From Bland to Brilliant: How to Revise Your Grant Narrative So It Wins

A proposal writer’s revision playbook

Let’s take a look at the key practice of revising your proposal once you’ve written the first draft. Compelling proposal writing swaps jargon for specifics, weaves in real voices, and turns a competent draft into one program officers remember.

Your first draft of a proposal is often decent. The problem is the second draft that looks too much like the first.

It’s easy to write a competent first draft and then make small edits around the edges. We tighten a sentence here, swap a word there, and fix a few transitions. What we end up with is a tidier version of the original.

But adequate doesn’t win grants. Compelling does. Let’s walk through the essentials of making strong revisions.

Iron Mermaid - public art on the San Francisco waterfront © Tonya Hennessey

One of the Most Common Problems: Abstraction

Here’s a sentence pulled from a real grant proposal (with details changed): “Our program serves vulnerable youth in under-resourced communities by providing wraparound support services that addr…