Tips for Preparing Grant Applications - Application Guidelines

• Follow the Application Guidelines and Directions
  Study the application directions carefully. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised how many applications are rejected for not following guidelines (from fonts to page length, from deadlines to required structure). When agencies receive large numbers of applications, the easiest way to narrow the competitive field is to eliminate applicants who ignore or fudge application rules. Reviewers are often overloaded. Address all of the required issues in the order presented in the guidelines. If your arguments are not in the expected spots, reviewers will rarely search for them elsewhere.
• Contacting Program Officers
• Know the Review Criteria
• Know Your Audience
• Clarity of Writing and Organization
• Visual Presentation Counts
• Consider What Might Go Wrong with Your Project
• Accurate Budgets
• Issues Regarding Similar or Prior Funding

Click here for a PDF version of all grant preparation tips.