Getting Started as a Grant Writer

Grant writing is vital to Alaska. Municipalities, Tribes, and nonprofit organizations across the state depend on grant funding to sustain and strengthen the communities they serve. Grant proposals vary enormously in length and complexity — from brief narratives submitted to community foundations to massive federal packages with complex budgets, lengthy appendices, and letters of support.

Crafting successful proposals requires knowledge of the organization seeking funding, knowledge of the funder and their expectations (often detailed in a NOFO — Notice of Funding Opportunity — or RFP — Request for Proposals), and often specialized knowledge about the need being addressed and the community of proposal reviewers. Much of this knowledge can only be obtained through conversations with practitioners or dedicated study.

This glossary of grant writing terms from Grants.gov is a good place to build your foundational vocabulary.

How Do I Get Started?

There are several paths into grant writing:

Whatever path you choose, always get feedback on your work before submitting. Many grant professionals advise starting with the budget and building the narrative around it, though starting with the "Background" or "Statement of Need" sections is also common.

Before You Apply: Required Registrations

Several important steps must be completed before an organization can obtain most forms of grant funding. These steps take time — do not wait until the last minute.

Building a Grant Budget

A grant budget is not an afterthought — it is an argument. Funders read budgets to assess whether your organization understands the true cost of what it is proposing, whether it spends money responsibly, and whether the project is financially realistic. Every line item should be justifiable, and the budget as a whole should tell the same story as your narrative. The two most common budget components are the budget worksheet (a spreadsheet or table listing all projected costs, organized by category) and the budget narrative (sometimes called a budget justification), which explains and defends each line item in prose. Even when a funder does not require a narrative, writing one for internal use will force you to think carefully about whether your numbers hold up. Common budget categories include personnel and fringe benefits, travel, equipment, supplies, contractual costs (subcontractors and consultants), and indirect costs — though the categories required by any given funder will be specified in their guidelines.

Personnel costs are typically the largest line item in a grant budget and deserve careful attention. Salaries should reflect actual or planned compensation and must be consistent with what the organization pays for comparable work. Fringe benefits — including health insurance, retirement contributions, and payroll taxes — are calculated as a percentage of salary and vary by organization; know your organization's fringe rate before you start. If your project will draw on staff time without compensating those staff through the grant, that time may count as an in-kind contribution and can sometimes be applied toward a match requirement. Similarly, indirect costs (also called overhead or facilities and administrative costs) cover the organizational infrastructure that supports a project — utilities, administrative staff, financial systems — and are typically calculated as a percentage of direct costs using a negotiated indirect cost rate. If your organization does not yet have a negotiated rate, some funders allow a de minimis rate of 15% of modified total direct costs under federal rules.

A few practical rules for new grant writers: always get real price quotes for significant expenses rather than estimating; never pad a budget with vague contingency funds unless the funder explicitly allows them; and make sure your math is correct — errors in a budget signal carelessness and can undermine an otherwise strong proposal. In Alaska, travel costs can be substantial and are sometimes viewed skeptically by funders unfamiliar with the state's geography; use your budget narrative to explain why travel is essential, where reviewers are traveling to, and how costs were calculated. Finally, if the funder requires a cost match, identify and document your matching sources before you begin drafting, since match requirements that cannot be met will disqualify a proposal regardless of its quality.

Strategies for Crafting Foundation Proposals

Proposals for community, family, and corporate foundations range from short project outlines to documents as complex as large federal proposals. Complexity is generally determined by the amount requested: modest community foundation proposals tend to be short and accessible, while large national foundation proposals can be dense and lengthy.

Some foundations accept proposals on a rolling basis; others only accept proposals within fixed windows; still others do not accept unsolicited proposals at all. Always check the foundation website carefully before proceeding.

Strategies for Crafting Government Proposals

Proposals to municipalities, states, and federal agencies are often large and complicated. The Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) that outline government funding are complex documents — but the following strategies will help you navigate them.

Project Management Checklist Template

Writing successful grant proposals requires careful project management. The checklist below — shared with permission from an Alaska-based grant writer — is designed to be completed after carefully reading funder guidelines. It covers required documents, personnel assignments, and deadlines.

A few standard federal forms in this checklist may be unfamiliar — their purposes are explained below.

Checklist