With many years' experience drafting grant proposals and reports, Ryan Tranquilla can augment your organization's programming expertise with writing and editing skills that will improve your chances of fundraising success.

Money from institutional funders represents a major source of revenue for arts groups. Finding, applying for, managing, and reporting on grants from private foundations and public agencies, however, can be time-consuming and frustrating.

Too many organizations submit grant materials that:

• are off-putting to a grant review panel. Incomplete thoughts, misspellings, and bad grammer all distract from the program for which you're trying to find support.

• don't convincingly descibe the program. You know your organization's programs and strengths better than anyone, but a program's value is not necessarily apparent to someone who hasn't experienced it at first hand.

• don't follow the guidelines. Making sure that every question is answered effectively and all supporting documents are included is a necessary step regularly ignored in the rush to get the proposal or report in the mail.

Proposal and Report Editing:

Many organizations find that financial constraints prevent them from hiring full-time development staff or an expensive freelance grant writer. That can be a blessing in disguise: No one is more knowledgeable about your programs and the impact they have on your constituents than your group's staff. Having someone already associated with your organization compose the first draft of a proposal or report can save you both money and the time it would take to describe your programs to an outsider.

After the first draft, however, an objective eye can prove invaluable in pointing out weaknesses and smoothing rough patches. As an editor, Ryan can polish your proposal or report, ensuring that it's clear, convincing, and addresses all of the foundation's or public agency's concerns.

Foundations and government agencies generally receive many more requests than they can accomodate. Sending the strongest proposal or report possible does not guarantee success -- many other factors are involved in a funder's decision-making -- but a weak submission, no matter how wonderful you know the program to be, automatically diminishes your chances of receiving funding.

Proposal/Report Research and Writing:

Ryan can also work with your organization from scratch: identifying possible funders, making inquiries, and writing a full proposal or final report. Please inquire, availability of this service is limited.

"Ryan Tranquilla is the ideal consultant for a young or mid-size organization's development team. Having Ryan as a consultant allows an in-house development person to turn over drafts for the necessary editing that turns a mediocre proposal into a finely tuned professional document that federal, state, and county funders as well as private foundations have come to expect. At Red Hen Press, we find his editing, polishing, and overall suggestions absolutely invaluable to the development team's work."

                                                                                                                                  -- Kate Gale, editor, Red Hen Press

"Ryan Tranquilla is an experienced grant writer with a proven track record of successful grant applications. PEN Center USA uses Ryan for initial research and strategy, creation and/or editing of letters of intent and final grant applications. Ryan's work is always delivered on time, in a professional presentation."

                                                                                      -- Adam Somers, executive director, PEN Center USA

Further references available upon request. Please contact for rates and information.

Contact:

ryan@ryantranquilla.com

310-895-4197