Time Is of the Essence: How to Write a Timeline for Your Grant
This blog is part of our new series, Grant Writing for Beginners. The series addresses all stages of preparing a grant proposal, from writing a Letter of Inquiry to submitting a complete proposal. This post continues the series by outlining key components of the timeline.
What to Put in Your Timeline
- All the activities you will need to carry out to meet each of your objectives.
- Evaluation activities, such as when you will assess the project’s progress and address any inadequacies.
- Who is responsible for completing each task, especially if you are collaborating with other organizations.
- When you will fulfill reporting requirements. This may include when you will collect or receive data required for reports and when you plan to submit reports to the funder. Including this in your timeline shows the funder that you understand the obligations of the grant and are prepared to fulfill the requirements.
Tips to Keep in Mind
- Your timeline may be written as a narrative, but it can also be put into a table. A visual representation of your timeline may be easier for reviewers to understand. Here are three sample timeline tables.
- Make sure your timeline is realistic. The more manageable your timeline is, the better your chances are for success. If you are working with others, discuss with them what they feel is a realistic timeframe to complete their work.
- Breakdown your timeline by quarters or months, depending on how long the funding period is. Place each activity into a quarter or month as opposed to specifying specific dates.
- Be sure to include all activities from the day funding is awarded to the last day of funding.
If you found this post helpful, subscribe to the blog to be notified of future Grant Writing for Beginners series posts. In our next post, we’ll discuss writing your budget.
