SchoolGrants

Sample Proposals

SchoolGrants receives many requests from people wishing to see examples of successful grant proposals. Several generous grant-writers have shared successful proposals they've written. A very special thanks is extended to each person who has been willing to assist others in the SchoolGrants community by contributing their successful grant proposals.

If you would like to join this exciting group by sharing your successful proposals, letters of inquiry, and/or concept papers, please write to me!

The Internet is becoming fuller every day with useful and/or helpful information for grantwriters!! A review of successful proposals is a great way to learn how to write a fundable proposal. Checklists and step-by-step guidelines are also very helpful. SchoolGrants offers a content-packed interactive CD that is useful to both new and experienced grantwriters. Check out the Let's Write a Grant CD!

Remember: regardless of what helpful hints you may find; the most important thing you must remember is to follow the grantmakers' guidelines!!

If you need assistance with proposal writing or review, contact Donna Fernandez at SchoolGrants for details. Over the last 3 years, I have written over $12 million in successful state and federal proposals and e-rate programs for charter schools and school districts. I can help you submit a competitive proposal for your school or district too!

Click on "Index of Samples" on the menu to the left to bring up the list of sample proposals available on SchoolGrants.

Before reviewing successful proposals:
These samples are provided for your use as examples of what a successful proposal is all about. You can use the samples to learn what a good needs statement contains, to see what goals and objectives are and how the activities relate to those goals objectives, and to see how an evaluation plan is designed.

What you shouldn't do when reviewing the proposals is try to use one of them as your own. Why not?

1. A successful proposal is one that has been locally planned and designed. You must meet the needs of your community and you must have local buy-in to the project.

2. The guidelines your proposal should follow may not be the same as the ones around which the sample successful proposal were written. You must match your proposal to the exact guidelines given by the funder for whom you are writing your proposal.

3. No proposal is perfect - not even those that are successful. You may inadvertently choose to copy something from one of the samples that was not quite as strong as it could have been.

With that said, a review of successful proposals allows you to see new ideas for using tables and graphs to relay information to the reader. It may help you better understand the relationships between needs, goals and objectives, activities, budgets, and evaluations. And, you may see a component in one of the proposals that you may not have thought of but that would make your project even stronger. If that is the case, be certain that you tailor the idea specifically to your project and your community.

You will find a listing of the successful proposals that are available through SchoolGrants by clicking here.

All proposals are in PDF format. You must have Adobe's free Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to access them. Sample proposals are listed in the menu to your left. Click on the sample you wish to view.

Every file will open in its own window.