What is the Common Grant Application?

The name Common Grant Application is misleading.  It is not a simple application for grant seekers to fill in.  Rather, it is a general outline for grant seekers to use when crafting their proposals.

The Foundation Center describes how to use the Common Grant Application:

“The common grant application format has been adopted by groups of grantmakers to allow grant applicants to produce a single proposal for a specific community of funders, thereby saving time. Before applying to any funder that accepts a common grant application form, be sure to check that your project matches the funder’s stated interests, and ascertain whether the funder would prefer a letter of inquiry in advance of receiving a proposal. Also be sure to check whether the funder has a deadline for proposals, as well as whether it requires multiple copies of your proposal.”

Here is the Common Grant Application for Grantmakers of Western PA.   On page 9, there is a list of the grantmakers who accept this format.

Typical Proposal Elements

I recently spoke to this year’s Venango Vision Leadership Institute about writing a grant proposal.  As a group they will be developing a project to address real-life problems faced by members of our community, and crafting a grant proposal to fund their project.  None of this year’s participants had ever written a grant proposal, so I was asked to give a brief summary of what is involved in writing one.  Here are my notes:

Typical Elements of a Grant Proposal (a framework to work with; must personalize each proposal according to funder’s specific layout and guidelines)

1. Executive Summary (1 page)
-  Presents an umbrella statement of your case and summary of the entire proposal.
2. Statement of Need (2 pages)
-  Why is your project necessary?  Help the reader understand the problem.
-  Sources of statistics:  the United Way’s Venango County Statistical Profile, FOOF’s $25 CD of stats on Venango County and comparisons to other PA counties, census data available for free at www.census.gov/
3. Project Description (3 pages)
-  Outline the nuts and bolts of how your project will be implemented and evaluated.
-  What will happen if this project is funded?  Why use this particular strategy to address this problem?
-  How will you know your project has been a success?  What will you track to show this?
-  What staffing will you require?   Will you use existing staff, volunteers, new hires?
4. Budget (1 page)
-  Financial description of the project with explanatory notes.
5. Organization Information (1 page)
-  Sort of like your organization’s resume, including its history, accomplishments, governing body (board, executive director), primary activities, audiences, and services.
6. Conclusion (2 paragraphs)
-  Provide a summary of the proposal’s main points.
-  How will things be better if this project is funded?
-  Will this project be able to continue after the grant money runs out?
7.  Appendices
-  Only include as requested by the grant maker, or if you are specifically partnering with other agencies (then include letters of support from those agencies)

Tutorials for Beginners

The Foundation Center website has a number of free, helpful guides and tutorials for those new to the grant seeking process.

I recommend starting with the Introduction to Fundraising Planning course, which requires quick and easy registration.  This introductory course will get you thinking about your organization’s strengths and how to develop a fundraising plan that maximizes those strengths.

The Guide to Funding Research is a good next step.  This course gives an introduction to the world of philanthropy for non-profits, covering such things as what foundations are, who gets foundation grants, and how to find foundations that will fit your organization’s needs.

For a quick introduction to the actual process of writing grant proposals, try the Proposal Writing Short Course.  It took me about an hour to work my way through the material, and by the end I had a solid checklist of the steps involved in researching and writing a proposal.