Another question to ask yourself about a grant writing candidate: Does our grant writer candidate have a diversity of experience, both in their writing, the subjects they deal with and in the populations they deal with?
Ideally, your candidate will have expertise in one or two areas and a wealth of experience in a lot of other areas.
Do they have experience writing in other disciplines and in other styles and are samples of those writings professional, polished, clear, effective? Does your candidate have any sales experience or experience writing sales or marketing materials? This is important because a proposal is part technical writing, part descriptive writing, part research document and part sales tool. Does your candidate have experience running meetings? Running a program? Does the writer candidate have any experience or education in other disciplines that could contribute to the writing of your grant? For example, a candidate who worked as a substitute teacher might have some insight into an educational grant that others would not. Does the candidate work exclusively with one population or can they demonstrate an ability to ascertain and address the needs of a broad spectrum of target populations.
More about this in my next posting. Meanwhile, for more about how a grant writer should work as part of a planning team for your grant proposal, please read my new book, RIGHT BEFORE YOU WRITE: THE GROUNDBREAKING PROCESS USED TO WIN MORE THAN $385 MILLION IN COMPETITIVE GRANT FUNDS. Go to www.SandyPointInk.com.