5 Important Skills Every Grant Writer Should Have

When we ask clients how they feel about their grant writing skills, we often get responses like:

Grant writing is so time-consuming.

I don’t have much experience with it.

Grants are at the bottom of my to-do list…until the deadline.

What grant writing skills?

And we get it. Grant writing is likely a necessity for many nonprofit organizations as it provides much needed funding to support their initiatives. But not many would describe it as a fun thing to do. Especially for those who “fell into” the nonprofit sector and never thought they would be responsible for fundraising.

It is understandable, writing isn’t everyone’s strength. Plus, it may seem at times that each funder has such different eligibility requirements and areas of focus, that organizations have to come up with something new and shiny every time they want to apply for money.

Luckily, this does not have to be the case. For organizations that have a small group of staff and volunteers and lack the budget to hire professional grant writers, it is possible to find the right person on your team to write grants if you just know what to look for.

So, we’re sharing five important skills that every strong grant writer should have.

1. Organizational Skills. Grant writing often requires the ability to seek out the most pertinent information to include in the application so your nonprofit’s proposal stands out as a competitive one. So, organizations should select a grant writer that has the ability to scan through various pieces of information, and organize it in an effective way.

2. Time Management. Regardless of how strong your application or proposal is, if it’s submitted late, it will likely be disregarded or declined. Grant writing is competitive and often funders do not have enough money to allocate grants to all of the organizations that apply. So, it’s important to have a grant writer who can manage their time appropriately and get the application in before the deadline.

3. Ability to Write Concisely. The strongest grant writers make life easier for the funder by not only including the most important information, but providing just enough information for the funder to make a decision. Applications and proposals that are repetitive or confusing are those that will get lost in the shuffle. Thus, it is so important to identify a grant writer who knows how to summarize information effectively.

4. Strong Reading Skills. Ok so you might be wondering why we’re talking about reading skills when we’re supposed to be identifying skills of a great writer. Well, a great grant writer has to have a strong grasp of the eligibility requirements and values of the funder. They must be able to confirm that your organization’s project is a good fit for funding, and understand what information the funder is seeking. So, reading and comprehension skills are actually paramount for being a strong grant writer.

5. Adaptability. Anyone with some grant writing experience has likely noticed that different funders not only have different values, but different budgets. This often leads to organizations having to apply to multiple funding sources for the same project. A great writer will be able to adapt to the different requirements of various funders and still write winning grant applications or proposals.

If you look closely, you may find that someone in your organization already has all, or many of these skills. But if you still need help with grant writing, let us help. We have resources and training to support your grant writing efforts that help your team build stronger grant applications and proposals.

And once you have the confidence writing grants, or the best person with the right skills, you’ll have a better opportunity to gain funding to support your nonprofit’s work.