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Many people think you need to be a qualified writer or have some formal
qualifications to be a great grant writer. It is a common misnomer that many in the
non profit world and especially micro non profits believe that they can’t compete
with grant writers from larger organisations because the grant writers are more
skilled, more experienced or have tertiary qualifications which will give them the
edge in the grant writing process. I will give you a real life example of how this
misnomer was reinforced to me as a total falsehood.
This actually happened when I first started as a grant writer 16 years ago and it
is something I am very proud of but also clearly proved to me that you don’t need a
qualification to be a great grant writer.
Grant Writing – Do you need qualifications to be a great grant writer?
I was contracted as a grant writer to a medium sized non profit organisation in
the disability sector when I first started this business 16 years ago. The State
Government had released funding for the purpose of building accommodation
specifically for those in the community with a disability.
The funding was open to non profit organisations and property developers and
really was encouraging innovative proposals to address the issue of disabled
homelessness. I was very concerned when approaching this task that other bigger
organisations and especially the property developers would be able to hire more
skilled, more experienced, better qualified grant writers than me.
Grant Writing – Do you need qualifications to be a great grant writer?
Remember this was in my very first year of business specialising in the grant
writing world. I was convinced that our competitors would craft a better story and
have a glossier production that what we would offer.
After my initial thoughts I decided to develop a strategy for our project that
would set us aside from the opposition. In part my strategy encompassed an
accommodation project that incorporated accommodation that met the needs of
those with different physical disabilities but also addressed the differing
accommodation needs of those with a mental illness.
Grant Writing – Do you need qualifications to be a great grant writer?
I felt that our competitors might just focus their project on homeless people in
the community with a physical disability. To me the funding was available for the
building of purpose built accommodation for homeless people with a disability –
the specification documents were not specific if this meant only those with a
physical disability so to me we needed to build a project which addressed the
needs of all people with a disability – physical and mental.
This in fact complicated our project significantly. To build our case I needed to
undertake extensive research to prove that there was a real lack of purpose built
accommodation in our catchment area for people with a physical disability OR
mental illness or suffering from both.
Grant Writing – Do you need qualifications to be a great grant writer?
I then had to detail how our accommodation would meet the divergent needs
of people with different physical disabilities and different mental illnesses. Again
I was able to undertake research to demonstrate different initiatives we would
incorporate into our accommodation units which would address these vastly
different needs.
This proved a very challenging and complex submission and while the
organisation I was working for was small in comparison to some of the bigger
players we produced a high quality document which set ourselves apart from the
competition.
Grant Writing – Do you need qualifications to be a great grant writer?
Suffice to say my strategy and the quality of my proposal ensured my client won
funding in the amount of $4.9 million. Not a bad result at all! This proved to me
that you don’t need a degree – I have no degree – you don’t need to be massively
experienced – you need to write with passion and clearly demonstrate your project
and your organisation stands out from the rest.
We achieved that by adopting a completely different and innovative approach.
Grant writing really is about being creative and proving how your project will
deliver above and beyond the outcomes the funding program is aiming to realize.
Grant Writing – Do you need qualifications to be a great grant writer?
We are specialists in providing the following services:-
Lobbying
Tender Writing
Grant Writing
Resumes/Job Applications
Organisational/Business Development.
Grant Writing – Do you need qualifications to be a great grant writer?
Contact us at Red Tape Busters – http://www.redtapebusters.com/ should you require more
information about this article or if you require specialist grant, tender or job application writing experience. We can
assist you to achieve your goals and objectives!
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Contact Us
Red Tape Busters Pty Ltd.
ABN: 39 094 823 417
PO Box 3126
WARNER QLD 4500
Telephone: 07 3882 2055
Facsimile: 07 3882 2066
Email Address: admin@redtapebusters.com.au
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