Grant Writing Community of Practice, November 19, 2026

Writing Strong Narratives and Need Statements

Strong grant narratives combine clarity, strategy, emotion, and data. In this session, participants will learn how to communicate community need and organizational impact in ways that build trust and strengthen funding requests.

This class focuses on storytelling, positioning, and writing techniques that improve readability and reviewer engagement. Participants will review weak versus strong examples, learn how to balance qualitative and quantitative information, and explore how funders evaluate narrative quality.

Topics include:

• need statements

• storytelling strategies

• emotional and data-driven writing

• qualitative and quantitative data

• clarity and flow

• narrative positioning

• common writing mistakes

Participants will leave with a Draft Need Statement that can be adapted and reused across multiple grant opportunities.