Grants for Indigenous language programs may come from a variety of sources, such as state governments, private granting bodies administered by banks, Indigenous local governance, or academic institutions. Grants may come from the granting bodies’ own resources or through secondary administration of externally originating resources. Grants originating farther from Indigenous communities and Indigenous administration may have more demanding application processes, requiring more precise budgeting and more detailed explanation of program goals.

Granting bodies may consider a variety of different organizations to be eligible applicants, differing in the degree of formal establishment required. Some grants may require applicants be Indigenous governments, or be organizations formally supported by Indigenous governments, while others may only require that applicant organizations be Indigenous-led. Some grants may be especially permissive, allowing applications by ad-hoc groups or committees without formal organization or support. Indigenous language grants typically only support not-for-profit applicants, or grant to for-profit applicants only if the activities that the grant would fund do not generate profit.

Depending on the available funding opportunities, it may in some cases be helpful for a program to formally incorporate. Incorporations are be required to pay more taxes than a less formal organization, and is subject to stricter deadlines, but will have greater access to funding opportunities, especially those involving more formal or prestigious institutions.

Grants may operate on a variety of timelines. Some grants offer one-time funding without a specified timeline required, while other grants offer annual or multi-year funding plans. In some cases, granting bodies offer ongoing funding, intended to fund an organization’s operation for an indefinite period of time. Longer-term and ongoing funding is often more exclusive to more formalized and institutionally supported organizations.

Grants typically place restrictions on the uses of grant funds, such that they may only be used for certain expenditures. Eligible costs vary between grants, but typically include the staff salaries of people directed involved in funded activities, various one-time costs such as activity related travel costs, training program costs, equipment purchase costs, consultant fees, various operational costs, such as facility rent and utility costs, costs of supplies and materials. Notably, it is common that grants for language revitalization consider student fees to be an ineligible expenditure. However, different granting bodies typically use different language to describe their eligible costs, and their guidelines are often somewhat vague, and so may function flexibly. Some rare grants may not require detailed expenditure reporting, or may have less restrictions on fund use. Some grants additionally restrict the portion of expenditures which grant funds may cover. For example, a grant might only contribute 50% of funds for all eligible costs, or require that administrative costs only account for at most 15% of grant fund expenditures.

Grant applications typically require that applicants answer a variety of questions designed to establish the suitability of applicants. These questions might investigate if applicants match the intentions of the grant, if funded activities are likely to yield good results, or if grant funds will be used according to grant guidelines. Granting bodies often offer a description of the process they use to judge which applicants receive funds, or a set of criteria used to evaluate applications. Consulting this information will likely be helpful in ensuring that applications meet the expectations of granting bodies.

The writing for grant applications does not need to be complex or impressive, only to fully answer the questions on the application and meet the grant’s criteria. Concrete and specific details should be preferred wherever possible. Because grant applications often ask similar questions, it can be helpful to re-use or adapt writing from previous grant applications your organization has made.

Grants may ask about your organization’s purpose or mandate. This usually entails describing the goals of your organization, as well as the means by which it accomplishes them. The history of your organization may also be relevant, if it shows how your organization was formed to solve specific problems of language revitalization in your community. These questions are an opportunity to describe your organization and to demonstrate how it aligns with the purpose of the grant you are applying for. Answers should concretely describe work your organization does and why. For example:

• The purpose of our organization is to revitalize our Indigenous language, Mohawk, by creating fluent adult speakers through immersive education.
• Our organization teaches adults to speak Tuscarora, a local endangered language, and provides
  various Tuscarora language services at community events and ceremonies.
• Our organization is working to develop a community of fluent Cayuga speakers by teaching using a curriculum based on the Root Word method, which has been previously used to successfully create fluent Mohawk speakers.

Grants may also ask about what community or local needs the activities you are requesting funding for will fulfill. This could concern a variety of different needs, such as educational needs, labour market needs, community health and wellness needs. Language revitalization has been scientifically established to yield a wide variety of benefits, so it should be relatively easy in most cases to describe an appealing need that your activities will meet. Detailed discussion and a wide range of scientific citations on this matter can be found in the “justifications” section of this blueprint. Granting bodies will often make it clear what sort of needs they are most interested in in their guidelines, and when they do not, the most relevant needs might still be inferred from the stated goals of the grant. For example:

• The creation of new Tuscarora speakers through immersive education will begin to create a new speaker population in our community, after the previous loss of our last Tuscarora speaker.
• Our Mohawk adult immersion program helps to fulfill the labour needs of Mohawk language children’s schools inside and outside of our community, as many of our program graduates go on to work in Mohawk language education.
• As Whalen et al. (2016) describes, language revitalization has the potential to improve physical health conditions in our community by a variety of measures, reducing rates of alcohol use, drug abuse, and violent incidents.
• In our community, where natural intergenerational transmission of Mohawk has ceased, adult language education is a necessary step in the process of language revitalization, as described by Pohe (2012) and Shah & Brenzingner (2018).

Grants applications may ask for evidence of previous success of your organization’s operations, or description of results expected from the activities you are requesting funding for. Concrete details are highly applicable in answering these questions (i.e. Describing specific statistics of class sizes, graduation rates, proficiency achieved by students, program applicants). For example:

• Our Cayuga language program runs one class with a maximum capacity of 10 students each year, taught by a single instructor with a graduation rate of 90%. With additional funding, we could hire an additional instructor and begin to run a second class with a similar capacity and expected graduation rate.
• Our organization has already developed a curriculum for a second-year Tuscarora language program which the majority of our first-year program graduates express interest in taking. With funding, we expect to be able to run our second-year program at maximum capacity every year and produce more proficient speakers.

Grant applications will often require information on precisely how the activities you are requesting funding for will be performed. This could include information on the timeframe, the target audience (i.e., information on who the students in a language program might be, or on the size of the relevant language community), the methodology that will be used, and who will be performing the activities (i.e., if you will hire new staff, and if you will have to search for such new staff or if you have prospective hires in mind already). For example:

• Our new language program will use the Root Word method and expects to be able to teach students with no previous Mohawk experience to speak Mohawk at an ACTFL level of at least Intermediate-Low in one year of classes.
• Several of our most successful graduates from last year have expressed interest in joining our program as instructors. We expect that these prospective instructors would be able to begin working in our classrooms by next September, after participating in teaching workshops and training during the Summer which we have historically used to prepare our instructors.

Grant applications also commonly require applications be submitted with a prospective budget describing how requested funds will be spent, and possibly also when. They will typically include a blank budget sheet among the application documents, which will be organized according to the granting bodies’ preferred format and what expenditures are eligible to be covered by the grant. Concrete calculations should be included when possible. For example:

• The majority of the requested funds will go toward paying the salaries of class instructors ($xxx per year x 2 years; based on xxx rates, with the corresponding benefits @xx%= $xxx being paid by xxx)
• We request $xxx for travel to xxx (x meetings in total). Assuming car pooling (one car/locale), mileage for meetings will be: xxx km/miles x x meetings = xxx km/miles), for a total of xxx

Proposal writing can be a daunting task, especially when you don’t know where to start or what should be included in a budget. Here’s a list of things to consider when writing a budget. You will need to include a rationale for all things in the budget.

• Rent – include costs of rent for program space
• Salaries – It’s helpful to do some research and look at what people who are doing comparable jobs are making. Hiring staff requires that salaries are comparable for like work. This will also mean that you’ll need to think about how many hours staff will need to work. You will also need to consider the number of team members you’ll need and what their duties will be.
• Insurance – you may need to include this if you are required to have liability insurance or renters’ insurance for anything. Do some research and get some quotes so you can find the best rate.
• Utilities – You may have utility costs and those should be included.
• Phone & Internet – These should be separate from utility costs.
• Equipment & Materials – These are things that you will need to operate your program. They may include computers, printers, recording devices, specific software programs, paper, dictionaries, resources for the program, furniture, and consumables, etc. Take your time to consider what you’ll need and the costs for each.
• Advertising & Website– This may or may not be something that you will include in your budget but if you’re starting your program and you have to advertise for students, you will want to consider the best way to advertise and whether there is a cost. You may also want to create your own website to assist with advertising and you’ll want to include the costs for design/creation and hosting in this line item.
• Travel & Honorarium – These costs will include honorarium for elders/speakers and could include costs for travelling to visit other communities, gatherings, or places that provide language opportunities. Take time to calculate where you’re going, what you’re doing and how you’ll get there. Don’t forget to budget for food and fuel if necessary.
• Training Programs – If your program might include a training opportunity or two, don’t forget to factor that into the budget. What is the cost for the training? Will someone come to you to provide the training or is there travel required?