Storytelling for Grantseekers: A Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising

FOREWORD

In the early twentieth century, foundations set out to apply the rigors of science to solve society’s problems. That is why I have long told grantwriting students that they would find the structure of a grant proposal familiar—similar to a basic scientific paper. It proposes a hypothesis (in its problem statement and objectives) and then outlines the methods that might be tested to achieve a result.

 

For nearly twenty years, I have been teaching grantwriting at San Francisco State University, and for years my students have looked muddled and sad upon hearing the science paper analogy. I remember finding evidence of their dismay in an e-mail from a talented student who was dropping the class because “the material was inherently dry.” ...