Although government grants, particularly federal ones, tend to want more detail in your narrative than foundations, you will find a wider variety of subjects to address among established foundations.

This is due, in part, to the establishment of a standardized common grantproposal format by many Regional Associations of Grantmakers (RAG) and their member foundations. Since each foundation had input in the creation of the standard, the hybrid is far more comprehensive in its scope of questions than any one of the individual foundation's guidelines was before the standardization.

Many subject areas (educational programs, medical programs, technology transfer) have special questions asked in no other requests for proposals. For instance, educational-grant providers often require a section on professional development to ensure that teachers are prepared to deliver the program described.

Medical-grant RFPs may require a section responding to issues uncov-ered in an annual site visit and particular only to your clinic. You might be asked to address sanitation measures implemented or the availability of foreign-language interpreters during medical visits.

Technology transfers, medical grants, and experimentation grants always require sections on testing in human or animal subjects.

Specialized sections that may appear on some more technical RFPs require specialized, and often expert, knowledge of the subject matter. Seek assistance in writing these sections.

We've selected those sections that are most common and more applicable to a number of different types of projects. You are likely to encounter one or all of these at some point in your quest for grants.