Follow directions. It sounds easy enough, but many communities miss grant funding opportunities simply because they don’t adhere to the guidelines in the grant application. Dr. Beverly Browning, vice president of Grants Professional Services at eCivis, shared practical advice in an ICMA webinar designed to help smaller communities become more competitive in the grant application process.

“Adhere to the guidelines. Whatever they say they are going to fund, that’s what they’re going to fund,” she stated. “You can’t deviate. You can’t come up with your own idea or your own plan.”

Browning, who is also the author of Grant Writing For Dummies ™, explained the competitive nature of grant writing and how your grant application will pass or fail by points earned or lost during the peer review process. There are even ways to earn extra credit points stipulated in many of the guidelines.  

In addition to following directions, Browning explained that creating a compelling narrative supported with recent data is critical making your application stand out. And don’t be afraid to add some colorful detail. “This is what I call the gloom, doom, drama, and trauma,” she explained as she shared a successful grant application for the city of Natchez, Mississippi, which won a U.S. Department of Labor YouthBuild Grant.

Browning shared Natchez’s no-nonsense “statement of need” which detailed the increased poverty in the city following an influx of residents relocated to the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The statement of need used data to demonstrate how city resources were being stretched and depleted due these most unusual circumstances. Natchez also scored high points by securing local and regional partnerships for the implementation and evaluation of the program for which it sought funding, demonstrating that it was willing to invest in its own city.

Get more information on how to write a successful grant from the webinar, Grant Writing 101: Tips for Small Communities, which is available OnDemand.