The Proposal Development Process, Part 1

Owned by Susan Davis
Last updated: 16Aug2018

The fourth primary component of the grant development process


The fourth primary components of the grant development process is the Proposal Development Process, Part 1.  The steps involved in proposal development largely depend upon the type of grant for which the Seeker is applying. Regardless of type however, they all begin the same way.  

The workflow for the Proposal Development Process, Part 1 is below. You can click on the image to see a larger version.

 

 Once the project’s status transitions from the “Eligibility Under Review” status, it enters the “Proposal Development Process, Part 1” status. At this time, the Seeker develops the grant proposal.

If the Seeker has little to no experience in writing grant proposals, s/he should review resources on developing proposals. Articles with this information are being developed and will be placed in the Knowledge Base library.

Before the Seeker began the Intent to Apply process, s/he should have reviewed the requirements or guidelines of the grant. These may also be called the Request for Application (RFA), Request for Proposal (RFP), or Notice Inviting Applications (NIA), etc. Before beginning proposal development, the Seeker should again review the guidelines.

The Seeker determines what data are needed to complete the proposal.  The FCPS Data Dashboard may provide all of the data needed for the proposal. If not, the Seeker can submit a Data Request to the Department of Grants, Research, Accountability, & Data (GRAD). Please allow 10 days for turn-around.

If a team is needed to complete the proposal, the Seeker assembles a grant team. Not all grant projects will require a team, e.g., classroom grants. However school level grants (e.g., Read to Achieve or 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) grants) and district level grants ( e.g., McKinney-Vento Homeless Education or Striving Readers grants) need a team to collaboratively develop the proposal. The Seeker’s principal/supervisor may help assemble the team.

Best practice tip: Assemble a team of people with different skills. Look for people with skills in the areas of budget development, writing, proofreading, and/or drafting letters of commitment for partners, etc.

Best practice tip: Assign tasks to specific team members and set task deadlines for earlier than you absolutely need the information. Busy people (are there any other kind in schools?) can often run late on projects. However, the deadlines for submitting the completed proposal to the funder are always carved in stone. If you are late, the proposal will not be reviewed. So set your internal deadlines early to allow room for error. This also provides time for responding to requests for additional information.

The pre-award grants team cannot write every proposal in the district.  However, the team can provide technical assistance to those developing proposals.  Please do not hesitate to contact either Angela Roberts (angela.roberts@fayette.kyschools.us ) or Susan Decker Davis (susan.davis@fayette.kyschools) with questions.

At this point, the process transitions to the “Proposal Development Process Part 2.”