How to Develop a Grant Writing Style Guide

Effective communication is essential to your nonprofit organization’s success. A writing style guide can help your team craft seamless grant proposals that consistently reflect your organization, no matter the character count. A consistent and clear writing style is crucial for grant writers to effectively convey their proposals. Without this unified approach, it may be challenging to maintain consistency and clarity across different proposals. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through what a style guide is, how it can benefit your organization, and how to begin developing your very own.

What is a Style Guide? 

A style guide provides a foundation for how your organization communicates. A writing style guide, or content style guide as it is sometimes referred to, is often an extension of your brand guide that outlines how your organization communicates visually. A style guide serves as a writing rulebook, helping your team represent the organization seamlessly throughout written communications, whether composing a winning grant proposal or posting on social media. 

Why Use a Style Guide? 

A style guide offers many benefits by helping to unify your team with a common language. This can empower team and board members with key language to describe your organization’s important work. 

A style guide helps grant writers maintain consistency, clarity, and professionalism in all grant proposals and documents submitted to funders. Although not a requirement, whether a full-time, in-house grant writer or contracted grant writer, a style guide can help simplify the grant writing process.  It can be especially helpful during the initial phase of grant writing when having predefined terms and language can streamline the process of gathering and presenting information. For organizations considering contracting a grant writer, a style guide can provide important information in the discovery phase, such as mission, vision, places, programs, and projects. 

How to Develop a Style Guide 

Now that you understand what a style guide is and its benefits, we’ll review what is typically included in a style guide. This can be used as a framework to develop one for your nonprofit. Plus, we’ll cover steps to implement this style guide across your organization. 

What is included in a style guide: 

• Established Style Guide

Many organizations' writing style guides are based on established ones, such as the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Style. Designate an established style guide to develop a strong foundation to build upon. Your style guide will add rules specific to your organization and field of work. 

• Mission

What is your organization’s mission statement? 

• Vision 

What is your organization's vision statement? 

• Values

What are your organization’s values? 

• Voice and Tone

Describe your organization’s personality in written communication and the tone of your communications. This may change based on the audience you’re writing. 

• Audience

Who are you engaging with through written communication? As noted above, voice and tone may change depending on the audience you are engaging with. 

• Common Mistakes

These may be spelling, grammatical, or brand language errors that regularly occur. These mistakes could be made internally by members of your organization or externally by members, funders, or journalists. 

• Brand and Industry-Specific Language

This could include brand-specific language, commonly used statements or phrases, or industry-specific jargon. 

• Definitions

Your organization may use unique terminology, including industry-specific jargon. Define these terms so that your team has a clear understanding and can appropriately explain this terminology to others. 

• Punctuation

Outline stylistic punctuation choices. Em dashes and commas are often up for debate in organizational communication.

• Acronyms and Abbreviations

Clearly outline commonly used acronyms and abbreviations. 

• Capitalization

Provide an overview of special capitalization rules. 

• Numbers 

How do you describe numbers in writing?

• Places, Programs, and Projects

Define the names and titles of places, programs, and projects. Organizations operate in many locations and execute uniquely named programs and projects. This section could also include brief place, program, and project descriptions. 

• Platform or Channel-Specific Guidelines

Social media and blog posts have a different structure than grant applications but share the same voice, tone, and vocabulary. Your style guide should reflect these differences. 

• Examples

Provide examples throughout your style guide to ensure understanding.

How to Develop a Style Guide 

Document your organization’s writing style. 

Use this list of what is typically included in a style guide to begin to develop your style guide. 

Engage your team in developing your organization’s style guide. 

You’re creating a shared language, so make sure others share your vocabulary by requesting feedback. 

How to Use Your Style Guide

Present your finalized style guide to your team. 

Provide the style guide to team members as an essential unifying standard. Ensure that the guide is available and easily accessible for use in all written communication. 

In addition to staff, board members will benefit from a common language for describing the organization’s mission, vision, and programs, increasing brand consistency at all levels. 

Consider tools to increase adoption. For example, you can upload your nonprofit’s style guide, including brand tone, on Grammarly to ensure consistency across team members. 

Use your style guide when writing and editing.

Keep your style guide available for reference when writing and editing. When writing a grant, you can use your style guide to complete common proposal requests, such as your mission and vision statements. 

In conclusion, a style guide helps your organization’s writing to flourish by empowering your team with the vocabulary to describe the importance of the organization’s work. A style guide establishes the foundation for a strong grant writing portfolio that is clear, concise, and connects with funders. 

Grant Proposal Review & Revision

How to review and revise your grant proposal. 

Once you’ve completed a draft of your grant proposal, it’s time to review and revise! Editing is a crucial step in the grant writing process that can improve your proposal and increase opportunities for grant funding. In this blog post, we share how to review and revise your grant proposal. 

Proofread & Edit Your Grant Proposal

Begin the editing process by proofreading your grant proposal. Reading your proposal aloud can help to identify confusing sentence structure and repetitive phrasing. As you read your proposal, markup your writing with edits and comments. Review your proposal for spelling, grammar, clarity, and conciseness. Complete the editing process by implementing your markup. Fix spelling mistakes, remove unnecessary words, and rearrange and replace sections.

Spelling and Grammar

Evaluate each sentence for spelling and grammatical errors. In the days of modern word processing applications, your grant proposal should be free of spelling errors. Tools like Grammarly can help improve your writing by addressing grammatical errors and providing suggestions to improve writing clarity. 

Clarity and Conciseness

Assess your grant proposal for clarity and conciseness. Your proposal should reflect the intentions and mission of your organization. Ensure each section responds directly to the grant guidelines and application requirements. 

Evaluate 

Once you’ve proofed and edited your grant proposal for spelling, grammar, clarity, and conciseness, we recommend critically evaluating your proposal against the funding guidelines, application requirements, and evaluation criteria. Continue to markup your grant as you assess your proposal. This process should be repeated until you feel you have responded to all funder requirements concisely and consistently throughout your proposal. 

Each funder has unique requirements and funding priorities. This evaluation will look different for each proposal you write, but the process will remain the same. 

Request Feedback on Your Grant Proposal

Request feedback from trusted advisors. Feedback from wide-ranging perspectives can help you understand areas of your grant proposal that need improvement or further explanation. 

Request feedback from colleagues or mentors. Team members, volunteers, and board members serve as excellent readers, as they are invested in the organization’s success. 

Funders might be open to pre-reviewing a portion of the proposal for alignment before the deadline.  Pre-reviews allow your organization to connect with funders and share your intentions. They can be excellent partners in the development of a strong proposal. Few funders offer this, but when they do, we recommend engaging them!

Be sure to equip reviewers with the funding guidelines, application requirements, and evaluation criteria to ensure suggestions are relevant and appropriate. 

Constructive feedback is key to the grant writing process. It will help you to improve your writing and increase your chances of success both on the application you are writing today and in future applications. 

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In conclusion, it’s imperative to review and revise your grant proposal. Adopting a thorough review and revision as part of your grant writing process can improve your writing and polish your grant proposals. 

Mastering Grant-Seeking Strategies

Nonprofit organizations are the backbone of positive change in our communities. To turn their missions into reality, securing grant funding is often a crucial step. However, winning grants isn't just about writing a compelling proposal; it's about crafting a strategic approach that aligns with the organization's mission and long-term objectives. In this blog post, we'll provide invaluable tips and strategies for nonprofit organizations to develop their grant-seeking strategies and highlight the importance of alignment with their mission and long-term goals.

Start with a Strong Foundation

Before diving into the grant-seeking process, it's essential to have a well-defined foundation:

• Mission and Vision: Clearly articulate your organization's mission and long-term vision. These statements will guide your grant-seeking efforts by defining your purpose and desired impact.

• Goals and Objectives: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. Determine what you want to achieve through grants, considering both short-term and long-term objectives.

Check out our Grant Readiness Checklist designed to help you build this foundation!

Understand Your Funding Needs

To secure the right grants, it's crucial to understand your organization's financial requirements. Here's how:

• Budget and Expenses: Create a detailed budget that covers all aspects of your projects, programs, and organizational operations. This will help you identify funding gaps and target specific grants.

• Prioritize Initiatives: Not all funding sources are created equal. Prioritize your initiatives to understand which projects or programs require immediate attention and funding.

Research and Target Grant Opportunities

To ensure your grant-seeking strategy aligns with your mission, carry out thorough research:

• Identify Grantors: Research potential grantors whose values and priorities resonate with your mission. Focus on local, national, and international opportunities, depending on your scope.

• Read Guidelines Carefully: Review grant guidelines and eligibility criteria to ensure you meet all the requirements before applying.

Read more about prospect research on our blog.

Create a Comprehensive Grant Calendar

Efficient grant seeking requires a well-organized approach:

• Grant Calendar: Maintain a detailed grant calendar that includes deadlines, application requirements, and submission dates. This will prevent missed opportunities and ensure you allocate resources effectively.

Develop a Winning Proposal

Crafting a compelling grant proposal is the heart of grant seeking:

• Mission Alignment: Every section of your proposal should align with your organization's mission and objectives. Clearly demonstrate how the grant will contribute to your mission's success.

• Clear and Concise Writing: Write your proposal in a clear, concise, and compelling manner. Clearly articulate the problem you're addressing, your solution, and the anticipated impact.

• Impact Measurement: Emphasize your ability to measure and report on the impact of your project. Grantors want to know that their investment will make a difference.

Read more about grant writing on our blog.

Build Relationships with Funders

Effective grant seeking often involves building relationships with potential funders:

• Networking: Attend grant-related events, conferences, and workshops to connect with funders and fellow nonprofit professionals.

• Engage Funders: Don't hesitate to reach out to potential funders to discuss your projects and ask questions about their application process.

Learn more about relationship-building on our blog.

Review and Adapt

Grant seeking is an iterative process:

• Evaluation: Regularly evaluate your grant-seeking strategy and its alignment with your mission and objectives. Identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments.

• Learn from Rejections: Don't be discouraged by rejection. Use it as an opportunity to learn and refine your approach for future applications.

Aligning your grant applications with your mission and long-term objectives is not just a best practice; it's a necessity. It not only increases your chances of securing grants but also ensures that the resources obtained contribute meaningfully to the realization of your organization's goals. As you embark on your grant-seeking journey, remember that it's not just about winning funding; it's about making a lasting impact on the world.