Grant Writing 101: Producing a Competitive Proposal

04/24/18

Contributed by Stephanie St. John

Dear IC Faculty and/or Staff Member,

We would like to make you aware of an exciting opportunity that will be taking place on our campus.  The Office of Sponsored Research and the Center for Faculty Excellence are co-sponsoring a grant writing workshop to be taught by former Department of Writing faculty member, Patricia Bogaczyk Spencer, M.Ed., Professional Writing Consultant (www.linkedin.com/in/patriciabspencer). 

The workshop, entitled Grant Writing 101: Producing a Competitive Proposal will be held the week following commencement on May 23-24, 2018 in Gannett 319/Collaborative Teaching Space. The times are as follows:

Wednesday, May 23—9am-3pm (continental breakfast and lunch provided)
Thursday, May 24—9am-noon (continental breakfast provided)

The workshop is free but limited to 20 participants. It is designed for beginners seeking techniques to draft grant-winning proposals for various private and public funders. Priority will be given to faculty/staff positioned to begin the grant seeking/writing process within the next academic year and/or faculty and program directors who have completed our Grants 101:  Show Me the Money workshop. We will also encourage faculty/staff who have signed up for SPIN and other campus resources to participate.  You will be asked to complete a brief questionnaire (see below) indicating your interest and to help us select the 20 participants.

For many, the grant seeking/writing process seems daunting and best navigated on an inside track. While decoding the preferences of foundations and government funders can be a challenge, writing an effective grant proposal doesn’t have to be. Essentially, good grant writing is good storytelling. Like all good stories, a good proposal should be genuine, thoughtful, and highly readable. It should also inspire the reader, even if the request is for a piece of technical equipment. For proposal writers, this inspiration can result in funded research or projects, a desirable outcome for their story arc.  

Guided by techniques for effective storytelling, this workshop seeks to demystify the grant writing process and build your confidence to seek external funding. During this nine-hour experience, you will learn how to convert your incubating idea into a fundable project or research and to package that idea for a best-fit sponsor. You will engage in mini-lessons, interactive discussions, and writing exercises to better understand how to research, write, and develop your specific project, and you will be provided with reference materials as a take-away. After the workshop, you will be able to identify the critical sections of successful proposals and model the innovation that will make your proposal a standout for reviewers.

During the workshop, you will learn how to:

If you are interested, please answer the following questions and send your responses to Pat Spencer at patriciab.spencer@gmail.com  We will notify you shortly afterwards if you have been selected.

1.   Name, Title, and Department

2.   What is your background with grant seeking and grant writing?

3.   Do you have an individual or collaborative idea ready to be converted into a fundable project or research? If so, share a kernel of the idea.

Thank you for your interest,

The Sponsored Research Grants Team (Warren Calderone, Brian Erickson, Marc Israel, and Stephanie St. John) and The Center for Faculty Excellence (Wade Pickren)

 

Warren Calderone

Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations and Sponsored Research

College Relations and Advancement

Ithaca College

(607) 274-7351

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