GRANT WRITING FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION
FREE CONSERVATION BEST PRACTICE
PURPOSE
One of the most common ways for a conservationist to raise funds to cover the costs of their work and sustain their organisation is by applying for grants. However, grants commonly have a high number of applicants, making them very competitive.
The ability to create high-quality grant applications is, therefore, a key conservation skill, often mentioned as a desired attribute in conservation job adverts. Building on fundraising guidance from the conservation and development sectors, the purpose of this best practice is to provide conservationists with guidelines to help them raise more funds through grants.
APPLICATION
This best practice can be used to develop grant applications for any type or scale of conservation work. For example, this best practice could be used to help prepare a grant application for £12,000,000 to fund an international programme to create improved solar panels, or for £5,000 to buy camera traps for a bear monitoring project.
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This best practice can either be used as a stand-alone approach, or in combination with the other best practices in the Wildlife Conservation Professional Series. In this series, the Project Management for Wildlife Conservation best practice provides the overall framework for carrying out a conservation project. The Grant Writing for Wildlife Conservation best practice is primarily used during the fund phase of a conservation project.
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The Strategy Development for Wildlife Conservation and the Monitoring and Evaluation for Wildlife Conservation best practices can be used to create the overall Project plan, which provides the content for any grant applications. Finally, the best practice on Stakeholder Engagement for Wildlife Conservation provides guidance on developing relationships with donors, partners and other stakeholders, that may in turn improve the chances of the grant application being successful.
OVERVIEW
The Grant Writing for Wildlife Conservation best practice provides guidance on preparing an application for any type of conservation grant.
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This best practice begins with a set of overarching principles to guide the project team when creating their grant application, and then describes each step of the grant application process.
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The 7 steps of the process are:
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Selecting a grant that matches project team criteria.
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Gathering information needed to develop the grant application.
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Creating content for the grant application.
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Enhancing content using quotes, anecdotes, boxes, tables, a logframe, and figures.
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Refining content to ensure that information is presented succinctly and is easy to understand.
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Preparing the application by preparing supporting documents, formatting and naming all documents, and making final checks.
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Processing the application from submission to responding to the result.
COMES WITH FREE ONLINE TEMPLATES
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Select from over 180 conservation grants
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Make final checks to your grant application
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Manage your grant applications​
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Download the manual for a link to access this worksheet.
