Grant proposal
- Hours this proposal costs, end to end
- 34
- Hours drafting the narrative
- 20
- Weeks at the hours you can give it
- 4.25
- Calendar days to allow, with weekends
- 29.75
Where these sheets touch federal rules they cite the Uniform Guidance at 2 CFR part 200 rather than paraphrasing it: 200.414 sets the de minimis indirect rate at up to 15% of modified total direct costs for a recipient with no negotiated rate, and 200.334 requires award records to be kept for three years from the date the final financial report is submitted. Every other number in the sheets is one you type in, because your partners, your sections and your hours are not ours to guess.
The figures above are one application worked as an example (34). Put your own partners, sections and hours in and the answer follows as you type.
Download the Grant proposal worked example (CSV)
A grant proposal is a fixed amount of work that always feels like an unknown amount, which is why it gets started late. This sheet turns it into hours and then into weeks at the hours you can actually give it: the narrative sections the funder asks for, the budget and its narrative, the attachments and forms, and the review rounds you will spend time absorbing. The output that matters is the last one, which is how many calendar days to allow, because that is the number that decides whether you are writing this or not.
Where the constants in this tool come from
What a grants manager asks before using the Grant proposal
Two and a half hours a section seems low.
It is a first draft of a section you know, not a finished one. If the programme is new or the evidence has to be gathered, raise it; the sheet is only useful on your own figures.
Should I count the reviewers' time?
Not in this sheet, which costs YOUR hours. What it does count is the time you spend reading their comments and making the changes, because that is the part that lands on your desk.
What if the answer is more days than I have?
Then you have learned something worth knowing before you started rather than during the last weekend. The honest options are fewer sections of higher quality, a later deadline, or not applying, and all three are better decisions than a rushed submission.