Author
Joseph Barbato
ISBN
1889102202
Cost $24.95 + shipping
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Acclaim for How to Write Knockout Proposals
“No one captures the essence of writing successful proposals better than Joe Barbato. Knockout Proposals provides an invaluable roadmap and plenty of motivation for all of us seeking to raise money for life’s good causes.”
- David J. Brown, Executive Vice President, National Trust for Historic Preservation
“Makes every other book on the subject obsolete. Knockout Proposals is a small precious jewel. Read it and watch your grants grow.”
- Jerold Panas, Author of Asking, Mega Gifts, Boardroom Verities, and The Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards
“I’ve been waiting 30 years for a guide like this – simple, concise, and direct. Joe Barbato shares a career’s worth of experience and insights.”
- Vincent Spinelli, Executive VP, Calvary Hospital, Bronx, NY
“Fun to read, to the point, and filled with great advice. Knockout Proposals is a godsend for any grantwriter short on time and looking for inspiration."
- Robert Riordan, Director of Communications, NatureServe, Arlington VA
“Joe Barbato joins the distinguished company of William Strunk and E.B. White – another great ‘little’ book! Every grantseeker should have a copy of Knockout Proposals. Read it early and read it often!”
- Susan Golden, Author of Secrets of Successful Grantsmanship
“Goes to the heart of what it takes to craft substantive, compelling, and, ultimately winning proposals for fundraising. Follow its guidance.”
- Robert H. Forrester, Chairman & CEO, Payne, Forrester & Associates
“Effortless to read and packed with solid advice and hard-earned wisdom. I loved the book and found lots of practical information.”
- Sheila Dennis, Director of Capital Giving Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA
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How to Write Knockout Proposals:
What You Must Know (and Say) to Win Funding Every Time
by Joseph Barbato, 124 pp., $24.95. (Click here for quantity discount information)
If you’ve ever wondered why you were denied funding for an obviously worthy project, How to Write Knockout Proposals just may have the answer.
In all likelihood, your proposal – not your idea – was the impediment.
Information abounds today – both online and in print -- and virtually anyone can identify the right prospects, whether they’re corporations, foundations, or individuals. That’s the easy part.
But few people, as Joseph Barbato says in the first chapter of his new book, can write a ‘Knockout’ proposal, “a document of such force it nearly catapults the funder down the hall.”
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OF RELATED INTEREST: In Thank You for Submitting Your Proposal, Martin Teitel, the ultimate insider and head of a foundation himself, reveals just what happens when the proposal over which you've labored lands on a funder's desk.
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A proposal writer himself for 30 years, Barbato hopes to change that.
Even if you don’t have the skills to compose a riveting proposal – in other words, even if you’re not Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, or John Updike - you can still improve your proposal dramatically and distinguish it from the multitude of those being submitted today.
The key is to heed Barbato’s tips and suggestions on everything from naming your proposal, to slanting its focus, to highlighting its compelling benefits, to identifying the best story to tell, to guarding against a series of red flags. And much more.
Barbato’s engaging style goes down like icewater in August. He’s brief, snappy, and always fresh. The entire book, with its 51 two-page chapters, can be read in one sitting. But don’t be fooled by its brevity.
As Joel Orosz, the Kellogg Foundation’s former program director, says in the Foreword: “As someone who has sat on both sides of the funding desk, I can attest that How to Write Knockout Proposals provides advice that will help you in the real world, with real funders.”
About the Author
Joseph Barbato is president of Barbato Associates (www.barbatoassociates.com), a consulting firm whose clients include many of the nation’s leading nonprofits. He has worked as a writer, editor and director in the public relations and development offices of several institutions, including New York University, The Nature Conservancy, and the City University of New York.
He is also the author of Attracting the Attention Your Cause Deserves, also published by Emerson & Church. His book, How to Write Knockout Proposals, won a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it “sound, clear and to the point ... a lifeline for anyone who has ever struggled to write a grant proposal.”
Barbato has worked on both sides of the media pitch. He has been a writer, columnist, and editor for many magazines, and a contributor to The New York Times, USA Today, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. His syndicated features appeared for many years in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday, and other newspapers.
As a publicist, he has won new recognition for the people and programs of many nonprofits in education, health care, and other fields. As publicity director for the New York Book Fair, an annual publishing event held in Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center, and other Manhattan locations in the 1970s and 80s, he helped bring national attention to the work of hundreds of independent book publishers from throughout the country.
His consulting firm provides editorial services to the advancement programs of many nonprofit institutions. Clients have included M.I.T., the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Environmental Defense, the Westport Playhouse, the University of Maryland Medical Center, and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camps.
Barbato has presented seminars on writing for many organizations, including Duke University, the Rainforest Alliance, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Kresge Foundation, and the Grant Center in Memphis.
He earned his B.A. in journalism and his M.A. in American studies at New York University, where he served in his senior year as campus correspondent for The New York Times.
Barbato is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Authors Guild, and the National Book Critics Circle. He has served twice as president of Washington Independent Writers, an organization of 1,800 journalists, authors, and other writers in the nation’s capital.
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Table of Contents
- Ready to Go
- Needing Money Isn’t Enough
- All or Nothing at All
- One Size Never Fits All
- Whet the Appetite
- Avoid Pointy-Headed Prose
- What Funders Want
- Where the Devil Lurks
- When Your Proposal Arrives
- Your Ability to Deliver
- Know Your Strengths
- Watch Your Attitude
- Never Forget Your Backup
- Watch for Red Flags
- Helping the Funder ‘Get It’
- You Must Know Everything
- Do a ‘Down and Dirty’
- Listen
- Get Good Information
- Make Them Talk in Plain English
- Enough is Enough
- Immerse Yourself
- Maps Help
- Okay, Here’s a Template
- Just Get it Down
- The Throw-Away Draf
- The Cheat Sheet
- Come Out Blazing
- Repeat the Sounding Joy
- Getting Unstuck
- Now the Work Starts
- Take Time
- Getting Stronger Everyday
- Skimming the Cream
- The Only Goal There Is
- Write it Right
- Tell a Story
- Emphasize Benefits
- Avoid Soppiness
- Becoming a Better Writer
- Hire Help
- Heighten Reality
- Let It Flow
- Little Things Mean a Lot
- Good Circulation
- Handling Corrections and Comments
- Neatness Counts
- Don’t Blow Your Cover
- Tempt with Titles
- Err on the Side of Good Taste
- Give it Lasting Appeal
- Ways to Say Thank You
- Check It Out
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Excerpt This article is excerpted from Joseph Barbato’s book, How to Write Knockout Proposals, ©Emerson & Church, Publishers . To obtain reprint permission, please call 508-359-0019.
Writing Knockout Proposals
Ours is the land of fundraising opportunity. Anyone, and everyone, can write a proposal. If you doubt it, visit a local foundation and behold the reviewer’s desk, if it hasn’t buckled under already.
But precious few people can write a ‘knockout’ proposal, a document of such force it catapults the funder down the hall. I exaggerate – but you get the point. To help you enhance your own proposals, here are three of the 51 tips found in my book, How to Write Knockout Proposals.
Avoid Pointy-Headed Prose
Your proposal may involve the vagaries of anything from the law to health to archeology to rocket science. Moreover, you’re probably working with program officers who have a deep understanding of their fields.
Still, as a general rule, your proposal should be written in layman’s language. That means plain English of the kind used in a well-written daily newspaper.
How would The New York Times describe your project? A Times writer would probably avoid jargon and explain complex concepts (without “dumbing it down” completely).
In a medical story, he would explain the meaning of the word “aneurysm” in the first reference. In describing a conservation project, he would define ‘bioreserve’ – or avoid the term completely.
In other words, assume your reader is a well-educated individual without training in the field you’re writing about. How would you describe the project to a bright neighbor or friend? That’s how technical you should get.
If you work in an institution brimming with jargon-jabbering experts, you may find those specialists don’t want you to write in English. They’ll insist anything other than a precise technical term will be incorrect. That’s nonsense. Remind them that you’re writing for non-experts.
Ah, but the foundation officer who will read my proposal is a health specialist, you say. He knows how the cardiovascular system works, so I can be technical in describing our new therapeutic approach.
Be careful! Other staff members at the foundation who don’t know a ventricle from a ventilator may read your proposal. They shouldn’t find it as challenging as Ulysses.
Consider attaching a technical summary of your project in an appendix. You can reference it in your text, and keep the specialists happy. When the money comes in, they’ll be delighted that you insisted on communicating clearly with the funder.
What Funders Want
Now and then, someone will ask funders what they dislike in the hundreds of proposals they receive each year. The responses seldom vary. Most funders complain about long-winded, vague, poorly conceived submissions.
Their urgent advice: Communicate clearly what you want, who you are, and why we should support you. Be concise. Be sure your project fits the guidelines. Do your homework. Marshal your facts. Make perfect sense. Read what you’ve written several times. Show your draft to someone outside your field. Make sure you’ve thought out your budget and plans for future funding.
Several foundation heads responding to my own survey not long ago said the quality of proposals has been getting better in recent years. Maybe, given increasing competition, that’s not so surprising. But it does make your work even harder, for only proposals of the highest quality are going to be seriously considered.
Time and again, funders emphasize three things: Guidelines. Guidelines. Guidelines. Like everyone else, these individuals maintain a discard pile. The proposals given serious consideration form a much smaller stack at the other end of the desk. What makes them special? Hard facts, a passionate belief in the project, and writing that is strong, clear, and easy to read.
Write that kind of proposal, send it to the right place, and you stand a good chance of winning support.
Where the Devil Lurks
Give your donor just enough detail on your program – nothing more. Use your best judgment. When the guidelines say, ‘Give a brief description of how you will raise other funding for your project,’ you want to be brief. Generally speaking, less really is more.
A succinct, concrete, fact-filled description of your other fundraising plans is what the donor wants.
If you find yourself blathering on and on, offering vague promises of your intention to find other funding sources, and never nailing down a handful of strong possibilities, you’d best work on your funding plans. Chances are, you don’t have any. The funder, having aced the second grade, will notice.
Give your funder solid information. If you think a bit of detail will strengthen a section of your proposal, by all means write on. If you sense the funder might want more explanation, but you feel unsure, put the information in an appendix, which you can reference in the text.
I’ve added several appendices to proposals many times. They lend credibility, they’re a convenient way to elaborate on a point in the text, and they’re out of the way for someone trying to give your proposal a quick read. But please – be sure the appendices themselves are succinct.
If a program officer gives you a 15-page technical description, cut it down to 10 pages. If you’re given staff resumes with page upon page of publication listings, consider dropping all but the most significant. Even in the appendix, you must maintain editorial standards.
The last thing you want to do is stymie the reader – and interrupt the flow of your text – with unwanted detail.
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