What are the key skills to highlight in a grant writing interview?

If an agency needs a grant writer, its enough proof they need money to function. The only way to convince them that you're the right person for the job is to showcase your expertise in scoping for grants that fit their area of focus. This can be done by showcasing the number of grants you've scoped for and secured in the previous years. Taking myself as reference, in 2022 I scoped for about 50grants under hard struggle and noticed in 2023 that more than 50% of these grants were relaunched. That reduced my work in scoping for new Grants by 50% and gave me more time to correct the write ups which were not successful thereby increasing chances of securing new grants.

The grant writer we contract with is an experienced writer and her grants bring in 80% of our budget. The development associate we have works with the program staff to provide data and budgets for the proposals. We don’t ask her to do the job of the associate, nor do we ask the associate to assume program staff responsibilities. The implementation and management of the program is not the responsibility of the development team but we make sure that appropriate staff understands their accountability to the grant. Make sure that your grant writer can write. Do not let them turn in a writing sample that you don’t watch them write. Establish trust by not micromanaging them or rewriting their work.

Highlight persuasive and concise writing, research for funding opportunities, and project management with multitasking skills. Showcase budget development and financial management experience. Emphasize effective communication and collaboration across departments. Demonstrate attention to detail for accuracy and compliance. Illustrate knowledge of funders and the grant landscape. Discuss adaptability in dynamic environments and share outcomes from grant writing efforts. Present as a candidate with comprehensive skills for successful grant application management.

One of the key things I was taught is to be concise but as detailed as possible. Paint a picture with your narrative and assume that the reader knows nothing about the subject or program you are writing about. A great proposal will not leave the reader with questions.

It's essential to highlight a combination of technical and soft skills that demonstrate the ability to effectively secure funding for projects. The key skills to emphasize are: i) Excellent Writing Skills; ii) Research Skills; iii) Project Management; iv) Budgeting and Financial Skills; v) Knowledge of Funding Landscape; vi) Communication and Interpersonal Skills; vii) Strategic Thinking; viii) Adaptability; ix) Grant Compliance and Reporting; and x) Passion for the Cause. Expressing the passion for the mission of the organization and the causes it supports. Additionally, one should be prepared to discuss challenges faced and how to overcome them, as this demonstrates resilience and problem-solving abilities.

Apart from the usual expectation of writing to communicate consisely, coherently, cohesively and persuasively, you also need to invest time in familiarizing yourself with the prescribed donor templates because though the package of the Logical Framework, Detailed Implementation Plan, Activity-costed budget, Budget Narrative, Technical Narrative, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Plan, Indicator Performance Tracking Table, Procurement Plan, Communication, Visibility and Dissemination Plan, Social Behaviour Change and Communication Strategy, Gender Strategy etc. are variations of the same thing, there are always nuanced peculiarities that are unique to each particular donor that you need to be mindful of to comply.

Apart from the obvious things like checking for formulaic errors, breakdown of links in macro-enabled templates etc. its important to also analyze things like value for money indicators e.g. economy (unit cost of inputs), efficiency (unit cost of outputs), effectiveness (unit cost of outcomes including cost per DALY), equity (who benefits and who loses and by how much); the crude cost per beneficiary/project participant; internal cost recovery rates; the reasonableness of the ratio between programmatic and administrative costs; the competitiveness of personnel costs, standardization of certain costs like stipends for community volunteers and daily subsistence allowances across consortia partner budgets where applicable.

The hardest factor to quantify is the value of the contributing resources, volunteers and in-kind services. Some foundations provide guidelines to show value of such cooperation, others do not. Quantifying such values can help strengthen the proposal, interview or in answering questions.

A grant writer often finds themselves managing the project or application process for a new client, especially startups. Understand how to utilize different processes to lead collaborative teamwork. Do some research on the company you are applying to and find out what software they use to manage their organization. Are you knowledgeable about Asana, Trello, Slack, Microsoft teams, and Google office? Try and earn a LinkedIn badge to showcase your top skills in project management. Also, have a grant management template created that allows for any application to be inputted. It should contain a grant calendar, a sheet for all attachments, page counts, who is responsible for each part of the application, a contact list and issue tracking.

A good way to start is to prepare a comprehensive project plan that outlines the scope, objective, timeline and deliverables. We also need to emphasize our commitment to timely project delivery as well as allocate and manage resources efficiently.

This is an indespensable must-have skill, especially the ability to communicate with impact by tailoring your messaging and delivery to your audience type.

It is essential to convey our proficiency in expressing complex ideas in a clear and concise manner. Make sure to tailor the message to the audience's level of understanding.

Inter-agency communications is just as important as public communications. This is especially the case prior to the designing and implementation of any prospective project. Each person involved in the planned project should be kept in the loop. After getting a commitment from other agencies and personnel, each person involved should be kept informed of the progress of the project.

I think that grant writers must be skilled in analyzing information and data, collaborating, and can be succinct with explaining the need for the funding project. Grant writing also requires critical thinking skills to decide what is relevant and what can be omitted.

Story-telling skills Apart from what has been mentioned above, an effective grant writer must be able to capture the need vis-a-vis a sponsor organization’s mission and vision. Being able to convey the needed information as well as the end results is a key skill. Telling the story of who will and can benefit from the funding would make a compelling argument and hopefully convince the sponsor to approve the grant.

When I hire a grant writer, I need someone with experience. Other than management and research skills, I need to know what grants they have written and were awarded. I ask for the list to include name of funding source, year, and amount.

The bottom line when it comes down to good grant writing skills is knowing how best to engage potential funders through your application by using sound grammar and spelling techniques – without these fundamentals, getting funds is difficult to happen. Continuous self-development in this field, once you have a grip on the basics of writing, is what makes your grant funding chances brighter. So if you are a professional who wants to enhance their grant writing skills, you may use resources like NSF, NIH, and Grants.gov to apply for grants matching your objectives.

The one addition to any proposal that I always included was the commitment to identify the main sources of funding in any future publications.