6 Grant Writing Tips for Stronger Proposals

Are you feeling the pressure to bring in more grant funding for your nonprofit? Whether that pressure is coming from your board, development committee, leadership team — or internally! — one of the most effective ways to increase your success rate is simply to submit stronger proposals. If you’re new to grant writing for nonprofits, these tips will help you avoid common pitfalls.

But what does “stronger” really mean when it comes to grant applications? It’s not just about prettier formatting or fancier language. Strengthening your proposals means digging deeper into your programs, refining your approach, and making sure every element of your application is working together to present your organization in the best possible light.

In my 15 years as a grants professional, I’ve learned that winning more grants isn’t just about submitting more applications — it’s about making each application count. Grant reviewers can tell the difference between a hastily assembled proposal and one that’s been thoughtfully crafted. And guess which one they’re more likely to fund?

If you’re looking to improve your grant success rate, these six strategies will help you create stronger, more competitive proposals that stand out to funders. 

Let’s dive in!

1. Strengthen Your Programs

One idea to make your application stronger is to make your programs stronger. Take the program that you’re writing to get funded through the logic model process, and root out any opportunities for strengthening that program. This is a foundational principle of effective grant writing that many organizations overlook.

Pull your people together, really look at your logic model seriously, and try to understand if any downfalls exist and where they are.

And then brainstorm ideas to fix them, amend the program so that those particular items are addressed, and that will make your program stronger. You can write that “We used to do X and we thought about it, and now we’re doing Y because it would help with program sustainability and help the program to be stronger.” And it would certainly look good to take even an existing program and put it through the logic model process and present that to maybe a continuing grant funder to say, “You know, we’ve got a new and improved way of carrying out this program, which we believe — because of logical conclusions that we’ve arrived at — that we will get even better outcomes, stronger outcomes.”

For a comprehensive understanding of Logic Models, I recommend two key resources: our detailed Logic Models: A Complete Guide for Program Success and the widely respected W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide. Both provide valuable frameworks for strengthening your programs. I also cover Logic Models extensively in an early module of the Unlock-Grants course, since they’re so foundational to successful grant writing.

2. Look at Your Applications Objectively

Strengthen your program’s logic model first and foremost, then I would really look at the application package you send out to your funders, especially if it’s a continuing grant. Look at what you’re sending out with fresh objective eyes and maybe tweak your narratives and your budgets accordingly.

It’s hard to do it yourself, so have someone who is perhaps as familiar with your organization or your programs as your prospective funder is, and ask them to take a look — a serious hard look — at your narrative. This peer review step is crucial in the overall grant writing process and can dramatically improve your success rate.

Ask a peer or a colleague or someone who would potentially read and score your proposal — someone who would be selected from the community to sit on a review panel — and say to them, “Look, really score this. Really, line by line, paragraph by paragraph.” Then take their suggestions seriously.

An outside perspective can spot gaps, inconsistencies, or unclear explanations that you might miss because you’re too close to the work. Remember, grant reviewers are often reading dozens of applications — yours needs to be clear and compelling, even to someone who isn’t intimately familiar with your organization.

3. Write the Budget with the Narrative

Make sure your grant budgets are written along with the development of your narrative. Your budget and your narrative need to not look silo’ed, or like they were developed by two different organizations that don’t talk to each other, don’t communicate.

I can’t tell you how many times I have received the program budget minutes before a deadline, and have no time to look it over, much less marry it to the proposal narrative’s wording. You need time to make sure you have a chance to at least call out the expenses that are included in the program budget and narrative, and not have them as surprises that only appear once in the budget and are not explained anywhere else.

And then whatever tweaks you make to your narrative, make sure your budget is still aligning. Your budget should tell the same story as your narrative, just in numbers. Every line item should connect back to your program description, and every major program component should be reflected in the budget.

4. Refresh Your Need Statement

The other thing to do to make your proposals stronger is to refresh your Need Statement. Just as everything in your Case Statements and proposals gets updated with a new fiscal year within your organization, so too do you have a chance to update your Need Statement.

Statistics and new information — completely new information — is constantly made available. So take a look at those statistics, take a look at your sources, and see if there has been an update since the last time you put forth your narrative and your Need Statement. There is always new information — because we’re in the information age after all, and there’s lots and lots of sources.

The more current your information is — the factual information that you cite — the stronger your grant proposal is going to be. If we’re in 2025 and you’re still citing information from 2017, it’s a whole new world now. So make sure you update that info, and get the most compelling and the most current data that you can.

A strong Need Statement doesn’t just present problems — it shows that your organization understands the nuances of those problems and has a thoughtful approach to addressing them. Current data demonstrates that you’re engaged with the latest developments in your field and committed to evidence-based solutions.

5. Get Ahead of Deadlines

Getting ahead of deadlines is a good best practice as well. If you are rushed to submit your grant proposals at the last minute, that really robs you of the chance to ruminate on your narrative, on your whole application package, and perhaps come up with better ways to phrase something, or more good points to make, or to remember an important attachment that may strengthen your proposal.

A night to sleep on it (at least) is never a bad thing. And being rushed is a surefire way to turn in a sloppy proposal.

I recommend creating a grants calendar that marks not just submission deadlines, but internal milestones for drafting, review, and finalization. Give yourself at least 1-2 weeks before the actual deadline to compile and review the complete package. This buffer time allows for unexpected delays and gives you space to make those final refinements that can make a good proposal great.

6. Get Feedback if Denied

Another way to make for a stronger proposal is to call and get feedback if you are denied for a grant. To know what to change or restructure in your proposal to make it resonate better with a funder is certainly going to make it stronger!

Find out if there was something you didn’t mention because it didn’t seem pertinent, or if they simply deny all first-time applicants on principle, or if you’re simply not aligned to the funder’s mission. Having some guidance like that is invaluable and will certainly make your time better spent.

Many grant writers skip this step because rejection feels uncomfortable. But the truth is, most funders are happy to provide feedback when asked respectfully. Their insights can help you understand what’s working and what isn’t, allowing you to make targeted improvements to your next submission. Sometimes you’ll discover that your proposal was actually quite strong, but other factors influenced the decision — information that can help you better prioritize your future grant efforts.

Putting It All Together

So you see, there are several ways to go about writing a stronger proposal, making time spent on proposal writing more valuable, and making your win rate higher. Try one or all of these suggestions, and you’ll see an improvement in the quality and effectiveness of your grant applications.

Remember, strengthening your grant proposals isn’t a one-time effort, but an ongoing process of refinement. Each proposal you submit is an opportunity to learn and improve. By incorporating these six strategies into your grant writing practice, you’ll not only create stronger applications, but also develop a more thoughtful, strategic approach to securing funding for your organization’s important work.

Want to learn more about creating effective grant proposals? Check out my Unlock-Grants course or download my free guide on How to Win More Grants.