Proposal Writing Hints
Does your project fit our funding parameters?
Before you draft a proposal, please determine whether your project is one our mission supports
If it does not fit within our mission, don’t apply. If you’re not sure, please contact:
Paul Myhre
Associate Director
(myhrep@wabash.edu)
800-655-7117
Before You Write: Understand the Genre
Because the Wabash Center understands its grant projects as learning processes, the following articles will be helpful to read prior to drafting a grant project proposal for us:
As You Write: Use Us As a Sounding Board
The Wabash Center understands our grant programs as a part of our overall teaching and learning mission. We are interested in not only awarding grants to excellent proposals but also in enabling faculty members to develop and hone their skills as grant project directors.
We strongly encourage you to be in conversation with us to develop your ideas for a grant project into a formal proposal. We will gladly give you feedback on your ideas and draft proposal if you get them to us in a timely manner before the approaching deadline.
There is no guarantee that a grant that has gone through our coaching process will be funded—funding decisions are made by a separate Advisory Committee—but we will help you present the project in the clearest and most coherent way.
For grant coaching, please contact:
Paul Myhre (myhrep@wabash.edu)
800-655-7117
As You Prepare a Budget: Consult with your Financial Officer
Read: Grant Budget and Expense Guidelines (pdf)
All specifics of line items, how expenses will be tracked and grouped, and how reports for the grant will be generated need to be in line with your home institution’s accounting process. Thus you must consult with your institutional financial officer to see how they will handle items such as fringe benefits for faculty stipends, administrative expenses, faculty release time, and indirect costs (the Wabash Center allows for up to 10%).
Your financial office must sign off on the grant information form as you submit the proposal, so start working with them from the beginning. It will save you much wear and tear as you get into the project and wonder about your receipts, accounts, and expenditures.
As You Prepare a Report: Find Your Grant Contract Instructions
Before you prepare an Interim or Final Report, please consult the contract materials and guidelines that accompanied your grant approval. Each grant program has its own report guidelines, so make sure that you consult the one relevant to your program. If you have questions, please contact:
Stacie Cordell
The Wabash Center
(cordells@wabash.edu )
800-655-7117