Oh Janus, two-faced God of Grants, hear my plea…

Friday morning I went to a grant proposal writing workshop sponsored by the Humanities Institute at Stony Brook; I still haven’t decided whether it was worth missing a class for or not. I suppose it was… they kind of pulled a bait and switch with this workshop; the speaker who was supposed to speak couldn’t make it and a substitute was brought in at the last minute. She talked for a few hours about PhDs getting fellowships and mentioned lot of different sources and the differing types of fellowships, but I had hoped the workshop would focus more on writing grant proposals for the rest of us who weren’t PhDs. She was, however, very personable, knowledgeable and interesting to listen to, even though her subject didn’t quite pertain to what I was after.

She did provide copies of a proposal that was ultimately unsuccessful in receiving funding and how it had to be formatted different ways for the three grants programs it was submitted to, but I would like to have seen examples of winning proposals.

Some things I came away with:
1. The economic climate for grant funding has become dire in the past 2 years.
2. Funding is now tailored towards serving community needs and employment, as opposed to the interest in environmental issues from a few years back.
3. The tone and language you use in your proposal is as important as the object of your study; if you use the language of activists you may alienate the panel. (Such as “ my approach as a Marxist feminist is to blah blah blah…”)
4. Don’t get jargony with theoretical work you want funded. Your proposal must be understandable to the range of people in the panel who are assessing your need.
5. Cultivate relationships with the program managers of foundations. They are usually approachable. Ask them what field you should apply in, or rather, if you can apply in a field different from the one you think your project falls under. Let them help in that decision.
6. Get someone you trust to get feedback on your proposal before it is submitted.
7. If illustrations are allowed in your proposal, make sure you use them. Make the structure of your proposal clear and provide real examples of what you are going to do– it does make a big difference.