Researching What's Been Done

Learning Objectives

• Hone key research language you use
• Develop additional arguments for your grant proposal
• Understand the relationship between your own project and other approaches to the problem you wish to address

Grant proposals are about solving problems or creating opportunities for people whom your organization serves. As you wrote a case statement, you developed an argument while describing the problem or opportunity you see and provided a short synopsis of a potential solution. Before you begin contacting potential sponsors, your project will benefit from your knowledge about other attempts to solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity. Knowing what has already been done will enable you to approach your project from an angle that will help your beneficiaries the most.

During your project, doing research on what has already been done will help you:

• Hone the vocabulary you use: In some cases, sponsors and other grant writers may use key research terms that are different from yours to understand problems, solutions, and projects. Honing your vocabulary as you do research could help you gain additional insights into your own project and communicate with sponsors later.
• Understand what possibilities exist for your own project (or how to build on previous possibilities to create new ones): for example, if another organization is addressing a similar problem successfully in a different geographic location, you might have evidence that your organization will be successful in your locality
• Maximize benefits: if another non-profit is targeting the same problem for the same people in the same geographical area, a grant writer risks duplicating services. Your own organization will be able to address a different aspect of the same problem or create a unique approach that does not duplicate a solution that another organization has already implemented.
• Develop a literature review: In some cases--especially in the sciences--research what has already been done is an important part of a literature review. It helps you contextualize your project and provide legitimacy. You will be able to explain how your research is unique or show how you will attempt to replicate (and therefore verify) findings from previous important research.
• Develop arguments at the stasis of resemblance for various parts of your grant proposal: research on other similar projects will enable you to execute resemblance arguments that may help you either explain your problem or justify your solution. For example: If you find a previous project that addresses the same problem you do, you could make the case that it only solves one part of the problem while explaining how your project solves a different part of the problem. If you find a project that was successful in addressing a similar problem elsewhere, you can compare your project to it while emphasizing ways in which your project could also be successful. 
• Additionally, resemblance arguments may help you establish credibility by explaining the competitive advantage you have over other projects or institutions (Mikelonis, Betsinger, & Kampf, 2004, p. 330).

Questions to consider as you move forward:

• As you begin research on what has already been done, what do you notice about the language that others have used to describe problems and solutions? In what ways might adjustments to your own key research terms yield different results? 
• Where does your own project “fit” among approaches to the problem you would like to solve?
• What findings from research on what has already been done can be used to develop additional arguments for your own project?

Resources

Mikelonis, V. M., Betsinger, S. T., & Kampf, C. (2003). Grant seeking in an electronic age. New York: Pearson/Longman. Pages 90-97 provide two narratives of search efforts by grant writers, including their efforts to hone their vocabulary and use multiple databases.

References

Mikelonis, V. M., Betsinger, S. T., & Kampf, C. (2003). Grant seeking in an electronic age. New York: Pearson/Longman.