Services
WISSEN’s services guide you on a path to success.
All services are performed by individuals who have earned at least an MA and who have higher education and/or grants experience. Our data show that clients who sign up for all services have the greatest degree of success. That said, clients may sign up for individual services, as outlined below.
ROI
Everyone wants to win – and WISSEN has 55% to 100% win rates with clients. But there are other reasons to engage in WISSEN services. Clients report that individuals feel mentored; employees learn how to make their programs stronger and more successful; and staff are better equipped to innovate their programs.
Sign up for single services or for all services, as a subscription. The benefit of a subscription model is that the price per grant is lower-and each win builds on the next. Grants Consulting & Writing Workshops & Webinars Strategic Planning Grants Consulting & Writing
Through a process of conversations, questions, and research, WISSEN learns about your projects and needs, and then mines our WISSEN grant databases to find opportunities that will fit your institution. We then match your projects to appropriate funders. Every grant narrative tells a story: what you want to do, why you want to do it, and how you will do it. But the content of the story matters as much as how you tell your story-and that involves knowing and understanding how to employ best practices for what we call “grant language.”
Our grant writing formula brings in wins.
Grant Consulting & Writing for Institutions
We write grant applications by following the tried and true WISSEN writing process. WISSEN:
- asks the right questions to expand the vision of the project;
- creates nuance in the details that support that vision;
- communicates and clarifies grant goals
- suggests appropriate language and project parameters;
- provides evidence-based research
- leverages and convenes internal and external partners for grant applications;
- writes the narrative; and
- works with experienced subject matter experts, reviewers, and developmental editors on final submissions.
Grant Writing for Individual Faculty Members and Researchers:
Sometimes a client (whether an individual faculty member or an institution) just wants help with a single application. We provide coaching and developmental editing – as well as grant writing – for individuals. Together, we will explore your topic, expand its vision and impact, and drill down into the details to make your work a success.
Additional Services:
1. Coaching
WISSEN coaches published scholars through the process by setting up achievable deadlines, asks the right questions to help define the project, and suggests convincing wording.
2. Developmental Editing
A developmental edit involves suggesting the order of ideas, changing syntax, asking questions, and providing alternative wording. This service works best for published scholars.
3. Copyediting
Even the greatest of writers needs an editor! Whether WISSEN or the client writes the text, WISSEN provides professional copy-editing services. A text free of errors is a must-clear writing allows helps reveiwers get directly to the substance of your proposal.
4. Budgets and Budget Justifications
Budgets can be confusing. Tell us your needs and your numbers and we will give you feedback so as to create strong and convincing budgets and budget narratives.
5. Follow-up Reporting
Many times, projects require follow-up reporting. Give us the data, and we will write up the follow-up reports. Workshops & Webinars
WISSEN offers a suite of live workshops that are tailored to your needs. We aim to give you the tools you need to write strong grant applications by offering workshops on:
- The five essential elements of every grant application
- How to search for funders
- How to read RFPs
- How to understand logic models
- How to design convincing budgets.
Clients may contract for workshops without contracting for grant writing services. Workshops are tailored to serve individual clients as well as professional associations.
We scaffold and tailor training to your needs. With decades of experience teaching college students and adults, we offer workshops that aim to create a grants culture at your institution-and that will result in more applications submitted and a higher win rate. The workshops harness your ideas and innovations and demonstrate how your team can create capacity to win grants. Our workshops are fun, lively, interactive, and bring results: when institutions know how to write grants they tend to win grants. Workshops are virtual, one-hour, and work best with about 16 people. On site workshops are available upon request.
*NEW* For Faculty and Staff: Understanding how to read RFPs and how to write grant applications is key to your success. In this 1/2 day workshop, we will brush up your skills; learn the key 5 elements of every grant application; and understand how to easily sift through a federal RFP to get the information you need. Free for currently subscribed clients.
Register: email [email protected]
Cost: Discounted rate of $695 per person for former clients. 20% off for former clients who who refer us to new clients.
Interested in a full line-up of workshops? Scroll down!
*NEW* Just for College and University Presidents:
You institution hires staff to write grants-but do you know what it takes for a campus to be ready to win grants? Learn: 5 Grants to Which All Campuses Should Apply; How to Assess Capacity on Your Campus; Seven Key Skills for Your Staff. 12 slots limited. Webinar format w/opt in anonymous chat.
Register: email [email protected]
Cost: $295/person.
Grants 101: Grant Fundamentals.
This workshop will build the foundation of your grants knowledge by focusing on key terminology and explaining how to find appropriate funders.
Grants 102: The Five Essential Elements of Every Grant Application
Every grant application will ask you five key questions. But those questions are not always easy to find, especially when you are faced with an 80-page grant solicitation. In this workshop, you’ll learn what those five elements are – and where to find them in a grant solicitation.
Grants 103: What Funders Really Want
Winning funding helps our projects become a reality. But how do we balance what we want versus what the funder wants? In this workshop, we will read through both grant applications that federal agencies funded-and applications were not funded. After a game of “Which One Won?” we will read through some federal RFPs and brainstorm how to turn your project into one that meets funder expectations.
Grants 104: Don’t Be Afraid of Number: Crafting Convincing Budgets
Budgets can be tricky and intimidating. However, most grant applications want the same basic budget line information. We will review these line items and brainstorm ways to estimate-and then firm up-budget amounts. We will also discuss “budget to actuals.”
Grants 105: Making Logic Models Work for You!
Appropriate participants include: faculty, staff involved with student services, and staff involved in uploading applications/post award reporting.
Logic models are sometimes required by grant applications-and sometimes they are useful tools to create even if a funder does not require them. But not everyone thinks in terms of graphs and flowcharts. What are “inputs,” “outputs,” “goals,” and “objectives”? We will examine each of these in turn so as to help you create a strong project-and take away the mystery of the logic model.
Other Topics
WISSEN will create custom workshops for your institution, including training on specific grant opportunities. Just ask!
Prices for the Workshops & Webinars package are dependent on client size and number of participants. Strategic Planning
Interviews: We conduct intensive interviews with your employees and leadership so as to identify strengths and challenges at your institution. We make suggestions, based on evidence-based research, of ways to build on strengths and address challenges. Potentially fundable grant projects emerge during the course of these conversations.
Institutional Overview Report (IOR): The IOR summarizes findings-including fundable grant projects. The IOR can be used for the purposes of strategic planning as well as for strategic grant planning.
Match Projects to Funders: Following leadership’s priorities, we match projects to funders by researching WISSEN databases, myriad online sources, and talking to program officers. WISSEN keeps a robust database of past RFPs, thereby ensuring that you can get started on your federal grants before the official federal RFP release, giving you more time for a robust application. WISSEN receives all announcements from the funding agencies and keeps abreast with developments and new agency initiatives.
Grants Calendar: A grants calendar includes targeted funders, recommended start dates for writing the applications, and recommended upload dates. We then proceed to the Workshops & Webinars or Grants Writing phase, depending on client needs.