Grant writing courses teach people how to obtain grants. A grant is a financial award from a federal agency to a grantee to assist in authorized individual or group achievements. Grants are also called bursaries, but this term is used more in the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada than the rest of the world. Grant writing courses may be taken in person or online through many different companies and organizations. Courses on grant writing vary in length and cost.
A grant writing course may even be free, such as The Art and Science of Grant Writing workshops offered to the general public by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2004. Grant writing courses could be a one day or weekend workshop or they could last several weeks. Grant writing is also known as grant proposal writing as the person or organization wanting a grant must propose to grant awarding bodies how they will use the money. A grant organization needs to know exactly how a non-profit or charity would spend the grant money.
The most basic grant writing courses cover how to find granting sources, as this is one of the most difficult tasks in grants management. A grant is not paid back like a loan, but is awarded to the grantee to use for non-profit achievements. The number of grants available is usually less than the amount of non-profits wanting them, so securing a grant often involves strong competition. For this reason, all good grant writing courses will emphasize the need to be persuasive when writing a grant proposal. Many granting bodies expect marketing materials to be sent with the proposal to promote the benefits of the non-profit and a grant writing course may include brochure writing.
Grant writing is a type of copywriting, persuasive writing with a strong call to action such as a direct response television commercial that compels the viewer to order a product right then to receive double the value for a low price. In grant proposals, the call to action is to get the granting body to award a grant. Grant writing courses also teach the writer how to follow up on his or her submitted grant applications and proposals. Organization is stressed in many grant proposal writing courses because the more grants are applied for the more deadlines become an issue.