A case study of grant proposal writing in a nonprofit workplace: Writing to keep families off the street
Mary Flaherty Haas
- School: Purdue University (0183)
- Degree: Ph.D.
- Date: 2002; pp: 106
- Advisor: Lauer, Janice M.
- Source: DAI-A 64/09, p. 3276, Mar 2004
- Subjects: Language, Rhetoric And Composition (0681); Sociology, Public And Social Welfare (0630)
- ProQuest Document Number:
- ISBN: 0-496-52519-4
- UMI Number: AAT 3104952
Abstract:
-
This case study examines means of persuasion used by a successful grant proposal writer at a
medium sized nonprofit, a homeless shelter in the US American Midwest. Concepts from the field
of rhetoric, especially persuasion through appeals to the character of the persuader (ethos),
are applied to analyze two grant proposals, other promotional discourse, and the grantwriter's
verbal account of the work of the shelter. The grant proposals include a long text written to
request funds from a governmental agency to start a new program for transitional services for
formerly homeless families and a short “letter proposal” written to request funds from a local
church for building repairs. The practices of the shelter are presented in a short ethnographic
account and examined for correlation with the qualities presented in the texts. The qualities of
character which emerge are altruism, practicality, networking with other community resources,
and focus on the shelter's specific mission, aiding homeless families. These qualities are
emphasized differently in different pieces of promotional discourse written for varied
audiences. The quality of being networked is most prominent overall. The grant proposal
texts exemplify principles of grant proposal writing taught in professional writing textbooks
and in practitioner handbooks produced by entities such as The Foundation Center.
The ethos presented for the homeless shelter reflects the ethos of the larger nonprofit
sector. The collective ethos of the nonprofit sector, also called the philanthropic sector
or the third sector, embodies altruism in the sense of voluntary action for the collective
good, cooperation rather than competition among entities, and especially fidelity to mission.
Fidelity to mission has received particular emphasis in recent times because of the shifts in
funding patterns for nonprofit organizations and the pressure from funders to shape programming
which give rise to concern about mission drift.
Dissertations
We post the dissertation abstracts
our graduates enter into ProQuest's
database of Dissertations and Theses (and link to 24-page previews as available).
Those at Purdue can locate the full texts through the Purdue Library.