Peak Proposals

DECEMBER 3, 2022

December 03, 2022 If you are preparing a proposal for a U.S. government (USG) agency, center, or institute such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF), you probably already know that it can be a complex, confusing undertaking. And if you haven’t applied for USG funding yet but are considering doing so, one of the things that might be factoring into your decision-making is the difficulty of the application process.

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Peak Proposals

JANUARY 1, 2023

January 01, 2023 Like many of you, we’ve worked on grant proposals that have not come together easily, and the final product feels mediocre at best. Despite their weaknesses, sometimes the proposals still get funded, but that’s the exception, not the rule. Is there a way to avoid the risk of submitting a weak proposal that has little chance of getting funded?

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Is It Possible to Submit the Same Proposal to Multiple Funders?

Peak Proposals

MARCH 1, 2023

Blog RSS March 01, 2023 If you are wondering if it is a viable strategy to write one proposal and submit it as-is to multiple funders, the basic answer is no, it’s not advisable. There are some limited exceptions, which we get into later, but that’s the general rule. Writing a proposal and sharing it with multiple donors via email usually doesn’t lead to success for several reasons.

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Peak Proposals

AUGUST 1, 2023

When you come across a funding opportunity that looks like it is a good fit, it can be tempting to start work on it immediately, especially if the deadline is only a few weeks away. But jumping into the writing phase without first reading through the solicitation carefully is always risky. Among other things, it can lead you to miss an important deadline: the deadline for submitting questions to the funder about the solicitation.

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Peak Proposals

JUNE 1, 2023

If you work on certain kinds of grant proposals, particularly proposals for research grants, you must cite sources that support your proposed solution, providing evidence of related work and data. Proposals for community-based projects often require references as well, such as citations to government reports, public datasets, or news articles. Proposal teams often struggle to create a system for organizing background research and correctly citing sources in their proposals.

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Peak Proposals

APRIL 30, 2023

We’ve written several posts over the years about how to write grants. We’ve also written about the pros and cons of being a grant writer. But one thing we haven’t done is write about how to become a grant writer. We’re going to cover this topic now, sharing three different paths. Three Common Paths to Becoming a Grant Writer 1. Work on a Project for a Nonprofit or Academic Institution By far, the most common way that people learn how to write grant proposals is by working for a program at a nonp

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Peak Proposals

APRIL 3, 2023

Grant proposals have at least two parts: the project narrative and the budget (aka cost proposal). If you work for a large nonprofit, different people may be assigned to work on the narrative and cost proposal, with the two groups getting together periodically throughout the proposal process to ensure the sections are in sync. There may not be a division of responsibilities between the cost and narrative proposals at a small nonprofit, leaving the project lead (or the grant writer) to both write

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Peak Proposals

MARCH 1, 2023

If you are wondering if it is a viable strategy to write one proposal and submit it as-is to multiple funders, the basic answer is no, it’s not advisable. There are some limited exceptions, which we get into later, but that’s the general rule. Writing a proposal and sharing it with multiple donors via email usually doesn’t lead to success for several reasons.

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Peak Proposals

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

It isn't easy to edit your own writing. Because you know what you meant to write, your eye will often gloss over misspellings, missing words, and incorrect word choices. Even when you are determined to slow down and read what you’ve written word-for-word, it’s almost impossible to resist skimming some sections. Sometimes you may find yourself skimming inadvertently, and other times it may be by choice when you think you’ve reviewed a passage enough.

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Peak Proposals

JANUARY 1, 2023

Like many of you, we’ve worked on grant proposals that have not come together easily, and the final product feels mediocre at best. Despite their weaknesses, sometimes the proposals still get funded, but that’s the exception, not the rule. Is there a way to avoid the risk of submitting a weak proposal that has little chance of getting funded? After seeing a few proposal turnarounds, where mediocre proposals have been transformed into much stronger ones, we’ve found three steps that can work wond

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Peak Proposals

DECEMBER 3, 2022

If you are preparing a proposal for a U.S. government (USG) agency, center, or institute such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF), you probably already know that it can be a complex, confusing undertaking. And if you haven’t applied for USG funding yet but are considering doing so, one of the things that might be factoring into your decision-making is the difficulty of the application process.

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Peak Proposals

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

After you finish writing your grant proposal, is there any way to know if it is any good? Someone emailed this question to us recently, and we imagine others have wondered this as well. If your grant proposal receives funding, that’s obviously a sign that you did a good job, but is there any way to know before you submit your proposal if it’s any good?

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Peak Proposals

DECEMBER 22, 2019

Our blog posts typically focus on grant strategies for nonprofit institutions. In this post, we’re going to focus on a different topic for a more targeted audience. The topic is research funding. The content will be most relevant to US-based academics. However, many of the principles will also apply to researchers based outside of the US as well as to nonprofits.

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Peak Proposals

FEBRUARY 16, 2020

Developing a grant strategy involves identifying the funders and funding opportunities you intend to pursue over a certain period of time (usually a 12-month period, although it could be longer). Grant strategies should be updated at least annually. This is not only because the funding environment changes over time but also because an organization’s priorities, resources, and programmatic interests can change as well.

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Peak Proposals

MARCH 23, 2020

Image by VektorKunst from Pixabay. For many of us, the global spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 over the last few weeks has increasingly disrupted our lives. In addition to coping with the threat of illness or managing an active case of the coronavirus, many families are also bracing themselves for an uncertain financial future. In the US, where shelter-in-place orders have started to roll out over the last week, small businesses are starting to struggle, with many already forced to layoff staf

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Peak Proposals

MAY 3, 2020

If your organization needs funding (and what organization doesn’t?), you have three primary options for raising funds: 1) you can solicit donations from individuals, 2) you can submit proposals to foundations and government agencies to receive grant funding, or 3) you can hold fundraising campaigns and community events to collect donations. While the motivation behind all three is similar—to collect sources of revenue to support programs and core operations—the resources you need and the tasks i

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Peak Proposals

JUNE 20, 2020

One aspect of grant writing that frequently trips people up is that most grant opportunities have fixed or “hard” deadlines. To be considered for a grant, you need to submit your proposal by a specific date and time, no exceptions. Adding to the pressure, the time between when the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) comes out and when the application is due can often be very short.

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Peak Proposals

SEPTEMBER 28, 2020

It's always a good idea to look weekly, if not daily, for funding opportunity announcements that might be a good fit for your organization. However, if you are not careful, you can end up putting too much emphasis on finding funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) over other grant-seeking activities. While FOAs are important, many (if not most) organizations would be better served by prioritizing in-depth research of specific funding sources—that is, the foundations, associations, and governmen

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Peak Proposals

OCTOBER 31, 2020

Preparing grant proposals isn't something everyone enjoys, feels confident doing, or has the time to do. This is where hiring a freelance grant proposal writer can help. Hiring a grant proposal writer can be a great solution for occasions when you lack the time or skills to write a particular proposal. However, hiring an external proposal writer is not always the solution, and hiring a proposal writer is also no guarantee that your grant proposal will be funded.

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Peak Proposals

DECEMBER 21, 2020

Each month, we receive a significant number of emails with questions about how to get grant funding and where to look for funding, as well as more specific questions related to securing grants for particular types of projects. While there are always a few questions that require tailored answers, most of the questions we receive fall into a handful of categories.

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Peak Proposals

JANUARY 10, 2021

There are more than 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States alone, and the largest nonprofits, those operating at the national or international level, are similar in structure to large for-profit companies. Despite their numbers, it’s fairly unusual to see software companies directly target the nonprofit sector in their marketing materials. This absence of direct marketing to the sector may lead some nonprofits to overlook software solutions that, although marketed primarily to businesses, c

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Peak Proposals

JANUARY 28, 2021

Do you need to subscribe to a grant database to discover grant opportunities? If so, how do you know which database will best meet the needs of your organization? To answer these questions, below we discuss several types of grant databases and provide an overview of three specific databases— GrantStation , Foundation Directory Online (FDO) , and Instrumentl —to give you a sense of what grant databases can offer.

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Peak Proposals

MAY 13, 2021

Introduction to Content Libraries A content library is a storage site where you save different types of content, including templates, excerpts from documents such as proposals and reports, and even audio and video clips. Your content library could also contain copies of staff resumes, letters of support from partner organizations, or quotes from beneficiaries who have used your organization’s programs and services.

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Peak Proposals

AUGUST 17, 2021

Preparing a grant proposal is a deadline-driven task, and sometimes, those deadlines can be very close at hand by the time you discover the opportunity and decide to apply. If you only have a few weeks to pull together a grant proposal, what’s the fastest way to pull together a proposal? In our experience, it comes down to developing your proposal in stages, beginning with detailed planning.

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Peak Proposals

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

Have you ever considered becoming a grant writer? Nonprofits are constantly seeking new funding streams to stay afloat, so if you work for a nonprofit, you’ve probably seen that grant writers are always in demand. While there’s lots of grant writing to be done and knowing how to write a grant is a valued skill in the nonprofit sector, there’s a big difference between occasionally writing a grant proposal and working as a full-time grant writer.

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Peak Proposals

OCTOBER 6, 2021

We have a new partnership to announce. We are pleased to be able to offer our readers an annual subscription to the funder database GrantStation at a significant discount. If you are not familiar with GrantStation, it is a searchable database of grantmakers. The database includes private and corporate foundations as well as U.S. and Canadian government agencies.

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Peak Proposals

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

Nonprofits are always told to diversify their revenue streams. On its face, this advice makes sense. There’s no question that several sources of income provide better financial security than having a single source. The question is, can all nonprofits successfully pursue diversification? Some diversification is going to be required if your organization depends on grant funding because funders typically cap the amount of money that can go toward general operating expenses.

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Peak Proposals

DECEMBER 13, 2021

In our blog posts and other materials, we share our experiences related to researching potential funders, writing grant proposals, and managing the process. Based on feedback we’ve received on our blog posts and courses, we’ve found that some of the information we’ve shared has been viewed as discouraging or overly complicated. In this post, we’re going to cover three areas that seem to stir up the most debate.

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Peak Proposals

MARCH 23, 2022

Style guides are reference documents that writers and editors use to ensure consistency within and across publications or materials. Publishers and forums of all kinds--from magazine publishers, academic publishers, and corporate websites—use a style guide to ensure that their materials have a uniform look (formatting, design) and language (word choice, spelling, grammar).

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Peak Proposals

MAY 22, 2022

Writing a grant proposal has several stages. There’s the research stage when you are learning about the funder’s interests, studying the proposal requirements, and collecting background information related to your topic; the outline stage, when you are deciding the proposal’s structure, developing the outline, and determining which content goes where; the writing phase, when you are drafting text; and finally, the submission phase, when you are editing the proposal, completing the final reviews,

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Peak Proposals

JULY 17, 2022

Writing a grant proposal usually requires a significant amount of collaboration with others. For large, high-dollar value proposals, it’s necessary to assemble a team. Other proposals that are less complicated may not require a formal team, but they will still require help, such as editing assistance or consultations with subject matter experts. Keeping a proposal moving forward and coordinating everyone’s contributions can take a lot of work, and there are many potential obstacles that can prev

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