Get Grants!

This course will teach you how to write grant proposals that stand out and outshine your competitors. Whether you're doing it as a career or simply to obtain funding for your organization, you'll learn the ins and outs of developing successful proposals.

SHARE
6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs
Currently Enrolling
Offered in partnership with your preferred school

ed2go

Change School
Learning method

Get Grants!

Enroll Now

Course code: ggr

In this course, you will learn how to develop successful, grant-fundable proposals.

Whether you're interested in writing grant proposals as a career or in obtaining funding for your organization, this course will give you the grant-writing skills you need to outshine your competition. Highly recommended for development professionals, educators, nonprofit agency staff members or volunteers, and anyone else involved in fundraising for a large or small organization.

While the skills you'll learn during this course are transferable, keep in mind that the focus of this class is on obtaining grant funding for nonprofit organizations.

What you will learn

  • Learn both federal and foundation grant writing
  • Explore the process of grant proposal writing step-by-step
  • Learn to recognize what makes a project attractive to a funding agency and see how to create a compelling case
  • Learn to recognize what makes a project attractive to a funding agency and see how to create a compelling case
  • Discover how to target the best funding agencies for your project and learn insider secrets for approaching them in the right way

How you will benefit

  • Gain insider secrets from professionals who have raised millions in grant money for various causes
  • Understand how to develop successful grant-fund proposals and become a more valuable member of your organization or cause
  • Gain an edge on your grant-writing competition with the proper knowledge to get a yes to your proposals

How the course is taught

  • Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
  • 6 Weeks or 3 Months access
  • 24 course hours

Each year, nonprofit organizations receive billions of dollars from grant-making entities. How can your organization ensure that some of this money comes into your coffers? The goal of Get Grants! is just that, and this lesson will you get started. The first step in getting grants is making sure that you have a fundable project. What's that? You'll find out in this lesson. It will also talk about how to take an idea and develop it into a proposal.

In this lesson, you'll learn the eight parts of a typical grant proposal and find out in what order you should develop them. You'll examine how to create a workable timeline so that you never frantically work on a proposal only to discover that you missed the deadline. The lesson will also go into detail about the first part of the proposal—the introduction, or what you might call your section on bragging rights.

This lesson will get to the heart of the proposal: the "why." The need statement is where you convince potential funders that you need their support. But ah, there's a hitch. Funders don't particularly care about things you lack or things that would make you happy. They care about funding projects that address issues or resolve unmet needs that mesh with their priorities. After this lesson, you'll know how to detect a real need and then write a concise, clear, well-documented need statement that makes funding agencies take note.

Goals and objectives clarify precisely what you intend to accomplish and help funders see what they are supporting. In this lesson you'll learn how to write goals that flow from the need statement and objectives that will help to measure your success. More specifically, you'll see how to craft the specific, measurable objectives that grant makers require.

"Evaluation" is a word that you hear a lot in the grant-writing world. It's how you show the grant makers that the outcomes of your project are what they want to support. By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to design evaluations that clearly demonstrate how your outcomes support your goals and the goals of the funding source.

This lesson will talk about methods and activities, which are the things you'll be doing from the moment you receive your funding in order to reach your goal. Planning these steps can be daunting, but you'll see how to create a detailed road map so that you never get lost. By this point, you'll know how to capture all the great ideas that you generate during the grant-writing process, so your project manager will be able to start implementing them right away!

If you're a numbers person, this lesson about the budget will be right up your alley. If you're not, this lesson will demystify the budget process. It will go through each of the budget categories and define the more confusing terms. Best of all, you'll get good models for your budget form and your budget narrative. These will be very helpful, especially when you work on a major grant.

Grant writers frequently overlook these two parts of the proposal, but after this lesson, you'll never make this common mistake. Funders don't always require information about dissemination (publicizing your program) and sustainability (future funding), but both are vital pieces in convincing funders that you will make the most of their investment. This lesson will teach you how you can best present them in your proposal.

Although you're not yet finished with the class, you're at the point of the proposal process where it's time to sum it all up. In this lesson, you'll look at how to handle the summary. The lesson will also talk about letters of inquiry: what they are, when to use them, and how to make them effective. You'll also examine how to make successful first approaches to funding sources.

You've written a great grant; now you need to send it out and get it funded. This lesson will talk about researching funding sources. By the end of this lesson, you'll know who funds government programs and where to get the best information. You'll also know where to find out about private foundations and corporate funding. Finally, you'll come to understand the sometimes arcane language of guidelines and extract the details you need.

What image do you want to present to your funding sources? The tips that you'll receive in this lesson (including ways to assemble and package your grant) will help you present your proposal in the best light. The lesson will review what supporting data you'll need and talk about what you have to do after you've submitted your grant.

This lesson will cover writing style—what works and what doesn't. It will discuss how to ensure that your organization is ready to apply for a grant. It will also talk about grant writing as a career—including what it means to work on retainer and why you should never work on a contingency basis. By the end of this lesson (which is the end of this course), you'll be well-equipped to get out there and get grants!

Janet Levine

Janet Levine has been involved with grant writing and fund raising since 1988. Prior to starting her consulting company in 2007, she was the Vice President for University Advancement at a public, urban university. Levine has been a fundraiser and administrator at a number of colleges, universities and other non-profit organizations. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University and a B.A. from Hofstra University.

Bo Morton

Bo Morton has spent the past 15 years as a grant development practitioner. She was the Director of Grants Development and Management at a community college for more than a decade. During her tenure, she secured over $75 million in grants for college programs. Since 2011, her company Linked-to-Grow has assisted nonprofits and educational institutions develop resources via grants from governments, private foundations, multilateral organizations, and other revenue streams.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 8 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.​

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.​

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.​

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.​

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Advanced Grant Proposal WritingFundamentalsA to Z Grant WritingFundamentalsIntroduction to Nonprofit ManagementFundamentalsMarketing Your NonprofitFundamentalsWriting Effective Grant ProposalsFundamentalsNonprofit Fundraising EssentialsFundamentalsCreating a Successful Business PlanFundamentals
Fundamentals
Advanced Grant Proposal Writing
Fundamentals
A to Z Grant Writing
Fundamentals
Introduction to Nonprofit Management
Fundamentals
Marketing Your Nonprofit
Fundamentals
Writing Effective Grant Proposals
Fundamentals
Nonprofit Fundraising Essentials
Fundamentals
Creating a Successful Business Plan