Most people who haven’t written a grant assume that writing a grant is difficult. In this article, you’ll learn 2 main reasons why grant writing can be difficult for many and 3 ways to make the process easier.

When I was asked (even paid) to write my first state government grant in 1988, I replied, “I’m flattered that you’d like me to write your proposal. But I’ve never written a proposal before.”

“Don’t worry,” the university administrator told me. “It’s not that hard. Plus, there’s a lot of help here at the university if you need it.”

Reason 1: “I’ve never done it before”

So the number one reason writing grant applications is hard is that you’ve never done it before. I didn’t. It’s natural to think that you’ve never written a grant proposal before, so what makes you think you can write one now?

When you try something for the first time, it’s scary. If you’re like me, you don’t have any personal experience to draw on; at least, that’s what you think.

So expect the first time to be scary because it is!

What helped me in my situation was that they paid me. It was my first job right after I got my master’s degree. In fact, I got the call exactly one day after I graduated.

Second, my dream career job was to create a model language learning program for immigrants for 3 years, so I was confident in my dream and abilities to run an English as a Second Language program. In other words, he had the “content expertise” for the grant even though he lacked the technical grant writing skills. That’s why the university administrator called me.

You can take that first scholarship as an opportunity to make your ideal career or dream come true, like I did. He can allow his confidence in his abilities to be greater than that of the fear gremlins. The fears will not go away. But, you take them with you on the journey.

Reason 2: “I don’t know where to start”

Once I was given the opportunity to write the grant, I didn’t know where to start. I received the Request for Proposal (RFP) from the Nevada State Department of Education. An RFP includes the guidelines and instructions for the application. That’s where I started.

Next, I watched some grant application videos from the university library and fell asleep within the first 5 minutes. That didn’t help.

I asked around to see if there were any grant writing experts at the university and made an appointment to meet the guy who seemed to be the expert. While it was a confidence booster to hear that he had been so successful with little training, it didn’t help either.

I went back to the RFP, created an outline for my proposal using titles and subtitles from the RFP. I noticed that certain sections of the RFP received different points. That is, when the proposals reached the state agency that delivered the money, they were evaluated and scored according to a weighted scale. The “Agency Introduction”, for example, received a maximum of 10 points, while the “Measurable Results” section received 15 points and the “Budget” a maximum of 20 points.

At this point, the concession became a game. I remembered taking classes in college and finding out what grading scale the professors used. Then I wrote my final papers using that criteria. When I found out how I would be graded correctly and wrote a paper to get maximum points, I usually got up to 100 points and a good grade.

Likewise, the RFP is a rating scale. That is where I focused my attention. That’s where I started.

If you’re like me, a good place to start is to focus on the RFP and create your outline and headers for your request. Over time, you will also be faster. My first $125,000 grant took 100 hours to write. My last $462,000 grant took 4 hours to write.

In short, most people make grant writing difficult. Two reasons for this are that you’ve never done it before and don’t know where to start. Here are three tips to make grant writing less difficult: 1) view your first grant as an opportunity to make your dream come true, 2) make your self-confidence greater than the gremlins fear, and 3) ) start with the funder’s RFP.