Components of an Effective Grant Proposal

United Way of Greater Atlanta is seeking to start a homeless initiative in Cherokee County, Georgia. For the initiation of any program or service, it requires a stream of funding. In the case of nonprofit organizations, grant funding is a source of revenue to support those services and programs. Grant funding is acquired by submitting a grant proposal to a funder through an application process meeting their requirements. This project identifies key components that all grant proposals should possess when pursuing grant funding. These key components were found by searching and analyzing peer-reviewed scholarly literature that details the nature and practice of grant writing. The themes prevalent throughout the literature were identified that make a well-written and persuasive grant proposal. Themes of effective grant writing identified are seeking grants that align with the services and programs to be funded, meeting the requirements outlined by the funding source, and understanding the audience that is to be the reader of the grant proposal. With this identification, a guide i.e., boilerplate for creating a grant proposal that will effectively address the criteria required by the funder and demonstrate the results of an intended program resulting in earning grant awards.