Journal #21

I think the panel presentations went extremely well and I heard a lot of valuable feedback and common themes through the different groups. For one, I noticed that everyone spoke about how well they all worked as a team. I believe our class meshed very well together which made the experience very pleasant. Jesse has a way of making the atmosphere a friendly work environment and I think that really contributed to the success of our projects.

Another thing I heard a lot during the panel discussion was how the peer review experience was one of the best many people have had in a class. I feel that once again, because of the classroom atmosphere, we were really able to give each other great feedback that was helpful and constructive. This fed right into the revision process, another common theme I heard spoken about during the panel presentations. For me, I have always felt revision to be an easy process, but one I could definitely do a more in depth job with. This class made me really go in depth with revisions in a way I hadn’t before. I felt that I was able to really work through the writing with the guidance of the peer-review in a way I haven’t experienced in previous classes.

Lastly, I felt that a final theme discussed was some areas that could be improved. For example, the time line of the grant proposal was a bit stretched out. I think condensing it, and adding in a few solitary assignments would be beneficial for really honing the grant writing skills we learned in class.

Journal #20

When reviewing our Statement of Need, Project Overview, and Goals and Description, a few things stood out to me. I noticed that we really need to work on formatting, grammar, and condensing. I think these sections are strong, but could use a bit more work to really be polished up. For example, some of the wording in our Statement of Need could be condensed and reworded to be more clear. The formatting and paragraphs could be rearranged as well. I also think we need to condense some things in our Goals and Objectives. Overall, I feel our writing is pretty strong, but just needs some minor tweaking in order to really shine.

Journal #19

The three big takeaways from Step 8 in our textbook are:

  1. The section on developing a budget was very important. I thought the idea of using a spreadsheet, like excel, is helpful in properly organizing the organization’s budget. I also thought the other tips in this section, such as establishing a budget period and estimating revenues and expenses.
  2. Not only are direct costs important to consider, but indirect costs (which might otherwise be forgotten) are important as well. Remembering that a lot goes into a program, and making sure you include everything, including the things that aren’t directly related, are important for making sure the budget is accurate and you are able to accomplish what you want with the money provided.
  3. The third step which says “review, update, and review budget again” obviously is an important point as you need to continuously review and update the budget, as it is possible it can change. It’s good to remember that you shouldn’t just do the budget once and never look at it again, but frequently go back and update it to make sure of its accuracy.

Journal #18

I believe your evaluation is very thorough and like the idea of of doing a pre and post-test. This allows your organization to get a well-rounded understanding of where your students are when they come in, as well as the impact on how your program impacts them. My one suggestion is possibly wording the questions to be more appropriate for the age group. Particularly, the first through third grade group. I feel words like “renewable energy” might be confusing before you are able to talk about it in the program. However, this is an area you would definitely see improvement on once the children completed the program. I think remembering that you are aiming this at kids and using appropriate language they can understand will be helpful in determining how well your program works. I also think re-ordering the bullet points so it goes in a chronological age order (so first to third, then 6th, then 8th) would look good visually. Another area that is very strong is the last paragraph. You clearly defined what your expectations for success were and I think they are great points. I believe children are very important to our future, especially when it comes to climate change. The earlier we are able to help them understand the impact of climate change, and get them excited rather than afraid of it, the better off our planet will be in the long run.

Journal #17

Here are the questions our group has compiled to ask our organization, Friends of Feral Felines:

  1. How much funding does Friends of Feral Felines receive each year, and who do you receive your funding from typically?
  2. Do you face any obstacles in obtaining grants because many people don’t know about feral cats/ don’t value them because they aren’t domesticated?
  3. What are some things you have written grants for since you have become an organization? We are working on a grant to obtain radio collars in order to track colonies, would you implement these?
  4. How many kittens do you typically socialize and adopt out per year? Has this number gone down over time as a result of your successful TNR efforts?
  5. What is the most important thing that Friends of Feral Felines tries to get across to grant funders while reaching out to them for money?

 

Journal #16

The three biggest takeaways I got from Step 9 in our textbook were:

  1. The biggest goal with crafting a background component is to establish credibility with the funders. Obviously funders want to know the kind of organization they are giving their money to. Giving a brief history of how an organization came to be, what kinds of projects they’ve done. and information on previous grants, are all ways to help a funder further understand your organization. By furthering their understanding, they are more likely to want to give money  for future projects.
  2. Keeping it short and simple was another great point in this chapter. The chapter said that the background component should be informative and interesting, but that we shouldn’t take too much time here and that bullet points are acceptable. You also don’t want to give too many details on specific personnel in the organization, unless it is asked for.
  3. Finally, I believe the content section, that details the important points to hit, is a valuable tool. Giving some quick descriptions on what exactly we should include in the background component is helpful when writing this section for our own grants.

Journal #15

Here are some questions on grant writing I would love to have answered from the people at Friends of Feral Felines.

  1. How much funding does your organization receive through grants each year?
  2. What are your biggest tips for writing an effective grant?
  3. Who writes the grants in your organization?
  4. How do you lay out a timeline in your grant(s) when so much of your work is left to chance?
  5. What kinds of projects have you done from past grant money?

Journal #14

When comparing the two readings (our textbook and the article provided) I found that both have good information, but I responded the best to the article. I felt the article on evaluations was short and sweet, and really easy to understand. Not that the text book was difficult to understand, but I respond better to information that gets right to the point, as this article did. I also like that it took some of the most information from that chapter in our textbook, the “Determining Goals” steps. I believe this was extremely helpful in narrowing down and specifying our goals. I also liked the specification on “Quantitative vs. Qualitative” methods. That was something that really helped me further understand the methods and break them down into something that the funder will easily follow. Overall, I found the article to be most helpful in understanding the important points, while the textbook went more into depth.

Journal #13

Step five stressed the importance of a methods section. It is one thing to have goals and objectives, but you need a plan in order to achieve those goals and objectives. I think being able to clearly state and plan out the steps to achieve your objectives is something important for the funder. Obviously they are taking the time to read your proposal and are considering giving your organization money, they want some assurance that you will be able to achieve what you set out to do. Being able to articulate these methods is an important skill as a grant writer.

Journal #12

The three big takeaways I got from Step 6 in our textbook were:

  1. The Evaluation component answers big questions for not only the grant seeker, but the funder. I believe that doing an evaluation is important as it allows the funder to thoroughly understand how your project will impact the community.
  2. The Evaluation component not only shows what does work for the program or project, but what does not work. It is important for a grant seeker to acknowledge issues within the program and develop a plan to tackle these issues for the future. This shows a funder that you have the ability to evaluate yourself and your organization effectively.
  3. The Evaluation review section was helpful in giving sample questions to ask ourselves when evaluating our organization. This gives structure to the evaluation and helps organize it in a way that is most effective.

Journal #11

Dr. Anderson had a lot of great advice for applying the things we have learned in class into a real-world setting. I like how he mentioned the grant proposals are generally online through a specific webpage that is set up to fill in. It’s hard to remember that when we are writing our proposals as papers. I think filling in boxes on a site would help organize the proposals more, and again, not feel as though you are repeating yourself.

His advice on grants and being repetitive definitely helped ease my mind. His advice was to stay true to yourself and have confidence in your writing and it will all fall into place. I definitely struggle with feeling confident in my writing and that it is conveying what I want it to in the way I want it to. Just working on feeling confident and knowing that yes, it will most likely be repetitive, gave me some peace of mind in my abilities as a grant writer.

Journal #10

Feral cats are a problem in many communities throughout the United States. Friends of Feral Felines is an organization in Portland, Maine that focuses providing medical care through trap, neuter, release methods (TNR) of feral cats in the Southern Maine area. By trapping feral cats, giving them medical care, like vaccinations and spaying/neutering them, we are able to safely and humanely control the feral cat population.  Feral cats are often difficult to find as they often hide from human presence and have a large home range.  Our current project is to acquire radio collars to track the local feral cat colonies and more easily implement TNR methods. Our organization is applying for a grant of 7,500 dollars  in order to fund this project of purchasing radio collars. This new technology will help with our efforts to bring down the feral cat population and increase the quality of life for feral cats in the Southern Maine communities. Using radio collars, we will more accurately be able to track the movements of feral cats and put our resources into the correct places. This ultimately helps TNR run more smoothly and allow more feral cats to be treated.

Journal #9

The whole chapter was very useful in learning how to really narrow down to only the important information. This can be hard and it is something my group has struggled with. A few times, we have written a lot of information in our Statement of Need, as well as the Letter of Intent. Being able to narrow down these sections by using these techniques will be very helpful. Particularly, the section titled “Writing Outcome Objectives” has a list of questions written underneath. I think having a set of questions to ask ourselves when writing, just to check in, hold us accountable, and guide us is really helpful.

Journal #8

For me, the biggest challenge has been finding the right information to include in the proposal. Today, I worked on the evidence to support our need. I found it was difficult to find relevant statistics as using radio collars to track feral cats is such a new idea. There have been a few studies done on it, but nothing long-term. I found that I had to rely on stats about feral cats in general, as well as shelter statistics in order to support our cause. There was actually one study done in the US on radio collars for tracking feral cats, and that provided some good info. I really think the challenge is finding the right information and working it in for our cause. Overall, I feel pretty confident that we work well as a group and definitely give each other a lot of support when there has been trouble finding certain information or writing certain sections.

Journal #7

Reading over both journal prompt questions, I felt that I had never been in either of those situations. At least not that I could recall off the top of my head. However, I do feel like I am often giving people feedback within groups. If I were to see something in a group project that didn’t work well, I would gently let the person know in a constructive way. I think I tend to be pretty good at giving constructive criticism. If I felt that there was something that could be done a different way, I would communicate that with the person responsible and hope they were open to my idea. I might also suggest that I could help edit or review their section and add in my own notes they could work from. It’s pretty easy to effectively communicate with someone. However, it does get tricky if the person is not open to your suggestions, however, I have never had that issue. I can imagine in that situation, maybe other members of the group would have to get together with that person and try to communicate with them, or possibly designate someone to edit/review the project and they could fix that section that needed work in that process. Generally, I think communication is key to working smoothly as a group and as long as the group is open with each other, then it is not difficult to be successful.

Journal #6

I found the worksheet on page 36 to be helpful. It really breaks down the problem statement into an easy-to-follow chart. I like how it breaks down each step of the problem statement, with questions we can fill in with our own answers, in order to easily assemble an effective problem statement.

I also found the tips for writing the problem statement to be helpful. Particularly, the last tip “give a clear sense of urgency.” I think that is important. Obviously you need to portray not only  why you need this money, but why you need it now. Obviously being able to convey a sense of urgency to the matter will help funders further understand your cause.

Journal #5

Overall, I feel that building relationships with funders is a valuable tool. I actually touched on this in the previous journal. Networking and making connections with funders allows you to have a leg up when seeking grants. It also allows you to have an opportunity to build a relationship that could continue to help your organization in the future. I liked the section on sending email inquiries where it stated “Email is far less demanding for program officers than a phone call and less wasteful than paper documents.” I think emailing is a great way to appropriately introduce yourself and your organization’s needs without overstepping boundaries. Personally, I think I would choose to reach out via email first just to get a feel for the funders as well as introduce my organization in a more casual way.

Journal #4

Something that caught my attention when watching the rest of the “Introduction to Finding Grants” video, was the section on “doing your homework.” When the narrator said that one of the biggest reasons grants get rejected is because the organization did not do their homework. For example, the funders may not give money for that specific cause, or they may only give a certain amount of money and the grant seekers are asking for over that amount, or they may not give in that particular region. I think doing research in any setting, especially a professional one, is very important. You need to know about the funders you are reaching out to and whether or not your needs fit within their company or individual values. This idea of doing research was really driven in throughout the other sections in the rest of the video as well. Another interesting section is how making connections can help you in the long run. I’ve personally done a lot of networking in my field and I have a lot of people that I could call on for a favor in the future. This is obviously going to be helpful in the field of grant writing as well. Being able to make connections can help you get a foot in the door and have your proposal be taken more seriously.

Journal #3

The organizations I am most interested in include anything to do with animals, wildlife conservation, or the environment . I am an animal behavior major with a minor in writing and it is my goal to work in conservation. Some organizations that have drawn my interest include wildlife organizations, zoos and aquariums, animal shelters, such as the SPCA, and environmental organizations that focus on conserving the planet, particularly the ocean! I would be interested to help with issues around cleaning up and preserving our oceans. I believe writing grants in these areas would be of great interest to me and a valuable skill to carry into my future career.

Journal #2

When I look to what I would like to do for a future career, there are many options. Ultimately, the dream is to become a wildlife journalist. However, there are many other steps that I can and want to take in order to get there. I am very interested in a job involving public relations or public outreach/education  for a conservation organization. Overall, I have dreams of a career where I help wildlife and the environment.

To be honest, I had avoided taking this course for a couple years. Technical writing just really isn’t something I am too interested in. I have always preferred more creative writing. However, during the many hours I have spent browsing the internet trying to narrow down career paths,  I often come across job listings for grant writing in conservation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized what a valuable skill proposal and grant writing is.

I believe this course will help with my future career path. It is also something that is valuable to have if I ever needed extra income, as grant writing is often done by freelance writers. The other reason I took an interest in this course is that I have also taken a class with the professor before and really enjoyed his teaching style, so I figured it would be a great fit.

Overall, I really hope to gain more knowledge in how to properly write for proposals and grants, and I also hope I learn to enjoy technical writing more!

 

Journal #1

When reading the first chapter in our text book, the section on Tips for Writing Proposals stood out to me the most. I think I have always thought of proposal and grant writing as a very technical, dry task. The idea that a grant writer can, and should, put enthusiasm, passion, and excitement into a grant proposal was eye opening for me. I have always enjoyed creative writing and I never really thought of grant writing as something that had the potential to be enjoyable as a writer. Looking over this chapter definitely has me more excited about writing grants.

The other point that stood out to me in this chapter was that grant proposals should be readable to all. Again, I always thought of grant writing as similar to scientific writing, which has a lot of specific jargon that is aimed at someone who thoroughly understands the subject. I was surprised to find that this is not the case.

This first chapter definitely had me rethink what I had previously thought was true about proposal and grant writing. I am definitely looking forward to learning more about how to write grants and make them intriguing for the reader.