My Experience with AI & Grant Writing

The Good, The Bad, The Indifferent.

First off, I got to hand it to the founder of the grant writing collective I am part of as a grant consultant, LGW: Learn Grant Writing, Meredith Noble; she introduced our association to ChatGPT and its’ complimentary program Grantable (while it was still in Beta) literally within days of this ground-breaking new technology. I jumped on all the pieces of training and special AI channels for grant writers. I am even attending the Fundraising.AI Global Summit in October of 2023.

Would Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace grant writers? Ugh, I hope not. Hmm, I'm not sure. So, I decided to see what it would be like to integrate AI into my grant consulting business.

My Experience with AI & Grant Writing blog is my take on AI and grant proposals/submissions as a frequent user.

But, first, a little bit about me...

• I do not consider myself a “tech” person. If I am being honest, I still struggle to figure out my parent's TV and their five hundred million remotes (okay, it is closer to three, but still) when I visit them.

• I grew up without a cell phone and hand-wrote most of my papers in college. I had to take a short course on email before my school would assign me one. I am a Gen X gal.

• I intentionally taught myself how to use social media a few years ago. I want to report it was a breeze. Still, it was more complicated than I thought it would be to understand the algorithms, content creation, overall social media culture, various platforms, and how to use a selfie stick for lighting. I mean, we all have a “good side,” right?

• One of my callings is to capture stories through grant proposals to help non-profits raise money for the programs they love. The thought that AI could do this greatly disturbed me, especially at first.

So here is what I have learned: The Good, Bad, and Indifferent over the past few months using AI as part of my grant consulting business:

AI is a valuable tool. A TOOL. That is all. Like my love of Grammarly, which helps clean up my grammatical mistakes, it cannot teach me everything, and it often doesn’t understand the syntax of a particular sentence. I have to read, re-read, and then re-read to ensure I submit my best work for my clients.

AI, when used as a tool for writing, is similar. It helps me to streamline workflow, improve the quality of my proposals, and enhance my research capabilities. Still, it needs a lot of extra assistance.

1. Proposal Generation

The Good: AI-driven software can generate drafts of grant proposals based on your input, saving you time and ensuring you cover essential elements. Remember how you used to create an outline and then an actual paper or proposal? AI for proposals is like creating your outline but a touch more in-depth. This feature alone has helped me get started! Let me tell you, staring at the blank page waiting for inspiration, frankly, is the worst. One question can get you started and help get those neutrons activated!

The Bad: Just like an outline, if you expect ChatGPT, Grantable, or any other AI to create your final proposal, it just can’t, not well. In my experience, these drafts require substantial editing and customization to align with the specific goals of each funder. This type of tailoring needs to be done by someone who understands the nuances of the project, organization, community it serves, and the application itself. Again, they provide a helpful starting point, but if you rely solely on it and copy and paste, you most likely won’t have many winning grant applications.

2. Automated Research/Data Analysis

The Good: AI-powered tools quickly gather and analyze vast amounts of data, helping to identify potential funding sources, relevant statistics, and critical field-specific trends.

The Bad: It isn’t niche enough. For example, it can pull trends but struggles to fully understand an organization's unique context, mission, and values. A person who knows your organization, like a staff person, volunteer, or consultant, will naturally bring a deep understanding of the goals, culture, and specific needs of the communities they serve. Plus, the data you need for a proposal might be proprietary and only kept in-house. When pulling stats, I recommend getting very specific with your questions to help hone in on the data.

3. Audience Analysis

The Good: AI can assist in analyzing the priorities and preferences of different grant review committees and tailor your proposals accordingly. It can also help you personalize your proposals for individual funders. This feature is most helpful with more prominent/national funders where there is a lot of data available and past grantees.

The Bad: Sometimes, you must pick up the phone and call a prospective Funder. I use the program Instrumentl to find new grant opportunities for my clients; it is fantastic and gives me lots of collective data to review, from median gift size to funding priorities. Building relationships with funders and understanding their preferences involves human interaction, networking, and negotiation. AI cannot replace the personal connections and trust that humans can establish. There is also an emotional appeal. Whether a consultant or a staff member, a person can inject passion, empathy, and personal stories into their writing, which is challenging for AI to replicate effectively.

The Indifferent: Let’s talk time and intention. AI generates many prospective Funder leads based on the parameters you give it. This is great! However, you still need to take the time to review a Funder’s past giving, requirements, and more. A second glance shows that only ten of them are true fits. For example, XYZ Funder might give to animal welfare, but when you pull their history, you discover they have only ever given to shelters in Maine, and you live in California, so chances are slim. This example is how AI lacks, whereas a grant consultant or staff member doing their research comes in handy.

4. General Thoughts (Mostly Good)

Condensing Word Count: What I genuinely love AI for is pairing down a proposal. I love to write, and sometimes it is just too much. AI helps me clean up my proposals, organize my thoughts, and even alter my word count. For example, one client had a proposal, and the Funder wanted much information and data. It ended up being multiple pages in length. We used the matching grant process and needed to duplicate the proposal for another funder. Funder number two wanted 200 words or less. Y’all, huh?! They wanted a summary. Then, if they liked your idea, they would invite you for a full proposal. I stared at the screen forever and then tried Grantable. I uploaded the first proposal and typed, “condense this into a 200-word summary,” it worked almost like magic. I had to finesse it a bit, but what a fantastic tool! Good news, we were invited to apply.

Language Translation: If you are applying for grants from organizations that require proposals in a language other than your native language, AI translation tools can help you accurately translate your content. Again, AI doesn’t always get it right, so if you know someone who can double-check, I highly recommend it or try clearing out your questions and entering the information again. For example, you entered your proposal in English and asked for a translation to Spanish. Now clear your data, join it as Spanish, and ask to translate it to English—just a tiny trick, again, not 100% accurate.

Nimble: Grant writing sometimes requires adapting the proposal on the fly, responding to unexpected questions, or addressing concerns not covered in pre-written content. A good grant consultant understands this and the more profound work being done; they can answer questions from a prospective Funder, and if they can’t, they know how to ask your ED and board members the right questions to discover the answer. This can sometimes be uncomfortable and is part of the growth of a non-profit organization.

Warning: If you generate your proposals, budgets, and more in AI and then copy/paste/hit submit, you will get many questions. There will be gaps! So craft your proposal and understand it. After all, if you get the money, you have to fulfill the vision you set forth. AI can’t cast the vision for your project or proposal. Vision is an internal process that has to take place with staff, board, volunteers, stakeholders, and more. Plus, check for cultural sensitivity, word language, and ethical considerations. AI can miss these, and often.

So yes, I use AI. Even I can’t believe it. But the truth is, it is a valuable tool as a grant consultant. It complements my expertise but does not replace it. Successful grant writing requires a deep understanding of your field (and getting to know the field of those you serve), the ability to craft persuasive narratives, and strong interpersonal skills for networking and relationship building.

So, feeling good about AI, maybe I will tackle those family remotes, but there are no promises.

Resources Mentioned/Used:

Learn Grant Writing, https://www.learngrantwriting.org

Grantable: https://grantable.co/

Grammarly: https://app.grammarly.com/

You know it! - OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (August 3 Version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com

My thoughts. It is a blog, after all.