writing an educational grant

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Grant Writing 101: What is it & how do you get started?

Have you been thrown into the deep end working at a nonprofit organization and tasked to apply for grant funding for the first time? Maybe you've heard about the field, catching the buzz from a friend starting a grant writing side hustle . Or you've seen how others have pivoted their careers to launch grant writing consultant businesses.

However you found grant writing, we're glad you're here!

Grant writers are perceived to have superpowers—they know how to get free money!

Well, it's not quite that easy. There is no such thing as free money, and grant writing is a lot of hard work.

However, it is very learnable and an incredible skill set to have in your quiver. Even newcomers succeed with the right guidance and training under their belt.

This crash course in grant writing will cover everything you need to know to start approaching grant writing like a boss!

Grant Writing Essentials: Definitions & FAQs

• Grant Writing vs. Nonprofit Fundraising

The Grant Writing Process for Beginners

Understanding the grant fundraising landscape, why grant writing is such a valuable skill.

Curious about how to get into grant writing without prior experience? Check out this video to learn more.

Let’s start with the essentials: a few grant writing definitions and frequently asked questions.

What is grant writing?

Grant writing is the process of crafting a written proposal to receive grant funding from a grant making institution in order to fund a program or project.

Grant writing involves laying out your case for why the grant will do the most good for you (or your project or organization). A stellar grant proposal will clearly show the funder that your plan is the best possible choice for accomplishing your shared goals.

Think of grant writing like making a pitch to investors or lenders but to receive funding that you won’t need to pay back.

That begs the question…

What are grants?

A grant is a financial award to support a person, organization, project, or program. It is intended to achieve a specific goal or purpose. Nonprofits can use grants to complete projects, run programs, provide services, or continue running a smooth operation.

Great, now where is all of this money coming from?

Who provides grant funding?

Typically, grants are awarded to organizations from grant making institutions (also called grantors ). These include foundations, corporations, and government agencies.

Grantors provide grants to help further their goals in their communities (or around the country or world) and to support other organizations that do on-the-ground work. These goals are typically philanthropic or social in nature, but grants might also be offered for educational, scientific, or any other purpose.

Grants usually come with very specific guidelines for what the money can and can’t be used for, as well as rules for how the “winner” of the grant (or the grantee ) will report on its progress. When a grant has specific guidelines, we call these funds restricted . Restricted funding means they can only be used for the purposes laid out in the proposal and specified by the funder.

So, can anybody and everybody get grant money?

Who is eligible for grant funding?

Many different types of organizations are eligible to write proposals and apply for grant funding. Most notably, 501(c) nonprofit organizations that have IRS Letters of Determination (basically any type of legit nonprofit).

More specifically, these types of organizations are eligible for grants through grant writing:

• Nonprofits/public charities with IRS-recognized status
• Unincorporated community groups with fiscal sponsors
• Tribal organizations (and sometimes housing authorities)
• Faith-based organizations (which sometimes must provide direct social services depending on the grantor’s guidelines)
• Local governments

Exciting, right? Grants can do a lot of good for organizations of all sizes. But who’s doing the work?

Who does the actual grant writing and drafts the proposal?

All different kinds of folks! Each organization finds their sweet spot for getting the work done. Grant proposals can be written by:

• Employees of eligible organizations
• Volunteers lending their time
• Freelance grant writers providing a contract-based service
• Grant writing consultants who provide organizations with ongoing help through retainer contracts

Successful grant writing leads to positive impacts on real people and real communities. Grant writers put in the elbow grease because they care about charitable organizations and their missions. They want to see their communities thrive.

Is Grant Writing A Good Career For You?

Take the 3 minute personality quiz to find out!

How do you learn grant writing?

Grant writing is a set of specific skills and processes, so it can be taught and learned like any other subject.

There are a few different avenues you can explore to level up your grant writing skills.

• DIY Method: You can binge-watch YouTube content to pick up the bits and pieces of grant writing. This is certainly a cost-effective method! However, factoring in the stress of reinventing the wheel while riding the struggle bus of going it alone, you’re spending more time (and $$) in the long run to learn grant writing skills.
• Higher-Ed Programs: Several universities offer certifications in nonprofit management, but most do not focus solely on grant writing. For a semester or two, the curriculum will teach you the ins and outs of nonprofit organizations, which includes grant writing. These courses include a university certificate for formal education. The downside, however, is that university programs fall short of helping students bridge the gap between learning the material and actually applying it—in other words, getting paid tp use your newly acquired knowledge in the field.
• Online Courses: There’s a wide variety of online courses to help you learn how to become a grant writer. Online education is flexible for those who are looking to add grant writing as a new skill set on top of a full-time schedule (life, work, etc.) or level up their skills. Yes, even if you’re an in-house grant writer working with a nonprofit organization, professional training is applicable. You can check out a roundup of the best grant writing classes here.

Curious about how to break into grant writing without prior experience and with no added debt? The Global Grant Writers Collective is the only program of its kind to show you how to be a world-class grant writer while also building a flexible, fulfilling life you love.

Grant Writing vs. Non Profit Funding

We’ve covered all the basics, but there’s a bit more important context to understand as you launch your grant writing journey.

You know that grants provide funding to organizations to do good work in their communities, but how does this relate to the bigger concept of fundraising?

TL;DR — Grant Writing vs. Fundraising

Fundraising is how you raise money for your organization. Grant writing is one type of fundraising activity. Grant writing includes asking foundations or government entities for support while other fundraising activities usually target individual donors.

What is nonprofit fundraising?

Fundraising is generally defined as the process of soliciting financial support for a cause or project.

Central to the idea of fundraising is the collection of cash donations (although all kinds of assets can be donated). Donations can be collected immediately or over months or years, as is the case for long-term pledges of large donations to capital campaigns.

Fundraising is an essential way for most nonprofits to bring in revenue for their missions. Monies raised through general fundraising activities are often referred to as unrestricted funds and can be used for any expenses, such as staff salaries or rent. Donors can also require that their money be used in a specific (or restricted) way.

Who fundraises, and what do you need to do it?

Nonprofits are the most common group to fundraise. However, other groups like those adorable Girl Scouts selling their highly addictive cookies (our greatest weakness 😋) and people raising funds for mission trips are eligible for fundraising, too.

The only thing you technically need to fundraise is trust from your donors. But when you represent an organization, establishing trust means getting official with a 501(c)(3) designation and publishing an annual report.

Remember that fundraising isn’t so much about asking for money as it is about inviting others who have a passion for what you do to join you in your mission. Once you find them, you can do that work together—the beauty of fundraising!

How is grant writing different from fundraising?

As you can already tell, fundraising has a much broader definition than grant writing.

Fundraising can take many forms, and grant writing falls under that umbrella.

Fundraising usually refers to generating cash donations by:

• Building relationships with individual donors
• Holding fundraising events
• Making public appeals for donations and marketing your organization to the community

When you submit a proposal for a grant, it’s a one-on-one targeted pitch to a funder. You understand their past giving history. You’ve vetted them for mission alignment, and your project meets their goals for impact. The relationship between you and the funder is more formalized (though there is room for personal relationships over time).

With fundraising through individual donors, not through a grant, your approach is less formal. You likely don’t need a lengthy proposal, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a plan. To fundraise from individual donors, you may be soliciting funds from individuals whose circumstances and philanthropic interests are largely unknown to you. Your approach can usually be applied to a wider audience, whereas grant writing targets one organization with specific guidelines.

In either case, relationship-building and strategies like prospect research are very important for nonprofits.

Then what do grant writing and fundraising have in common? In both cases, you need to do research, pursue leads, prepare talking points, evaluate opportunities, and cultivate relationships. The essence of both practices is the same. What is different is the target and approach.

With all the context out of the way, let’s get to the meat and potatoes. How do you actually write a grant proposal? What are the key steps to follow?

Here it is: our signature 7-step process for writing a winning grant. We’ll summarize the key points to understand for each step, but please check out our longer grant writing process explainer for a deep dive into the nitty gritty.

• Follow your North Star (the funding guidelines). A funder will provide guidelines for their grant that all applicants need to follow to be considered. Think of these as instructions. Guidelines can vary a lot from one grant to another, so it’s important to never take them for granted (see what we did there?). Download, print, read, and reread the guidelines.
• Prepare your narrative skeleton. Every grant should tell a story, but sitting down to write a prizewinning story on a blank page is a lot easier said than done. Give yourself an easier start by outlining your proposal based on the funding guidelines themselves. These are the questions you’ll have to answer, so bake them into your story from the very start. Simple bullet points will do here—no need to lock down full sentences just yet.
• Host a kick-off meeting. Gather everyone involved in the project to get on the same page. These are all the people who’ll provide you with the information you need for the grant as well as those who’ll be involved in running the project that it funds. Remember, everyone loves an organized meeting—send an agenda and your narrative skeleton in advance, then a summary of action items after, plus an invite to a progress check-in meeting.
• Finalize your grant budget. Next, you need to know how much the project you’re proposing will cost to complete—this budget will impact all other parts of your application. For example, funders often ask for a “budget narrative” that explains how you determined your final numbers. Some grants are structured to provide a percentage of your total costs rather than a flat sum. Grab a copy of our free grant budget template when you’re ready!
• Write your narrative fast and furiously. With your budget in hand, now’s the time to start putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys). Review your grant guidelines again, and start filling in your narrative skeleton with the details it needs to paint a compelling picture. We could go on and on with all the tips and hacks we’ve learned—check them out in Step 5 of our grant writing process guide.
• Prep your key attachments. Funders usually want more than just your perfectly written document. They often ask for additional attachments like separate budget documents, a resolution, and letters of support. Some attachments, like resolutions, can take a long time to get finalized, which is why understanding your guidelines early is so important so that you can get the ball rolling quickly.
• Review and submit your grant! Phew—you made it! But you’re not done yet. Reviewing and double-checking your proposal is a must, and it should be done by an independent reviewer who hasn’t been knee-deep in the process like you. Collect and discuss their feedback, make changes, review one last time, and then hit submit (ideally a day or two before the deadline). After the adrenaline wears off, take the afternoon off.

There’s no magic formula for writing a winning grant—your proposal should always be tailored to that unique grant and funder—but there are best practices and principles that give you a reliable roadmap to follow each time. Our 7-step grant writing process condenses a ton of them into one digestible process, but for an even closer look, join our free grant writing class!

Free Grant Writing Trainings

These how-to videos offer a smattering of webinar replays from our online grant writing training and feature topics such as working remotely, project management, fundraising, and how to utilize the Freedom of Information Act for federal funding.

Essential Grant Writing Tips for Newcomers

Once you’ve mastered the steps above, you’re probably wondering how to actually put rubber to the road and get started. Here are our top 5 recommendations:

• Find a real project to work on! Try identifying a real grant opportunity and approaching a nonprofit in your community. Or if that idea terrifies you—we get it—you can start slower with sample projects and training courses.
• Commit to excellence in project management. Grant writing is complicated, no way around it. Familiarize yourself with project management best practices and you can stay organized and energized.
• Fake it until you make it. Imposter syndrome is very real, and even experienced grant writers deal with it. But don’t let it hold you back. When you invest in your grant writing skills and get real-world practice, you have something worth sharing. Build some momentum and see how far you can go!
• Have a process mindset. When you pull the mask off the big hairy grant writing monster, you’ll find it’s really just a big stack of steps and processes—learnable steps and processes. Master these, and you’ll have a reliable framework for success.
• Don’t be stubborn (said with love). Trying to go it alone when learning grant writing leads to more mistakes and wasted time and money. Grant writing is a craft, after all, and there’s a lot to be gained from connecting with fellow grant writers.

P.S. Want more grant writing videos like this one? There’s more where that came from.

Check out our YouTube channel and give us a follow!

If you’re new to grant writing (or even considering turning it into a side hustle), it’s important to understand the big picture. Why do grants matter?

Grants make up a considerable chunk of nonprofits’ operating revenue.

According to Nonprofit Impact Matters , the nonprofit sector generates roughly 31.8% of its revenue from government sources (including both grants and paid contracts) and 2.9% from foundations in the form of grants.

It’s generally recommended that grant funding should provide 10-20% of a nonprofit’s total annual budget.

Funding from foundations is growing.

Total giving from foundations reached $105.21 billion in 2022, a 2.5% increase from the year before, and it’s part of a continued upward trend. Put another way, foundations provided 21% of total giving to nonprofits , or $1 of every $5 given to charity.

This is one of only a few areas that saw growth when adjusted for inflation. Family foundations (founded by families as a way to better manage their philanthropic activities) and corporate foundations have led the charge.

Grants are an important part of a safe revenue mix.

Nonprofits need to have diversified revenue streams so that they can rely on other ways to generate money when one shrinks or dries up.

Grants are an essential part of this equation, especially as a turbulent economy causes individual donors to rein in their spending. Case in point—the 2023 Giving USA Report found that giving from individuals declined 6.4% in 2022 (or 13.4%, when adjusted for inflation), a finding that sent shockwaves through the nonprofit world.

But when a nonprofit has a sturdy fundraising program, grant writing process, and an active grant opportunity pipeline, it becomes much easier to weather the storms and keep on doing the good work their communities need.

This leads us to a logical conclusion (which you might have already caught onto)...

Grant writing is an incredibly valuable skill because:

• It’s always in demand.
• It helps nonprofits secure the diverse funding they need to thrive.
• It drives on-the-ground good by funding projects and programs.

Competition for grants will only get tougher as giving from foundations grows and donor habits keep changing in the coming years.

The right unicorn of a grant writer can make a world of difference for nonprofit missions of all sizes and build the fulfilling career they want: a win-win!

Study up on grant writing best practices. Stretch your grant writing muscles by taking a free class or investing in more lessons, coaching, and community (like through the Global Grant Writers Collective ).

Whether you’re looking to win more funding for your nonprofit or break out into a new freelance field, anyone can succeed with grant writing with the right preparation and practice.

Want to learn more? We know you do. We recommend these additional resources:

• Can I Make Money as a Grant Writer?
• Three Possible Career Paths Through Grant Writing Training
• Why Start a Side Hustle Grant Writing?
• Grant Writing for Nonprofits: Our Top 10 Tips
• Tips for Writing Your First Draft of a Grant Narrative
• Top Mistakes Grant Applicants Make (And How to Avoid Them)
• A Review of the Top 10 Grant Databases

Free Grant Writing Class

Learn the 7-steps to write a winning grant application and amplify the impact you have on your community.

About the author...

Alexis Swenson serves as Unicorn Coach and Content Director for Learn Grant Writing. The product of small-town northwestern Minnesota, she is a self-declared “old soul” and grounded free spirit. She has secured over $2.7 million in grant funding in her career. Alexis writes to help people learn, laugh, and not be so hard on themselves.

Want To Learn More?

We made this video to answer your questions about how to build a career in grant writing without the fear of where you will find clients or the fear of failure. We cover the top three mistakes that keep people from making the leap from a soul-sucking job to something more meaningful.

Watch Video

Customized Training For You

Listen to the audiobook, take free grant writing class, free grant writing resources, take our career fit quiz, take our business diagnostic audit quiz.

Writing Tutorial

Grant dollars are out there, and they’re waiting for you to claim them. We created this tutorial to help you, the educator, apply for a grant that will enhance your teaching.

The application process may seem intimidating at first, but you can do it! Whether this is your first foray into the realm of grants or you’ve applied for (and received) grants in the past, this guide will help you draft an effective, efficient grant proposal.

Why do you want a grant?

Before you sit down to begin filling out a grant application, ask yourself some questions. “Why do I want a grant?” “What are my long-term project goals?” “What am I looking to accomplish?”

If you can clearly answer these questions, you’re ready to move to the next step. If not, sit back and determine what it is that you (and your colleagues, students, and others) wish to achieve with a grant.

Ultimately, grant makers are in the business of funding ideas, not just materials. To write a successful proposal, you need a clear vision that you can share in the application.

Where should you apply?

Some grant-makers take applications from both individuals and organizations like schools, districts, local associations, and more. Others may fund only individuals or only groups. Read the guidelines on the grant application to ensure that your project is appropriate for the proposal request.

Target your proposal to organizations that specifically award grants to projects like yours. Investigate the organization’s mission to find a common ground with your work. And always make sure that your proposal matches up with the posted guidelines of the grant.

Network Within Your Community

As you search for grant opportunities, start with local organizations (corporations, nonprofits, government entities).  That way, you can show them immediate results if/when you receive a grant. Plus, these organizations will likely have a direct interest in the work you’re proposing – your project will benefit students local to them. (Some funders may even have students in your classroom!)

Establishing a rapport with local funders may also allow you to get your foot in the door with national organizations. You’ll be able to show results with past funders to prove your effectiveness.

Research, research, research!

Conduct research on Regional Associations of Grant-makers (RAGs). You’re on this page, so you are savvy in using the internet to identify grants available to public school educators.

Don’t stop here – continue researching all of the grants for which you may be eligible. Keep an open mind and be sure to look at any possible funders, including private, corporate, and government funding sources.

Utilize Websites and Listservs

The NEA Foundation provides a  useful guide  to a selection of available grants.

Sign up for listservs from various nonprofits that provide education grants information. Also be sure to regularly visit websites that contain grants listings.

Know the Research and Best Practices in the Field

Investigate work similar to the project you are proposing. If similar work does exist, referencing it in your application will bolster the validity of your proposed work.

Similarly, describing relevant education research can help support the strategies you propose.

Consult with colleagues, administrators, companies, and individuals 

Seek advice first and funds second. Before you begin the grant writing process, consult knowledgeable people!

Pick the brains of any colleagues who have applied for and received grants, any educators who have done work similar to what you are proposing, and any grant administrators who might be willing to provide advice while you assemble your proposal. Getting input from the people around you will help you turn the seed of an idea into a project that grant-makers will want to support.

Build relationships with potential funders

You will likely be in regular contact with the grants officer(s) at the organization(s) where you apply for grants. Be sure to learn their names! “Hi Laura” is a lot friendlier than “To whom it may concern.”

Let them know who you are, too. This won’t necessarily increase your chances of being funded, but it will allow you to ask questions and get feedback that will help you the next time around.

Establish partnerships

If possible, establish partnerships with experts in your field of study — colleagues, community members, parent-teacher organizations, etc.

Grant proposals look strongest when there is evidence of buy-in outside of the core group presenting the proposal.

Assemble a proposal preparation team

Before you write your grant, assemble a proposal preparation team of the key colleagues and associates you’ll work with during the grant.

This team should include administrators (be sure that your principal/dean is aware of and has signed off on your proposed work), school/district financial employees, colleagues, experts in the field, etc. Ask members of the team for advice – they’ll be important resources if you receive the grant.

Have confidence

You are your best salesperson. As an educator, you are doing valuable work that funders want to support. Articulate that and use it to your advantage.

Always remember that the job of any grants administrator is to give away money. Don’t be intimidated – as much as you may need grant funds, those providing grants equally need you.

Have a good reason for a grant

You’re not just asking for money. Rather, you’re requesting an investment into a project that will change students’ lives. Grant-makers expect grantees to provide not only a solid reason for a grant but also regular updates on the progress of the project.

Sure, you can vaguely ask for $5,000 for 10 laptops. But for a better chance of receiving funding, submit a proposal describing the need for $5,000 for 10 laptops for a middle school writing project that will strengthen students’ language skills. Funders provide grants for innovative projects, not just for materials.

Pay attention to the quality and feasibility of your project

Make sure that your project is realistic and doable. Ensure that the work you describe can be completed within the timeframe of the grant (usually one year). Propose work that is relevant to your students’ grade and abilities.

Keep long-term goals in mind

Ultimately, a program officer determines whether or not to fund your proposal. His or her biggest concern is your long-term goal. Make sure that your goals are clear, achievable, and measurable. Give careful thought to sustainability issues, and address the impact your project will have beyond the life of the grant.

Read and follow guidelines precisely

Follow the guidelines of the grant to which you’re applying. Address everything that is asked of you in the application, but don’t add extra items to your proposal. Depending on the organization’s policies, if you don’t follow the guidelines exactly, your proposal could be rejected.

Establish a timeline to complete the application

The process of writing a grant proposal takes time. You’ll have to write and rewrite your proposal, get your colleagues to help with proofreading, create a budget, and gather signatures. Be prepared for delays, since these steps often take longer than you expect.

For example, getting required signatures from your principal/dean and your school finance director/accountant (who will likely act as the point person for the fiscal sponsorship) can take weeks, so be sure to give them plenty of time to respond to your requests. Don’t wait until the last minute (i.e. the date of the application deadline) to ask for signatures.

Have attachments (notes of recommendation, lesson plans, newspaper articles, etc.) ready in advance as well so you can include them when you submit your application.

Write clearly

As with any written task, you should write clearly and concisely in your own voice. Use language that educators not necessarily familiar with your subject, grade, or geographic area can understand. Avoid using field- and geography-specific jargon and acronyms, since these may be lost on members of the review panel.

Keep your audience in mind and have a non-specialist review your proposal to flag jargon with which they may not be familiar.

Scour your proposal and make certain there are no typos, blank information sections, missing signatures, etc.

If your proposal is incomplete or contains many errors, the organization may reject it, regardless of the strength of the project idea.

Ask a program officer to review a draft of your proposal

If you finish your proposal early (see:  Establish a Timeline to Complete the Application), inquire with the grants officer of the organization to which you are applying to see if s/he would be willing to read your proposal and give you feedback.

Most grants officers are extremely busy, so you may not always get a response. However, grant officers are an excellent resource for grant writing (after all, their job is to review hundreds or thousands of proposals each year). So there’s absolutely no harm in sending a copy of your draft to them before you submit it officially.

Know the required content

Each funder requires different content in the proposal. Read each section of the application carefully for any grant to which you’re applying. Make sure you address each question fully.

To take a look at the required fields in the NEA Foundation’s Student Success Grant application, click here. The required fields for the NEA Foundation’s Learning & Leadership Grants can be found here.

Include an evaluation plan

In the narrative of your proposal, include a carefully constructed evaluation plan. Identify interim and final benchmarks to establish how you’ll measure the project’s success. Show how you will measure growth throughout the course of the project.

Develop a budget

All grant applications will ask you to provide a budget. In your budget, tie each line item to the learning objectives in your narrative.

Be specific, but not restrictive. Give yourself room to maneuver within the budget. (Providing a line item for “two laptop computers” is preferable to a line that reads “technology,” which is far too vague, or a line that reads “two Acer Thinkpads, serial number #00058779,” which is too specific.)

Your budget should be practical — do not ask for items that don’t directly pertain to the project you’ve proposed. Reviewers scrutinize all line items, so be sure that the expenditures you’ve presented are essential for achieving the objectives in your proposal.

Wait patiently

After you’ve submitted your application, be patient in waiting to hear back. Announcement dates are usually posted on the funder’s website, and that will tell you when to expect a response. Avoid contacting the grants officer prior to the announcement date to ask about the status of your application.

The process depends on the funder

Each funder has its own specific process for review and notification. Here, we describe the review process at the NEA Foundation. Although our process is similar to those used by other grant making entities, you should always check the methods of the particular organization you’re applying to.

Technical review

In this initial review step, the grants officer will read a proposal to ensure that it addresses all required areas. The officer will examine your proposal for, among other things:

• adherence to word limits
• required signatures
• partner contact information (if applicable)

Reading and following the requirements means that your proposal makes it to the second round. Before you submit, review your proposal carefully to make sure that it follows all guidelines!

Peer review and committee recommendations

After the preliminary review, the remaining proposals move on to the peer review. In this stage, the grants officer distributes the proposals to a committee of objective educators. They review each proposal according to a uniform rubric. After they review and score each proposal, they return the scored rubrics to the grants officer and provide recommendations of the projects they feel should be funded.

Board review and approval

From the reviewers’ recommendations, the grants officer prepares a docket containing the projects the Foundation intends to fund and shares it with the board of directors. After the board’s review and approval, the Foundation makes the grant recipients public.

Funded applicants

Organizations may notify selected grantees via email, phone call, letter, or announcement on the grant-making organization’s website.

Shortly after the notification, the grantee will receive a grant agreement. The agreement is a legally binding document that explicitly states the requirements and expectations of both the grantee and grant-maker. It must be signed by both parties.

Once both parties have signed the agreement, the grantee will receive the grant funds and may begin the funded project.

Unfunded applicants

Applicants whose projects are not funded will receive notification from the grant maker at the same time as the funded applicants. Depending on the funder, this notification may include details regarding why the proposal was not funded, information on other sources of funding, encouragement for proposal resubmission, or other resources.

If your application is not funded, it is by no means a reflection on the quality of the proposed work. Most grant makers (including the NEA Foundation) receive far more quality proposals than they could ever realistically afford to fund.

Stay committed

Statistically, a proposal is going to go unfunded more often than not. Be prepared for rejection, but continue to look for grants and apply in the future.

Ask questions

Inquire with the grants officer to see if you can get feedback on the reasons why your proposal was not funded. Don’t be shy about requesting reviewer feedback, a copy of the rubric, or tips from the grants officer.

Investigate other funding resources

Consider other funding resources for your project. Conduct internet research and ask the grants officer if s/he knows of any other grant makers that may be interested in funding your project. Check out the NEA Foundation’s  page outlining other grant opportunities  for a few ideas.

If an organization allows you to reapply for a grant, be sure to do so after making appropriate changes to the proposal. The key to any effective grant seeker is persistence, so don’t hesitate to reach for any and all possible funding sources.

Grant-writing course

We’ve developed an in-depth course that will help you navigate not only the NEA Foundation’s grant application process but also grants from any number of organizations. Whether you take this course individually or with a team of colleagues, in its entirety or in a few choice sessions, you’ll be ready to write a winning proposal.

Download  |  NEA Foundation Grant Writing for Educators  (PDF)

We are very lucky here at the NEA Foundation to receive hundreds of innovative and thoughtful applications each year, and we only wish we could fund them all. We hope you’ll find many additional opportunities in our  grant resources  and  blog . We wish you the best in your application process!

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Introduction

Professional grant writers use clear, specific language to focus the reader’s attention, and to persuade the reader to fund their proposal. Learning to write successful grant proposals is no small task, but the writing process can become easier with practice and awareness of a few common missteps.

No doubt, the first step of successful grant writing is to plan the project, but the second step is following the directions of the granting organization (called, the grantmaker). In most cases, grantmakers require a(n): cover letter , executive summary , problem statements/need description , work schedule, budget, qualifications , conclusions , and appendices (or, supporting materials). Each section will have specific requirements and while keeping to a word limit is straightforward, being specific is less easy.

A Note on Following the Grantmaker’s Rules

Following directions helps the grantmaker read applications efficiently. Specificity of content will not only vary by grantmaker, but also by proposal sections. For example, a grantmaker may limit your application in general terms for background information on the contexts of your proposal:

“Please tell the grant committee in 2 to 3 pages about the support your institution or community will provide for your project if your proposal is granted the requested funds.”

Likewise, a grantmaker may explicitly limit your response to a section on the grant applicant’s qualifications by stating:

“In no more than 350 words, please summarize the grant applicant’s specific qualifications to manage the finances of the proposal. Discuss any financial experience (for example, certifications in accounting services), or other relevant office managerial duties that will help the applicant distribute funds and write regular quarterly financial reports.”

Keep in mind that many grantmakers will not read past the point of your departure from the application rules, no matter how worthy the project is or how neat and well designed the application package looks. So, while there is no guaranteed way to win a grantmaker’s funds, not following directions is a sure fire way of losing your chances at getting any funds. Ultimately, not following directions indicates carelessness—which is not a characteristic of a promising proposal.

Writing an Effective Educational Grant

Tips and resources to help you craft a powerful proposal

No one awards grants for you to simply buy a tablet, camera, or even an app. Grants are looking for solutions to real educational needs that can serve as models for other educators.

Here are some tips as you put together your grant proposal, along with resources to help you more clearly articulate your goals and the projects and processes that can help you reach that goal.

Tips for writing an effective grant

1. explain the issues that challenge your students.

The first step is to clearly identify the educational need or issue you are looking to address. For example, would learning, or achievement, be improved in your classroom:

• If students were engaged in the content or process of learning?
• If their work connected to the world beyond the classroom?
• If you could only get them to practice reading and writing skills?

Grants will often ask you to identify your need, but this makes it easy to slip into the “I need technology” trap. You don’t NEED technology; you need great learning to happen. As you articulate your challenges, issues, and goals, leave out any technology tools you would use to address and meet them.

Don't forget the power of storytelling. While protecting your students identities, share a story that helps grant readers better understand their backgrounds, experiences, and challenges.

2. Clearly articulate your solution to the issue

Your grant application also needs to clearly show how the resources you are asking for will address the issues in your classroom. Paint a picture of the work you will do with students, demonstrating how the project or process will help you overcome the issue to meet your goal.

Now is the time to explain how the use of technology during this process or project supports your goals. Be sure to articulate why the specific tools you have chosen will make a difference. For example, if your goal is to improve language learning for your ELL students, your description of why you would use Wixie might look like:

“Students will use the integrated images, drawing features, and word processing tools in Wixie to document their learning through pictures and text and the recording feature to practice oral fluency. The distribution of their work online as digital stories, eBooks, or comics will provide an authentic opportunity to practice reading and writing.”

Sharing examples of specific student projects you will implement, such as crafting an animal interview or creating a new creature , makes it easier to describe how students think deeply as they create to interact with content and build essential literacy skills.

Be sure to include your plan for implementing the project. Share a timeline or calendar of the steps in the project or process to show you have an idea of how long it will take and the steps you need to complete the project.

3. Share evidence and reasons you think your solution will work

In addition to showing what you will do, you need to articulate why this will improve student learning. Some of this can be anecdotal stories from your own experience, but you will also want to share research and information from other sources.

Then, clearly show how your technology-involved solution can help. Make sure you are holding yourself to the same high evidence standard you set for your students. Include examples of potential outcomes and even sample student artifacts to help the grant reader see a clear picture of what will happen in your classroom when you get the grant.

Resources and ideas to help you focus your grant writing

All of the above only works if you are clear on your goal and can articulate outcomes you expect to see as a result of implementing your program. So, before you even begin writing, be sure to have a clear goal or vision statement and clear set of outcomes you can use to measure success.

Locate research that provides evidence for your ideas and methods along with specific activities that will help you achieve outcomes like increased engagement, improved literacy, or deeper thinking about the curriculum. For example:

If your goal is deeper learning, look to Webb's Depth of Knowledge

If you are looking to increase rigor in your classroom, you can use Webb’s DOK to evaluate the cognitive complexity of your instructional tasks and design tasks at a range of levels. Use these resources if you want to focus on:

• Designing more effective instruction
• Using graphic organizers at each DOK level
• Depth of Knowledge in practice

If your goal is 21st-century ready communicators, look to digital-age literacy

• Implement Digital storytelling
• Improve comprehension
• Produce information
• Support language acquisition

If your goal is engagement, look to authentic project work

• Explore project-based learning (PBL)
• Become Museum Makers
• Implement a STEAM approach

Yes, your grant proposal will include request funding for materials like devices and digital tools. Clearly explaining how these tools are part of a bigger solution to improve student learning will help your proposal stand out.

by Melinda Kolk

Melinda Kolk ( @melindak ) is the Editor of Creative Educator and the author of Teaching with Clay Animation . She has been helping educators implement project-based learning and creative technologies like clay animation into classroom teaching and learning for the past 15 years.

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Grant Writing Tips

Obtaining and maintaining funding is critical in sustaining a research career. Whether your funding comes from a foundation or philanthropy, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), or another government agency, the tips within this section can support you. This resource provides strategies and tools to help you effectively navigate the process of  prewriting ,  writing , and  rewriting  your grant application to maximize your chances of success.

Set a Foundation 

Diversify your Portfolio

Choose a Topic 

Make Connections

Establish Deadlines

Create & Compile Credentials 

Understand the Grant Scoring Process

Are You Ready?

Know Your Audience

Provide a Cover Letter

Make an Impact

Write Your Specific Aims Page

Use Style Tips

Format Your Grant

Pre-Review Your Grant Application

Understand Proposal Flaws

Craft Your Response 

Respond to a Summary Statement

• Consultations

Grant Guide

A comprehensive grant guide to preparing, writing, and applying for education funding

Across the country, the budget story is similar: Money is always tight, and sometimes because of shortfalls in state and local revenues, districts have to cut programs. That means technology ideas can fall by the wayside. Finding money for new programs is often a distant dream.  

Yet, there’s hope. If you've got a great idea for a project for your classroom, school, or district, but not the funding to make it happen, a grant may be the answer. Whether it’s a few thousand dollars for a classroom program or several hundred thousand to design and implement a district-wide plan, competitive federal, state, local, and corporate grants are available for education.

But be warned. Grant funders get lots of proposals and the competition is often fierce. 

You have to know where to look for the right grant and how to write a winning proposal. This grant guide will help you.

For specific grants and deadlines, visit Tech & Learning's Grant Calendar

Trust the Process

Applying for a grant is a process. The first step is to state the idea you want to fund clearly. Then you can search for grants that fit your situation and narrow down your list to the one that is the best match. After you’ve identified the grant offering you want, the real work begins. You’ll need a team, buy-in from stakeholders, an understanding of what the grant requires, and good grant writing skills. 

One thing to buoy your spirits through the hard work ahead is knowing that just applying for a grant is a winning proposition. The planning, research, and writing you put into the effort can serve to solidify your vision and long-term plan. It can benefit technology goals and inspire change, community building, and school improvement. And even though you may not actually win the grant, you’re way ahead when you try for the next one.

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Start with a Good Idea 

In many schools and districts, the needs have multiplied exponentially and everyone has ideas for how to address the issues. Yet there’s a difference between funding equipment needs and funding ideas that will make a difference in learning. 

Grants fund ideas, not stuff, so proposals should address pressing educational issues and problems. Grant writers have to show how your creative idea will address these issues. 

Begin the process by developing a solid idea and then gather enough supporting details to back up the concept. Explain the needs, how your plan addresses them, and how you will reach the goals. Be specific; vague intentions are not good enough. Know your school or district and how well you can carry out the plan if you win the grant. The best proposals build on something you’ve already accomplished. Success breeds success. 

► Your Next Grant Proposal: 10 Steps to Starting Over

► Education Grants: Win or Lose, What to Do Next

► 9 Grant Proposal Review Questions to Ask Yourself

► Grant Proposals: 7 Questions to Ask As You Write

► Grant Proposals: 9 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Writing

► 6 Grant Application Questions to Ask Yourself

► Education Grants: 5 Guidelines to Win One

► What Grant Judges Look For in An Application

► How to Find an Education Grant

► The 8 Key Parts of a Grant Proposal

► 7 Steps to Plan a Grant Proposal

Questions  to Ask Before Searching for a Grant Opportunity 

• Do you have a compelling idea? 
• Do you truly need the funding and can you explain why? 
• Do you have the organization skills to write the proposal? 
• Does the staff have the skills and willingness to carry out the project? 
• Do you have stakeholder buy-in? 
• Do you have the ability to write in clear, simple, convincing terms? 
• Do you have an elevator pitch: Can you express your basic idea in one sentence? 

FINDING THE RIGHT FUNDING 

One of the hardest parts of getting grants is searching for the right one. You have to know what types of funding are out there and which you’re likely to be successful in winning. Even more, you have to learn where to start looking. Some sources offer grants for specific reasons and others offer grants with general guidelines and you specify the reason you are applying. 

Types of Funding

Federal Grants

In general, the federal government offers substantial amounts of money for large programs.  

- Formula Grants: One major type of federal grant for K-12 schools is a formula grant, which means that a certain amount of money has been set aside through legislation to give to districts through their state education agencies. An example is Title I funding.  

- Program Grants: Another type of federal grant is awarded competitively. The agency determines a purpose or program for this type of grant and districts can apply. Applicants must meet all of the guidelines. Many of these federal project grants involve a long application period and a lot of support material. Some of the projects run for as much as three years. 

State Grants  

Each state determines its own way to allocate general funds and award extra funds as grants. With block grants, for example, the state requires districts to apply for funding, and districts must make a case for why they should receive the funds. Special funding is allocated for targeted programs such as special education, technology, gifted and at risk populations. The Education Commission of the States has information on programs by state here . 

Foundation Grants  

Nonprofit grants are available from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or a charitable trust, whose specific purpose is to make funds available to organizations or individuals for specific purposes including education, science, or community benefit. Some districts have created nonprofit educational associations that can apply for specific grants.

Community Grants  

These grants are often offered by local nonprofit organizations that award grants to individuals and organizations for projects that are based in and primarily benefit the community.

Corporate Grants  

There are different types of corporate grants. One comes from a corporate foundation, which is the nonprofit arm of a for-profit corporation and allows the corporation to fund efforts of particular interest. For example, a tech company might offer STEM grants to high school and college students in order to spur interest in technology careers. Another type of corporate grant is more product related and offers grant funds to purchase the corporation’s products to achieve a goal. 

Many of these grants are listed by deadline in Tech & Learning’s Grant Calendar .

INFORMAL FUNDING 

If formal applications seem too complicated for your organization or if your idea doesn’t need major funding, informal sources may be just the thing for you. There are crowdfunding options, equipment giveaways, fundraising and other resources to consider. Read the disclosure information on these sites carefully; sometimes there’s a fee or percentage the site keeps. And while some of them were designed specifically for education, others are general sites where anyone can raise money.

Crowdsourcing Funds

Crowdsourcing grants that are focused on providing support for individual classrooms began to appear approximately ten years ago. These organizations accept donations from individuals to support classrooms, teachers, or schools. Examples are Donors Choose and Adopt-a-Classroom . Donors Choose allows teachers to post requests for funding and Adopt-a-Classroom donors can target a specific school or the organization will match the donor with a classroom. In both organizations, reports are sent to the donor detailing exactly what the money was used for. Others include Digital Wish , Funding Factory , and Computers for Learning . 

Tech & Learning's more complete list of fundraising and donation sites is here .

HOW TO LOOK FOR A GRANT 

Grant Search Sites

It can be confusing to search for grants and funding, but there are organizations that can help you target the specific type of program you need. Examples include: 

Grants.gov - lists federal grants by keyword or by category. 

Candid   - a merger of the Foundation Center and GuideStar, has data tools on nonprofits, foundations, and grants. 

Grant Gopher - a searchable database of funding opportunities. 

Grants Watch - posts federal, state, city, local, and foundation grants categorized by type. 

Candid and Grants Watch require subscriptions, so check if your district or a library has one.

Narrowing the Possibilities

Once you’ve found a few programs that might work for you, read the grant guidelines again very carefully. Decide if a grant program is the right one for your needs and ideas. Make sure you are not bending either your ideas or what the grant is asking for to make it fit. The better you know what you want to accomplish and how you will do it, the easier it will be to pick the right one to apply for.

Consider outlining the basics of your plan in clear, simple terms so you can judge how well each grant offering matches what you want to do and what you need to do it. It is time well spent because you will be able to get to work writing the proposal with your outline to guide you. 

Mission: State in clear, simple, and convincing terms what your goal is and what your plan will achieve. 

Needs: Know the demographics, test results, and anecdotal evidence that prove your district, school, or class needs what you are asking for. 

Goals and Objectives: Goals are general guidelines that explain what you want to achieve. Objectives are the strategies or steps you will take to reach the goals. Be sure your goals and objectives are specific and measurable. 

Timeline: Develop a tentative but logical timeline for each stage of your project. 

Assessment. You should know how you will measure success. Know how and when the assessment will be done. 

Materials: Have a summary of the supplies and staff you will need. 

Cost: Have a fairly comprehensive and complete budget. 

BEFORE YOU WRITE 

Once you’ve found the perfect grant offering to match your plan, and have the details of your idea and the information the grant requires, get ready to write. Be as organized as possible because the competition is stiff. 

We’ve stressed that you should have a solid idea and supporting details. Remember that honorable but vague intentions are not enough. Review the grant guidelines once more to be certain that this is the right fit to meet your needs; you don’t want to adjust your idea or misinterpret what the grant is asking for. 

Remember to build commitment among stakeholders along the way. Those involved should meet, discuss, plan, and agree to contribute to the grant-writing process if needed and agree to carry out the plan if successful. Enthusiasm of participants, administrators, school board members, and other community members is important as you’ll need their support. 

Create a timeline and set deadlines for your team to write their sections, and for you to complete the work, get signatures, and make the copies you need to send so you'll be ahead of schedule. Build in a buffer in case things take longer than expected.

Questions to Ask Before You Write the Proposal 

• Why do you want this grant?
• What needs will your project address?  
• What are your short- and long-term goals? 
• Do your goals address the mission of the funder? 
• What do you need to reach these goals? 
• What are you looking to accomplish? 
• Who will be involved in the project? 
• Are you and others committed to writing the proposal? 
• Are you and others committed to carrying out the program? 
• Do other key people support the project? 
• How much money will you need? 
• What resources will be required? 
• Do you fully understand the grant’s guidelines? 

Now get ready. It’s time to write. 

WRITING IT RIGHT 

The first part of writing a proposal is to make sure you assemble exactly what the grant offering requires of you – both information and explanations. Most grants require similar components and have a similar format so the technique you’ll need is similar, too. 

You’ll include a title page, table of contents, personnel and signature pages, and more, plus appendices with related information. All of it is important, but spend most of your time and focus on the pages that contain the real substance: what you want to do; why you want to do it; how you’ll get the job done; and what you need to make it happen. You will communicate that information in the Executive Summary, Needs/Goals/Objectives, Narrative, and Budget pages.

Remember that you have to state in advance how you will know that your project is a success. Will grades go up? Will students produce something? Who will judge your success?

Whether or not you actually win a grant, remember that the process itself is important. The planning, research and writing needed often solidify your vision and long-term plan – not only for technology but also for change, community building, and school improvement. So applying for a grant is a positive experience.

The parts of a grant proposal are:

You’ll need an overview statement that briefly describes your proposal. Write this page last but you’ll include it at the beginning. Use short, clear sentences and pull excerpts from every section of your proposal.

In this section, you will detail the compelling needs of your school, district, or community; tell why your organization should get funded to run this project and state the economic situation of your district and student body. Be sure to say how the idea will impact teaching and learning. This section should be so compelling that no one could resist funding the proposal. Don’t harp on the financial needs; the overarching educational idea is what will get it funded. 

Explain the important results you expect the project will accomplish. The goals show that the plan is clear, important to achieve, and will have a major impact.

Tell what specific methods you will use to reach each goal. Be sure the needs, goals, and objectives are clearly aligned.

This is the plan of action that leads to success: what you'll do; how you'll do it; where you'll do it; and who's going to do what. Be sure to include specific details and examples. Make your idea look like a sure winner. The clarity of this section and compelling detail persuades the grant reader that this is an important idea to fund. 

The narrative has four main parts. The first should describe the organization: the size and type of student body, educational philosophy, current programs and achievements. Then you’ll explain the needs, including the problem that you want to solve. What is missing and how did you discover it? Provide any data that demonstrates your point. Next, describe your program–the goals and objectives, timeline, who is involved, what will the result be, and how you will be able to sustain the program beyond the life of the grant. Last, explain how you will evaluate your success. What data will you collect and how will you analyze it? What are the criteria you will use to measure success? Where does this program lead?

Outline what funds you need for everything you want to do by completing the budget form. Use the budget narrative to explain clearly all the items listed to show that every cent is required to guarantee success. Itemize the expenses in an easy-to-read format and explain how you will track expenditures. If you expect other sources of funding, explain how they will be used together with the grant. 

Include a personnel page to show which staff members will be part of the program and what each will do. Cite each person’s qualifications to make the program a success. Make sure that these people can take on the work. If other staff has to replace their usual jobs, build in their salaries so the district can replace them.

Evaluation Plan

Tell what you will measure and how you will measure it so it is clear how the project will demonstrate that it achieved its targets. Include clear benchmarks that will be used to evaluate success. Hiring outside evaluators can show how serious you are about determining if your plan worked.

Questions to Ask as You Write the Proposal 

• Summary/Abstract: Are you including excerpts from each section? 
• Needs: Do you detail the compelling needs of your school, district, or group and why your organization should get funded to run this project? 
• Objectives: Do you explain specific objectives and the methods you will use to reach each goal? Are the needs, goals, and objectives clearly aligned? 
• Narrative: Do you describe your action plan with specifics on how it leads to success--what you'll do; how you'll do it; where you'll do it; and who's going to do what? 
• Budget: Do you itemize every budget item and explain clearly how each is required to guarantee success? 
• Personnel: Do you show which staff members will be part of the program, how each person’s qualifications contribute to make the program a success, and what each will do? 
• Evaluation: Do you explain what you will measure, how you will measure it, and the benchmarks you will use so it is clear how the project will prove that it achieved its targets?  

Writing Skills

When you get to the narrative and budget explanation portions of your proposals, you want to be convincing . How you write is as important as what you write. In a nutshell, use clear, concise language; provide relevant details and examples; and make sure your grammar is perfect. 

Write in active rather than passive voice . For example, say, “The Program Director will file a report.” Don’t say, “A report will be filed by the Program Director.” Answer the questions that journalists use: who, what, when, where, why and how. Bullets, lists, outlines, diagrams, and tables can help clarify your ideas. 

Using action verbs will stress the positive and show you have specific, measurable goals . Choose from words such as accomplish, achieve, conduct, demonstrate, expand, generate, launch, motivate, revamp, and streamline. Employ phrases such as “Students will demonstrate…”

Avoid flowery writing and pretentious words when simple ones will do . For example, don’t write “in view of” when you mean “because” or “in the event that” when you mean “if.” 

Avoid acronyms . Use an organization’s full name so there’s no question what you’re discussing. Try to minimize jargon; if a term isn’t clear to anyone who isn’t in your field, avoid it. 

Organize your writing . Decide what purpose each section will serve and stick to it. If you need to write a long or complex explanation, you can use headings that match the criteria in the RFP to clarify the issues.   

It’s not always so easy to write a compelling proposal, but if you say exactly what you mean, you’ll have a clear and convincing argument. Consider highlighting your expertise by building on a current program that is successful. 

Remember that money matters . Watch the bottom line so that every dollar will be well spent. You can also show your seriousness by leveraging other funds. For example, find a local organization that will give you additional money, time, equipment, or extra funding if you get the grant.

In your budget section, use a spreadsheet with clear, well-organized section heads that are directly tied to specific sections of your written proposal.

Double Checking your Work 

You have to submit the best proposal that you can write. Make sure that you’ve said what you mean and mean what you’ve said – and given enough evidence to prove it. Go over your proposal using the checklists below to make sure you’ve covered everything. Also review that you’ve addressed the grant’s specific guidelines and criteria. The closer your proposal aligns with the RFP’s goals, the better your chance for success.

After you’ve finished writing your proposal, mark it Draft 1 and set it aside for a day. Go back with a little perspective a day or two later to review and edit what you’ve written.

Ask someone to be a critical reader to be sure that you are clear about what the project will do, how it will do it, and why it matters. Rewrite whatever isn’t clear or that doesn’t read well.

CHECKLISTS FOR SUCCESS

General criteria checklist.

• Is your idea for the grant significant, compelling, and actionable? 
• Does your funding proposal contain a sense of urgency? 
• Do you clearly understand the mission of the funder? 
• Is this the best organizational match for your funding request? 
• Does your application include a clear summary that articulates your vision for the project and need for the money? 
• Are there specific, measurable goals and objectives? 
• Is there alignment of your needs, goals, and objectives? 
• Does the proposal tie into the school’s overall plan? 
• Does your proposal reflect best practices for instruction and learning? 
• Have you included research data or statistics to support your project? 
• Have you defined success and how you will measure the effectiveness of the project throughout the duration of the grant? 
• Have you conveyed what the impact will be on your school or district if you are successful? 
• Have you matched your answers to the grant’s selection criteria?
• Have you allocated staff time to manage the project?
• Is there a detailed budget for your proposal?
• Have you outlined the contributions of the people associated with the application and how their expertise is critical to the project’s success?   
• Has the timeline been cross checked against the budget?
• Do you have a plan in place to submit progress reports as required by the grant? 
• What about sustainability after the funds are spent?  
• How will the needs of the community be met moving forward? 

Technology-Specific Criteria 

• Have you defined the technology required for each part of the proposal? 
• How will the technology assist in implementing the grant goals? 
• Will the technology be used to develop effective strategies for authentic learning? 
• How will the technology be used to improve student achievement or staff development? 
• Have you tied the technology expenses to the proposed budget? 

Even after others have reviewed your application, ask yourself the following questions:

Final Questions to Ask Before You Submit the Application 

Does the proposal:

• Demonstrate a compelling need for the grant?
• Include specific, measurable goals and objectives? 
• Match your answers to the grant’s selection criteria? 
• Explain the expertise of the staff?  
• Describe the commitment to making it work?
• Make it clear that the grant funds are essential?  
• Show what you mean by success and how you will measure it? 
• Steer clear of jargon? 

There’s no knowing exactly what grant readers are looking for but if you’ve checked that you included everything they asked for, your proposal should be in the running. Grant readers generally use a scoring rubric to determine how well you addressed the issues. Some parts carry more weight than others. 

The one below gives you a general idea of how this works.  

Grant Review Rubric

Take a deep breath.

When you’re certain that you’ve included everything, take a deep breath, and send it. Congratulate yourself on a job well done because whatever the result, you’ve learned a lot and created a great plan. 

What Happens Next

Eventually you will hear from the grant giver. If you win, have your plans in place and be ready to hit the ground running. Make sure that everyone involved understands the project thoroughly and knows exactly what his/her role is in it. Then do what you've said you want to do. Spend on budget items exactly. Measure what you've said you'll test. Send reports on time. Maintain enthusiasm for the project throughout its life. Evaluate the outcomes, thank everyone and keep people motivated. 

If you don't get the grant, contact the funder and ask to read the reviewers' comments about your proposal so you'll know how close you were to winning and what you might want to change for next time.

Read the summaries of projects that did win and analyze why they won. If you think your plan has merit, find another grant offering and propose it again. Maybe the proposal just needs tweaking to succeed or is easily adapted to fit another grant. Don't give up!

If the idea is important and the staff is committed, begin whatever parts you can without the outside funding. Maybe the groups that said they'd contribute funds will help you anyway.

Whether you are starting a project or thinking about the next one, always remember that seeking funds is a journey. Once you embark, there’s no return. You’ll always think about great ideas of how to improve education. And you’ll also have your grant seeking hat on and want to know what is possible. 

* Please participate in this T&L grants tips and advice survey * 

Gwen Solomon was Founding Director of The School of the Future in New York City, Coordinator of Instructional Technology Planning for New York City Public Schools, and Senior Analyst in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Instructional Technology. She has written and co-authored several books and many magazine articles on educational technology.

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How to Write a Grant Proposal for Education

Introduction to education grants: what they are and why they matter.

Education grants are vital financial aids available to both institutions and individuals in Australia, providing the necessary support to improve education outcomes. They are essentially funds provided by an entity, often a government body, foundation, or company, that don’t require repayment. The purpose of these grants primarily centers on education enhancement, research, educational initiatives, and program support—significantly aiding the recipient’s career or societal contribution.

Education grants matter significantly due to the vast number of educational grant opportunities they present, especially in a country like Australia that values education growth and advancement. They promote innovation and experimentation in the field of education, introduce new learning techniques and assist educators and institutions to adopt them, and alleviate financial burdens. Moreover, they foster equality in education, enabling disadvantaged students to access quality education and increase their future employment opportunities.

Essentially, from benefiting schools to helping students, education grants act as a linchpin in the education sector. They can also stimulate economic growth by raising the nation’s human capital, fostering a stronger society overall. While the grant application process may seem daunting, it is important to remember the significant impacts that education grant funding can lead to in the long run.

Understanding the Basics of Writing a Grant Proposal for Education

Writing an education grant proposal is a critical first step to securing funding. It requires research, planning, and a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Start by understanding what the funding body aims to support through the grant. Align your proposal accordingly, showcasing how your project aligns with their goals or why your needs match their objectives.

Grant proposal guidelines typically necessitate a structured outline with organized sections. Each section must clearly and concisely convey your message to the grant reviewers. The initial sections often include an executive summary, statement of need, project description, budget, and organizational information. It is essential to highlight the societal benefits your project aims to achieve rather than focusing solely on individual gains.

Equally important is the demonstratable aspect of the proposal. Ensure you provide clear evidence to support your needs and objectives. It could be statistical data, testimonials, or any other relevant support that strengthens your proposal and makes a compelling case for grant approval.

Identifying Suitable Education Grants to Apply For in Australia

When looking for suitable education grants in Australia, it is best to start by defining your needs and objectives clearly. Once you are clear with your goal, the next step involves researching available education grants. Various sources offer a wealth of information on this subject, including government websites, education department portals, various foundations, and community resources.

Keep your options open, explore different types of educational grants—ranging from those offered by local, state, and federal government bodies to those available from non-profit organizations, corporations, and foundations. Each of these has specific focus areas and criteria, ensuring a variety of potential fits for different educational projects and initiatives.

Remember to select grants relevant to your needs, as it is not just about securing a grant but ensuring it aligns with your objectives and can adequately support your project. It implies looking beyond the amount of funding and focusing on whether the grant aligns with your project’s goals and projected outcomes.

Starting Your Grant Proposal: Essential Components of a Strong Introduction

The introduction is the opening view into your project, giving the first impression to the reader—often the deciding factor for whether they continue reading. Thus, creating a compelling introduction is crucial in the grant proposal guidelines.

Start by concisely explaining the project at hand— what its purpose is, its relevance, and why it requires funding. This initial statement is crucial as it sets the tone for the rest of your proposal. Also, include a brief overview of your organization or yourself, demonstrating credibility and competence.

The introduction should swiftly introduce your problem or need. This statement should be clear, direct, and supported by data, setting the stage for a more detailed needs assessment. The introduction should then conclude with an overview of your solution to the problem. This brief synopsis can point to the why’s and how’s, encouraging the reader to delve further into your proposal details.

Highlighting the Need: How to Craft a Compelling Needs Statement for Your Education Grant Proposal

The needs statement directly follows the introduction and plays a key role in your proposal. This section acts as a bridge between the introduction and your proposed solution, explaining why the problem requires immediate attention.

Make sure to convey your needs compellingly and convincingly, backed by concrete evidence. More importantly, it should align with the grant’s mission or focus. Use statistics and facts to substantiate your needs and prove the urgency of your request.

Explain why previous attempts to address this issue fell short or why this issue is still unresolved, if applicable. Highlight what repercussions continue if the problem remains unaddressed—sometimes, understanding the potential negative outcomes can be as motivating for the reader as the problem itself.

Break down the main problem into sub-problems if necessary. This approach can help structure your needs statement and make it easier for the reader to understand. Lastly, ensure your needs statement aligns with the rest of your proposal, including your budget and methodology.

Setting Your Objectives: How to Outline the Goals and Anticipated Outcomes of Your Project

A critical aspect of the grant application process is setting clear and achievable objectives. These objectives must align with the outcomes you expect from your project. They must be SMART; specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. They are critical to the success of your project, as they give your project direction and purpose. Ultimately, these objectives need to demonstrate how your project will improve the quality of education in your setting.

Firstly, outline your primary goal, which is the overall outcome you want to achieve. This should be a broad statement that encapsulates what you plan to attain. For example, “Improving student literacy levels in rural elementary schools.”

Next, break down your primary goal into smaller, more manageable objectives. These should be targeted actions that will help you achieve your primary goal. For instance, these might include “Implementing a guided reading program” or “Providing teacher training on literacy instruction.”

Fleshing Out Your Methodology: Detailing Your Plan of Action in Your Grant Proposal

Articulating your methodology within your proposal showcases your plan of action. This includes how you plan to implement your project, indicating timelines, processes, and resources needed. Sharing your methodology shows that you have a feasible plan for reaching the project’s objectives and affirms the efficiency of your project to potential funders.

A good strategy here is to use engaged language that paints a picture of the sort of change your school or organization hopes to instigate through the educational grant funding. You could say, for instance, ‘Through the implementation of a teacher mentorship program, we hope not only to improve teaching quality but also to create an atmosphere of continual professional development and support.’

Further, ensure that your methodology is evidence-based. This means using existing research or data in developing your plan of action. This not only strengthens the credibility of your proposal but also provides a level of assurance to the funders.

Creating a Budget for Your Proposal: Tips for Estimation and Justification of Costs

An essential part of your education grant proposal is the budget section. Grant proposal guidelines often call for explicit estimation and justification of costs. This offers the funders an understanding of how their money will make an impact on your educational project.

Start by listing every potential cost which connects to your project’s objectives. This should include direct costs such as resources and staff, as well as indirect costs like administration and maintenance. Prioritise transparency over all else – make sure it’s clear why each cost is necessary and how it contributes towards achieving your goals.

Finally, ensure that your budget is realistic. It’s important to show that you have thought through your budget and have a sound understanding of the financial requirements of your project. A well-planned budget reflects positively on your organization’s management and increases the likelihood of receiving the grant.

Finalizing Your Grant Proposal: How to Proofread, Edit, and Prepare Your Document for Submission

Before submitting your proposal, it’s essential to spend time proofreading and editing your document. Checking for consistencies in format, spelling, grammar and ensuring that everything is in line with the grant submission guidelines is critical. Don’t underestimate the value of a flawless, professionally presented application.

Ensure your proposal maintains a clear, concise, and compelling tone throughout, reflecting your passion and dedication to the project. This is your chance to sell your project to the grant committee, so make every word count.

Last but not least, remember to follow the proposal submission guidelines thoroughly. This includes meeting the deadline, ensuring your proposal is the correct length, and if specified, sending your grant proposal in the appropriate format.

The Review Process: What Happens After Submitting Your Education Grant Proposal in Australia

The process after submission can often feel out of your control. However, it’s crucial to understand what happens in the review phase of the education grant funding process in Australia.

Often, the grant committee will initially screen proposals for eligibility, ensuring they align with the funders’ mission and meet basic requirements. Eligible proposals then go through an intensive review. This process often includes evaluation by a review panel, consisting of experts in the field of education or the specific focus of the grant. This review process can take months to complete.

Successful applications receive a grant award letter, detailing the grant amount, conditions, reporting requirements, and other vital information. Unsuccessful applications usually receive a declination letter, sometimes with feedback for improvement in future applications.

Are you ready to turn your funding aspirations into reality? At Granton, we specialize in helping individuals and businesses navigate the world of grants, offering expert guidance on grant applications and finding opportunities that best suit their needs. Whether you’re seeking funding for a startup, nonprofit, or a specific project, our team is here to assist you every step of the way. We take the guesswork out of Grant Applications, R&D Tax Incentives, and Accelerator Programs, making the process smoother and increasing your chances of success. Ready to take the next step? Book a free consultation with us today, and let’s explore how we can help you secure the grants you deserve. Visit our website at granton.io to learn more or use our contact form to get in touch. Your grant journey starts here!

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21 Steps to Writing a Perfect Grant Proposal for Education

Do you want to apply for education grants but don’t know how to write a proposal? If YES, here are 21 steps to writing a grant proposal for education purposes.

When we hear these words written as the title of an article, one may confuse it to mean that a student writes a proposal to solicit for funds in order to finance their educational aspiration. But seeking a grant for education simply means that a teacher or group of teachers who have identified a need in the educational system, have put together a proposal to seek funding for that project. This is aimed at improving the student’s performance or comprehension in any field it is requested for.

For example, a teacher may notice that quite a number of students may be struggling with learning the multiplication table at their school and may decide to establish some type of miniature playground that can teach the students the multiplication table within an environment that is fun.

So, the idea is that while the children are having fun sincerely, the multiplication table is taught. Sometimes the school itself may not have the extra funds to invest in such a project, so the teacher can seek for funding from grant organizations.

Some of these grant organizations may exclusively make their funds available to only schools, or there could be grant organizations that simply make grants available to eligible candidates, once they are able to prove their worth through a well written proposal.

In today’s article we will be looking at some of the major aspects of a grant proposal for education like the introduction, project description, budget and so on. We would also be discussing some tips that will make you have more grants paid.

When most people think of soliciting for funds, they may be uncertain as to whether their proposal will be good enough to get a grant. But one thing most people fail to understand is that if you never try you will never build the necessary skills that will get you receiving grants time and time again.

These tips will give you more insight on how to make your proposals grant worthy. Just in case you have never done this before, it would be good to know that usually there are staff members within the administrative board that have to approve grants that go beyond a certain amount.

So, it would be wise to ensure that you have already spoken to these people and that both the project and the amount you are seeking have been approved by the necessary admin personnel. Another interesting tip to consider when putting together a proposal of this nature is to think like the person who would be attending to the document you are about to send.

Put yourself in their shoes or in their mindset, find out questions they may be asking, points they may be looking for and concerns they may have about your intended program. When you have this kind of mindset, then you will write in a way that presents your case to the reviewer in terms they will identify with.

Tips such as these will be very helpful in giving you a well-rounded perspective on how to go about writing a grant proposal for education.

• BE OPTIMISTIC

Usually there’s a kind of negative way of thinking when it comes to writing a grant proposal. Most people think about how much they are about to ask for, then wonder if the funds are actually going to be made available. First of all, getting people to believe in what you do for them to release their support in cash or kind could be quite tasking.

With a lot of fraudulent people out there only seeking to get money to use for their own private purposes, grant organizations and sponsors have to be careful. In spite of all these negative impressions, being optimistic about your proposal is paramount; it will give you the much-needed energy to persist when the times get hard.

When you face challenges putting together aspects of the proposal, or when you face challenges getting the administrative officer to sign off on the idea, you have to see yourself receiving the grant, see yourself executing the program successfully, just be super optimistic about the entire activity and you will see it will go a long way.

Writing needs inspirational energy, and a mind that cannot see things happening cannot access great ideas to document on paper. A negative mindset can make you take too much time in writing the proposal, because you really can’t see the idea taking off. When your mind is filled with negative thoughts, any little challenge you face could be made into a mountain of issues, you will suddenly have more reasons not to write.

However, the opposite is true when you have an optimistic mindset about the outcome of the entire process. You will be full of innovative ideas for the project, set-backs will be seen as stepping stones, and difficulty would be seen as training hoops you would have to scale through. In fact, it is this kind of enthusiastic approach to getting funds that will make your team members to give themselves entirely to the process; even they would want to see you succeed with your idea.

2. GET RELEVANT PEOPLE INVOLVED

It would be better for you if you have other people working on the proposal with you. This could be other teachers who can provide other perspectives to the project. Writing a proposal can be very tasking, you may even need the assistance of professionals.

Sometimes the person you need may not be someone who knows a lot about what is needed. It might just be someone who will read through the entire proposal for typographical error or spell checks. Sometimes this pair of fresh eyes can also comment on the way grammar is used in the proposal.

3. CROSS CHECK FOR MISTAKES

It’s just like writing an exam; you may need to cross check your entire document for simple mistakes that may cause the reviewer to see your proposal as a mediocre attempt. Most times when we write things like this, we are so busy looking at the bigger picture that we do not notice some of the little mistakes that may ruin our chances at receiving actual funds.

We can make mistakes in the way we write the document, the way we put together the budget, the way we address the grant organisation and so on. This is also one of the areas where you may definitely need someone to look through the entire proposal and give you feedback on how the entire write up is structured. They too can point out glaring mistakes that may have skipped your attention.

4. UNDERSTAND THE FUNDING ORGANISATION

You will be approaching an organisation for grants for your educational project; this organisation would be more obliged if they knew you had some type of understanding as to what they do. It’s like going for an interview with a firm and not knowing anything about what that firm.

So it would be advisable to research the grant organization of your choice, find out exactly what their interests are, what their vision is, and the kind of projects they have done before and so on. When you skillfully weave this into your write up, the reviewer will have the sense that you are not just approaching them for their money, but you actually care about what they care about. This will help tremendously in getting you the funding you need.

5. SEARCH FOR A GRANT ORGANISATION

This may as well be one of the very first few tips in writing an effective proposal for your educational project. First of all, look for organizations that are willing to make finances available for projects such as these. There are some who simply focus on making grants available for schooling projects alone, there are others who would be interested in the age group of the students who would benefit from the program and there are others that focus on the impact the program can have on the community.

Spending time to seek out the actual organizations you would be soliciting for their funds would give you a strong backbone for the proposal you are writing. It takes some type of insight to actually locate the organizations that will be willing to make this available to you.

6. ANALYZE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PROJECT

When looking into setting up a project like this, it would be much better to look into sustainability. Is it the kind of program that may require funding every academic session? If so would your granting agency be willing to make these monies available every academic session? How about staff, will those who volunteer their time for the program always feel okay about making their time available for the project?

These are questions you need to answer so that you will also know if you have what it takes to keep the program going. Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to start something when there are no clear-cut means of sustaining it. So, for the sake of maintaining your integrity, make sure you have paid attention to sustaining the program.

7. BE SIMPLE IN YOUR WRITING

The reviewer may not know most of the technical words that has to do with your field of expertise, so ensure you keep the wordings in your proposal simple enough for the reviewer to read through the document without getting a headache.

The truth is that you are trying to convince the reviewer about the potency of your idea; you are not trying to confuse the person. Usually when one finds it difficult to understand what is being communicated, one simply switches off. Nobody is going to grant a request for something they don’t understand.

Simplicity is the way to go when putting a document like this together. When I say simplicity, I mean in the syntax of the document not its content. It should make for an easy read, and the reviewer should be able to read through it effortlessly.

8. BE THOROUGH AND DETAILED

In order to be as thorough as you need to be, you need to spend a lot of time researching the various the project you want to execute. A person should be able to look at that proposal and see every detail of the project.

This is important because the reviewer would definitely have some questions about the project as they go through the proposal. Not only must you look into all the details, the project may require you to get into the mind of the reviewer and ask the questions he will most likely be thinking in his head.

This will ensure that there are no loopholes or places where the reviewer can develop faults with your writ up. You want to be faultless in your presentation of the facts; this type of excellent approach will definitely be an advantage to you getting the funds you need.

9. FOLLOW THE AGENCY’S GUIDELINES FOR WRITING A PROPOSAL

Some agencies have specified guidelines when it comes to grant proposals. When putting together your proposal, be sure to keep to those instructions; do not exceed the parameters they have provided for you. They may have their reasons; some may go as far as pointing out the font size you should use and how many pages the proposal should be. Adhering to the agency’s guidelines will make it easier for the agency to read your write up.

10. ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE WHAT IS NEEDED TO EXECUTE THE PROJECT

Writing the proposal is one thing, executing it is another. Sometimes the person or persons who wrote the proposals are not the people who will execute it.

If this is the case with your situation, then you may want to include certain details as to how the project can be executed so that in the situation where you are not the person to execute it, the desired outcome will still be achieved if the people who execute it follow the plans you have already laid out for the effective implementation of the project.

11. TIMELINE

It will be much better if the timeline for the completion of the project is clearly stated in the proposal. The timeline for project completion is one of the major keys to getting your proposal approved by the granting agency. Everyone who sees the proposal would know the duration of the entire program with intricate details. It informs very clearly the actual events and resources the project would require.

12. USE STATISTICAL DATA

In convincing the reviewer about your idea, stating the statistics that support your idea will go a long way in strengthening the reviewer’s conviction about your idea. The very first set of statistical data should be the one that supports your stance, the one that supports the reason why you think this project or program is worth the money you are seeking. Research and look for the actual numbers and build up your case.

Look for statistics that reveal the negative conditions that are very present within your field, these negative statistics are also part of the reasons your program should be approved, so that through the effective execution of your program, the negative statistics can be reduced.

13. EDUCATE YOURSELF ON GRANT PROPOSAL WRITING

Don’t assume you know it all, educate yourself on grant proposal writing. The more you know about writing grant proposals, the more you will get better at putting it together. Your skill for writing this type of proposal would increase as you continue to get more materials.

When you broaden your awareness as to how these write ups are made, what grant agencies are looking for and the various opportunities that are out there for those looking for grants, you will be on your way to getting more finances for your projects.

14. PUT TOGETHER THE CURRICULUM

So, the curriculum of the entire program has to be put together and it has to be designed in a way that it addresses the problem you are trying to solve. If there were not problems with the traditional way things are taught, you wouldn’t have thought to develop a new program to address those weaknesses in the former approach. So you would need to put together some type of curriculum for your proposed program.

15. IDENTIFY MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES

When you include measurable objectives in your proposal, it is most likely going to get more attention. It shows that the progress of the program on the students can be measured in very clear parameters. So, it is safe to say that if such a program is not effective it will be clear after some time, then the entire project would have to be reviewed to discover why the initial approach was not effective. Adjustments can be made to ensure better results will be achieved.

16. BE REALISTIC

When it comes to projecting how much effort it would take to actually execute the project, you have to be very realistic. Do not go over the top expressing your ability to deliver certain results or influence certain outcomes. Look at your key strengths and weaknesses and identify if you would be able to deliver on the level you have projected.

Look at the strengths and weaknesses of your team as well, because you would not be executing this plan on your own, your team members have a part to play in achieving the goals of the project.

Also, be realistic about what the students stand to gain from the entire project, being overly ambitious about these things may make expectations higher than what is necessary, hence putting yourself and your entire team under pressure to perform.

17. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

It will also help your case if you are able to present to the reviewer how this project will help the professional development of other teachers and professionals within the field where the project is focused on. This will give the reviewer the impression that this project will not only impact students who participate in it, but it will also add value to the professionals who take pride in this particular educational sector.

18. WRITE FOR THE RIGHT REVIEWER

The way you style your proposal would have to appeal to the agency or organization you are writing to. This means the way you would write to a State agency would definitely be different in style from the way you would write to a Federal agency. The same goes for if you are writing to a private funding organization. Most private funding organizations have strict guidelines as to how to go about this and so do the governmental agencies.

10 ELEMENTS OF A GRANT PROPOSAL FOR EDUCATION

When it comes to writing a grant proposal below are very important things that should make up the content of your proposal;

• INTRODUCTION

This is where you introduce yourself, your school and your project to the reviewing party. The introduction is so important because it can spell the difference between whether the reviewer would continue to read or simply put the proposal away. Be sure to explain why you intend to execute such a program, give brief indications on certain points you would be citing in the entire proposal.

The first thing you want to make sure you understand before you complete this particular section is the project. What projects have you decided on running, how will this project impact those who participate in it and the field in which it will make impact in? One suggestion is that it should be a project you are particularly passionate about and have already been nursing in your heart for a while.

You also want to briefly introduce the plan in this particular segment of the proposal, you do not need to go into details about the plan but a little summary of the various methods you intend to employ in executing the program will go a long way in making your proposal interesting for the reviewer. You should have already looked into all of the aspects of the plan before making the summary of the plan available for your introduction.

One thing that will help you put together an excellent proposal is when you get to understand why you need to write this proposal to get your grant. Your reason must be strong enough to compel you to the hard work of putting together a document like this. You must be fully convinced that such a program would be the solution to whatever challenge you may have noticed in the school.

Don’t just go into writing a proposal because you think you can, spend some time planning how you are going to put together this proposal and the kind of approach you are going to take. Look into the various aspects of the entire project and even research if such an idea had been done in any other place, find out how well it went with those students.

Also make sure you have received proper permission from the authorizing personnel before beginning your proposal. It would be very frustrating if you and your team spend so much time working on your proposal only to have it turned down by the school administrative board even before it goes before the reviewers.

• DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

Finally, you have the opportunity to go into details about the nature of the project. In the introduction, you had just given the reviewer a tip of the iceberg, so now; you have to go into full details as to how this project would be implemented.

You will be describing the various strategies you intend to use in this project, it would be much better if you carry out proper research about the methods and curriculum you want to use for the project, so that your description of the project can be convincing enough to receive a grant.

• THE NEED YOU INTEND TO MEET

For this proposal to be relevant there must be a need you intend to meet. This is the part of the proposal where you identify the problem facing the students. This is where you can freely use statistics to tell the story of the state of things and why they need to change.

Here you would explain why your method or approach to solving the problem would be effective. Get statistical data of how the methods you intend to employ for this program have worked in times past. Identify the need and further explain why this project is adequate for solving that problem.

Now you expand the solutions within the project as it has to do with solving the problem. Make sure to make this section as detailed as possible so as to really convince the reviewer of the effectiveness of your methods. Of course, you should have already done your research on how these solutions would work, your statistical data would also be plus in this particular aspect of the proposal.

• THE PLAN OF THE PROJECT

You have discussed the project in itself, but you didn’t go into the specific plans you intend to put in place to ensure that the objectives of the project are successful. This plan would include the strategies you intend to employ. The reviewer should be able to see the entire project unfold activity after activity, each of which would have its description, objectives and anticipated impact it hopes to instill in the students.

This is one of the most important aspects of the entire proposal; this is where you have to be as thorough as possible. Make sure to think about every fee that is payable to every participating body in the project. Do not forget to factor in tax payments as your grantee would most likely not make any more money available for the project once a particular amount is granted. So be sure to have done your homework, your research and anticipate all expenses as much as possible.

This is also where you need to ask for assistance from an accountant friend or someone who is good with numbers, someone who can help you look at the entire project and give you a very clear view of all the finances you would need to make the project a success.

Do not fall into the temptation of asking for more money than is required, do not pad the budget for selfish gains, it is understandable to make room for miscellaneous expenses, as one cannot anticipate every single thing that may happen as the project goes on.

• EVALUATION PLAN

You must have a way to evaluate how the entire project has been done, what needs to be improved and so on.

Looking through this entire article, you would find various tips that should help you secure the grants you need for the various educational programs you may want to establish in your school. Many have been successful with securing grants to the tune of $500,000 over the years.

So it is very possible to achieve those dreams for your school. Be sure to go through the various things discussed here and ensure that you write the best possible proposal for the project that will help with educating students in your school.

More on Business Grants

Developing Teaching & Learning Activities for Grant Proposals, Part 2

The overall goal of a grant proposal is to explain to the grant reviewers and funders how you will use their funding to create an impact on the world. While grants can be focused on creating many types of impact, here we discuss strategies for writing about teaching and learning activities (although many of these ideas will be widely-applicable to a range of grants!)

Overall, your grant should address the motivation for why you are proposing a specific activity and your plan for successfully implementing the proposed activity. Throughout your proposal, you should emphasize how your work will help the agency further their mission and achieve their goals. 

In sharing the motivations behind your work, your goal is to show reviewers that your idea has a solid foundation in existing work, but also extends existing knowledge in new, innovative ways. To demonstrate that your current ideas are likely to be successful, you should point to things you have already done that have helped you envision and prepare for the proposed activities (even if these are lessons you learned through experiencing or observing failures, it is great to show that you are always innovating!). Additionally, it is important to connect to the literature in a way that demonstrates your familiarity with existing work, your commitment to excellence through scholarship, and your understanding of how to further the field as a whole — by citing current literature, your proposal will demonstrate to the reviewers that you have the key foundational knowledge needed to design and implement your proposed activity.

In addition to carefully laying out the rationale for why you are proposing a specific activity, your implementation plans should include enough detail that the reviewers see you have a solid roadmap forward. You should highlight specific outputs and outcomes that you expect will result from your proposed activity, and which feed into the funders’ goals. By clearly defining the expected impact, you will then be able to include an evaluation plan that outlines how you will know if you’ve achieved your goals. Collecting information about what happened in your proposed activity (e.g., student reflections, a review of student projects) will allow you to share the lessons you’ve learned with others in the field so that they can build on your work. Because things often unfold in unexpected ways, both positive and negative, you may want your assessments to inform changes or improvements to other programs in your context.

While each grant has specific needs, in general these key elements will need to be addressed in most grant proposals related to teaching and learning. Below, we show examples of how others have addressed these topics in successful grant proposals (thank you to those who gave us permission to share their work!), and we offer considerations for you to think about as you develop your grant proposal.

Prior work by you

Sharing about prior work you’ve done and how it relates to the proposed activity is beneficial for many reasons: It shows funding agencies that you are an ideal person to carry out the proposed activities; it highlights your skills and achievements; and it helps show that you are not starting from scratch in this area. Some prompts to consider:

• How does your proposed activity build off of what you’ve done so far and what new things will be created if you receive funding?
• How can you show the grant reviewers that you will be able to achieve the proposed activity? 

Connection to existing literature

By showing reviewers how your proposed activity relates to existing literature, you demonstrate that your proposed activities have a theoretical foundation and a potential to expand knowledge in a given topic or discipline. A prompt to consider:

• How does your idea draw from published theories and build off of previously-successful educational activities?

Citing published literature shows reviewers that you are knowledgeable on the subject matter and demonstrates a commitment to making sure your proposed activities have the best chance to succeed. In addition to publications focused on education research, many disciplines have teaching or education-specific journals. Diving into the literature is hard work, but resources from the Northeastern Library can help you get started by finding journals on pedagogy:

• https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/edresearch
• https://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/sotl  

Expected impact and evaluation plan

Be clear about how you expect the proposed activities will benefit learners or other stakeholders, and how you will know if those outcomes were achieved. Additionally, it is helpful to include a plan for how you will identify areas for improvement and how you might modify your activities in the case where you don’t achieve the expected results the first time around. Some prompts to consider as you refine your ideas:

• Have you clearly defined specific, intended outcomes that are observable and measurable?
• What will be different if your funded activity is successful and who will benefit?
• What benefits would you expect in the short-term? Or in the longer-term?
• How will you be able to demonstrate that those benefits occurred?
• Will you measure your outcomes in a customized way, or using existing assessment tools? What modifications might be needed to adapt existing tools to your specific situation?

Connecting the key elements

Ideally your grant proposal will make it clear for your reader how your proposed activity connects to each of these key elements.  If you are addressing education activities as part of your Broader Impacts, you will also want to connect your proposed educational activities to your proposed research!

How CATLR Can Help

CATLR works with educators who are at any phase of developing new ways of educating, particularly for teaching and learning activities that are focused on higher education. Conversations with a CATLR consultant can help you refine your ideas; articulate your learning objectives; navigate the literature on education, pedagogy, and learning sciences; and construct meaningful assessments. While we encourage you to contact us at CATLR at any stage in the grant writing process, asking for assistance well in advance of your deadline (i.e., weeks or months) can allow for early and continuous feedback on your grant proposal. 

Ongoing conversations can help both the grant writer and CATLR identify opportunities for collaborations. These collaborations can take many forms, from providing iterative feedback to establishing more formal partnerships such as letters of support or involvement as co-investigators.

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EDUCATION CAREER GUIDES

Grant Writer Career

What is a grant writer.

A grant writer identifies grant opportunities, writes and polishes complete grant proposals, and submits those proposals for review. They maintain responsibility for most stages of the grant application process, managing grant proposals from initial creation stages through submission.

Grant writers typically require an undergraduate degree to be considered for hire. An advanced degree can help set you apart from the competition even more. In addition, some employers might prefer grant writers with experience in a grant writing setting.

RESPONSIBILITIES

What Does a Grant Writer Do?

Grant writers focus most of their attention on writing, revising, and submitting grant proposals throughout the year. They will also assist in identifying new grant opportunities, and can answer follow-up questions from government agencies issuing the grants.

The exact responsibilities of a grant writer can include:

• Identifying grant opportunities  in your local community and beyond.
• Communicating with government agencies , private trusts, and other organizations issuing grants.
• Writing grant proposals  according to grant requirements.
• Revising grant proposals  to create a polished, final version.
• Submitting grant proposals  before grant deadlines.
• I nforming executives and stakeholders  about potential grant opportunities.
• Collecting and submitting supportive documents  that help strengthen an organization’s case for receiving a grant.

These and other responsibilities keep grant writers busy, even when there are no proposals to be written.

EDUCATION & BEST DEGREES

What education does a grant writer need, before you can gain employment as a grant writer, you’ll need to complete a few educational requirements. first, you’ll need to obtain an undergraduate degree in a writing field or  educational studies , programs that teaches you the basics of composition, revision, style, and tone. these skills will help you craft authoritative grant proposals in a professional setting..

A  master’s in educational leadership  can help to improve your chances of getting a good grant writer job or improve your salary if you’re already working as a grant writer. This degree can give you the understanding of modern education and curriculum standards necessary to write compelling grant proposals.

Completing your education can make you eligible to apply for  school administration jobs , where grant writers can help connect teachers, and entire departments, with valuable resources. To be fully eligible for an education-based grant writing position, you may also need to obtain a bachelor’s degree in an academic field.

Best Degrees for a Grant Writer

These online, non-licensure educational studies degrees prepare you to...

These online, non-licensure educational studies degrees prepare you to make a difference in a field that interests you.

Based on your career goals and interests, you can choose an educational studies program in one of 10 content areas that meets your needs while working toward employment in school settings, corporate training, or instructional design. These programs do not lead to a teaching license.

• Time:  Completion time varies depending on the specialty track you choose.
• Tuition:  $3,825 per 6-month term.
• This bachelor's degree allows students to learn about education but does not include student teaching and it does not lead to a teaching license.

Focus areas of this educational studies degree program include:

• Elementary Education
• Elementary and Special Education
• Mild to Moderate Special Education
• Secondary Biology Science Education
• Secondary Chemistry Science Education
• Secondary Earth Science Education
• Secondary Physics Education
• Middle Grades Science Education
• Secondary Mathematics Education
• Middle Grade Mathematics Education

An online master's degree for current teachers looking to move into a...

An online master's degree for current teachers looking to move into a school or district leadership position, like principal, vice principal, or administrator.

• Time:  60% of grads earned this degree within 23 months.
• Tuition: $3,975 per 6-month term.
• Courses: 13 total courses in this program.

This program is for licensed teachers who are ready to take the next step in their education career.

Skills for your résumé included in this program:

• School Financial Leadership
• People & Talent
• School Operations and Management
• Leadership Ethics

Put your leadership skills to good use—in the service of America's children—with this education master's degree. 

States that do not accept this program: Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, and Minnesota.

How Much Does a Grant Writer Make?

The exact income of a grant writer can vary based on several different factors, including your employer, employer’s location, employer’s private or public funding, education, and years of experience. On average, the  salary of a grant writer  is $49,226, with a range of roughly $37,000 to $70,000 earned each year.

What Is the Projected Job Growth?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counts grant writers among other types of writers and authors when determining job outlook. From 2019 to 2029,  employment for authors and writers is expected to decline by 2% . Grant writers will need to actively adapt to improvements in writing technology. As a grant writer, the use of new writing tools, revisions applications, and grant submission programs will likely be an ongoing responsibility.

What Skills Does a Grant Writer Need?

Grant writers depend on well-developed skill sets to help them thrive in a variety of professional environments. These skills help them communicate effectively, both verbally and through written grant proposals.

The exact skills a grant writer needs can include:

• Grant writing.  The ability to draft grant proposals according to exact proposal requirements.
• Revision.  The ability to revise grant proposals according to style and tone best practices, suggestions from others, and proposal parameters.
• Time management.  The ability to complete tasks well before deadlines by allocating appropriate amounts of time to grant writing, revision, and submission tasks.
• Research.  The ability to identify new grant opportunities by utilizing search engines and local resources.
• Ongoing education.  The ability to continually pursue improved grant writing skills, specifically through  teaching and professional development courses .
• Interpersonal communication.  The ability to correspond effectively with other grant writers, organizational representatives, and any other individuals involved in the grant application process.
• Technological proficiency.  The ability to fully use all necessary pieces of technology, including computers, tablets, phones, online programs, and grant submission portals.
• Perseverance.  The ability to persist through grant rejections and unfulfilled applications, to eventually connect your organization with grant funding that enables specific projects.

These and other skills make grant writers crucial to the success of many nonprofit organizations and charities, which depend on grant funding for continued operations.

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All Articles Education Voice of the Educator Writing grants to fund educational projects and innovation

Writing grants to fund educational projects and innovation

Writing grants requires plenty of preparation and attention to detail, but it can yield dividends for classrooms, PD and other projects.

By Donna Spangler 05/10/23

Education Voice of the Educator

Jirapong Manustrong/Getty Images

As an educator, have you ever wished that you had funding to start a special project, improve resources beyond what is available through the yearly school budget, or fund a professional learning project? As a public school educator of 35 years, I have run into these situations several times and found a solution: writing and receiving educational grants.

Over the years, I have written six grants and received funding for five. Most recently, I received funding from a Learning & Leadership NEA Grant for a project called “Seeing Our Teaching through Our Students’ Eyes” for the 2022-23 school year. This project built an online collaborative learning community of teachers sharing classroom videos and asynchronous discussions, supported vertical articulation work, and enhanced coaching cycles using an online coaching and collaboration platform. 

Using video to share teaching practices with other educators positively impacted students’ learning experience and outcomes by promoting collaboration and sharing of best practices, enhancing teacher development, promoting teacher accountability, increasing focus on student learning and providing ongoing professional development opportunities. Using video as an instructional coach allowed teachers to track their progress and growth as educators, identify trends in teaching practices, set goals for improvement and monitor their progress toward their goals. Here is a 90-second overview of the project.

While it is never guaranteed that you will get the grant funding when you apply, you can take steps to increase the chance for your application or request for proposal to be accepted and find suitable funding.

How to remedy common pitfalls in writing grants

• Pitfall: Poor alignment between grant and funding source
• Remedy:  The grant must align with the grantor’s and applicant’s mission and values. You need to develop your grant funding search skills and verify the match, because failure to align decreases the chances of securing funding.
• Pitfall: Lack of clarity on the purpose and goals of the grant
• Remedy: It is essential that the purpose and goals of the grant are clear and specific. Vague or overly broad language can confuse the grantor and weaken the application.
• Pitfall: Weak argument or insufficient research
• Remedy:  You must state your purpose and case for need by building a strong argument. Typically, the person who tells the most compelling story will usually get the grant. You also want to cite the authoritative source(s). The proposal must deeply understand the target audience and the educational environment. Research should identify gaps in the current educational system, demonstrate the need for the proposed project and explain how it will meet those needs.
• Pitfall: Failing to address evaluation and impact 
• Remedy: The grantor wants to see evidence that the project is likely to have a measurable impact on the target audience. To do that, the proposal must include a plan for evaluating the project’s effectiveness and demonstrating its impact with measurable outcomes or mileposts. Think of a grant as a partnership. They’re investing in your vision of a better community. How will you add value to their money? How will you further their goals?
• Pitfall: Having a vague plan with inadequate details
• Remedy: The proposal must include a detailed execution and implementation plan. The plan must include timelines, major tasks, budget, staffing and resources needed to achieve the project’s goals. 
• Pitfall: Lack of sustainability
• Remedy: The grantor will want to see that the project can be sustained beyond the grant time frame. A proposal that lacks a plan for continued funding or resources to maintain the project is less likely to receive funding.
•  Pitfall: Deviating from the grant guidelines or poor writing
• Submit on time or early.
• Use the format (email, PDF, printed document) and number of copies required.
• Keep the narrative to the length stated in the guidelines.
• Be sure fonts, margins and spacing are adequate.
• Include any required budgets, prices, signatures and certifications. 
• If they provide you with review criteria (i.e., a rubric or checklist), use it, as grant reviewers may use those criteria to score your proposal for possible funding.
• Use clear, concise language; avoid jargon; and proofread carefully. No error is too small to correct.
• Root out inconsistencies in format, typos, misspellings, grammar, etc.

Where can I find grant funding?

Teachers can apply for grants from many places to use in their schools, classrooms or professional learning, depending on specific needs and goals. First, start with your own school or district, which may have a list of available grants or resources. 

Next, look online for state and federal, foundation and corporate, or even company or local grants to fund educational projects. Also, if you belong to educational associations, they may fund grants, so it is important to check those out.

Here are 10 places to start:

• Grants.gov is a central location for finding and applying for federal grants. This website lists all current federal grant opportunities, including those in the field of education.
• DonorsChoose is a nonprofit organization that helps teachers fund classroom projects and initiatives. Teachers can create project proposals, and donors can choose which projects to fund. DonorsChoose also offers professional development grants for teachers.
• The NEA Learning & Leading Grants , from The NEA Foundation, offers a variety of grants for educators, including grants for professional development, for classroom projects and for instructional coaches.
• GetEdFunding is a curated collection of thousands of grants and awards that grows by the day, created by educational professionals for educational professionals.
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides grants for educational initiatives to improve student outcomes and support teacher development.
• The Fund for Teachers offers grants to support self-designed professional development opportunities. Teachers can apply for grants to fund travel, courses or other activities that will enhance their teaching skills and benefit their students.
• The National Science Foundation offers grants for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education initiatives, as well as grants for teacher professional development in these areas.
• The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics offers grants for classroom resources, professional development and action research projects that focus on improving mathematics education.
• The Big List of K-12 Educational Grants for Teachers from WeAreTeachers has links to more than 30 grants.
• Inspiration for Instruction offers links to classroom grants and scholarships (some national and in the Oklahoma area, but similar organizations in other states could also have similar opportunities).

Remember that while writing a grant proposal can be challenging, it can be worthwhile. Grants can provide valuable classroom or professional development resources and help you achieve your teaching goals. With expanded opportunities and resources, teachers can provide better educational experiences for their students, develop new skills or knowledge, and keep their classrooms current. Good luck with your first (of many) grant funding search for your projects!

Donna Spangler is the K-12 instructional coach department chair for Derry Township School District in Hershey, Pa. She served as past co-president of the board for the Learning Forward PA, ran a school induction and mentoring program for six years and has co-authored a book. She also provides virtual coaching for Sibme .

Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own. 

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Subscribe to SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletter to see the latest hot topics on EdTech . It’s among SmartBrief’s more than 250 industry-focused newsletters .

How To Write An Educational Grant

Published: November 3, 2023

Understand the Purpose of the Grant

Before diving into the process of writing an educational grant, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of the purpose behind the grant. Grants are typically awarded to support specific educational initiatives and projects that align with the goals of the funding organization. By comprehending the purpose of the grant, you can tailor your proposal to meet the specific requirements and objectives set forth by the grant provider.

Start by researching the mission and values of the funding organization. Look for information on their website, read their mission statements, and review any previously funded projects. This will help you gain insights into the types of initiatives they prioritize and the impact they aim to make in the educational sector.

Next, carefully read through the grant guidelines and instructions. Pay attention to the eligibility criteria, funding priorities, and any specific requirements outlined by the grantor. Understanding these details will enable you to align your proposal with the grant’s objectives and demonstrate how your project fits within their funding parameters.

Additionally, consider the target audience and beneficiaries of the grant. Are you applying for a grant aimed at improving STEM education in underserved communities or enhancing arts education in low-income schools? Understanding the intended impact of the grant will allow you to design a project that addresses the needs and aspirations of the target audience.

Lastly, don’t hesitate to reach out to the grant provider for clarifications if any aspects of the grant’s purpose remain unclear. Contacting the organization directly can provide valuable insights and help you shape your proposal in a way that aligns with their vision.

A thorough understanding of the purpose of the grant will not only help you craft a persuasive proposal but also ensure that your project is in line with the grant’s intended outcomes. By demonstrating your alignment with the grant’s objectives, you increase your chances of securing funding for your educational initiative.

Research Grant Opportunities

When embarking on the journey of writing an educational grant, it is essential to conduct thorough research to identify relevant grant opportunities. By exploring different funding sources, you can increase your chances of finding grants that align with your proposed project and meet your funding needs.

Start your research by utilizing online resources and databases that specialize in listing available grants. Websites such as Grants.gov, Foundation Center, and GrantWatch offer comprehensive databases of grant opportunities from various sources, including government agencies, foundations, and corporations.

Consider narrowing down your search by filtering grants based on specific criteria such as target audience, project focus, or geographic region. This will save you time and help you identify grants that are most suitable for your educational initiative.

In addition to online resources, explore local community organizations, educational institutions, and professional associations that may offer grants specifically catered to the educational sector. Check their websites, reach out to their representatives, and attend networking events to stay informed about potential funding opportunities.

Pay attention to grant deadlines and submission requirements. Keep track of important dates and create a schedule to ensure you have ample time to prepare and submit your grant proposals.

Furthermore, consider reaching out to colleagues, mentors, and professionals in the field of education. They may have valuable insights and knowledge about grant opportunities that you might not come across during your research. Networking and gathering information from experienced professionals can significantly enhance your chances of finding suitable grant opportunities.

Remember, thorough research is key to discovering grant opportunities that align with your educational project’s goals and objectives. By investing time and effort in finding the right grants, you increase your chances of securing the necessary funding to bring your educational initiative to life.

Gather Information and Prepare a Proposal

Once you have identified a potential grant opportunity, it is time to gather the necessary information and begin preparing a compelling proposal. This stage requires careful planning and attention to detail to ensure that your proposal effectively communicates the value and potential impact of your educational project.

Begin by collecting relevant data and information that supports the need for your project. This may include statistics, research findings, or anecdotal evidence that highlights the problem or challenge your educational initiative aims to address. Presenting a strong case for the importance and urgency of your project is crucial in capturing the attention and interest of grant reviewers.

Next, outline the goals and objectives of your project. Clearly define what you aim to achieve and how your proposed activities will contribute to the desired results. Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). This demonstrates your commitment to ensuring the success and impact of your educational project.

Incorporate a detailed project description that outlines the activities, timeline, and resources required to execute your proposed initiative. Be specific about the target audience, the educational interventions or strategies you will employ, and any partnerships or collaborations that will enhance the project’s effectiveness and scale.

Furthermore, develop a robust budget that outlines the estimated costs associated with your project. Research and gather accurate information on the expenses you will incur, including personnel, equipment, supplies, and any other relevant costs. Ensure that your budget aligns with the grant’s funding parameters and showcases cost-effectiveness and fiscal responsibility.

Craft a compelling narrative that highlights the unique aspects of your educational project. Emphasize how it addresses a gap or challenges current practices, and clearly articulate the anticipated outcomes and impact. Use persuasive language to engage the grant reviewer and convey your passion and dedication towards the project’s success.

Lastly, ensure that your proposal is well-organized, properly formatted, and free from grammatical errors or typos. Presentation is key, and a professional and polished proposal will make a positive impression on the grant review committee.

Gathering information and preparing a well-structured proposal sets the foundation for a convincing grant application. By presenting a thorough and compelling case for your educational project, you increase the likelihood of securing the necessary funding to bring your vision to life.

Develop a Clear and Concise Project Description

When writing an educational grant proposal, it is essential to develop a clear and concise project description that effectively communicates the purpose, scope, and intended outcomes of your project. A well-crafted project description helps grant reviewers understand the significance and feasibility of your educational initiative.

Begin by providing an overview of the educational project. Clearly state the problem or need that your project aims to address. Explain why this issue is important and how it aligns with the goals and priorities of the grantor. Use data, research findings, or testimonials to provide evidence and support the significance of your project.

Outline the specific activities and interventions that will be implemented as part of your project. Describe the educational strategies, curriculum enhancements, or community engagement initiatives that will be utilized. Provide details on how these activities will contribute to the desired outcomes and impact.

Ensure that your project description is focused and concise. Avoid unnecessary jargon and complex terminology that may confuse or alienate grant reviewers. Use clear and straightforward language that is easily understandable by a wide range of readers.

Additionally, highlight any innovative or unique aspects of your project. If you are incorporating new technology, implementing a novel teaching approach, or leveraging community partnerships, emphasize these elements to showcase the originality and potential for long-term impact.

Provide a timeline or schedule that outlines the key milestones of your project. Clearly define the start and end dates, as well as any major deliverables or checkpoints along the way. This demonstrates your ability to plan and execute the project effectively within the given timeframe.

When developing the project description, it is important to align your educational objectives with the grantor’s mission and priorities. Clearly state how your project aligns with their funding goals and how it has the potential to advance their mission in the educational field.

Finally, review and revise your project description to ensure clarity, coherence, and alignment with the grant guidelines. Seek feedback from colleagues or mentors to gain different perspectives and insights.

By developing a clear and concise project description, you effectively communicate the purpose, activities, and expected outcomes of your educational initiative. This enhances your chances of securing funding for your project and allows grant reviewers to fully understand the value and impact of your proposal.

Outline the Goals and Objectives of the Project

When writing an educational grant proposal, it is crucial to clearly outline the goals and objectives of your project. These serve as the guiding principles that define what you aim to achieve and how you plan to make a positive impact in the field of education.

Start by identifying the overarching goal of your project. This should be a broad statement that encapsulates the ultimate outcome you hope to achieve. For example, your goal might be to improve literacy rates among elementary school students or to enhance STEM education in underrepresented communities.

Next, develop specific objectives that directly contribute to achieving the overall goal. Objectives should be clear, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Break down the broader goal into smaller, actionable steps that can be tracked and evaluated throughout the project’s duration.

Ensure that your objectives align with the grant’s funding priorities and the needs of the target audience. For example, if the grant focuses on improving teacher professional development, an objective may be to provide training workshops for educators in innovative teaching methodologies.

When outlining the objectives, consider the impact and outcomes you wish to see as a result of your project. Be specific about the changes or improvements you hope to make. Whether it’s an increase in student test scores, a boost in student engagement, or a decrease in dropout rates, clearly define the desired outcomes.

Moreover, it is essential to demonstrate the feasibility and measurability of your objectives. Outline the specific indicators, data, or metrics that will be used to assess progress and evaluate the success of your project. This allows grant reviewers to gauge the effectiveness and impact of your proposed initiatives.

By outlining the goals and objectives of your project, you provide a clear roadmap for how you plan to address the identified need or problem. Grant reviewers will appreciate the focus and clarity in your proposal, and it increases the likelihood of securing funding for your educational initiative.

Identify Budget and Funding Needs

When writing an educational grant proposal, it is crucial to identify and clearly articulate the budget and funding needs of your project. A well-planned and realistic budget helps grant reviewers understand the financial requirements and ensures that your proposed project is financially feasible.

Start by conducting a thorough assessment of all the costs associated with your educational initiative. Identify and itemize the various expenses such as personnel, materials, equipment, travel, training, and any other relevant costs. Be as specific and detailed as possible to provide a comprehensive picture of the funding needs.

Research and gather accurate information on the cost of each item. If possible, obtain quotes or estimates from vendors or suppliers to validate the accuracy of your budget projections. This demonstrates transparency and allows grant reviewers to evaluate the appropriateness of the funding request.

In addition to outlining expenses, also consider potential sources of income or in-kind contributions that can offset the total budget. This may include volunteer hours, donated materials, existing partnerships, or other forms of cost-sharing. Highlighting these contributions shows resourcefulness and can strengthen your funding request.

Ensure that your budget aligns with the grant’s funding parameters and restrictions. Review the grant guidelines to determine if there are any specific budget limitations or guidelines that need to be followed. Adhering to these requirements increases the chances of your proposal being considered favorably.

Present your budget in a clear and organized manner. Use tables or spreadsheets to break down the costs into categories and provide a summary of the total funding needed. Clearly label each item and provide justification for its inclusion in the budget.

Moreover, discuss the sustainability plan for your project beyond the grant period. Outline how you plan to secure ongoing funding or support to ensure the long-term continuation and impact of your educational initiative. This demonstrates foresight and enhances the credibility of your proposal.

Review and edit your budget carefully to eliminate any errors or inconsistencies. Seek the input of colleagues or mentors to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness.

By identifying the budget and funding needs of your project, you provide grant reviewers with a clear understanding of the financial requirements and demonstrate your ability to effectively manage the allocated resources. A well-prepared budget increases the chances of securing the necessary funding to implement and sustain your educational project.

Write an Effective Write-Up for Grant Applications

When applying for an educational grant, writing an effective write-up is crucial for capturing the attention of grant reviewers and conveying the value and impact of your project. A well-crafted write-up showcases your passion, expertise, and dedication, increasing your chances of securing the funding you need.

Start by clearly articulating the problem or need that your project aims to address. Present compelling evidence that demonstrates the significance and urgency of the issue. Use data, research findings, or real-life stories to create a sense of importance and highlight the relevance of your educational initiative.

When describing your project, be concise and specific. Clearly outline the activities, interventions, or strategies that will be implemented to achieve the desired outcomes. Emphasize the innovative or unique aspects of your project that set it apart from others. Use descriptive language to create a vivid picture in the minds of the grant reviewers.

Highlight the anticipated outcomes and impact of your project. Clearly state the goals you aim to achieve and the long-term benefits for the target audience and the educational community. Be realistic and quantifiable in your projections to showcase the measurable impact of your proposed project.

Think about the grantor’s mission and priorities and ensure that your write-up aligns with them. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the grant provider’s goals and values and explain how your project aligns with their objectives. This shows that you have done your research and are committed to advancing their mission.

Use persuasive language and storytelling techniques to engage the grant reviewers. Bring your project to life by incorporating anecdotes, testimonials, or personal experiences that demonstrate the potential positive outcomes. Craft the write-up in a way that appeals to the emotions and values of the reviewers.

Address any potential challenges or risks associated with your project and explain how you plan to mitigate them. Show your preparedness and proactive approach to handling obstacles. This indicates that you have carefully considered all aspects of the project and are equipped to navigate potential pitfalls.

Review your write-up for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. Eliminate unnecessary jargon or technical terms that may confuse or alienate the reviewers. Seek feedback from colleagues, mentors, or other trusted individuals to ensure that your write-up effectively communicates the value and potential of your educational initiative.

By writing an effective write-up for the grant application, you make a compelling case for the importance and impact of your project. A well-crafted write-up increases your chances of securing the funding needed to make your educational vision a reality.

Review and Revise the Proposal

Reviewing and revising your grant proposal is a critical step in ensuring its clarity, coherence, and overall effectiveness. Taking the time to carefully evaluate and refine your proposal can significantly increase its chances of being successful in securing funding for your educational project.

Start by reviewing the proposal for any grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors. Attention to detail is crucial in presenting a professional and polished document. Proofread the proposal thoroughly, or consider asking someone else to review it with a fresh set of eyes.

Check the overall structure and organization of the proposal. Is the content presented in a logical and coherent manner? Are the sections and subheadings clearly defined? Make adjustments as needed to ensure a smooth flow of information throughout the document.

Evaluate the language and tone used in the proposal. Is it engaging, persuasive, and aimed at capturing the interest of the grant reviewers? Consider using active and descriptive language to paint a vivid and compelling picture of your educational initiative.

Assess the clarity and conciseness of your writing. Aim for a balance between providing enough detail to effectively convey your ideas, and avoiding unnecessary repetition or wordiness. Be concise and focused, ensuring that every sentence serves a purpose and contributes to the overall coherence of the proposal.

Review the alignment between your proposal and the grant requirements. Double-check that you have addressed all the necessary sections and have met the criteria outlined by the grantor. Ensure that your proposal makes a clear connection between your project and the goals of the funding organization.

Evaluate the feasibility and practicality of your project. Consider the resources and capacities required to implement the proposed activities. Revise any aspects that may be unrealistic or difficult to achieve given the available resources and time frame.

Seek feedback from colleagues, mentors, or other experts in the field of education. Their input can provide valuable insights and perspectives that can strengthen your proposal. Be open to constructive criticism and be willing to incorporate suggested improvements into your revisions.

Finally, conduct a final comprehensive review of the entire proposal. Check that all sections are complete, cohesive, and consistent in style and formatting. Verify that all necessary supporting documents are included and properly referenced.

By diligently reviewing and revising your proposal, you ensure that it is a well-crafted document that effectively conveys the value and potential impact of your educational project. Spending time and effort in this stage greatly enhances your chances of success in securing the funding needed to bring your vision to life.

Submit the Grant Application

After meticulously preparing your grant proposal, it’s time to submit your application. This step requires attention to detail and adherence to the submission guidelines set by the grantor to give your educational project the best chance of securing funding.

First and foremost, carefully review the submission instructions provided by the grantor. Pay attention to the deadline, required format (such as online or physical submission), and any specific documentation or supporting materials that need to be included.

Gather all the necessary documents and ensure they are complete and well-organized. Double-check that you have included all the required attachments, such as resumes, letters of support, or budget spreadsheets. Label and arrange the documents in the order specified by the grantor.

Proofread your entire application one final time to catch any errors or inconsistencies. Check for spelling mistakes, grammar errors, or missing sections. Review each component of the proposal to ensure it aligns with the grant guidelines, flows logically, and effectively communicates the value of your educational project.

Make copies of the application for your records, and keep track of the date and time of submission. If submitting online, be mindful of any confirmation emails or receipts to ensure your application has been successfully received. If submitting by mail or courier, consider using a tracking service to monitor the delivery of your application.

Finally, submit your grant application before the designated deadline. Allow ample time to account for any unforeseen technical issues or delivery delays. If possible, submit the application well in advance to avoid any last-minute rush or potential issues.

Once the application has been submitted, resist the temptation to make any further changes unless requested by the grantor. Trust in the thoroughness and quality of your proposal and have confidence in the value of your educational project.

Submission of the grant application marks a significant milestone in your journey toward securing funding for your educational project. By following the submission guidelines and ensuring the completeness and quality of your application, you increase your chances of receiving the funding needed to make a positive impact in the field of education.

Follow-Up and Grant Management

After submitting your grant application, it is important to engage in follow-up activities and effective grant management to maximize the success and impact of your educational project. This stage involves staying connected with the grantor, tracking progress, and fulfilling reporting and accountability requirements.

Communication with the grantor is crucial. If the grantor allows, send a polite follow-up email or make a phone call to inquire about the status of your application. Express gratitude for their consideration and ask if there is any additional information they may need from you. This demonstrates your proactive engagement and commitment to the project.

Once the grant is awarded, carefully review the terms and conditions outlined by the grantor. Familiarize yourself with any reporting requirements, timelines, or other obligations that need to be fulfilled. Create a schedule to ensure these responsibilities are met in a timely manner.

Establish a system to track project progress, expenses, and milestones. This can include regular meetings, documentation of activities, and financial record-keeping. Proper project management allows for effective monitoring and evaluation of the project’s outcomes.

Maintain open and ongoing communication with the grantor throughout the project’s implementation. Provide updates on the progress, challenges faced, and successes achieved. Keep the grantor informed about any changes or adjustments to the project plan, and seek their guidance or approval when necessary.

Ensure that all budgetary expenses are managed responsibly and in line with the grantor’s guidelines. Keep detailed records of all expenses, and regularly reconcile the budget to ensure proper financial management and accountability.

Adhere to any reporting requirements stipulated by the grantor. Submit progress reports, financial statements, or other documents as requested. Use these reports as opportunities to showcase the impact and outcomes of your project, and provide any necessary explanations or justifications for unexpected challenges or changes.

Finally, express gratitude to the grantor for their support. Send a comprehensive final report, detailing the project’s accomplishments, challenges faced, and lessons learned. Include stories, testimonials, and data that demonstrate the project’s success in achieving its intended outcomes.

By following up and effectively managing the grant, you establish a strong relationship with the grantor and ensure transparency and accountability. Proper grant management increases the likelihood of future funding opportunities and establishes your reputation as a reliable and effective educational project implementer.

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Grant Writing in the Sciences

Self-Paced Online

5/26/2023 - 5/26/2026

This course aims to provide a basic primer on grant writing including learning about available resources, strategies, and approaches for developing grants, along with developing skills in grant planning and preparation.

Intended Audience

This course will help you develop perspectives and learn about available resources and strategies. The course consists of approximately eight hours of self-paced online materials.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Define which type of NIH grant is most appropriate for a project, given study goals, level of development of the research and NIH requirements.
• Identify the general procedures for preparing and submitting an NIH application, which reflects the process of grant preparation and review.
• Locate resources and apply approaches related to your individual fields to navigate the research landscape.
• Demonstrate comprehension of the specific meaning of NIH “Scored Review Criteria” and how it contributes to the “Overall Impact Score of the grant”, which translates to funding decisions.
• Demonstrate how to relate each specific component and the overall structure of an NIH research grant to the NIH “Scored Review Criteria”.
• Define the purpose of the Specifics Aims (SA) page.
• Identify the importance of preliminary data in supporting a funding application.
• Define the components of an NIH biosketch and draft a working personal statement section.
• List the components of the NIH concept “scientific rigor” and describe how this can be addressed in an application.

This course is primarily delivered via recorded lectures, supplemental resources to help you continue learning, and unit quizzes to test your knowledge.

Topics covered include:

• Types of NIH Grants
• Procedures for Preparing and Submitting an NIH Application
• Resources and Approaches to Knowing Your Field
• Developing a Budget for an NIH Grant
• How to Complete NIH Other Support
• How Grants are Scored
• Fellowship Applications
• Grant Review
• Planning and Writing Specific Aims
• Specific Aims Example - Basic/Translational Lab Science
• Specific Aims Example - Behavioral Science
• The Importance of Preliminary Data
• How to Work with a Biostatistician
• Tables and Figures
• The NIH Biosketch - Putting your best foot forward
• The NIH Biosketch
• Scientific Rigor and Protection of Subjects

This course is intended for those who want or need to develop perspectives and learn about available resources and strategies for writing scientific grants.

Learner Testimonials:

“The NIH-focused approach was the best part. The course trained on the highest standard like NIH that gives us confidence to apply for any grant body.” 

“1. Loved how practical the class is. 2. As a beginner in the field, the course gave me a fair idea about what needs to be kept in mind while writing a grant and what 'scoring criteria' are used while deciding the funding.” 

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American Grant Writers' Association ℠   is the national association of professional grant writers and grant managers. Our 1,200 members work as Employees or Grant Consultants at Government Agencies, School Districts, Higher Education Institutions, Corporations, Foundations, Native Tribes, and Non-Profit Organizations throughout the United States and abroad.  Some of our members are now studying to become grant writers, grant consultants, or grant managers.

All of our members are required to abide by AGWA's Professional Standards and Code of Ethics.   Click here The association offers ...

• I ndividual Membership
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• Annual AGWA Membership is included in your purchase.
• Click here for English version of CGW Series Online
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• Online Course for Grant Management    Click here
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MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of American Grant Writers' Association ℠  is to enhance the professional standards and ethical practices of grantseekers and grant managers through education, certification, networking, and professional growth.

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Grant Writing & Non-Profit Management

Master nonprofit fundraising.

Grant writing is one of the most important aspects of working in the nonprofit sector. The success of a nonprofit comes down to how they structure their organization and how well they fundraise. This 100% online course will train you to manage the entire process of writing a funding proposal for your nonprofit organization. You'll learn how to create a successful grant proposal and manage your organizational goals, projects and outcomes.

Course Objectives

• Be able to research, plan and write effectively for multiple purposes in the nonprofit sector
• Understand the entire grant proposal writing process, including defining scope, project management and financial projections
• Identify roles of funding agencies, philanthropic foundations and giving institutions
• Develop effective nonprofit management strategies
• Develop effective research strategies, data collection, and invention
• Develop managerial skills that will enable you to supervise both projects and people

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• PayScale.com estimates that grant writers can earn up to $68,000 annually, with the current median salary sitting around $48,000.
• According to Salary.com, the base salary for Non-Profit Grant Writer ranges from $43,873 to $52,070 with the average base salary of $47,005.

Grant Writing & Nonprofit Management FAQs

Why do nonprofits need grant writers.

Not-for-profit (or nonprofit) 501(c) entities rely on fundraising and development to sustain their mission. Grant writing is one of the key strategies in the nonprofits sector for fundraising.

What do nonprofit managers do?

Nonprofit managers to oversee organizational structure and day-to-day activities of a nonprofit. These individuals focus on administration rather than generating revenue. However, for many small or startup nonprofits, the roles of fundraising and management may fall on the same individual.

Are there other ways nonprofits can fundraise?

Yes. Beyond grant writing, organizations can set up auctions, donation drives, events and more. To do this, a nonprofit must have a clear mission, vision and organizational structure.

What type of grants are available for nonprofits?

Federal, state, foundation and corporate grants are available. The Federal government is the largest source of grant funding.

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More From Forbes

A breakthrough in better, cheaper, and faster education r&d.

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A teacher helps a young boy with computer-based learning in a classroom with a focus on coding and ... [+] basic digital literacy.

Social scientists have been studying teaching and learning since the late 1890s, yet so much of what is known in the field isn’t supported by the rigorous research and testing that is the standard in other fields, like medicine. For example, despite countless studies, educators still cannot say with confidence why some learning strategies work well with some kids but not others. And although almost everyone thinks they know good teaching when they see it, there is little agreement on the necessary components of effective teaching .

That's why the news this week of an unprecedented grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to OpenStax at Rice University is so exciting. The $90-million award will create the infrastructure and datasets needed to answer these types of questions with rigor and certainty.

The grant is the single largest investment in education R&D infrastructure ever made by the National Science Foundation. It will allow OpenStax to implement SafeInsights , a large-scale education research hub that will facilitate research on how students of all different backgrounds learn best while also protecting student privacy. What this groundbreaking new infrastructure could mean for education research is incredibly exciting.

The “Telescope” of Education R&D

So what is this new tool and what makes it unique? SafeInsights is a national scientific cyberinfrastructure that will facilitate research coordination and data usage across major digital learning apps and websites. Think of it as NASA’s James Webb Telescope for education R&D. Like the telescope, SafeInsights is a cutting-edge tool that no one scientist or researcher could create on their own. Rather, it’s a resource created in collaboration with multiple institutions and made possible through federal funding. And, like the Webb telescope, it will be accessible to the research community and unleash countless possibilities for what can be explored and uncovered.

In essence, this investment from the National Science Foundation will make education research better, cheaper, and faster – and increase understanding of what works for which students, and in what conditions. New, SafeInsights-enabled research findings will inform the development and scaling of innovative tools and approaches to improve outcomes for millions of kids.

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NSF’s Mid-scale grant program supports the design and implementation of crucial research infrastructure, from advanced equipment to cyberinfrastructure and large-scale datasets. The projects it funds address community-defined scientific needs and tackle key national research priorities. To realize their full potential, Mid-scale projects involve creating shared data resources and building tools for widespread community use.

Tackling Historic Challenges In Education R&D

Two features make SafeInsights particularly promising in the quest to understand the predictors of effective teaching and learning. First, SafeInsights prioritizes the privacy and protection of student data. The need to protect student information, while using it to glean new insights, has been a long-standing challenge in education R&D. With a safe way to store and learn from student data, opportunities for fresh and more coordinated research abound.

Second, SafeInsights prioritizes including students, educators, and researchers from diverse backgrounds. For far too long, education R&D has not been representative of the students it intends to serve, leading to biased data, research findings, and solutions. By diversifying stakeholders involved in education R&D, this new infrastructure will unlock insights into what works, for which learners, and in what educational contexts.

Laying The Groundwork For New Infrastructure

OpenStax at Rice University is the first education-focused recipient of a Mid-scale Research Infrastructure grant from the NSF, but it probably will not be the last. Right now, the NSF, in partnership with three philanthropies, is laying the groundwork for new Mid-scale proposals through an incubator program. Alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Schmidt Futures, and the Walton Family Foundation, the NSF has invited proposals for Mid-scale Research Infrastructure Incubators and Conferences for STEM Education Research with a Focus on Education Equity .

Launched just last year, this program has already funded seven incubators and two conferences to explore the development of mid-scale research infrastructure in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, particularly for students who have been historically underrepresented in STEM. As the NSF’s invitation to submit proposals notes, mid-scale research infrastructure in STEM education is “a relatively new concept…because STEM education research has traditionally been distributed, individual, and less reliant on instrumentation. Improving the speed and scale at which STEM education research advances, however, requires national research infrastructures.”

I’ll share a few of the Mid-scale incubator projects that I think hold great potential. The INTERACT Incubator at Indiana University Bloomington, led by Ben Motz and Mary Murphy, is building off their work with Terracotta and Equity Accelerator to design infrastructure that will dramatically improve equity in STEM. Meanwhile, Justin Reich’s team at MIT is collecting large scale data on teacher “moves” – their improvisational interactions with learners – to develop a free, open dataset of "one million" teacher moves that can inform the science of teaching and the development of intelligent tutoring tools.

I’m optimistic about the future of education innovation because of the NSF’s deep investment in education research infrastructure – and the way the education research community has risen to the occasion. If we build on this momentum and continue to develop new infrastructure in education R&D, we’ll gain new insights into teaching and learning and students will reap the benefits.

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Justices Seem Ready to Limit the 2020 Election Case Against Trump

Such a ruling in the case, on whether the former president is immune from prosecution, would probably send it back to a lower court and could delay any trial until after the November election.

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Charlie Savage and Alan Feuer

Charlie Savage reported from Washington, and Alan Feuer from New York.

Here are four takeaways from the Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s claim to immunity.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday about Donald J. Trump’s claim that the federal charges accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election must be thrown out because he is immune from being prosecuted for any official act he took as president.

Here are some takeaways.

Several justices seemed to want to define some level of official act as immune.

Although Mr. Trump’s claim of near-absolute immunity was seen as a long shot intended primarily to slow the proceedings, several members of the Republican-appointed majority seemed to indicate that some immunity was needed. Some of them expressed worry about the long-term consequences of leaving future former presidents open to prosecution for their official actions.

Among others, Justice Brett Kavanaugh compared the threat of prosecution for official acts to how a series of presidents were “hampered” by independent counsel investigations, criticizing a 1984 ruling that upheld a now-defunct law creating such prosecutors as one of the Supreme Court’s biggest mistakes. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. criticized an appeals court ruling rejecting immunity for Mr. Trump, saying he was concerned that it “did not get into a focused consideration of what acts we are talking about or what documents are talking about.”

“It’s a serious constitutional question whether a statute can be applied to the president’s official acts. So wouldn’t you always interpret the statute not to apply to the president, even under your formulation, unless Congress had spoken with some clarity?” “I don’t think across the board that as serious constitutional question exists on applying any criminal statute to the president.” “The problem is the vague statute — obstruction and 371, conspiracy to defraud the United States can be used against a lot of presidential activities historically with a creative prosecutor who wants to go after a president.” “I think that the question about the risk is very serious. And obviously it is a question that this court has to evaluate. For the executive branch, our view is that there is a balanced protection that better serves the interests of the Constitution that incorporates both accountability and protection for the president.”

The Democrat-appointed justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — asked questions indicating greater concern about opening the door for presidents to commit official crimes with impunity.

“This is what you’re asking us to say, which is that a president is entitled not to make a mistake — but more than that, a president is entitled for total personal gain to use the trappings of his office. That’s what you’re trying to get us to hold — without facing criminal liability.” “Your honor, I would say three things in response to that. First, the doctrine that immunity does not turn on the allegedly improper motivation or purpose is something that this court has reaffirmed in at least nine or 10 —” “That’s absolute immunity. But qualified immunity does say that whatever act you take has to be within what a reasonable person would do. I’m having a hard time thinking that creating false documents, that submitting false documents, that ordering the assassination of a rival, that accepting a bribe, and countless other laws that could be broken for personal gain, that anyone would say that it would be reasonable for a president or any public official to do that.”

The arguments signaled further delay and complications for a Trump trial.

If the Supreme Court does place limits on the ability of prosecutors to charge Mr. Trump over his official actions, it could alter the shape of his trial.

A decision to send all or part of the case back to the lower courts could further slow progress toward a trial, increasing the odds that it does not start before Election Day.

Of the matters listed in the indictment, some — like working with private lawyers to gin up slates of fraudulent electors — seem like the private actions of a candidate. Others — like pressuring the Justice Department and Vice President Mike Pence to do things — seem more like official acts he took in his role as president.

At one point, Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that prosecutors could simply drop Mr. Trump’s arguably official actions from their case and proceed to a swift trial focused only on his private actions. And D. John Sauer, the lawyer for Mr. Trump, told the court that no evidence of Mr. Trump’s official actions should be allowed into the trial.

But Michael R. Dreeben, a Justice Department lawyer arguing on behalf of the special counsel’s office, said the indictment laid out an “integrated conspiracy” in which Mr. Trump took the official actions to bolster the chances that his other efforts to overturn the election would succeed.

He argued that even if the court holds that Mr. Trump has immunity from liability for his official actions, prosecutors should still be allowed to present evidence about them to the jury because the actions are relevant to assessing his larger knowledge and intentions — just as speech that is protected by the First Amendment can still be used as evidence in a conspiracy case.

The hearing revolved around two very different ways of looking at the issue.

Looming over the hearing was a sweeping moral question: What effect might executive immunity have on the future of American politics?

Not surprisingly, the two sides saw things very differently.

Mr. Sauer claimed that without immunity, all presidents would be paralyzed by the knowledge that once they were out of office, they could face an onslaught of charges from their rivals based on the tough calls they had to make while in power. He pictured a dystopian world of ceaseless tit-for-tat political prosecutions that would destroy the “presidency as we know it.”

If a president can be charged, put on trial and imprisoned for his most controversial decisions as soon as he leaves office, that looming threat will distort the president’s decision-making precisely when bold and fearless action is most needed. Every current president will face de facto blackmail and extortion by his political rivals while he is still in office. The implications of the court’s decision here extend far beyond the facts of this case. Could President George W. Bush have been sent to prison for obstructing an official proceeding or allegedly lying to Congress to induce war in Iraq? Could President Obama be charged with murder for killing U.S. citizens abroad by drone strike? Could President Biden someday be charged with unlawfully inducing immigrants to enter the country illegally for his border policies? The answer to all these questions is no.

Envisioning the opposite scenario, Mr. Dreeben worried that any form of blanket immunity would place presidents entirely outside of the rule of law and encourage them to commit crimes, including “bribery, treason, sedition, even murder,” with impunity.

“The framers knew too well the dangers of a king who could do no wrong,” he said.

This court has never recognized absolute criminal immunity for any public official. Petitioner, however, claims that a former president has permanent criminal immunity for his official acts unless he was first impeached and convicted. His novel theory would immunize former presidents for criminal liability; for bribery, treason, sedition, murder and here, conspiring to use fraud to overturn the results of an election and perpetuate himself in power. Such presidential immunity has no foundation in the Constitution. The framers knew too well the dangers of a king who could do no wrong.

Both sides found advocates for their positions on the court.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. clearly seemed worried that without some form of criminal immunity, former presidents would be vulnerable to partisan warfare as their successors used the courts to go after them once they were out of office. And that, he added, could lead to endless cycles of retribution that would be a risk to “stable, democratic society.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared more concerned that if presidents were in fact shielded by immunity, they would be unbounded by the law and could turn the Oval Office into what she described as “the seat of criminality.”

If someone with those kinds of powers, the most powerful person in the world with the greatest amount of authority, could go into office knowing that there would be no potential penalty for committing crimes, I’m trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into the seat of criminal activity in this country? If the potential for criminal liability is taken off the table, wouldn’t there be a significant risk that future presidents would be emboldened to commit crimes with abandon while they’re in office? It’s right now the fact that we’re having this debate, because O.L.C. has said that presidents might be prosecuted. Presidents from the beginning of time have understood that that’s a possibility. That might be what has kept this office from turning into the kind of crime center that I’m envisioning. But once we say no criminal liability, Mr. President, you can do whatever you want, I’m worried that we would have a worse problem than the problem of the president feeling constrained to follow the law while he’s in office.

What happens next?

There did not seem to be a lot of urgency among the justices — especially the conservative ones — to ensure that the immunity question was resolved quickly. That left open the possibility that Mr. Trump could avoid being tried on charges of plotting to overturn the last election until well after voters went to the polls to decide whether to choose him as president in this election.

And if he is elected, any trial could be put off while he is in office, or he could order the charges against him dropped.

It could take some time for the court to do its own analysis of what presidential acts should qualify for the protections of immunity. And even if the justices determine that at least some of the allegations against Mr. Trump are fair game for prosecution, if they do not issue a ruling until late June or early July, it could be difficult to hold a trial before November.

That would become all but impossible if the court took a different route and sent the analysis back to the trial judge, Tanya S. Chutkan. If Judge Chutkan were ordered to hold further hearings on which of the indictment’s numerous allegations were official acts of Mr. Trump’s presidency and which were private acts he took as a candidate for office, the process could take months and last well into 2025.

Aishvarya Kavi

Reporting from Washington

A spectacle outside the Supreme Court for Trump’s defenders and detractors.

Just as the Supreme Court began considering on Thursday morning whether former President Donald J. Trump was entitled to absolute immunity, rap music started blaring outside the court.

The lyrics, laced with expletives, denounced Mr. Trump, and several dozen demonstrators began chanting, “Trump is not above the law!”

Mr. Trump was not in Washington on Thursday morning — in fact, he was in another courtroom , in New York. But the spectacle that pierced the relative tranquillity outside the court was typical of events that involve him: demonstrations, homemade signs, police, news media, and lots and lots of curious onlookers.

One man, Stephen Parlato, a retired mental health counselor from Boulder, Colo., held a roughly 6-foot-long sign with a blown-up photo of Mr. Trump scowling that read, “Toxic loser.” The back of the sign featured the famous painting by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge of dogs playing poker, adorned with the words, “Faith erodes … in a court with no binding ethics code.” He made the sign at FedEx, he said.

The Supreme Court’s decision to even hear the case, which has delayed Mr. Trump’s election interference trial , was “absurd,” he said.

“I’m a child of the late ’60s and early ’70s and the Vietnam War,” said Mr. Parlato, dressed in a leather jacket and cowboy hat. “I remember protesting that while in high school. But this is very different. I’m here because I’m terrified of the possibility of a second Trump presidency.”

Inside the court, Jack Smith sat to the far right of the lawyer arguing on behalf of his team of prosecutors, Michael R. Dreeben, a leading expert in criminal law who has worked for another special counsel who investigated Mr. Trump, Robert S. Mueller III.

Among those in attendance were Jane Sullivan Roberts, who is married to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., and Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, who is married to Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

In an orderly line outside along the side of the court, people were calmly waiting to listen to the arguments from the court’s public gallery. More than 100 people, many of them supporters of Mr. Trump, were in line as of 8:30 a.m. Reagan Pendarvis, 19, who had been waiting there since the middle of the night, said the first person in line had gotten there more than a day before the arguments began.

Mr. Pendarvis, a sophomore at the University of California, San Diego who is living in Washington for the spring semester, was wearing a black suit and bright red bow tie. He said he had been struggling to keep warm since he took his place in line.

Mr. Pendarvis, a supporter of Mr. Trump, said he thought that the cases brought against the former president were an uneven application of the law.

“I think a lot of the cases, especially that happen for Donald Trump, don’t really happen for Democrats on the other side,” he said. “That’s just my take on it.”

David Bolls, 42, and his brother, Jonathan, 43, both of Springfield, Va., also in line for the arguments, also contended that the prosecutions against Mr. Trump were an abuse of judicial power.

“For me, I want to see an even application of justice,” David Bolls said.

For others in line, the Supreme Court’s deliberations were not the main draw. Ellen Murphy, a longtime Washington resident, was trying to sell buttons she designs, though she acknowledged that it was unlikely she would be allowed in with all of her merchandise.

Dozens of the buttons, which said, “Immunize democracy now” and “Trump is toast” over a toaster with two slices of bread, were pinned to a green apron she was wearing.

“We lose our democracy,” Ms. Murphy said, “if the president can do whatever he wants just because he’s president.”

Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.

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Adam Liptak

What’s next: Much will turn on how quickly the court acts.

The justices heard arguments in the immunity case at a special session, the day after what had been the last scheduled argument of its term. Arguments heard in late April almost always yield decisions near the end of the court’s term, in late June or early July.

But a ruling in early summer, even if it categorically rejected Mr. Trump’s position, would make it hard to complete his trial before the election. Should Mr. Trump win at the polls, there is every reason to think he would scuttle the prosecution.

In cases that directly affected elections — in which the mechanisms of voting were at issue — the court has sometimes acted with unusual speed.

In 2000, in Bush v. Gore, the court issued its decision handing the presidency to George W. Bush the day after the justices heard arguments.

In a recent case concerning Mr. Trump’s eligibility to appear on Colorado’s primary ballot, the justices moved more slowly, but still at a relatively brisk pace. The court granted Mr. Trump’s petition seeking review just two days after he filed it , scheduled arguments for about a month later and issued its decision in his favor about a month after that.

In United States v. Nixon, the 1974 decision that ordered President Richard M. Nixon to comply with a subpoena for audiotapes of conversations with aides in the White House, the court also moved quickly , granting the special prosecutor’s request to bypass the appeals court a week after it was filed.

The court heard arguments about five weeks later — compared with some eight weeks in Mr. Trump’s immunity case. It issued its decision 16 days after the argument , and the trial was not delayed.

Abbie VanSickle

The oral argument lasted nearly three hours, as the justices tangled with a lawyer for the former president and a Justice Department lawyer. A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of the idea of sweeping presidential immunity. However, several of them suggested an interest in drawing out what actions may be immune and what may not — a move that could delay the former president’s trial if the Supreme Court asks a lower court to revisit the issues.

Many of the justices seemed to be considering the idea that presidents should enjoy some form of protection against criminal prosecution. The devil, however, will be in the details: How should that protection extend?

And that question will have profound relevance not only for future presidents, but much more immediately for Donald Trump. The court could decide to draw those rules itself in a broad way for history. Or it could send this case back to a lower court to set the rules of what form immunity could take. If the case is sent back for further proceedings, it could have a dramatic effect on the timing of Trump’s trial, pushing it well past the election in November.

Looking back, one of the main points of discussion turned on the question of which situation would be worse: a world in which presidents, shorn of any legal protections against prosecution, were ceaselessly pursued in the courts by their rivals in a never-ending cycle of political retribution, or allowing presidents to be unbounded by criminal law and permitted to do whatever they wanted with impunity.

Charlie Savage

Sauer, Trump’s attorney, declines to offer a rebuttal. The argument is over.

If the court finds that there is some immunity for official actions, one of the most important questions will be whether prosecutors can still present evidence to the jury of Trump’s official actions (like pressuring the Justice Department and Vice President Mike Pence to do certain things) as evidence that helps illuminate Trump’s knowledge and intent for his private acts as a candidate. Dreeben says the jury needs to understand the whole “integrated conspiracy” but prosecutors would accept a jury instruction in which the judge would say they cannot impose liability for the official actions but may consider them as evidence of his knowledge and intent for the other actions. That’s how courts handle protected speech that is evidence to a larger conspiracy, he notes.

Justice Barrett picks up the question of timing again. She suggests that if prosecutors want to take Trump quickly to trial, they could simply drop those parts of the indictment that seem to be his official acts as president and proceed with only those parts of the indictment that reflect Trump’s private actions taken as a candidate for office. Dreeben is not wild about that idea.

Dreeben suggests that allegations in the “private acts bucket,” as Justice Jackson just called it, would include things like the scheme to create fake electors and the way in which Trump fomented a mob of his supporters to violently attack the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Justice Barrett seems to signal that she is less likely to find that presidents have blanket immunity for their official acts. When Dreeben says the system needs to balance the effective functioning of the presidency and accountability for a former president under the rule of law, and the existing system does that pretty well or maybe needs a few ancillary rules but that is different from the “radical proposal” put forward by Trump’s legal team, she says: “I agree.”

Dreeben, in a balancing act that seems to acknowledge that the court is looking for some form of criminal immunity for presidents, says he is trying to do two things at once, neither of them easy. He wants to design a system to find some rules that preserve the “effective functioning of the presidency” but that still allows for “accountability” if presidents violated the law.

Kavanaugh asks Dreeben about Obama’s drone strike that killed an American citizen suspected of terrorism, Anwar al-Awlaki, which Trump’s lawyer invoked in his opening. Dreeben notes that the Office of Legal Counsel analyzed the question and found that the murder statute did not apply to presidents when they were acting under public authority, so authorizing the strike was lawful. This is the way the system can function, he said — the Justice Department analyzes laws carefully and with established principles.

Justice Kavanaugh signals that he is likely to find that presidents must have immunity for their official actions. He talks about how the threat of prosecution by independent counsels (under a law that lapsed in 1999) hampered Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton, and says a 1984 ruling upholding that structure as constitutional was one of the Supreme Court’s biggest mistakes. (Notably, Kavanaugh was a prosecutor on the staff of independent counsel Ken Starr during his investigation into President Bill Clinton, before becoming a White House lawyer under President George W. Bush.)

Dreeben tries to push back on Kavanaugh’s argument by saying that even after Watergate, even after all of the independent counsel investigations mentioned above, the legal system has survived without “having gone off on a runaway train” of actual criminal prosecutions against former presidents.

The Supreme Court rejected Bill Clinton’s claim of immunity.

In Clinton v. Jones in 1997, the Supreme Court unanimously allowed a sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton to proceed while he was in office, discounting concerns that it would distract him from his official responsibilities. Both of his appointees, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, voted against him.

“The president is subject to judicial process in appropriate circumstances,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court, adding, “We have never suggested that the president, or any other official, has an immunity that extends beyond the scope of any action taken in an official capacity.”

The case was in one sense harder than the one against Mr. Trump, as it involved a sitting president. In another sense, though, it was easier, as it concerned an episode said to have taken place before Mr. Clinton took office (Paula Jones, an Arkansas state employee, said Mr. Clinton had made lewd advances in a hotel room when he was governor of the state).

The case is best remembered for a prediction in Justice Stevens’s majority opinion that “it appears to us highly unlikely to occupy any substantial amount of petitioner’s time.” In fact, it led to Mr. Clinton’s impeachment.

In the same paragraph, Justice Stevens made a second prediction.

“In the more than 200-year history of the Republic, only three sitting presidents have been subjected to suits for their private actions,” he wrote. “If the past is any indicator, it seems unlikely that a deluge of such litigation will ever engulf the presidency.”

Suits against Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman were dismissed, and one against President John F. Kennedy involving a car accident during his 1960 campaign was settled. The case against Mr. Clinton added a fourth.

Justice Stevens, who died in 2019, failed to anticipate the enormous volume of civil and criminal litigation in which Mr. Trump and his businesses have been named as defendants.

We are now over the two-hour mark of the Supreme Court’s arguments in the Trump immunity case. The Justice Department lawyer has continued to face skeptical questions from many of the court’s conservatives, several of whom appear particularly focused on how to draw the line between a president’s core powers and non-core powers. In other words, what actions by a president might be shielded from prosecution and what would not. The questioning suggests that some of the justices may favor a ruling that could lead to more lower-court proceedings, perhaps delaying the trial.

The Supreme Court’s relatively new process (coming out of Covid) of letting each justice ask questions at the end in order of seniority has an interesting consequence, as seen here. Dreeben kept wanting to say these things about government legal memos and to go into the details about the actions Trump is accused of taking, but the Republican-appointed justices kept cutting him off. It’s the turn of Kagan, a Democratic appointee, to ask any final questions she wants, and she is letting him talk on and on.

Much of the discussion this morning has swirled around the question of whether, without immunity, presidents will be hounded by their rivals with malicious charges after leaving office. Alito and other conservatives on the court seem concerned that the Trump prosecutions will open the door to endless attacks against future presidents.

The other main topic of discussion has been whether presidents enjoy some form of immunity for carrying out their official duties and, if so, how those official actions are defined. That’s an important question for the Trump election case because Trump has claimed he was acting in his role as president when, by his own account, he sought to root out fraud in the 2020 vote count. It’s also important for a different reason: the justices could send the official acts question back to a lower court to sort out, and that process could take a long time, delaying the case's trial until after this year’s election.

Justice Alito suggests that there is a risk to our stable democracy if presidents who lose close elections would not be allowed to retire in peace but could face prosecution. He has essentially flipped the situation under consideration upside down: that Trump is being prosecuted for having used fraud to remain in power after losing a close election.

A part of this exchange between Justice Alito and the Justice Department's lawyer, Dreeben, gets at a pressure point in American-style democracy and the rule of law. One of the safeguards against illegitimate prosecutions of ex-presidents, Dreeben says, is that if the Justice Department has advised the president that doing something would be lawful, the department could not later turn around and prosecute the now-former president for relying on that advice and doing that thing.

Alito points out that this creates an incentive for presidents to appoint attorneys general who will just tell them that anything they want to do would be legal. Indeed — that is a critique of the Office of Legal Counsel system, in which politically appointed lawyers decide what the law means for the executive branch.

An example: During the George W. Bush administration, memos about post-9/11 surveillance and torture were written by a politically appointed lawyer with idiosyncratically broad views of a president’s supposed power, as commander in chief, to authorize violations of surveillance and torture laws. The Justice Department later withdrew those memos as espousing a false view of the law, but held that officials who had taken action based on those memos could not be charged with crimes.

Justice Alito suggests there are not enough legal safeguards in place to protect presidents against malicious prosecution if they don’t have some form of immunity. He tells Dreeben that the grand jury process isn’t much of a protection because prosecutors, as the saying goes, can indict a ham sandwich. When Dreeben tries to argue that prosecutors sometimes don’t indict people who don’t deserve it, Alito dismissively says, “Every once in a while there’s an eclipse too.”

If you are just joining in, the justices are questioning the Justice Department lawyer, Michael Dreeben, about the government’s argument that former President Trump is not absolutely immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to subvert the 2020 election. Dreeben has faced skeptical questions from several of the conservative justices, including both Justices Alito and Kavanaugh, who have suggested that the fraud conspiracy statute being used against the former president is vague. That statute is central to the government’s case against Trump.

Justice Alito now joins Justice Kavanaugh in suggesting that the fraud conspiracy statute is very vague and broadly drawn. That is bad news for the indictment brought against Trump by Jack Smith, the special counsel.

The scope and viability of this fraud statute, which is absolutely central to the Trump indictment, wasn’t on the menu of issues seemingly at play in this hearing. Kavanaugh and Alito appear to have gone out of their way to question its use in the Trump case.

Justice Sotomayor points out that under the Trump team’s theory that a criminal statute has to clearly state that it applies to the presidency for it to cover a president’s official actions, there would essentially be no accountability at all. Because only a tiny handful of laws mention the president, that means a president could act contrary to them without violating them. As a result, the Senate could not even impeach a president for violating criminal statutes, she says — because he would not be violating those laws if they don’t apply to the president.

Dreeben is under heavy fire from the court’s conservatives.

The precedent most helpful to Trump: Nixon v. Fitzgerald.

In 1982, in Nixon v. Fitzgerald , the Supreme Court ruled that former President Richard M. Nixon had absolute immunity from civil lawsuits — ones brought by private litigants seeking money — for conduct “within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.”

The ruling is helpful to former President Donald J. Trump, establishing as it does that immunity can be expansive, lives on after a president leaves office and extends to the very limits of what may be said to be official conduct.

But the decision also falls well short of dictating the outcome in the case that is being argued on Thursday, which concerns a criminal prosecution, not a civil suit.

The 1982 case arose from a lawsuit brought by an Air Force analyst, A. Ernest Fitzgerald, who said he was fired in 1970 in retaliation for his criticism of cost overruns. By the time the Supreme Court acted, Nixon had been out of office for several years.

“In view of the special nature of the president’s constitutional office and functions,” Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote for the majority 5-to-4 decision, “we think it appropriate to recognize absolute presidential immunity from damages liability” for Nixon’s official conduct, broadly defined.

But the decision drew a sharp line between civil suits, which it said can be abusive and harassing, and criminal prosecutions like the one Mr. Trump is facing.

“In view of the visibility of his office and the effect of his actions on countless people, the president would be an easily identifiable target for suits for civil damages,” Justice Powell wrote, adding, “The court has recognized before that there is a lesser public interest in actions for civil damages than, for example, in criminal prosecutions.”

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger underscored the point in a concurring opinion. “The immunity is limited to civil damages claims,” he wrote.

Even in the context of civil suits, Nixon v. Fitzgerald conferred immunity only on conduct within the “outer perimeter” of a president’s official duties. Jack Smith, the special counsel, has said that Mr. Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy are well outside that line.

The Justice Department has already granted sitting presidents immunity while they are in office.

Former President Donald J. Trump’s claim that former presidents must enjoy “complete immunity” from prosecution for any crimes they committed in office would significantly expand the temporary immunity that sitting presidents already have.

Nothing in the Constitution or federal statutes says that presidents are shielded from being prosecuted while in office, and no court has ever ruled that way. But political appointees in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, whose interpretations are binding on the executive branch, have declared that the Constitution implicitly establishes such immunity.

This argument boils down to practicalities of governance: The stigma of being indicted and the burden of a trial would unduly interfere with a president’s ability to carry out his duties, Robert G. Dixon Jr. , then the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, wrote in a memo in September 1973 . This would prevent the executive branch “from accomplishing its constitutional functions” in a way that cannot “be justified by an overriding need,” he added.

Mr. Dixon, an appointee of President Richard M. Nixon, wrote his memo against the backdrop of the Watergate scandal, when Mr. Nixon faced a criminal investigation by a special counsel, Archibald Cox. The next month, Nixon’s solicitor general, Robert H. Bork , in a court brief , similarly argued for an “inference” that the Constitution makes sitting presidents immune from indictment and trial.

(That same month, Mr. Nixon had Mr. Cox fired in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre. Mr. Nixon’s attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned rather than carry out his orders to oust the prosecutor; Mr. Nixon then turned to Mr. Bork, the department’s No. 3, who proved willing to do it. Amid a political backlash, Mr. Nixon was forced to allow a new special counsel, Leon Jaworski , to resume the investigation.)

The question arose again a generation later, when President Bill Clinton faced an investigation by Kenneth Starr, an independent counsel, into the Whitewater land deal that morphed into an inquiry into his affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Randolph D. Moss , Mr. Clinton’s appointee to lead the Office of Legal Counsel, reviewed the Justice Department’s 1973 opinions and reaffirmed their conclusions .

Legal scholars, as well as staff for prosecutors investigating presidents, have disputed the legitimacy of that constitutional theory. In 1974, Mr. Jaworski received a memo from his staff saying he could, in fact, indict Mr. Nixon while he was in office, and he later made that case in a court brief .

And in a 56-page memo in 1998, Ronald Rotunda, a prominent conservative constitutional scholar whom Mr. Starr hired as a consultant on his legal team, rejected the view that presidents are immune from prosecution while in office. Mr. Starr later said that he had concluded that he could indict Mr. Clinton.

“It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president’s official duties,” Mr. Rotunda wrote. “In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law.”

Mr. Starr commissioned the Rotunda memo as he was drafting a potential indictment of Mr. Clinton, and Mr. Starr decided that he could charge the president while in office. In the end, however, both Mr. Jaworski and Mr. Starr decided to let congressional impeachment proceedings play out and did not try to bring indictments while Mr. Nixon and Mr. Clinton remained in office.

The question may never be definitively tested in the courts. In 1999, Congress allowed a law that created independent counsels like Mr. Starr — prosecutors who do not report to the attorney general — to expire, and the Justice Department issued regulations to allow for the appointment of semiautonomous special counsels for inquiries into potential high-level wrongdoing in the executive branch.

Special counsels are, however, bound by Justice Departments policies and practices — including the Office of Legal Counsel’s proclamation that sitting presidents are temporarily immune from criminal indictment or trial.

Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage

Is there such a thing as executive immunity?

There are no direct precedents on the broad question of whether presidents have criminal immunity for their official actions.

The Supreme Court has held that presidents are absolutely immune from civil lawsuits related to their official acts , in part to protect them against ceaseless harassment and judicial scrutiny of their day-to-day decisions. The court has also held that presidents can be sued over their personal actions .

The Supreme Court has further found that while presidents are sometimes immune from judicial subpoenas requesting internal executive branch information, that privilege is not absolute. Even presidents, the court has decided, can be forced to obey a subpoena in a criminal case if the need for information is great enough.

But until Mr. Trump wound up in court, the Supreme Court has never had a reason to decide whether former presidents are protected from being prosecuted for official actions. The Justice Department has long maintained that sitting presidents are temporarily immune from prosecution because criminal charges would distract them from their constitutional functions. But since Mr. Trump is not in office, that is not an issue.

The closest the country has come to the prosecution of a former president over official actions came in 1974, when Richard M. Nixon resigned to avoid being impeached over the Watergate scandal. But a pardon by his successor, President Gerald R. Ford, protected Nixon from indictment by the Watergate special prosecutor.

Mr. Smith’s team has argued that Ford’s pardon — and Nixon’s acceptance of it — demonstrates that both men understood that Nixon was not already immune. Mr. Trump’s team has sought to counter that point by arguing — inaccurately — that Nixon faced potential criminal charges only over private actions, like tax fraud. But the special prosecutor weighed charging Nixon with abusing his office to obstruct justice.

Mr. Trump’s team has argued that denying his claims risks unleashing a routine practice of prosecuting former presidents for partisan reasons. But Mr. Smith’s team has argued that if courts endorse Mr. Trump’s theory, then future presidents who are confident of surviving impeachment could, with impunity, commit any number of crimes in connection with their official actions.

“Such a result would severely undermine the compelling public interest in the rule of law and criminal accountability,” prosecutors wrote.

Hypothetical questions test the limits of Trump’s immunity claim.

An exchange during an appeals court argument in January about a hypothetical political assassination tested former President Donald J. Trump’s claim that he is absolutely immune from prosecution for his official conduct.

His lawyer, D. John Sauer, has urged the justices to consider only what he is actually accused of: plotting to subvert the 2020 election. But hypothetical questions are routine at the Supreme Court, and they have a way of illuminating the contours and implications of legal theories.

That is what happened in January, when Judge Florence Y. Pan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia had to press Mr. Sauer to get an answer to a hypothetical question: Are former presidents absolutely immune from prosecution, even for murders they ordered while in office?

“I asked you a yes-or-no question,” Judge Pan said. “Could a president who ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, who was not impeached, would he be subject to criminal prosecution?”

Mr. Sauer said his answer was a “qualified yes,” by which he meant no. He explained that prosecution would be permitted only if the president were first impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate.

Impeachments of presidents are rare: There have been four in the history of the Republic, two of them of Mr. Trump. The number of convictions, which require a two-thirds majority of the Senate: zero.

Mr. Sauer’s statement called to mind a 2019 federal appeals court argument over whether Mr. Trump could block state prosecutors from obtaining his tax and business records. He maintained that he was immune not only from prosecution but also from criminal investigation so long as he was president.

At that time, Judge Denny Chin of the Second Circuit pressed William S. Consovoy, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, asking about his client’s famous statement that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing political support.

“Local authorities couldn’t investigate?” Judge Chin asked, adding: “Nothing could be done? That’s your position?”

“That is correct,” said Mr. Consovoy. “That is correct.”

This headline followed: “If Trump Shoots Someone on 5th Ave., Does He Have Immunity? His Lawyer Says Yes.”

For his part, Mr. Sauer does not seem eager to revisit the question about assassinations. Indeed, in asking the Supreme Court to hear Mr. Trump’s appeal, Mr. Sauer urged the justices not to be distracted by “lurid hypotheticals” that “almost certainly never will occur.”

What counts as an official act as president?

Another issue that has come up in lower courts in this case was what counted as an official act for a president, as opposed to a private action that was not connected to his constitutional responsibilities.

If the justices want to dispose of the dispute without definitively ruling on whether presidents are immune from prosecution for official acts, they could do so by finding that the specific steps former President Donald J. Trump took to remain in office that are cited in the federal indictment were not official actions. If so, the broader immunity question would not matter, and the prosecution could proceed.

The acts by Mr. Trump cited in the indictment include using deceit to organize fake slates of electors and to try to get state officials to subvert legitimate election results; trying to get the Justice Department and Vice President Mike Pence to help fraudulently alter the results; directing his supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; and exploiting the violence and chaos of their ensuing riot.

In its court filings, Mr. Trump’s team has sought to reframe those accusations not only as official actions, but innocuous or even admirable ones.

“All five types of conduct alleged in the indictment constitute official acts,” they wrote. “They all reflect President Trump’s efforts and duties, squarely as chief executive of the United States, to advocate for and defend the integrity of the federal election, in accord with his view that it was tainted by fraud and irregularity.”

Mr. Smith’s team has argued that they should be seen as the efforts of a person seeking office, not of an officeholder carrying out government responsibilities.

“Those alleged acts were carried out by and on behalf of the defendant in his capacity as a candidate, and the extensive involvement of private attorneys and campaign staff in procuring the fraudulent slates as alleged in the indictment underscores that those activities were not within the outer perimeter of the office of the presidency,” they wrote.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing Mr. Trump’s case in Federal District Court in Washington, issued her ruling rejecting Mr. Trump’s immunity claim without including any detailed analysis of whether his acts were “official.”

If the Supreme Court were to send the matter back to her to take a stab at answering that question before restarting the appeals process, Mr. Trump will, at a minimum, have used up additional valuable time that could help push any trial past the election.

Noah Weiland and Alan Feuer

Here are the lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court.

The two lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court on Thursday have each played a role in some of the defining legal battles stemming from Mr. Trump’s term in office.

Arguing the case for the special counsel Jack Smith will be Michael Dreeben, who worked for a different special counsel’s office that scrutinized Mr. Trump’s presidency: Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into links between Russia and associates of Mr. Trump. Mr. Dreeben, one of the nation’s leading criminal law experts, has made more than 100 oral arguments before the Supreme Court, including when he served as deputy solicitor general.

On Mr. Mueller’s team, he handled pretrial litigation, defending the scope of the investigation and preventing the office from losing cases on appeal. He also helped with a second part of Mr. Mueller’s investigation, examining whether Mr. Trump had tried to obstruct the inquiry in his dealings with associates involved in the case.

Mr. Dreeben, who was heavily involved in the writing of Mr. Mueller’s final report on his investigation, supported an interpretation of presidential power that emphasized limits on what a president could do while exercising his or her powers, according to “Where Law Ends,” a book written by Andrew Weissmann, another prosecutor on Mr. Mueller’s team.

After Mr. Mueller’s investigation concluded, Mr. Dreeben took a teaching position at Georgetown University’s law school and returned to private practice at O’Melveny, arguing in front of the Supreme Court on behalf of the city of Austin over a First Amendment dispute about the placement of digital billboards.

Opposing Mr. Dreeben in front of the Supreme Court will be D. John Sauer, a lawyer based in St. Louis who once served as the solicitor general of Missouri. Mr. Sauer joined Mr. Trump’s legal team late last year to handle appellate matters, including his challenge to a gag order imposed on him in the election case in Washington.

As Missouri’s solicitor general, Mr. Sauer took part in a last-ditch effort to keep Mr. Trump in power after his defeat in the 2020 election, filing a motion on behalf of his state and five others in support of an attempt by Texas to have the Supreme Court toss out the results of the vote count in several key swing states.

He also joined in an unsuccessful bid with Texas in asking the Supreme Court to stop the Biden administration from rescinding a Trump-era immigration program that forces certain asylum seekers arriving at the southwestern border to await approval in Mexico.

When he left the solicitor general’s office last January, Mr. Sauer, who once clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, returned to his private firm, the James Otis Law Group. The firm is named after a prominent Revolutionary War-era lawyer who built a career out of challenging abuses by British colonial forces.

To justify his defense in the immunity case, Trump turns to a familiar tactic.

When the Supreme Court considers Donald J. Trump’s sweeping claims of executive immunity on Thursday, it will break new legal ground, mulling for the first time the question of whether a former president can avoid being prosecuted for things he did in office.

But in coming up with the argument, Mr. Trump used a tactic on which he has often leaned in his life as a businessman and politician: He flipped the facts on their head in an effort to create a different reality.

At the core of his immunity defense is a claim that seeks to upend the story told by federal prosecutors in an indictment charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election. In that indictment, prosecutors described a criminal conspiracy by Mr. Trump to subvert the election results and stay in power.

In Mr. Trump’s telling, however, those same events are official acts that he undertook as president to safeguard the integrity of the race and cannot be subject to prosecution.

In many ways, Mr. Trump’s immunity claim is breathtaking. In one instance, his lawyers went so far as to say that a president could not be prosecuted even for using the military to assassinate a rival unless he was first impeached.

But the wholesale rewriting of the government’s accusations — which first appeared six months ago in Mr. Trump’s motion to dismiss the election interference case — may be the most audacious part of his defense. It was certainly a requisite step his lawyers had to take to advance the immunity argument.

Other courts have ruled that presidents enjoy limited immunity from civil lawsuits for things they did as part of the formal responsibilities of their job. To extend that legal concept to criminal charges, Mr. Trump’s lawyers needed to reframe all of the allegations lodged against him in the election interference case as official acts of his presidency rather than as the actions of a candidate misusing his power.