There is a time and place for everything.
That is one of the nuggets of wisdom from my childhood that was literally drilled into my psyche by my parents, teachers, coaches, supervisors, camp counsellors, mentors and scout leaders.
We couldn’t watch tv until our homework was finished. We couldn’t go outside and play until the dishes were washed. We had to be on our best behaviour when relatives and family visited from out of town.
Regardless of how much we wanted to play, rest or behave in a certain way, we had to wait for an occasion when it was appropriate.
When writing grant proposals, it can be very tempting to share a story or describe a situation about the people who need our help to convey a sense of urgency to funding bodies. As convincing as KPIs (key performance indicators), statistics and projected outcomes may be, powerful anecdotal evidence can be the difference between rejection and approval.
Years ago, I secured a $60,000 grant from a well-known government funding body to install a wheelchair lift in a community centre. My contact from that body informed me the main reason the grant was approved was a heart-rendering story we shared of a senior who repeatedly endured the indignant experience of being carried up-and-down a flight of stairs to access different levels of the facility.
Compelling anecdotes can be the tipping point for funding decisions. However, we must discreetly choose how, where and when to include them.
Online applications with rigid character-space limitations offer almost no room for them. Prospects aren’t much better with funding applications that limit the number of words you may use.
Far greater opportunities to share moving stories and accounts that may influence the decisions of grant-makers are found with online forms that provide applicants with space where they may insert additional information or elaborate on earlier points made. Of course, the most abundant places for anecdotal evidence are longform funding proposals with no word or character space restrictions.
Prior to including any story, be sure to test its “potency” by seeing if it effectively tugs on the heartstrings of others around you. If it does, employ plenty of adjectives and adverbs to ensure that the message genuinely hits home.
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