| Federal government agencies, foundations and | | | | from scratch. Surprisingly, you can still make your idea |
| corporations get turned off by grant proposals that: | | | | unique, even if it has been tried elsewhere. |
| | | | To make your idea unique when tried before, here are |
| 1. Are off-topic; | | | | six steps to reviewing the literature and avoiding this |
| 2. Have been tried elsewhere; | | | | mistake: |
| 3. Give a negative tone; | | | | |
| 4. Come from an applicant, not a client perspective; | | | | 1. Search online - Search on the Internet using |
| 5. Lack adequate infrastructure; | | | | keywords that best represent your idea or program, |
| 6. Include lots of unsupported assumptions; and | | | | like child care, child development, daycare, early |
| 7. Look for quick fixes. In this article, you will learn | | | | childhood, preschool. |
| mistake 2 of 7 to avoid when approaching funders: not | | | | 2. Search offline - Identify professional associations in |
| reviewing the literature. Failure to find out if your | | | | your industry, such as the National Association for the |
| project or idea has been tried elsewhere could lead to | | | | Education of Young Children, Association for Childhood |
| your rejection. The solution is here, too, so you don't | | | | Education International. Review their journals and |
| make this mistake in the future. | | | | websites. |
| Most of the time, our ideas are not new. In fact, one | | | | 3. Identify 1-3 programs doing what you want to do, like |
| researchaer (Meador 1985) found that as many as | | | | Montessori. |
| one-third of all proposals submitted to a funder who | | | | 4. Interview the director of each program. |
| was seeking innovative ideas were for projects that | | | | 5. Summarize in 1-3 paragraphs what each program |
| had been tried elsewhere. | | | | has already accomplished, methodologies used, failings, |
| If the idea for which you seek funding is indeed unique, | | | | successes, stumbling blocks. |
| great. If you're anything like most of my students, after | | | | 6. Include this summary in the "methods" section of |
| reviewing the literature - offline and online - they realize | | | | your proposal. Then, leverage your proposal in a way |
| that they are not alone in the universe. In fact, many | | | | that builds on the successes of the other programs. |
| find programs doing almost exactly what they want to | | | | Subtle improvement of what works is easier, faster |
| do someplace else. | | | | and more fundable than starting from scratch. In the |
| Solution | | | | eyes of the funder, building on a review and summary |
| Economically, it is far more efficient and far-reaching to | | | | of the literature - online and offline - will demonstrate |
| build on what has been done successfully than starting | | | | that you've done your homework. |