TIC grant writing

[arhaney]

We need some help on writing a grant for a TIC. What works best in the narrative? We are a small department with less than 10,000 people in our area. No one in our county even has a TIC! Any help would be appreciated. Our grant writer has done a good job (2 for 2) and we would love to go 3 for 3!

[Jonathan Bastian]

Originally posted by arhaney
We need some help on writing a grant for a TIC. What works best in the narrative? We are a small department with less than 10,000 people in our area. No one in our county even has a TIC! Any help would be appreciated. Our grant writer has done a good job (2 for 2) and we would love to go 3 for 3!

We recently added FIRE Act assistance to our website:
http://www.bullard.com/fire_act/fire_act.cfm

I hope it helps.

[tmnkwd]

This is nothing negative against Bullard (I’m a loyal customer) or any other manufacturer of TIC or any other equipment but, be careful and read any narrative you happen to copy or use.

I saw way too many that went into too much scientific or technical detail and left little room to explain the applicants needs, financial picture… Clearly, the supplier wrote these and the applicants were allowed to copy and paste the pre-written narrative. Sometimes, that’s all they did thinking that if a supplier wrote it they must know what is needed to get approved. I don’t need to know that the TIC you are applying for uses an uncooled ceramic focal plane array detector or barium strontium titanate ceramic sensing material. Tell me why you needed it, why you can’t fund it yourself and how you are going to use it to serve your community and others in your area.

I’m delighted to see that Bullard has posted the assistance on their web site and it seems to be more a sample of actual award winning applications rather than technical data from their company. It’s also nice to see that a Bullard employee is coming right out and saying he works for Bullard rather than hiding behind a screen name as I have seen with other companies. Kudos to Bullard.

[Jonathan Bastian]

Originally posted by tmnkwd
This is nothing negative against Bullard (I’m a loyal customer) or any other manufacturer of TIC or any other equipment but, be careful and read any narrative you happen to copy or use.

I saw way too many that went into too much scientific or technical detail and left little room to explain the applicants needs, financial picture… Clearly, the supplier wrote these and the applicants were allowed to copy and paste the pre-written narrative. Sometimes, that’s all they did thinking that if a supplier wrote it they must know what is needed to get approved. I don’t need to know that the TIC you are applying for uses an uncooled ceramic focal plane array detector or barium strontium titanate ceramic sensing material. Tell me why you needed it, why you can’t fund it yourself and how you are going to use it to serve your community and others in your area.

I’m delighted to see that Bullard has posted the assistance on their web site and it seems to be more a sample of actual award winning applications rather than technical data from their company. It’s also nice to see that a Bullard employee is coming right out and saying he works for Bullard rather than hiding behind a screen name as I have seen with other companies. Kudos to Bullard.

Just to clarify: the samples on our website are from actual approved FIRE Act grants. We did not make them up, alter them or try to squeeze in any "Bullardized" information. They are copied verbatim, with the applicants' approvals, from the applications.

And thanks for the kudos...of course, identifying myself can also make me a lightning rod when (not if) I say something stupid!