My name is Kate Cherry and I am a program director here at Connect Detroit. Over the past 16 years I have written several hundred grant proposals and during that time I found that many of my colleagues were intimidated by the process. So, I want to break it down into three easy steps for you today.

The three steps are: Addressing the need that you are going to solve, describing the solution that you have for that need and describing the capacity that your organization has to implement that solution.

When starting with step one, describing the need, you’ll want to go from global to local in your explanation. First describe the large need, what is the problem Michigan is facing? Or the nation? And then, work your way local. Talk about the problem here in Detroit or in your neighborhood.

Next, you’ll want to describe your unique solution to address that need. What is it that your organization will do to solve that problem? The third step is to describe the capacity that your organization has in order to put that solution into place. This means you’ll want to describe the history and culture of your organization and its past accomplishments.

If you describe the need you’re going to address, your approach to solving that problem and your organizations unique capacity to implement that solution, then you’ll have written a winning grant proposal.