Writing a grant for a community-based business requires research into funding sources and their priorities. Grants are available to businesses that help people do something they cannot do in their current circumstances or that help reduce hardship. Grants may be straight funding or require matching contributions. They are available from foundations and corporations. According to the Foundation Center, "Foundations typically fund nonprofit organizations that qualify for public charity status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code." This does not include funding to for-profit businesses.
Create a blank proposal with each of the required sections as headers. Most community-based business grants request a summary, introduction, problem statement, objectives, methods, evaluation and budget in the proposal. Using word processing software helps with editing and rewriting from drafts to final.
Review the grant application. Make notes of the content and format requirements. Create a checklist of all requirements against which you and your reviewers can check compliance. Create the checklist by hand, or use software such as word processing, spreadsheet or note organization lists.
Prepare background information on your organization. Community-based business grant reviewers want to know what your organization believes, what it does, how long you have been doing it and why it is useful. This background will either be part of the grant application or a separate submission in the application packet.
Do your homework. Finding grants for community-based businesses requires researching your options. Once you identify a potential funding source, get all the written material you can about that funding source's priorities, constraints and guidelines.
Write each section within the requirements for length and content specified in the community-based business grant application. Use short, action sentences. Avoid jargon and unsupported assumptions.
Collect data on the problem your community-based business grant proposes to solve or the situations it will alleviate or ameliorate. It is essential to define the scope of the problem with believable and documented numbers. It may also be useful to cite individual cases that humanize the problem and solution.
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