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[Truean]

I've been sort of ushered towards perhaps a role in a non profit 503(c). I can do pretty much all of it except I'm a little leery of the grant writing, which I have not done before.

That said, I've done tons of other stuff with writing in a LOT of different ways, etc. Is this stuff easy to learn or is there some trick to it? Any resources, experience, or ideas would be very helpful if you'd be willing to provide those.

Thank you,
Truean

[Flying Dice]

One place to look would be your city's public libraries. Most have at least one branch that runs workshops and classes to help teach people how to write and submit grant project proposals and locate appropriate sources for funding. Just check their listed workshops/events/whatever particular name they give to their event schedule on their web site. Some will divide things into each individual branch's set of hosted events and classes, others will give a comprehensive list and identify which branch each item takes place at.

Most also run this sort of thing periodically every week or month, so it's just a matter of finding a date that works for you and showing up. Chances are that you'll be learning from someone who has personal experience with it, as these in particular tend to be taught by either a volunteer with prior experience in nonprofits &c. or by a member of staff responsible for writing the library's grant proposals.

[Truean]

I'd like to say I do appreciate that quite a bit really. I've done a lot of work with non profits in the past, but never their grant writting. 990 Tax returns, sure, etc, but not the grants.

Any adivce is very appreciated and will be put to good use.

[Flying Dice]

Mm. I don't have experience myself, but as I've had it described to me the most important thing is to strictly adhere to whatever guidelines/format the organization you're trying to get funding from has laid out, as that's one of the core ways they use to weed out proposals. In that regard it's pretty much exactly like submitting an article to a journal for publication. Obviously also the usual spiel about general good habits in writing and contacting people professionally, but that's very standard and I assume you're already an expert in that regard. Don't take this as gospel, of course--as I said, I'm no expert on grant writing, just someone with some useful ancillary knowledge.

[mainiac]

I've been sort of ushered towards perhaps a role in a non profit 503(c). I can do pretty much all of it except I'm a little leery of the grant writing, which I have not done before.

As a former grant reviewer I can tell you that most of your competition hasn't either.  Holeeeee shit did people not know how to read the damn instructions.

Native American tribes are pretty good at it, they know how to game the system.  Try not to be in competition with them.  Universities are pretty hit or miss.  The professors who do it a lot are good at it but a lot of them dont know what they are doing either.

[martinuzz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTNuldPhP20

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Especially the part on Vogons would offer helpful insights on grants

[sirdanilot]

For any grant, the most important mantras are:

Follow. The. Instructions.

and

Write. What. They. Want. To. Hear.

I had to write something to gain funding for a certain project a while back. The instructions blatantly told me to send in the detailed 17 page document 10 times to them, which cost a fortune in printing costs (although I have a place to print for free, 170 pages is a bit too much).