external fund development in an academic environment presentation to george williams college january...

External Fund Development in an Academic Environment

Presentation to George Williams CollegeJanuary 2003

Cecile C. Guin, Ph. D., LCSW

Director, OSSRD

LSU School of Social Work

© LSU Center for Community Engagement, Learning, and Leadership

Learning how to get money to support your academic needs takes patience, perseverance and a good self image!

Let me dispel some myths about getting external money:

• There is no free money anywhere.

• You don’t need graduate education to write grants.

• Grant writing is not that complicated once you get the hang of it.


I would also like to share some “truths” about getting external funds:

• There is a lot of money out there!

• Grant writing is a multi-million dollar business in this country.

• At best, 1 of 10 grants is funded.

• Getting money for people makes you very popular among your colleagues!


There are many, many types of grants available. The types of grants that academic personnel will most likely be looking for include:

• Research• Teaching• Program• Pre-Dissertation• Post Doctoral• Operational• Training/Conferences


There are basically two types of grant proposals:

1. Long proposals with a million forms to fill out that are submitted to government agencies.

2. Shorter, more humane proposals to private sponsors.

The university still requires a million forms, however!


Private Sponsors generally include:• Foundations and Associations

Ex: The MacArthur Foundation The Public Welfare Association

• Corporate Sponsors—Such as Exxon, Hewlett-Packard, local companies

1500-1600 Different Programs

Government Agencies include:


Governmental Funds may also be obtained in different categories:

• Discretionary

identified by the federal agency as a target area and generally distributed from federal agency headquarters

• Demonstration

also generally comes out of federal headquarters

Purpose is to see if certain program will work or if research will offer solutions to a problem

Ex. HUD Community University Partnership Projects


Formula Grant–the federal flow through funds that are distributed through state agencies.

Ex. JJDP,HUD

Research Grants—usually through federal agency headquarters; a different type of agency that deals with universities

Ex. NSF, NIH, NIDA, NAS


Many government agencies offer a research or evaluation component to programming grants and they prefer for universities to perform this function.

• CSAT/CSAP—generally requires academic personnel for empirical evaluation


Dealing with governmental agencies and private sponsors requires different approaches:

Private sponsors generally like to develop a relationship with you or they have a relationship with the university.

Government agencies generally do not like to have a relationship with new applicants, unless it is a research agency such as NIH or NSF.

If you obtain a non-research grant from an agency such as Substance Abuse/Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA), it is a good idea to cultivate an on-going relationship for later purposes.


Getting Started on Grant Writing:

I. There are some questions you should ask yourself before you decide to submit a proposal:

Will my department chair support me in this endeavor? What information do I need to get from the university’s

sponsored programs department? What type of project do I need funds for?

Research?Program?Center operations?Post Doctoral?Conference?


What do I want to do? How much will it cost? How much time will it take?

Who are potential funding sources? Do I need to partner with others? Community partners or

academic partners? How does my idea support the funder’s priorities? Is my project new? Does it build on the work of others? Why

does my project need to be undertaken? What has been done in the past that is similar to my project? What are the project goals or research hypotheses? What is my plan for accomplishing the project?


Some of the grant literature suggests that it is a good idea to develop a four page description of the proposed project with every important point. The four pages can be reduced for the abstract or can be expanded for the narrative.


II. Your idea is good--now you need to find a potential funder.

To look for governmental agencies—

Check individual websites if you know the agency you are interested in.

Ex. National Institute of Health

National Science Foundation

National Academy of Sciences

Can review the website of the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (1512 program categories).

Can check sites for your subject

Ex. Juvenile Justice Funding


To look for private sponsors— Check under specific foundations

Ex. Fulbright Scholar Program

Carnegie Foundation

Guggenhiem Fund Check out the numerous websites for private sponsors:

Ex. The Foundation Center

Academic Fundraising Web Resources

Grant Select


Once you have identified several sources, you need to become very familiar with them.

What are their funding priorities?Who have they funded in the past?What are the parameters on the amount of money they give?Are they any special requirements that I cannot meet?Is there a number they provide for additional information?


Depending on the agency, they may provide a person for you to talk to or they may offer to review a draft of your proposal several months in advance.

Study the eligibility requirements—make sure you qualify.

Note the deadline for arrival—not just post mark.

Examine all forms and try to find someone experienced with the forms if you are a novice.

After studying your options—make a decision, set a timeline and develop a task list from the RFP/GFA.


III. Getting Organized Make a chart of grant requirements and who will do what

by when. Include a checklist for monitoring progress. Identify any partners, collaborators or other people who

must be advised.

• Advise chair you will need forms signed by a certain date.

• Check with sponsored programs to see what university requirements are.

• Identify who has to submit letters of support—you will need to provide them a draft of what they need to say.

• Obtain any vita’s that have to be included. Locate demographic data or reports you will need to include

in justification of need.


IV. Proposal Writing

Examine the instructions for the narrative portion of the proposal.

Follow the instructions completely.

Most proposals require the following components, depending on the type of grant:

A. Title Page

B. Abstract

C. Introductory Section:• Problem Statement• Purpose• Significance


D. Background of the problem

• Lit Review

E. Research Methods/Approach

• Design

F. Implementation Plan or Timeline

G. Evaluation

H. Description of Institutional Resources

I. PersonnelJ. Budget

• Equipment• Services• Cost sharing

K. References/Attachments


Try to select a good title that captures the basic idea that you are trying to accomplish!

•Correctional Options Program (COP)

•Community University Partnership (CUP)

•Statewide Evaluation of TASC

•An Examination of the Social Worker—Volunteer Relationship in Nursing Homes


The Research Proposal Guidelines will be quite different from programming, operations or training grants. They are much more rigorous, in terms of requiring a hypothesis, sampling design, analytical methods, etc…


Government grant requirements and private sponsor requirements are generally very different. The request to private sponsors is much less complicated.

It is always recommended that you have the proposal ready on time for people to review.


V. After the Proposal is Submitted

• Send narrative part to the collaborators or partners with a note of thanks and the date the announcement of funded grants is planned for.

• Keep your file on the proposal—if it is funded you will need all of your notes and contact information.


VI. Outcomes

• If the grant is funded, get organized fast for implementation.

• Make friends with the program officers.

• Expect lots of complications.

• If the grant is not funded, notify everyone involved.

• See if you can get comments from governmental agency.

• If you submitted to a private sponsor, it may be appropriate to write note thanking them for their consideration.


VII. Why do Proposals Fail?

• The main reasons is because people do not follow the directions or they fail to explain the project effectively.

• Sometimes you get bad reviewers.

• In an NIH publication, the rejection reasons were cited as:

58%--Problem Statement didn’t describe the problem well couldn’t justify need


73%--The Approach/Methods Methods/Procedures were unsuited to the stated objectives. Description was unclear and confusing. Not well thought out.

55%--Investigator Didn’t have adequate training. Unfamiliar with pertinent literature. Investigator is spread too thin.

16% Other Reasons Unrealistic requirements for equipment Institutional setting is unfavorable (University of Michigan’s Proposal Writers Guide)


VII. Conclusions

• Never give up!

• Keep the grant writing experience in context.

• Develop thick skin and try again

• In reality, some personalities are better at grant writing than others. Some characteristics I would look for are:

Motivated to get money for poor people or poor departments Can sit still and write for long hours Detail oriented DeterminedCan work well with others


• Many academics are not good grant writers. If you can find a good grant writer to support the really gifted scholar, it will be a good investment.

• Finally, keep yourself or your department in a “grant readiness stage”:

Maintain funding reports or access to current funding information on the internet.

Pay attention to funding news that the university sends out.

Keep current demographic information and literature handy.

Plan for what you want and it will be easier to write once the opportunity comes up.

Cultivate relationships with private sponsors.

external fund development in an academic environment presentation to george williams college january...

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