Networking with People to Write a Stronger Proposal

Funders are increasingly looking for cooperative solutions to community needs. This is a reason for the current trend of grant writers to create innovative ways to cooperate and collaborate with the community in networking with people to write stronger proposals.

The sharing, coalescing, trading and collaborating involved in networking are key to the success of the proposal. Not only does networking offer numerous benefits to the project but it also offers great advantages to the writers. Often partners share the responsibility for the writing of the proposal. Each partner is encouraged to write the component of the proposal it offers to deliver in the project, usually an area of expertise.

Justification for networking with people to write a stronger proposal:

• A diverse representation of interests, roles and strengths
• A greater variety of skills brought together
• Different ideas for the development of the grant
• Feedback occurs more easily
• Eliminates duplication of efforts and services in the community
• Provides structure and direction
• Offers support to one another

Networking with people in the community offers a greater opportunity of representing those in the community who have an interest in or will be affected by the project. In addition, the community involvement derived from networking will increase the possibility that all affected by the project are provided an opportunity to participate.

Desired outcomes from networking with people to write a stronger proposal:

• It increases and nurtures linkages among people in the community.
• It clarifies community needs and service gaps for providers.
• It facilitates the set up of the planning process.
• It helps develop new collaborative approaches to help deal with the issue at question.

In conclusion, organizing a group of individuals to work as a team in writing a proposal has a great impact in the future of nonprofit programming and development. Grantmakers have long joined together to fund community projects. The end product of networking is a stronger proposal built on greater community support. For additional ideas on working with others, please see tipsheets on From Idea to Program: Strategic Planning and The People Chase: Networking for Grant Support.

by Osvalda Rodrigues

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