Clear, easy-to-understand, and jargon-free, this updated Fourth Edition of Proposal Effective Grantsmanship offers a step-by-step guide to writing a successful grant proposal to meet community needs. Throughout the book, the authors provide a guided process to assist the new grantwriter in understanding how to find grant opportunities, how to develop a viable project and evaluate outcomes, and how to prepare an application for funding. The book is written for employees in the non-profit sector who are asked to write a proposal and for students who may ultimately have careers that require this skill.
I was assigned this book as part of my Master of Social Work coursework ("Social Work Practice in Communities & Organizations"). I have not ever written a professional grant, so I cannot speak to this book's accuracy for writing "real" grants.
This book was easy to read (even though legal/technical jargon normally makes my head spin), organized well, and gave enough detail to create a comprehensive overview of the grant-writing process without becoming overly verbose. I liked how the book described the components of a proposal and then went into more detail on each one. In the field, I could see myself referencing each section as needed.
As with most technical and social science textbooks, I can see this book quickly becoming outdated, especially with the recent political landscape surrounding federal funding. In future editions, I would like to see some acknowledgment of that.
In short, I feel like I got a good primer in the field of proposal writing. Which is exactly what this book sought to do!
Excellent book for those just getting introduced to grant writing. It covers all the basics and gives a good foundation knowledge for anyone getting into the field. Highly recommend as a reference book.
Students love that this text is easy to read. The older version of the text had great supplemental forms for class activities. I'm not sure why those were not updated and included for this version. The examples given were helpful, but I would have liked a grant 'case study' used throughout the text.
While I felt some of the lessons in this book were a little outdated, the content was strong and the examples were good. The format of the text is easy to follow, and it is handy for students working through the grant writing process.