Grant Writing: Avoiding Rejection

This course will train you in how to avoid failure when writing and submitting grant applications

What you'll learn

Understand the importance of meeting funder eligibility criteria to ensure successful completion of the application eligibility check.

Identify and correct common mistakes such as incomplete or incorrect information, and failure to follow application guidelines.

Develop strategies to ensure sufficient detail throughout the grant application process, including adherence to timeline.

Align grant proposals with the priorities of the funder, ensuring a strong case for support and avoiding critical issues with the approach or methodology

Create measurable and achievable objectives (SMART goals) for proposed projects, and improve the clarity of budgetary and methodological details.

Recognize the value of establishing suitable external partnerships and communicating intended outcomes effectively.

Assess and enhance the team’s qualifications and track record, ensuring that the project aligns with the team’s expertise and reduces perceived redundancy.

Critically evaluate the innovation and cost-benefit balance of proposed projects and address any conceptual weaknesses

Requirements

No prior grant writing experience is necessary. You will learn all you need to know.

Description

This course is designed from a completely fresh and unique perspective. Because your grant application likely has between a 50-97% chance of being rejected, this course is specifically designed to ensure you have the skills to make sure that your application sits in the percentage that it is funded!This course has been built from the ground up to help you to avoid both the common and less common mistakes in grant writing. It will completely change the way in which you approach each element of your grant funding application.By ensuring you have a full understanding of how and why proposals are reject, you will approach the different sections of your grant application in a different way, allowinf you to mitigate flaws and errors and write proposals that are convincing and flawless. Importantly it gives you best practice for how to write each section of your grant, including your case for support, your justification of resources, and your plans for evaluation.Most importantly, it will teach you how to craft your proposal to ensure it is highly competitive, so that the funder will find it extremely hard to find a reason to reject it.A unique aspect of this course is you will learn about how to write an effective grant application from an instructor (Professor James Smith) who actually Chairs a number of funding panels and who is actually responsible for making grant funding decisionsYour instructor, Professor James Smith, PhD, is an established and popular instructor on the Udemy platform. Feedback that he has received from Udemy students includes;"Very easy to understand and the instructor spoke slowly enough that I could let the information sink in" - KW"Very informative and thorough. Getting ready to take the next course. The assignments with the instructor's example following were very helpful" - KR"Very helpful information from a well-qualified Professor. Concisely presented in a format that facilitates easy notetaking" - BDPThis course is ideal for you if;You want to learn how to write successful grants, rather than applications that are rejected.You are an academic or Lecturer or Assistant Professor who wants to secure grant fundingYou are grant writing for a 501.C3, a non-profit or a small/medium sized enterpriseYou want to craft a grant proposal that is difficult for the funder to rejectYou are undertaking fundraising and want to target your effort effectively and professionallyIn this course you will develop an advanced understanding of how to approach and write a professional grant application.This course is split into four modules. Module 1 is called Issues with the Application Process and it covers how the decisions you make at the application stage can influence how the funder makes decisions on your project. The funder will assess your application against a number of criteria including eligibility, complete information and adherence to grant guidelines. The reviewers that are appointed by the funder will assess elements such as attention detail and the feasibility and timeline of a project. These are all areas where the funder will be assessing your ability to comply with the requirements that they have set out, and these are the most common areas where a grant is rejected at a very early stage in the review process.In Module 2, we will actually deal with the specific elements of your proposal that are highly scrutinised during the grant application process. These specific elements of your proposal are tested and assessed for weaknesses and issues and we will cover how the reviewers will use the information that you provide to make a recommendation. This module covers elements like a weak case for support, poor objectives, budgetary issues, lack of external partnerships and critical errors in the approach or methodology. We will also cover poor communication of outcomes and ensuring full alignment to what the funder wants. If you have already completed a grant application and unfortunately received a rejection decision then you will recognise and appreciate that these issues cover some of the most common reasons for why reviewers will support rejection an application.In Module 3, we cover the main issues that are raised in terms of the application team i.e. you and your colleagues or collaborators who are writing and submitting the application. We will cover issues like your track record, how you can impart your own views in the application without it appearing biased, how you can align your grant applications to your expertise and why its important not to stack applicants on your grant proposal. All of these areas fall under issues with the applicants and since the applicants are assessed with an equal weighting to the project or proposal itself, it’s important for the application team to be properly justified and defined.In the final module (Module 4), we cover about conceptual issues in your grant. The grant concept is what you are trying to sell to the funder. The concept is something that is new, something that can actually demonstrate impact or real world change, something that is good value for money and something that can actually be achieved. In this module we cover the common issues in all of these areas so that when you write and review your application, you’ll be able to identify how or what the reviewers will see as negative points.In summary, this course contains accessible and comprehensive classes which will train you not only to craft an effective application, but will give you a full understanding of where grant writing mistakes can occur, why funders will reject an application because of these mistakes and most importantly, how you can avoid them.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction to the Course

Lecture 2 Learning Outcomes for the Course

Section 2: Module 1 - Issues With The Application Process

Lecture 3 Eligibility

Lecture 4 Incomplete or Incorrect Information

Lecture 5 Failure to Follow Application Guidelines

Lecture 6 Attention to Detail

Lecture 7 Inappropriate Timelines

Section 3: Module 2 - Issues With The Writing Of The Application

Lecture 8 Lack of Alignment to Funder Goals/Priorities

Lecture 9 Weak Case for Support

Lecture 10 Poor Proposal Objectives

Lecture 11 Neutral Language

Lecture 12 Insufficient Detail

Lecture 13 Budget Issues

Lecture 14 Suitable External Partnerships

Lecture 15 Critical Issues With Approach or Methodology

Lecture 16 Communication of Outcomes

Section 4: Module 3 - Application Team

Lecture 17 Track Record

Lecture 18 Competition Within The Pool of Applicants

Lecture 19 Presentation of a Partisan Viewpoint

Lecture 20 Proposal Appears Outside of Expertise

Lecture 21 Redundant Applicants

Section 5: Module 4 - Conceptual Issues

Lecture 22 Plans for Evaluation

Lecture 23 Repetition of Previous Work / Lack of Innovation

Lecture 24 Cost-Benefit Imbalance

Section 6: Bonus Material

Lecture 25 Bonus Lecture

You want to learn how to write successful grants using defensive grant writing techniques to enhance success,You are an academic or Lecturer or Assistant/Associate/Full Professor who wants to secure grant funding,You are grant writing for a 501.C3, a non-profit or a small/medium sized enterprise,You want to craft a proposal that makes it extremely hard for the funder to reject,You are undertaking fundraising and want to target your efforts effectively