Grant Proposal Peer Review

1. Formal Cover Page and Table of Contents (1-Page Each)

Fill out the cover-page provided for you or one your specific grant requires if youre ambitious.
Its ok that the executive summary is repeated on this page.
Create a formal table of contents. Ideally, use Microsoft Words table of contents generator.

2. Abstract/Executive Summary (1-Paragraph)
A short summary of all the parts of the grant, including:
A statement of need
Your capacity to carry out the grant
A program or research description
Goals/objectives of your program or project
How you will evaluate your success
How much money youre requesting and what it will fund

3. Statement of Need/Problem Description (1-Page)

Specific and local illustration of the problem
Serves a specific community/group of people
Proof in statistics, quotations, cited facts
Timelythis is a problem right now, not 10 years ago
Demonstrates a gap in research you will fill
Tells a good story
Aligns with/Adapts itself to the organizations goals of the granting institution
Make sure you actually show why this is a problem (what are the negative effects? Whats so bad about the
current situation)

4. Goals and Objectives (1-Bulleted List Each)

Goals are the long-term accomplishments or plans that you have for your organization (like improving the
lives of those in poverty) and objectives are the more finite, measurable outcomes.
Objectives should be accomplishable by the end of your project and follow the SMART model: Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

5. Pre-Existing Research/Lit Review (2-Pages Each/Roughly 3 Sources Reviewed)

Show me that you are smart and well-read enough about your problem to be trustworthy
Show me that you will not simply be repeating pre-existing research studieswhere are gaps in the current
research
Summarize and evaluate (the pros and cons of) people who are currently attempting to solve your problem.

6. Plan of WorkYour Proposal (2-Pages)

What will you do? Describes your project activities in detail, indicating how your objectives will be
accomplished. The description should include the sequence, flow, and interrelationship of activities. It
indicate why your success is probable. Finally, tell what is unique about your approach.
Explain how your proposal relates to your pre-existing research
Explain why you chose one approach and not another
Describe major activities for reaching each objective
Indicate the key project personnel who will carry out each activity
Show the interrelationship among project activities
The most important part of this section is that I understand what you are doing, who is doing it, but also why
youve designed your project this way. Whats the reasoning behind it?
7. Project Evaluation and Deliverables (1-PageThree Bulleted Lists)
Evaluations: pinpoint what is really happening in your project so you can improve your project efficiency.
Surveys, judges, metrics of success.
Clearly identify the purpose of your evaluation and the audiences to be served by its results
Demonstrate that an appropriate evaluation procedure is included for every project objective
Clearly summarize any reports to be provided to the funding source based on the evaluation, and generally
describe their content and timing?
KPI: Key Performance Indicators. How do you know you succeeded?

Deliverables What are you actually going to produce/do? When will this be produced? Are you creating a new
pedagogy, syllabi, a conference, a white paper, a video, what? Ideally, you describe that other people will be able to
solve similar problems with your deliverables.

Dissemination is the means by which you let others know about your project. Specify the tentative titles, target
journals, and submission dates. Likewise, indicate which meetings/conferences will be attended, including dates
and locations for presenting papers.

8. Works Cited (1-Page)

Choose whatever style of citation you want.
Normally, professional grants use an endnote citation style rather than full in-text citation.

9. Biographical Sketch (1-Paragraph)

This paragraph should describe the major people who are involved in your project.
Why are you and they the right people to carry out this project and not someone else?
If you are writing about or as part of an organization (like the University of Oklahoma) what is the
university/departmental/unit mission. How does this project relate to the pre-existing goals of that
organization?

10. Budget and Justification (1-Detalied Table)

A project budget is more than just a statement of proposed expenditures; it is an alternate way of expressing your
project. Programs officers will look at your budget to see how well it fits your proposed activities. Every budget
item should have an explanation of what it is and how it is connected to your goals and objectives.
Provide sufficient resources to carry out your project
Include a budget narrative that justifies major budget categories
Provide sufficient detail so the reviewer can understand how various budget items were calculated
Separate direct costs from indirect costs and describe what is covered in the latter
Relate budget items to project objectives
Dont forget the cost of planning the project and disseminating it

11. Timeline (1-Bulleted List/Table/Gantt Chart)

12. Letter to Partner Organizations (1-Page Letter)

An actual letter, formatted like the cover letter, in which you describe to a donor that is not your primary granting
institution what your project is and what you are requesting from them. Follow the format of grant packet 2.
Often this letter might be written to your current working institution (especially if its a big university of
company) for matching funding.
It could also be written to other private institutions or donors.
Basically its a more detailed summary of your project than the executive summary written to another
institution as proof to your current granting institution that you are seeking outside funding beyond them. It
illustrates sustainability.