Students Doing the Work of
Grant Writing for Local
Nonprofits 

Margaret Thomas Evans, PhD  // Indiana University East 

Melanie Yohe, BA  // Indiana University East 

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 Dr. Thomas Evans thanks Chancellor Cruz-Uribe for the Chancellor’s Community Engagement Grant 2019 which supported her research and dissemination of that research at the Conference on Community Writing in 2019. 

Melanie Yohe thanks the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Daren Snider, for supporting her travel to the Conference on Community Writing in 2019 to present with Dr. Thomas Evans.

Abstract 

This paper discusses the need for and development of a grant writing project, including assignment instructions and grading rubrics, in an advanced technical writing course. Both students and the professor determined that grant writing was a missing component of the degree program; therefore, as the instructor, I added a grant writing project to a course in advanced technical writing starting in spring 2018. Students and nonprofits in the students’ communities benefit from this work which gives students the experience of locating a nonprofit, discovering its funding needs, researching funding entities for that sector of nonprofits, writing a proposal and completing a grant application under the guidance of the nonprofit and the professor, and reflecting on the work completed. The paper also highlights both the grant project and subsequent internships completed by former student, Melanie Yohe.   

Getting the students out into their own community, working with nonprofits and small businesses has long been a service-learning approach to teaching technical and professional writing courses. It employs high impact practices taking students out of the classroom and engaging them with real life experiences. In requiring students to write with and for community partners, “projects aim to undermine passive, rote, and uncritical learning. Community-engaged projects also stress the importance of students cultivating a strong work ethic and maintaining a high-level of professionalism, particularly when students represent their respective colleges and universities at their service-learning sites” (Gutierrez, 2017).  To further strengthen our degree program and in response to feedback from students gathered via Senior Exit Surveys, Course Evaluations, and direct requests to the professor, I developed a unit on grant writing and added it to an advanced technical writing course in an online BA degree program in technical and professional writing. Although the students complete other meaningful community writing projects, such as designing brochures, writing instructions, developing newsletters, creating websites, and managing blogs in various courses required in the degree, they felt that grant writing was a missing component from their education. 

Grounded in community-engagement pedagogy and service learning pedagogy, the final project of the advanced technical writing course in a degree in technical and professional writing requires students to write a grant proposal working with a nonprofit, making it “local, specific, responsive, and timely” (Mathieu, 2010, p. 295). It “provide[s] a chance to work for a community organization, enabling students to join community members and participate more fully with them” (Dubinsky, 2010, p. 272). This project teaches students the value of writing as service and requires them to work in a context the classroom alone cannot provide (Julier, Livingston and Goldblatt, 2014). Students have agency – they select a nonprofit in their local community to work with or one provided by the professor if they are unable to locate one independently. It gives them the potential to be “agents of social change” (Cushman, 1996) and support their community in ways that matter. The project encourages critical thinking as students conclude the semester with a written reflection on their experiences writing for the nonprofit. The project is mutually beneficial – community partners get a grant written which they hopefully choose to submit; students learn a valuable, marketable skill. This article focuses on why a grant writing project was developed, demonstrates the steps required to complete a proposal and grant application, provides an assignment overview and grading rubrics, and highlights a successful student project. 

Why Teach Grant Writing 

Based on student evaluations, conversations, emails, and responses in senior student exit surveys, after several semesters it became clear that one component of technical writing to which students were not being exposed was grant writing. Some students noted that grant writing was a potential career option they would like to consider, but they felt unsure about applying for grant writing positions because it was not something they had ever done in class. Students enrolled in the technical and professional writing degree need to learn about grant writing and practice developing this skill through working with a nonprofit organization. Grant writing is complex and full semester courses, workshops, and a variety of other programs delve deeply into this topic. To fit grant writing into the degree program, a grant writing project was added in advanced technical writing. It is the final assignment for the course although it is designed with various required steps starting early in the course.   

The Assignment 

Students are assigned to locate a community partner in their own community, potentially one with which they have a connection. The community partners must be nonprofit with a need for funding. Students work with the partner to identify needs and complete research to find funding entities who might support a project or need. Students complete all steps in preparing a grant application with oversight from the nonprofit and assist in submitting a grant. This project is scaffolded with reading from a text on grant writing along with lecture material, videos, and sample grants which are critiqued in class. Although the assignment is completed towards the end of semester, students are introduced to the project and the need to locate a community partner early in the semester. Students work with the instructor to locate suitable partners and projects. They submit assignments and receive feedback at all stages from their peers, the course assistant, and the professor. See Figure 1 for the Grant Writing Project requirements. 

Figure 1: Grant Writing Project

 

To provide students with support as they work on this project and give feedback on their work, students submit drafts of their proposal letters and grant application documents to small peer groups. Within the group space in the learning management system (Canvas), students offer suggestions for each other. In addition, the course assistant and professor provide feedback individually to each student. Students are provided with a rubric for the proposal letter. Grant applications are varied; therefore, no rubric is used. Many simply require blank fields to be filled in on an online form. For these, students typically copy and paste or take screen shots to show the information they have input. See Figure 2 for the proposal rubric. 

Figure 2: Grant Proposal

As part of the final submission for the course, students reflect on their experience completing a service-learning community engaged project in a cover memo. Dubinsky notes that “Implemented reflectively, it [service learning] creates a learning attitude that enables students to boost critical thinking skills and improve integration of theory and practice. They learn to do for others and themselves by working with others in a reciprocal relationship, thus preparing themselves for the workplace and for their place as citizens” (Dubinsky, 201, p. 272). Such projects are mutually beneficial. 

Students are provided with the following rubric (Figure 3) to write their reflection memo. 

Figure 3: Grant Reflection Rubric

Melanie‘s Project 

My experience with community grant writing began as a class assignment for a professional writing course taught by Dr. Margaret Thomas Evans at Indiana University East, where I was pursuing a degree with the goal of working as a freelance grant writer upon graduation. Students were to find an organization to work with, find an appropriate funding opportunity for the organization to apply for, and write the grant application. Upon receipt of the assignment, I contacted the American Cello Institute, Inc. (AIC), to inquire whether they would be willing to work with me. AIC graciously consented and I began researching suitable grant opportunities for the organization’s main project, the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico (ICOPR).  

My research revealed an upcoming Request for Proposals (RFP) by the National Endowment for the Arts that appeared to be a good fit: the NEA Challenge America grant. Further research confirmed (ICOPR) was a good candidate to apply for the funding. The somewhat complex application process gave me valuable practical experience. The proposal was successful as ICOPR received the funding; the assignment was beneficial to student and organization alike. In my reflection memo at the end of the class project, I wrote: “The NEA grant was quite long and complicated. It was a lot of writing, but it will benefit us as we move forward applying for funds with other organizations. It is also rewarding to work on such a wonderful project.” 

The following semester I was fortunate to receive an internship with the organization and Dr. Thomas Evans served as faculty mentor. The internship duties included more grant writing, much of which was successful, as well as assisting with fundraising events planning, scheduling program events, inviting schools, organizations, and community members to program events, setting up and maintaining databases, newsletter preparation, and other duties as requested. This internship provided more practical grant writing experience as well as a deeper understanding of the workings of non-profit organizations.  

A second internship with the same organization and Dr. Thomas Evans serving as faculty mentor again, led to more successful grant writing experiences. My responsibilities expanded to include development of an evaluation program, drafting evaluation surveys, and then translating the surveys into Spanish. I was privileged to travel to Puerto Rico for two weeks with the organization for the 4th Annual Festival of ICOPR early in 2019. My duties while in Puerto Rico included, but were not limited to, assisting with greeting and seating program participants at all events; photographing events; distributing and collecting surveys at concerts, outreach events, and masterclasses; and conducting interviews with selected participants. I compiled data from surveys and interviews post-festival, created reports for the Board of Directors, and created and submitted reports to funders. My second internship gave me a much more comprehensive experience of what grant seeking entails, from research through reporting, as well as first-hand experience of the work of the organization. 

My work with ICOPR has been transformative both personally and professionally. Working closely with the organization over an extended period changed the focus of my business. The experience demonstrated that a strategic grant seeking program including a thorough understanding of an organization’s purpose and activities, dedicated research, careful planning of well-timed asks from a variety of funders, and solid evaluation and reporting practices, allow a grant seeking professional to assist organizations in developing long-term relationships with significant funders. This provides a level of financial stability that enables an organization to grow beyond the daily struggle of finding funding for activities, to outcomes, and ultimately to achieving desired impacts. My ICOPR classwork and internship experiences imbued my business with a sense of purpose and helped me design a business model that works well for myself and my clients. These experiences also provide the relationship model I strive to emulate with each of my clients.      

Conclusion 

This grant writing project was initially taught in the spring of 2018 and then again in 2019 and 2020. The project not only responds to students’ requests for such an assignment, it also meets two of the university’s Campus Strategic Priorities, first that degree programs be “Focused on Career Advancement, Civic Engagement and Global Stewardship,” and second that the campus, through such projects, serves as “An Active Partner in the Economic, Educational and Cultural Development of the Community and Region” (Indiana University East). Students contributed positively to the work of many organizations in their home communities and learned skills that can be applied in future professional contexts. Students submitted projects to a range of nonprofits across the United States. Many of these were then submitted to grant funding entities by the nonprofits and some were successful. Based on the positive responses from students, it will continue to be taught in future semesters.  

References 

Cushman, Ellen. (1996). The Rhetorician as an Agent of Social Change. College Composition and Communication, 47(1), 7-28.  

Dubkinsky, J. (2010). Service-Learning as a Path to Virtue. In T. Deans, B. Roswell, and A. J. Wurr (Eds.), Writing and Community Engagement: A Critical Sourcebook (pp.256-276). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 

 Gutierrez, Kristina. (2017). Editor’s Introduction. Assessing the Value of Experiential Learning in Community-Engaged Projects. Retrieved from https://www.pearsoned.com/pedagogy-practice/assessing-value-experiential-learning-community-engaged-projects/ 

Indiana University East. (2021). Office of the Chancellor/Strategic Planning. Retrieved from https://www.iue.edu/chancellor/strategicplanning/   

Julier, L., Livingston, K., & Goldblatt, E. (2014). Community-Engaged Pedagogies. In Tate, G., Ruppier Taggart, A.,Schick, K., & Hessler, H.B (Eds.), Oxford A Guide to Composition Pedagogies (2nd ed.) (pp. 55-76). New York, NY: Oxford UP.  

Mathieu, Paula. (2010). From Students in the Streets. In T. Deans, B. Roswell, and A. J. Wurr (Eds.), Writing and Community Engagement: A Critical Sourcebook (pp. 277-297). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.  

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About the Authors

Dr. Margaret Thomas-Evans is Associate Professor of English and Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indiana University East. Her research interests are community writing and service learning, online teaching pedagogy and practice, women and rhetoric, and academic leadership. She earned an MA in English from Wright State University, Dayton, OH and a PhD in Composition, Rhetoric and Technical Communication at Miami University, Oxford, OH. 

Connect with Dr. Thomas-Evans on LinkedIn

Melanie Yohe is the owner of Grant Strategies, LLC, specializing in global grant research, writing, and program evaluation for nonprofit organizations, with clients on four continents. 2020 guest lecturer at the State University of New York at Buffalo, Introduction to Nonprofit Business. She is an American Grant Writers’ Association Certified Grant Writer. Melanie received her BA in English with a concentration in professional and technical writing from Indiana University East in 2019.