Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Grant Writing (distance learning course)

Instructor: Holly Hinman

Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Grant Writing But Didn't Know How to Ask (distance learning course)

Successful grant writing is neither one of the magical arts nor an "insider" job. Grant writing is a set of skills that can be learned, and then improved upon with practice. In these difficult economic times, winning grant awards may be the only way your library can introduce new services and programs. At the same time, competition for grand funding is fiercer than ever. This special Infopeople distance learning course is designed to help you gain a competitive edge in the grant application process.

Workshop Description: This six-week distance learning course (with an optional seventh "bonus" week) will be taught over the Web, with extensive one-on-one interaction between the instructor and each student. The course will guide you through the process of writing an actual grant proposal--students should have in mind a specific project or idea that can be developed into a proposal document. The course is timed to coincide with the California LSTA application process, and will include both instruction relevant to writing LSTA grants and a model approach to grant writing that is easily adaptable to any funding source.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Identify and define the components necessary for any grant proposal.
• Conduct a client-based needs assessment.
• Distinguish between goals, objectives, methods, outputs, and outcomes.
• Write clear, measurable objectives.
• Develop a realistic, achievable plan of action and timeframe for a grant project.
• Develop a realistic, justifiable budget for a grant project.
• Recognize and avoid the major pitfalls that plague grant writers.

This course will be highly personalized and relevant to your specific grant writing needs. Workshop exercises will be constructed around component-by-component development of your own grant proposal and your work will be individually reviewed by the instructor. In a sense, this course provides you with an online grant writing coach.

Because of the intense nature of this work, this particular course is likely to require more than the two-hour per week commitment that is typical of Infopeople distance learning courses. You should plan on a minimum commitment of four hours work per week; how much time you will actually need to spend depends on the nature of your project, and will vary from student to student.

When you register, you will receive the URL to get to the course and a username and password in your registration confirmation. Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Grant Writing But Didn't Know How to Ask will start on March 4, 2003 and be available until April 22, 2003. We ask that you log in sometime during the first week of the course to begin the course work.

Topics To Be Covered: Using your Web browser and your Internet connection you will log in to the Infopeople Blackboard distance education site and learn in the following areas:

• Module One - Grant proposal elements
  • Overview of a model grant proposal
  • California LSTA specifics
• Module Two - Identifying and documenting need
  • Techniques to use and pitfalls to avoid
  • Knowing your funding source
  • Importance of partnerships
• Module Three - Writing clear, measurable objectives
  • Goals vs. objectives vs. methods
  • What is "measurable" anyway?
  • How much change is realistic?
  • What happens if you don't meet your objectives?
• Module Four - Plan of action and evaluation
  • Accomplishing your goals and objectives
  • Timelines
  • Personnel requirements
  • Resources
  • Evaluation techniques
  • Using outside evaluators
  • Outcome measurement
• Module Five - Budget basics
  • How to estimate costs
  • In-kind and matching fund requirements
  • Indirect costs
  • Negotiating with the funder
• Module Six - Putting it all together
  • Writing the summary
  • Formatting
  • Cover letters
  • Post-submission strategies
• Bonus Module - Overview of the grant landscape
  • Funding sources beyond LSTA - government, foundations, corporations
  • Sources of grant information
  • Staying current

Who Should Attend: Anyone interested in writing a grant proposal on behalf of a California library.

Prerequisites: You should come to this class with a specific project for which you want to develop a grant proposal; the class will require that you write an actual proposal for review by the instructor.

In addition, since this course is taught over the Web, you must:

• have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 5 or higher. (Some of the quiz functions do not work properly in Netscape.)
• be comfortable navigating on the Web and going back and forward in a Web site that uses frames.
• be familiar with basic Web search tools, such as Google.

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, please consider taking this course with a buddy who does meet these requirements.

Please note: There is a $150.00 fee for this workshop. Infopeople's grant funding restricts participation in distance education courses to individuals currently working in California libraries.