Grants!!

It seems to me that writing grants is similar to writing a proposal for a job the criteria is very similar. There are obvious differences but if you’re going to try and start anything in a job this is what is needed to get financing. The different professionals I have talked to in the field of history, archives, or museums it is best to go big expecting you’re going to get less than what you ask for. The part I did not think about, until the writing is that there is an inter-disciplinary group I have to account for. Then I contemplated how am I going to make my proposal sound worth wild for other groups? How am I supposed to know the “jargon” of the other people and groups involved in making my proposal successful? According to the article I should avoid such “jargon,” which makes sense because if I can’t communicate it to anybody then it would fail inside a museum. I must make the proposal user friendly to the group I am presenting it to as well as to a regular person. The proposal is different than the NEH grant due to the fact that the proposal has to be presented in front of a peer reviewed board instead of a competition.  The fact that the panel who you present to, is multidisciplinary helps. I feel that in order to properly push forward with any proposal it should be as user friendly as possible. It seems that after reading this particular article a historian should use clarity and make the proposal as if he or she is trying to sell a particular item to the general public. The easier it is for John Q public to understand the better the sell on the proposal.

NEH grant makes sense that you should have some humanities represented because this is what the public can relate with the most. The difference I see from the proposal to the NEH grant is that the NEH grant is a competition amongst multidiscipline groups with the winners getting the grants. The public wants to know how does this scenario or piece of history relates to their lives. If you can’t grab that with the public more often it seems you lose interest. If you can inspire people to get involved or relate to what you are presenting, obviously, you’re going to get more money. The problem is you’re going to have to give up some integrity it seems to make it more appealing to the regular public, which most historians do not want to give up. The narrative you give in support of your grant will help in getting financial support but you must follow the guidelines to get it. This is helpful in the historical field because this is when you can explain your idea and history to the general public where thought on a particular history can be changed.

I like the idea of proposals because it forces historians to make history more tangible to the general public. The proposal forces historians to look at it as regular person, unaware of this particular event in history. The historians have to make it, not only tangible for the grant proposal board, but the people it is focused on in order to share this particular historical information.