Why a course online?

The GWTF is offering an online course because of the following factors:

How the Grant Writing Training Workshop Works Online:

Email us to register for the course. You can register at any time. Once you have registered, you will send us a preliminary proposal that has key elements of your project. You may have almost no information, or you may have pages and pages. You may even have past proposals that have been successful or unsuccessful in securing funding.

Each week you will:

If you decide on the 10 week course, your instruction materials will be sent to you on Sunday of each week. We will be responding to your drafts with suggestions, questions and edit changes within 24 hours. You may send the next draft(s) as soon as they are ready.

It is important to send your drafts to us as soon as you can, so we have maximum time to give you feedback and move you along to the next section.

If our agency has a team working on a proposal together, how do you suggest we organize our time?

We suggest that you set aside a minimum 3 hours a week to read the lessons and write the drafts. The more time you dedicate to this, the more developed your proposal will be and the faster you will complete the proposal. Each team working on a proposal may decide that some people will write while others will collect data to be included (statistics for the Statement of Need, past newspaper articles and brochures for the Introduction). We suggest that everyone read the lessons, so that all are learning at the same time. Some sections can be written in a half hour, others may take several hours.

Can we write more than one proposal during the training?

The GWTF online training is set up to allow you to write one complete proposal during the 10 weeks session. With this format, we can give you the maximum amount of feedback and one on one guidance as you write and as your proposal develops over the 10 weeks of the course. The skills you gain will allow you to easily transfer information to other proposals and other projects.

Can we write a large Federal or State grant during the training?

The goal of the training is to give you experience in writing each of the main components of a grant proposal--the same components that you must develop in any solid, compelling proposal. You will complete a Master Proposal, usually of 10-15 pages, which will be reduced down to a strong 2 page proposal letter at the end of the course.

A Federal or State grant may take as many as 100-200 hours of time actual research and writing, something that is outside the time constraints of this course. However, as you develop your Master proposal, you will find that the elements are the same as the elements in large Federal and state grants, so your training will transfer effectively to the larger grant writing project.

How long will the course take?

The maximum time for the course is 10 weeks. If you want to do it more quickly, we are here to lead you through the process. The minimum time would be five days.

Should I work on the proposal alone?

You can work on a proposal alone or you can collaborate with project or agency staff, or even friends as you develop your proposal.

How will the editing process work?

For each section of the proposal, you will be given three editing sessions of your draft. For example, after reading the teaching materials about the Introduction, you will write the Introduction Section and send us your draft, and we will make comments. You then can include these comments (or not) and resend it for a 2 nd review. After additional comments from us, you may send it a 3 rd time for further review and comments.

We will then move on to the next section, taking the development of the grant proposal in the following, logical order:

As we move on to the next section, we will always review the previous sections to make sure your writing is consistent and all components of the proposal “hold together” and do not contradict what was written before.

How will we get information on possible funders?

Along with the information on writing proposals, in each session, we will also provide you with facts and key strategies for identifying and contacting funders.

As your proposal develops, we will do a funding search for you that will give you a head start on identifying potential funders. You will use this preliminary list of funders, along with a step by step guide for maximum benefit to your project.

At the end of the course, we will have 5-10 people from the nonprofit world do a brainstorming session for you that will provide you with scores of ideas about possible funders you might research.

Can we ask questions?

You can ask questions at any time and we hope you will. Your questions may relate to the specific proposal you are writing, or may be more general questions about grant writing and project development and funding. If we think it is appropriate information that all online students can benefit from, we will ask your permission to send your question and our response on to others.

For Detailed Information on Funding Forum Online Grant-Writing Training, Please Download this Microsoft Word Document.