Jacquelyn Green
Professional Writing Fall 2015
In crafting a grant for the Gannett Foundation on behalf of NICE, our group set out to meet the requirements of the organization’s grant guidelines in a concise yet comprehensive manner. We split up the grant requirements into four sections: needs statement, sustainability statement, one-page project budget, and one-page summary organizational budget. Through each of these sections, it was our job as grant-writers to convey NICE’s story in order to persuade the Gannett Foundation to invest in its continued success.
My role was to write the sustainability statement, which illustrates the ways in which NICE demonstrates its capabilities as an organization and its ability to continue its programs and grow in the community. Since our audience (grant readers at the Gannett Foundation) want to be able to understand our narrative at first read-through, I wanted my sentences to short but impactful. The Gannett Foundation asked that we incorporate the following information: our organization's qualifications to carry out the project; how the project will be evaluated; plans for continued funding of the project, if applicable; and a list of other funding sources, committed and applied for. Because past grants had already touched on all these subjects, most of my “writing” was really just taking their information and reworking it to fit the specific needs of the grant. I focused specifically on the after-school program. Kendall and I then met outside of class to intentionally create a cohesive tone between our two statements.
Overall, the grant-writing process was very interesting to me. As a person who does a lot of creative and academic writing, this short, to-the-point style was foreign to me. I found myself naturally inclined to make a single point in several sentences when it would be more economical to only write one sentence. Even though it took some time to get used to relying on the paramedic method and other ways of shortening my sentences to make them as impactful and effective in as few words as possible.
Jacquelyn Green • Professional Writing Fall 2015