Don’t Take Grants for Granted: Part Two

    In Part One on this subject, I talked about my experience with people’s perception of grants. Easy? Not even close. Before one ever considers getting a grant, the must first realize that:

1. It takes an incredible amount of research to find the proper possible grantors.
2. Once the research is finished, you have to write a Letter of Intent exactly to the grantor’s specifications. If accepted, you write the grant proposal that way, too.
3. It takes a long time to get any answer, positive or negative. A year is not uncommon.
4. If you get it, great!  If not, don’t expect to find out why.
5. If you decide to go through this process, you’d better budget pretty exactly first.
6. After you get the grant, everything must be documented for the grantor according to their specifications and forwarded to them periodically for their review.
7. If you choose to hire a professional to do this, expect to pay properly. $100 per hour or more is normal.

Don’t wanna do that?

The term “crowdfunding” equates to “content writing” to me. Just as content writing is a term for writing supercharged by the internet,  crowdfunding is just the old method of using subscriptions and pledges–PBS-like– to reach funding goals via internet use. It is faster, but easier? Nah.

The first thing that you have to do is decide on a platform. Kickstarter has emerged as the leader in the field, but there are hundreds of others like Indie GoGo and Crowdtilt. Each of them tries to differentiate themselves from the pack, so it is important to research them to decide which one is best for you.

I am currently involved with a campaign for the West Florida Literary Federation. As a nonprofit that feels confident about civic pride triggering enough sponsors to garner funds to supplement a traditional grant, we chose the crowdfunding leader, Kickstarter. The campaign:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/500voices/folk-art-and-interpretive-dance-meet-poetry-art-in

There are about 90,000 Kickstarter projects going on at any given time. Funding is fast, but still highly competitive. I spent over 100 hours exclusively on this project, for instance, and there are no guarantees. If we’re even $1 short of our goal, all is for naught. This system is “go big or get out.”

Oh, and no matter which forum you choose, you need to target your own potential sponsors. Sure, you could be featured on the front page and find lots of sponsors worldwide. People win the lottery, too. Good luck with that. Really.

My point is that grants are much harder to get than many think. Crowdfunding is faster and more user-friendly, but almost as hard.

When I was Regional Membership Director for the BBB in the 90’s, the president loved to be quoted in the press with the old axe “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” He was onto something.

Grants and crowdfunding are vitally important, but far from easy. If anyone tries to make you think otherwise, a dropkick or something similar is advisable.

Grants are vital, as is crowdfunding–please don’t get me wrong. Like everything else, though, plan to work for them.

Learning Good. Feels Better When the Pain Stops.

You’re as old as you feel. It’s never too late to learn. Every day’s a school day.

All true. The thing is, I have spent all week writing and um, researching a research paper that is due this week for a grad school course that I’m taking in the English department of LA Tech. Its subject is scientific and technical communication. Balancing work and school is something that millions do every year, so what I am doing is nothing special. In fact, I did it myself when I first went to college .

The difference? Well, that was in the 1980’s. I was a single hotel night auditor that played in a band.

As age increases, so does responsibility–of that there’s little doubt. Balancing the two worlds is usually more of a challenge for an older student–it certainly is for me–but it’s not rocket science, either.

The knowledge required in the world of technical communication today isn’t as far removed from that of rocket science as it was. Brain surgery, yes. Technology is changing so fast, though, that communicating effectively within it requires diligent and constant study.

So far this quarter I’ve learned how to build a website, basic coding in HTML, and how to critique other websites.  I also completed an adaptive online resume. Since many predict that accessing the internet on smartphones will overtake that of PC access by 2015, the ability to make your work adaptive is a vital thing to know. In some countries, the change is already in effect.

I was looking forward to this week’s assignment: a research paper. Ahh…the comfort zone for a lot of us writing types. In the process of earning an English degree, you do lots of them. It does have to be posted to my website in an adaptable format, but I can do that–at least, I can now.

As I  mentioned, though, I am old. When deciding on my thesis, I convinced myself of the idea that researching a paper on the battle between search engine optimization (SEO) theories that actually produce great content and those that don’t was the ticket. Oops.

I knew that this was a huge field, so I gave the professor the broad subject area with the promise to narrow the scope. A 4000 word paper’s gotta be pretty narrow

The thing is, the subject and all of its nooks and crannies are being studied every day by millions of people. Most areas, no matter how tiny, couldn’t be properly covered in 40,000 words properly, much less 4000. Every time that I tried to narrow the scope, I was overwhelmed with so much info that it was hard to breathe. Remember that I Love Lucy episode where she works in a chocolate factory? That was me.

Finally, I threw in the towel. I changed my thesis last night to how a particular musical group (Pentatonix) has used social media to draw attention to its talent in effectively achieving success in the popular music field. This is unique because it is very rare for an a cappella (without instruments) group to escape its small musical niche. Pentatonix is a fiercely a cappella group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r3B9j2WF0k

I don’t mind the headaches. Much. The wasted research may prove useful later. Knowledge, even for those of us with a few gray hairs, is power, indeed. Still feels a little strange to call myself a grad student, though, after so many years attending the school of life.

Oops, gotta go.  Research paper to finish and format for my website. The worlds of the old (writing) and the new (adaptive technology) continue to collide, as they always have.