With proposal narratives that can reach 60 or more pages, adding creative touches to break up a heavy narrative can make a proposal more readable and thus easier for reviewers to assess.
According to Beth Oldham, founder of BC Rural Grants Consultants in Castlegar, British Columbia, Canada and a member of the Grants Professionals Association, here are five ways to try to make proposals stand out. Though not all stem from the world of creative writing, they might help you find success:
- Don’t Soak Your Page In Ink: Book chapters don’t start at the top of a page. Publishers leave the top of each chapter blank so that readers can pause and decide when to continue. While there are no chapters in grants, leave whitespace on each page so that reviewers can catch their breath. It might seem counterintuitive to remove text, especially if facing restrictive page limits. But shortening paragraphs and tightening sentences to trim and reduce the visual burden of each page can help reviewers move more easily through a long narrative, according to Oldham.
- Add Creative Visuals: When possible, create visuals to support what you’ve written on the page. You might include a quote bar or bubble from a staff member or service recipient to lighten a page, draw the reader’s eye and provide a break from dense type. A quote can also stress the relationship between what’s on paper and what’s happening in real life. Look for places where you can insert a chart or a diagram instead of heavy descriptive text.Write A Grant That Flows: Write like you’re crafting a story, with all the plot points (or criteria) aligned so that one fact builds upon another and creates a narrative that flows together. A grant that moves effortlessly from one section to another, and doesn’t simply present independent facts and figures, can help your reviewer grasp the full picture and make them want to keep reading.
- Know Your Ending: There are “pantsers” and “plotters” among authors — those who either write by the seat of their pants or those who plot each novel’s twists and turns all the way to the end before even beginning to write. You should be firmly among the latter when you write a grant. The outline? Use the logic model. Developing a logic model before starting tells you who your characters are, what’s going to happen, and the end result.
- Don’t Forget Emotion: Emotion? In a federal grant? You’re not trying to tug on the heartstrings, but you do want reviewers to feel the urgency of the issue you’re addressing. Including a powerful success story or the tale of a devastating systemic failure that your services can address may help reviewers understand your project on a different level.
Some might think that federal grants have no place for creativity, according to Oldham. But federal reviewers must wade through daunting piles of proposals, and adding creative touches can make your proposal stand out.
