Product Description

Expert grant writers Gerding and MacKellar have created a "do-it-yourself" book and CD-ROM for fundraisers. They carefully outline the grant-writing process and provide a proven step-by-step strategy for getting your grant. More than 15 success stories from a variety of institutions and for various funding purposes are provided on the CD for you to model, adapt, or incorporate into your own winning proposals. Topics include: Preliminary planning; Defining the project; Forming the writing team; Choosing the best source to approach for funding (government, foundation, corporate, and local organizations); Writing and submitting the proposal with all the necessary contents (title sheet, cover letter, table of contents, overview, description, needs, methodology, timeline, budget, evaluation, etc.), and a detailed section explaining how you should follow up on your submission, partner with outside organizations, and implement and evaluate the project when your funding is approved.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #879343 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 252 pages

From Booklist
The authors of this book take the reader through every phase of the grant-writing cycle, offering details, examples, and relevant tools. Dividing the process into 10 steps, each covered in a separate chapter, the book offers practical advice and easy-to-follow suggestions appropriate for every type of library. Highlights include a detailed strategic planning procedure, a process for selecting the right grant, writing the RFP and parts of a typical grant application, and implementing the project once it is funded (many manuals stop with the application process). There is a section of two-page spreads featuring real success stories. The accompanying CD-ROM contains these success stories and all of the book's checklists, worksheets, and templates, which can be downloaded and adapted to a specific situation. The glossary, bibliography, and index enhance its usefulness. This book should be at the side of every grant-writing librarian. Rochelle Glantz
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"The Boy Scouts field manual when it comes to grant-writing and development...Grab it and go 'granting'! --Library Journal, Starred Review

Customer Reviews

An in-depth walkthrough of the grant process cycle
Written by professional library consultants Stephanie K. Gerding and Pamela H. MacKellar, Grants For Libraries: A How-To-Do-It Manual is an in-depth walkthrough of the grant process cycle and how to improve the odds of receiving sufficient funding for one's library and its projects. Advice for developing library-specific strategies as well as general tips abound in this practical and highly readable resource, which covers everything from the planning process to organizing a balanced grant team to researching and selecting the right grant, the proper writing style to adopt, submitting the winning proposal, getting funded and implementing projects, reviewing and continuing the process, and much more. Sample grant success stories and a tool kit with Windows-compatible CD-ROM (non-Windows computers can browse its index.html folder) round out this "must-have" resource especially for library professionals.

Steps To Grant Writing Success
I wrote many grants during my ten years as a library director. When you succeed, you are on top of the world. Then writing the next grant, you agonize through the process again. This books helps make it easier.
Contents: Making the commitment and understanding the process -- Planning for success -- Discovering and designing the grant project -- Organizing the grant team -- Understanding the sources and resources -- Researching and selecting the right grant -- Creating and submitting the winning proposal -- Getting funded and implementing the project -- Reviewing and continuing the process -- Answering five essential questions -- Library grant success stories -- The grants for libraries tool kit and CD-ROM.
Chapter 3 with it's Project Planning Process is probably worth the cost of the book. Here's what that covers:
Project Planning Process
Step 1: Clarify Your Library's Goals, Objectives and Activities
Step 2: Pull Together a Project Planning Team
Step 3: Start the Project Planning Process
Step 4: Discover the Project Idea and Goals
Step 5: Define Project Outcomes
Step 6: Plan Your Project
Step 7: Develop Project Objectives
Step 8: Define Project Action Steps
Step 9: Consult Previous Projects, Best Practices, and Similar Projects
Step 10: Make a Project Timeline
Step 11: Develop a Project Budget
Step 12: Create an Evaluation Plan

Borrow it from a library first
This book is required for a grant-writing class I'm taking this semester. The book is overpriced for what you get. The font is huge, and there is a lot of white space on all the pages. The material that is covered is good, but many points are overly elaborated. Much of the material can be found online free, although the authors do a good job at fine tuning the information for libraries. The book is oversized, which is inconvenient. The publisher could easily reduce the font size and eliminate some white space and make it the size of a trade paperback. I wish I had saved my money and borrowed this book from my university's library.