This page provides a brief overview of some of the resources available through the Grants Information Collection at UW–Madison’s Memorial Library in addition to some other resources for writers working on grant proposals.
Download a PDF of our grant writing resources
Grants Information Collection
For current students, faculty, and staff at UW–Madison, this collection at the Memorial Library is a great resource for you to turn to at any point of your grant writing process. There is even a librarian dedicated to managing and distributing this grant information. Among other things, on their website you can find links to databases where undergraduate and graduate students can seek out funding sources.
This collection also has resources for people interested in nonprofit organization grants.
You can find information about and handouts from the workshops they offer on grant proposal writing here as well as material from their workshops about undergraduate and graduate education grants.
In addition to the texts featured below, the grant collection’s website also contains references to many other books and internet resources with loads of grant information as well as how you can contact the library’s dedicated grant librarian. It’s worth your time to make good use of this amazing resource!
Here are some of the books housed in the Grant Information Collection that we find to be particularly useful.
Writing grant proposals in general
Hall, Mary and Susan Howlett. Getting Funded: The Complete Guide to Writing Grant Proposals. 4th ed., Continuing Education Press, 2003.
This very thorough volume functions as a textbook for grant proposal writing. Hall and Howlett’s advice and insight is applicable to a range of grant writing contexts.
Writing grants for organizations and nonprofits
Teitel, Martin.“Thank You for Submitting Your Proposal”: A Foundation Director Reveals What Happens Next. Emerson & Church, 2006.
After decades of working with funding agencies, Teitel has a unique perspective on what effective proposals look like. For information specifically about proposal writing, see chapter 4, pages 51–68.
Thompson, Waddy. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Grant Writing. 2nd ed., Alpha Books, 2007.
Especially in part 5 (pages 129–200), this book contains insight, tips, and strategies for writing grant proposals. Appendices C–F provide some excellent samples of different kinds of proposals.
Coley, Soraya M. and Cynthia A. Scheinberg. Proposal Writing. 2nd ed., Sage Publications, 2000.
This is a quick, back–pocket handbook to writing in this genre.
Writing grants for educational development
Henson, Kenneth T. Grant Writing in Higher Education: A Step–by–Step Guide. 2nd ed., Jossey–Boss, 2002.
The advice that Henson provides about proposal writing could be applied to many contexts, but he is particularly interested in helping educators receive funding for scholastic projects.
Other Recommended Resources
Writing academic research grants
Crawley, Gerard M. and Eoin O’Sullivan. The Grant Writer’s Handbook: How to Write a Research Proposal and Succeed. Imperial College Press, 2016.
This text is particularly directed to graduate students and academic researchers studying the natural or social sciences, engineering, medicine, economics, and medicine who are interested in writing research proposals. Chapters 4 and 5 are focused on proposal writing.
Bentley, Lisa Patrick. “Grant-Writing Tips for Graduate Students.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 Nov. 2000, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Grant-Writing-Tips-for/125301. Accessed 23 June 2017.
Bentley merges general advice about grant writing with survey responses from almost 200 graduate students who applied for and received or didn’t receive National Science Foundation grants.
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