Many books, articles, and videos about proposal writing crowd our shelves. The good ones provide grantseekers with the building blocks and, more importantly, the confidence for creating a competent proposal. The really good ones also inspire enthusiasm for what is thought by many to be a tedious, albeit necessary, chore. In Storytelling for Grantseekers Cheryl Clarke inspires.

Clarke, a fundraising consultant and trainer, is also a published short story author. She came to realize that fundraising —— and specifically proposal writing —— incorporate many of the techniques used in storytelling. A story sets a scene, has characters, and builds tension through a plot. A good proposal should do the same. By approaching the proposal as an opportunity to tell your nonprofit's story, the process becomes more enjoyable for the writer. Storytelling allows the passion to show through the proposal prose, making it more enjoyable for the reader and thus more likely to be funded.

Clarke elaborates on the storytelling metaphor with each chapter. In the proposal narrative you introduce the characters (the agency's clients) and the setting (the catchment area for the agency). The statement of need builds tension and adds conflict to the story. Goals and objectives can be thought of as the resolution to the need or problem described in the statement of need. Evaluation and the plan for future funding are the epilogue and seeds for a sequel, whereas the budget is the story's translation from words to numbers. Clarke uses excerpts from proposals to illustrate these ideas. She also provides summaries of key points for each chapter.

Clarke takes her own advice. I read Storytelling for Grantseekers as a story. Certainly if this technique makes a how-to volume more readable it will work for the far more compelling story that a nonprofit tells. Both new and experienced grantwriters will benefit by using the approach described here.