record, I’ve been a grant reviewer for the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago for several years and
have also done grant reviews for the Chicago Continuum of Care’s Homeless SuperNOFA applications.
What made this experience more challenging was having to review a specific number of grants within a
relatively short designated timeframe.

I hope these tips will help make your grant applications more competitive. Some of them may sound
obvious, but they certainly have been overlooked in many of the grant applications I’ve reviewed. These
tips apply to government and private grants.

The volume of applications funders receive is on the rise, as the number of nonprofits increases and
available funding decreases, particularly government funding. That means more applications competing
for fewer dollars. Grant reviewers and program staff don’t have time to read every application word for
word and look at attachments that weren’t requested as part of the grant application. Keeping it simple is
the best way to ensure that the reviewer will understand your application and find the information they
need to rate your application. If the reviewer can’t understand it or find it, you won’t get credit for it.

I’m combining two symbols here to give you two ways to remember this one. Mimic or mirror the
language in the grant application whenever possible. This is not the time to get creative. Grant reviewers
are looking for very specific things. When you repeat the grant application language in your response, you
make it much easier for them to find it quickly. When appropriate, include the language the funder is
looking for in a heading or subheading to make it stand out.

People are often very passionate about their organization’s mission and they can expound on it in depth.
While it is important to talk about your mission, including the population and needs you serve, be concise
and to the point. Don’t expect to be funded based on the fact that you are “doing good”. Remember,
everyone else is “doing good”, too. For many grants, all applicants are serving a similar population or
need. Be prepared to justify why funding your organization would be a better investment for the funder
than funding one of your competitors.

In addition to talking about the good things you are doing, be sure to talk about the impact you are having.
Quantifying and tracking outcomes is becoming increasingly important to receive and maintain funding.

Organizations, like people, are not perfect. If your organization has a weakness in a particular area of the
application, talk about what you are doing or intend to do to address it. Don’t think that by not talking about
it the reviewer won’t notice it. Remember, they are reviewing other applications and they have guidelines
they are following, so they know what a strong application should look like.

Most funders have deadlines and often grants are submitted with little time to spare. It’s in your
organization’s best interest to allow enough time for a “fresh” pair of eyes to read the grant application
carefully to make sure everything makes sense and there are no glaring errors. If a grant reviewer doesn’t
understand something you’ve written, you won’t get credit for it.

Even the best written grant may not guarantee funding for a program that has significant substantive
weaknesses. On the other hand, a badly written grant may cause an otherwise outstanding program not
to receive funding. I hope these tips help your organization get the score you deserve on your next grant
application.

Eva Booker is the founder and President of Creative Consulting Solutions. Ms. Booker has over 15 years
experience in writing successful grants and three years experience as a grant reviewer. For more
information, go to www.creativeconsultingsolutions.com.

Tips for Keeping Grant Reviewers Happy

Keep It Simple Sweetheart (KISS)

The Parrot in the Mirror

Doing Good is Not Good Enough

Turning Weaknesses Into Strengths

Proof, Proof, Proof