Grants are an essential source of funding for organizations, agencies, and government, especially for tribal communities. When applying for or administering a grant proposal for funding, those writing must be experts in their field. Understanding the limited access to resources, such as housing, healthcare, social services, and justice systems (including policing), one must also be competent in the culture and traditions, including language, of each tribal community. The integrity of each tribal community depends on the knowledge and experience of the grant writer and understanding of their duty and responsibility. The purpose of grants is to access needed resources, teach the community, promote education, improve infrastructure, maintain lands, and restore traditions/languages to enhance the overall quality of life for many.
Grant writing basics include:
- Do your homework…study, and apply for grants that you are eligible for and find to be a good fit. Align yourself with the knowledge of what is within your focus/scope of capability.
- Learn the needed criteria…funders will list their issues/causes and request certain types of programs/projects they want to fund. Align your focus/scope to the issues/causes within the amount of funding requested.
- Be concise or clear…when creating your proposal, be direct and to the point. Get your point across in a few sentences so you do not lose the focus.
- Format for easy reading…use subject headers, titles of sections, bullet points, or short lists to break down each component for and within the proposal. This will help those reviewing to understand critical variables. This is also helpful when you want to cross-reference or resort back to a particular area/subject.
- Use the funder’s language… Incorporating words and phrases allows your focus/scope to align with the funder.
- Use and cite research…become knowledgeable of the subject matter. This ensures that your efforts make progress towards the goals of tackling the issue/cause. This proves that you are a credible resource/person to carry out the funds’ mission. Also, this allows you an opportunity to back up your focus/scope by referencing conducted studies, reports, and data.
- Prove how funds make a difference…clearly articulate the difference in the future and current state of the proposal. This will help explain how and why the funds would help amplify the community served.
