A few months ago, I had about 5 seconds of panic when some news outlets reported that ChatGPT could put me out of a job. Then the other night, over a great dinner with friends, many in the group only had good things to say about ChatGPTs ability to help them get their work done—making outlines, writing quizzes, and other similar writing tasks. It made me realize that ChatGPT is an excellent tool to help you get started on a writing task. I’ve tried it myself.
And that’s exactly why I’m not worried: writing isn’t easy. For some people, a blank page and a blinking cursor is the beginning of a horror movie. Even ChatGPT knows that, because sometimes, it makes stuff up. It also doesn’t write very well. It pulls its information (and learns from) from the vast stores of writing available to it—so, ChatGPT’s copy is relatively simplistic, repetitive, and often inaccurate (sometimes creepy, so don’t goad it; and if you use it, either be transparent about it or revise it enough to make it good*). Meaning, even when you use it to get started, you end up rewriting the whole thing anyway.
What brings this up for me now is that, though ChatGPT is beginning to make a name for itself, threatening to put writers of all kinds out of a job, I have seen more writing jobs posted than ever before—proposal writing, speech writing, fundraising writing, grant writing, correspondence writing and on and on. Coincidence caused by the algorithms and cookies on my computer? Maybe. Whatever the reason, I think despite the availability of tools like ChatGPT, we will always need versatile writers—those who can write short things and long things, stories that make sense, stories that entertain(!), complex proposals, and a host of other stuff including re-writing and fact-checking the AI.
So on that note I wanted to share a quick primer on grant/proposal writing. As mentioned, sometimes even professional writers feel the anxiety of the blank page, especially when there is a deadline looming. So, here’s what I lean on when proposal writing. I hope that sharing it can take some of the anxiety out of it for you. (And, if you are a grantmaking entity reading this: don’t open competitive grants unless you really mean it, and are looking for new entities to support. In addition, an online form (not a portal! Something like a google form or survey monkey), with basic and brief questions is best).
Are You a Good Fit? - Don’t Throw Spaghetti at the Wall
If you find a funder and have thoroughly researched their giving history and believe you are a good fit, first see if they invite cold applicants. If they do invite applications, have at it. If not, ask someone on your board or staff if they know anyone and get a meeting on the books. If no one knows anyone, then see if any of the program staff have their emails public and if they do, send them a short note asking for a meeting. If no email is published, move on. If they don’t answer, move on. The important thing to note here is really do your due diligence: don’t waste time writing and sending grant applications to funders where the odds of them funding you are about the same as winning at a slot machine.
First Draft - Don’t Overthink It
The hardest part of writing a grant proposal is pulling together the first draft. Don’t try to make this draft perfect, especially if you will be inviting others to add, review or revise. Answer the questions as simply and clearly as possible, and make sure your angle/approach matches with the funder’s priorities explicitly. If you can, reference statistics that you think would resonate with the funder in your rationale for why such programming as yours is needed, and why your programming helps the foundation/funder to reach its goals. I have seen organizations spend a whole page or two trying to make their case, to convince a potential funder of their reason for being. This is usually unnecessary. One strong mission statement, and one good evidence-based reason for being, that is aligned with the funder’s priorities, is enough. And be succinct (1-4 sentence paragraph at most, with the stat source link). Lastly, (or maybe firstly!) lean on previously written and edited copy if you have it, especially to get you started—there is NEVER a good reason to re-invent the wheel in grantwriting.
Project Managing - 50% of a Grant Writer’s Job
Know your deadline, have clarity around your process (from first draft through to submission) and how long you think each phase of the writing will take. Then, reach out to all the people involved: who is going to help you with the budget? Who is going to help you gather the supplemental documents like 990s and P/L statements? Who needs to weigh in on the program activities, the roles of key staff, etc. Make sure you include everyone at the beginning by sending a launch email outlining the deadlines for the things you need to complete the proposal, that has specific assignments. Then, follow-up with each person until their parts are done. When there are many cooks in the kitchen, things can get out of hand fast. So, keep the draft in a single shared document, and use suggested/track changes and comments to assign and direct people’s attention to where they need to focus. This will minimize the number of cooks getting into parts of the kitchen where they do not need to be, but will allow people to see the whole picture.
Wordsmithing - .02% of a Grant Writer’s Job
Pretty writing is pretty. But proposals never need pretty writing. They need clear, concise, accurate writing. So don’t spend time arguing over which word in the thesaurus would be better than that one, or if we need to have an oxford comma over there. Avoiding jargon is important, but what exactly constitutes jargon? It’s different for every organization, but essentially it means don’t assume everyone knows what you are talking about. So if you acronyms, or terms like “equitable approach” and assume your reader knows what you mean, that’s jargony. You have to elaborate, explain your approach, and say just how it works.
Goals, Objectives, Deliverables/Outputs, Outcomes, Activities - These are all Unique!
The easiest way to make sense of all of these things is to map your program out in a timeline. What you will do, when and in what order you will do it, and why you are doing it all answer the questions about goals, objectives, deliverables, outcomes, and activities. I know we are all doing good work, and we know exactly why we are doing it, but now we have to tell someone else. So, perhaps, we never put it in these terms before. Thus, if you make a timeline first, because you already know the work you want to do and how to do it—then you will be that much closer to being able to name this work as goals, objectives, activities, etc. Here’s an example for how to use these terms in an organization looking for grantwriting support:
Goals (we aim for these; might not get them all!): to create a streamlined process for regularly submitting grants and reporting on them; raise 3% of budget
Objectives (all of this will be completed, unless we hit some challenge and need to pivot): submit 3-5 proposals per month; create a funding tracker to reconcile with finance
Deliverables/outputs (this will all get done): completed LOIs, Proposals, and Grants; a pipeline of funder targets; database/tracker for record keeping; a final report on the work done
Activities/tasks (these are including, but not limited to, and may change): research funder opportunities and RFPs, review past proposals and mine for content; write grant proposals; update database and trackers; work with supervisor on approval process for submission
Outcomes (these are our dreams which we want to get, but might take longer than this one grant proposal to achieve - still, we will make some progress toward, and will be able to explain what that progress is): build the development and fundraising capacity of our organization; expand our funding network for long-term org. sustainability
That’s all I got for now. Good luck with your proposal writing!
—MBF
*The person who originally posted that linked “article” had cut and paste from ChatGPT directly, which included “a generated text string to identify my responses within a conversation.” Later that day, he had deleted said string but left the “article” as-is. So if you read it, then you’ll grasp the kind of writing that ChatGPT is currently capable of.
I love your tips on grant-writing. Frankly, they apply to a variety of situations. It is all about project management, isn't it? Not sure I agree with your assessment of ChatGPT. I think not enough people know what good writing looks like. Or, they're too lazy to double check the information. Or, they don't have the talent to thoroughly rewrite what is given. I am literally seeing people using ChatGPT in social media posts to express "opinions" on various topics. Seriously, if you don't have your own ideas, don't use an AI to generate some just so you can make a comment.