Idea To Writing Grant Proposal - Brainstorming with People Who Know

You may think you know what research should be done or how a human service project should be structured, but the real people who know are those who will reap the benefits of your proposal and those who have conducted similar projects. Your next task will be to gather a sizeable group of those people and hold a brainstorming session to generate and record even more ideas about your preliminary project idea. Because the rules are simple and familiar and the process is fun, brainstorming can be used effectively in a large, disparate group of people who may not know each other. It’s messy sometimes, but again, the information you gather will be invaluable for a winning proposal and an effective project.

Choose people you identified as program staff, current clients, “alumni,” potential program participants, colleagues in related or complementary fields of work, support staff, vendors, and community members who have an interest in your field. You’ll want at least 12 to15 people, so invite 30–40. Include people who surfaced in the questorming because this time you will be looking for:
• Potential partners
• Elements to add or subtract from your initial project design
• Barriers and gaps that need attention
• Community resources to augment your project
• History of what does and doesn’t work locally and in other communities
• Perceived benefits of your proposed effort
• Community supporters
• Prospective funding streams

By now you know the steps of holding a productive meeting, but let me add a few additional suggestions because this will be a larger group and you‘ll need to be a bit more organized.

• Phone, email, or otherwise personally invite each person. Follow up a verbal invitation with a written notice that includes the estimated time (90 minutes for this group) and purpose of the meeting.
• Reserve a room and arrange for a recorder. If you have invited 40 people, set up the room for 30 and have spare chairs handy. It’s better to have every chair filled than to have large empty rows or a single person at a table with eight chairs. You also want everyone to participate easily so if you expect more than a dozen, arrange for two recorders and/or someone to tape the session.
• Plan to have some kind of refreshments. You are building relationships, as well as gathering information, so prepare as if you are inviting people to your home. If you serve coffee, make arrangements for tea, add bottled water to a selection of soft drinks, and show that you are attentive to individual differences by your choice of food.
• People may not know each other (so nametags will probably be appropriate) and they will undoubtedly arrive at different times so I suggest you begin with the kind of flexible, interactive activities that Eva Schindler-Rainman called “raggedy beginnings.” Start a graffiti wall and invite people to respond to posted words and phrases or build a group mind map surrounding your proposed project. Pass out forms for people to interview someone to introduce later. Even do a silly party ice breaker that can be easily stopped when most of the group has arrived.
• Thank everyone for coming. Remind them of the purpose of the meeting (to help the agency collect ideas and resources about XYZ). If the raggedy beginning didn’t involve interviewing someone else, ask everyone to introduce themselves and answer one specific question related to the topic of the day. (Give your name, agency or job title, and one service that would make life better for homeless/elderly/young people in our community. Or, tell us how you would benefit if we expanded the music academy.)
• Restate the purpose and expectations of the meeting • once again and review or teach the four basic guidelines for brainstorming:

• Criticism is ruled out.

• Freewheeling ideas are welcome.

• Quantity is wanted.

• Combination and improvement are sought.

• Decide which of the eight possible outcomes (potential partners; additions or subtractions from your project design; barriers and gaps; community resources; history of what does and doesn’t work; desired benefits; community supporters; and prospective funding streams) you want to elicit through group process and which you want to collect through personal observation.
• You may want to brainstorm more than one question, but limit the number to three. If you used the graffiti wall as a raggedy beginning, start with one of those topics and add suggestions. Look at the questions from the questorming session to see which ones might be applicable.
• Expect a pause after a rush of ideas. Be patient and give people permission to dig deeper for comments they think are silly or impractical. You’ll find someone brave enough to make a suggestion—and then the ball will get rolling again.
• If there is time and you want help in setting priorities, ask people to rank the suggestions that have been made. An easy way to do this if ideas are posted on newsprint around the room is to give each person three colored stickers to affix to the three suggestions they think have the most merit, should be implemented first, or another ranking criteria you select. If ideas were taped or are not easily accessible, distribute half sheets of brightly colored paper and ask people to list three answers to the ranking question you raise. (Brightly colored paper is as an important ingredient as the choice of refreshments, since it’s another detail that says you put time and energy into planning this day and you will find and appreciate the feedback they provide.)
• Ten minutes before you said the meeting would end, ask if there are any final comments, summarize the main contributions, and thank everyone for coming. Stand by the door to say thank-you and good-bye to everyone as they leave.
• Clean up and transcribe the notes. Condense them to one page and send them with a thank-you note to everyone who attended. Also send them with a note to the people who didn’t attend saying you missed them and wonder if they have anything to add to the group’s feedback.

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Essays Writing: Brainstorming for a Topic

For words of wisdom about choosing your subject, we turn to our contributors. A number of them cite the importance of staying as stress-free as possible. Says one, “Sitting down knowing that you’re writing a big, scary college essay can make your writing start to sound really wooden and formulaic. Instead, have fun writing about yourself, or remembering something important to you, in whatever your most natural writing style is” (Essay 90).

Another student author believes that picking a topic isn’t such a big deal. “I don’t think the topic is as important as the tone of the essay. It’s like two people can say the same thing, but you’ll be attracted to the person whose personality shines even when they say a simple ‘hello’” (Essay 59). Even if there are many topics that could work, you still must pick one, or at least a way to open your essay.

One of our contributors made a list of fifteen possible essay topics, then gradually eliminated choices until she had her topic (Essay 17). Another writes that she “reflected on what was important to me, and what aspects of my personality I felt were those most worth knowing” (Essay 51). Yet another student suggests a stream of consciousness. “Write down things that make you happy, or random things that cross your mind, or that one weird thing that happened that one time,” she says. “Get any and all ideas down on paper somewhere, and if one of them stirs your imagination, go with it” (Essay 70).

If you have plenty of time, consider beginning a journal to test out ideas. If you put down one hundred words a night, or at least every few days, the odds are good that you will hit on something interesting. For those without a topic or any notion of where to begin, we offer the following five ideas to get you unstuck. Try writing about:

• An article of clothing—Many people have an item such as a favorite sweater, a beloved T-shirt, or a well-worn pair of shoes. One student author in this book writes about all the shoes in her closet, and how each pair reflects different facets of her personality (Essay 15). It is often possible to spin stories around an item that has been with you through many experiences, or that can be made to represent truths in your life.
• The groups in your school and where you fit in—Every school has groups of people who associate together based on common interests or traits—jocks, musicians, Goths, skaters, cheerleaders, “smart” kids, and everything in between. Not that you want to reduce anyone to a stereotype, but some perceptive comments about social life at your school can be very effective. Have you tried to bridge the groups? Ever gotten caught in a test of loyalty between them? One of our authors wrote a superb essay about how his mind was opened when some of the toughest football players in the school joined the choir (Essay 39). Another, a football player himself, writes about joining a drama group and expanding his circle of friends (Essay 33).
• A family gathering or tradition—You could pick anything from your family at the dinner table to an annual trip to the beach. You may decide to write about an extended family gathering, and thereby give yourself more characters and interactions to describe. One of our authors writes about the morning cup of coffee with her family (Essay 69). Another writes about family vacations, and the lessons she draws are not the ones a reader—or her mother—might have predicted (Essay 98).
• Your walk or ride to school—Any trip that you take on familiar ground, day after day, is a good possibility. A walk through your neighborhood would allow you to reflect on experiences that you have had at each place you pass. Essay 65 is a classic in this genre. If you are a runner, another idea would be to describe a course that you have run many times, and your thoughts along the way. If you’ve lived in your house a long time, a look around the backyard could bring to mind good times with family or friends that might come together in an essay.
• Your favorite things—One of our authors writes about “Seven Wonders”—ranging from potter’s clay to the dualdensity midsoles on his shoes—and tells how each is meaningful to him. Another student describes herself via twelve items on her desk, from a piece of cheesecake to a copy of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time (Essay 22).

An advantage of the topics here is that they give you plenty of opportunity to drop out of factual description and probe your thoughts and feelings. Whether you choose one of these or something else, make sure it is a topic about which you are passionate, enthusiastic, and/or otherwise entertained. In the words of one of our contributors, “If you can write about something you enjoy, the writing will be much easier and your voice will come through much better.” No matter what direction you take, you are the real topic.
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