What do you say when someone new to the field broadly asks you, “Do you have any tips to help me be successful with grant writing?”

I often joke back that they don’t want to get me started unless they have all day!

The reality is, there is no *one* piece of advice or tidbit that is going to make you successful with grants. There is no silver bullet (sorry, spoiler alert!). But there are some great nuggets that can be shared to help those looking to learn and to improve to hone in on simple best practices that they can integrate into their work.

So that being said, we want to hear from YOU, our fellow grant professional peers and experts! What your best one liner or tidbits of advice that you give you new professionals or well-intentioned colleagues and acquaintances looking for input on how to be successful with grants?

Here are a few of mine that I do often share as part of my responses to those that inquire to help get you started on tips you might share:

• Never underestimate the importance of relationships in all aspects of grant seeking.
• Engage your reader’s senses as you describe the needs of your target population.
• Get to the point and keep it simple.
• Tell the story of the impact you do/will create, not your organization’s needs.
• Answer the basic questions for your reader: who, what, where, when, why and how.
• All elements of your application (including budget!) need to tell the same story.

Share your best advice and one-liners with us via email (diane @dhleonardconsulting.com) or via our Contact Us form as we will be compiling *your* advice to share with all of our readers in October. As a way to say thank you for sharing your advice, one random lucky reader who shares their advice will be the recipient of a free webinar of their choice this fall/winter through CharityHowTo!