Grant Writing for Professionals

This course will help you to make excellent choices in terms of how to approach the most difficult and competitive parts of a grant funding application. It will cover the advanced techniques of how a professional grant writer approaches different sections of a grant application, including project management and risk mitigation. Importantly it gives you best practice and the advantages/disadvantages of different approaches.

Most importantly, it will teach you how to address the most challenging elements of crafting your funding proposal and techniques to ensure it is highly competitive, and aligns to the criteria that your application will be judged against.

A unique aspect of this course is you will learn about how to write an effective grant application from an instructor (Professor James Smith) who actually Chairs a number of funding panels and who is actually responsible for making grant funding decisions

Your instructor, Professor James Smith, PhD, is an established and popular instructor on the Udemy platform. Feedback that he has received from Udemy students includes;

"Very easy to understand and the instructor spoke slowly enough that I could let the information sink in" - KW

"Very informative and thorough. Getting ready to take the next course. The assignments with the instructor's example following were very helpful" - KR

"Very helpful information from a well-qualified Professor. Concisely presented in a format that facilitates easy notetaking" -  BDP

This course is ideal for you if;

• You want to learn how to write successful grants using advanced techniques to enhance success

• You are an academic or Lecturer or Assistant Professor who wants to secure grant funding

• You are grant writing for a 501.C3, a non-profit or a small/medium sized enterprise

• You want to craft a grant proposal that is difficult for the funder to reject

• You are undertaking fundraising and want to target your effort effectively and professionally

In this course you will develop an advanced understanding of how to approach and write a professional grant application. It will also cover how to communicate advanced project management techniques to the funding panel. Most importantly, we will cover how to approach the most challenging questions that you are asked to address in a grant application.  It will also cover critical targets and opportunities you can take advantage of for getting your grant over the line and funded such as resubmissions, letters of support and risk mitigation.

How will we do this? This course is split into three modules, with each module containing an individual assignment for you to complete.

Module 1

The first module is called Advanced Project Management and it covers how the decisions you make at the application stage can influence how the funder views your project and ultimately how the project is run.  The funder will assess your application against a number of criteria including feasibility, and this section covers areas including timelines, mapping deliverables and grant objectives, writing a dissemination and communications plan, as well as establishing an independent advisory board (IAB) and evaluating progress of the project. 

These are all areas where the funder will be assessing how you will approach managing your grant, and will be seeking to understand whether you are capable of effectively running a project to conclusion.  Be reassured that this module is targeted towards ensuring the funder gives you an excellent review in this respect.

Module 2

In module 2, we will actually deal with how to address some of the most difficult questions and assessment criteria that you will face during the grant application process.  These include;

- Is your proposal competitive?

- Is your proposal novel?

- Are you the best person to receive funding?

- How will you support the development of your team?

- Is it critical that this project is funded?

You will note that these questions align directly to the criteria that you are being assessed against, so having a full understanding of how to approach them is extremely important.  You will learn how to approach answering these questions in the same manner as a Grant Writing Professional, and your proposal will demonstrate a full consideration of all of these.  The outcome is that your proposal will be elevated from "good" to "outstanding" in the eyes of the funding panel

Module 3

In module 3, called "The Secret Sauce For Getting Your Grant Funded", we cover the the lesser known elements of grant writing, how you can effectively describe the beneficiaries of your grant proposal, how to approach a "reject & resubmission" decision, as well as identifying project risks & mitigation strategies and why you should obtain appropriate letters of support.

In summary, this course contains accessible and comprehensive classes which will train you in many of the techniques that professional grant writers use when crafting grant applications.