Where can I find examples of grant proposals?

"Already-written proposals" are usually difficult to find, via print or the Internet, because they are typically very specific to the organization requesting funding as well as to the donor's mission, and they work only within that context. However, there are some resources you can review and adapt to your organization's own situation.

• The Foundation Center's Guide to Winning Proposals. Includes actual cover letters, letters of inquiry, budgets, and vital supplementary documents needed to develop a complete proposal. Features grant proposals that have been funded by some of today’s most influential grantmakers. Each proposal – reprinted in its entirety – includes commentary by the program officer, executive director, or other funding decision maker who awarded that grant. Proposals are included from large and small, local and national organizations, and for many different support purposes, including basic budgetary support, special projects, construction, staff positions, and more.

• School Grants (http://www.k12grants.org/samples) offers a number of education-focused, successful, sample proposals. Most are directed to corporate or government funding sources and are downloadable in PDF format.

• SERA (http://www.sera.com/index.php) includes brief instructions and templates for a proposal, letter of inquiry, proposal cover letter, and budget. These templates are available in HTML or MS Word.

• Georgia Perimeter College (http://www.gpc.edu/~ebrown/sampro.htm) has a sample grant proposal template submitted to the Strategic Directions Initiative by the Research Administration Office.

• The Idea Bank (http://theideabank.com/onlinecourse/samplegrant) has a number of proposals available online for fire and safety organizations (indicating which ones have been successfully funded).

• You can also try a number of Internet search engines such as Google using the keywords "sample nonprofit grant proposal".

For sample proposals in printed materials, try searching our Catalog of Nonprofit Literature (CNL), the Center's bibliographic database. You could start searching on the term "sample proposal*" (with the asterisk but without the quotation mark) in the keyword field.

Many of the books and articles found through CNL can be located in Center Libraries and some Cooperating Collections. It is best to call ahead to verify a specific library's holdings. All articles, but not books, can be obtained through interlibrary loan at your local Cooperating Collection.

Remember, each example of an already funded proposal is specific to the grantseeker and grantmaker involved. Your situation may differ. You will likely need to adapt your proposal to your own situation.

For more information on proposal writing, you may want to review the Foundation Center's Guide to Proposal Writing; the online version of the same, A Proposal Writing Short Course (also available in Spanish, French, Chinese, and Russian); our full-day Proposal Writing Seminar; our full-day Proposal Writing Seminar II: Tailoring Your Proposals to Maximize Success; the free one-hour Proposal Writing Basics; the Spanish-language version of the same, Proposal Writing Basics in Spanish: Principios de la escritura de propuestas; our full-day Proposal Budgeting Workshop; the free one-hour Proposal Budgeting Basics; or the online budgeting tutorial, Proposal Budgeting Basics.

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