Before You Send the Proposal: A Checklist .Follow funders’ instructions exactly: Make sure your proposal follows all instructions related to the organization and formatting of the proposal such as section titles, margin width, type size, page limitations, page order and numbering, and the inclusion of a table of contents and abstract page. Following directions is even more important in matters of content, such as limitations on grant amounts, restrictions on specific kinds of activities or expenditures, and all criteria that determine eligibility. .Pay attention to proposal deadline: Check whether the deadline is for the postmark date or date for receiving the proposal. Whichever the case, send the proposal by a carrier or service that will absolutely guarantee that the deadline will be met. (If the proposal must be received by a certain date, sending it by regular mail is rarely a good idea; no matter how early you send it, there can always be delays.) Check the address you are mailing to very carefully; a wrong number in a zip code or street number can delay the proposal and cause you to miss the deadline. .Make time to edit the proposal: Sloppy, poorly written proposals are unlikely to succeed. Typos, misspellings, grammatical errors, unclear sentences, and sections that have been copied from other documents and inserted into your proposal without being properly integrated into it give the impression that the proposal was rushed or, worse, that the applicant organization is not very professional. For some reviewers such mistakes can create a bad first impression that may be hard to overcome. (You are trying, after all, to inspire confidence in your abilities.) They can also make the proposal so frustrating to read that reviewers miss important information or lose interest in the substance of the proposal. Someone other than the main writer of the proposal should read the proposal from beginning to end to check for errors and clarity of meaning. (Note: running Spell-check on your computer is not enough; a reference to a “peace of paper� may not be flagged by the program, but reviewers will certainly notice the error.)
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