Grant Writing Skill Building: A Business Administration Curriculum Proposal.

This paper reviews the need for grant writing skills within various types of organizations and the resulting proposal for including grant writing within business administration curriculum at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels. An introduction precedes the results of a survey regarding current grant writing courses within AACSB schools of business and is followed with a specific grant writing curriculum proposal. To grant is to give, and thousands of government agencies, corporations, foundations and trusts disburse billions of dollars each year. Recipients of these grants include many employers of business administration program graduates including non-profit entities, educational institutions, and business organizations. Regardless of the types of recipients, grants are largely awarded based on the assessment of grant proposals submitted. As the competition for grant opportunities increases, so does the need for grant writing skills enabling applicants to submit proposals that stand out among the submissions. Therefore, the inclusion of grant writing skills within undergraduate and/or graduate business programs is proposed. This paper includes an introduction regarding the availability and types of grant. Secondly, a survey of all southwestern-region AACSB accredited schools of business identifies the presence of grant writing and/or related courses within current undergraduate and graduate business administration curricula. Thirdly, a proposed sample grant writing course outline is presented including a course description, and units of instruction.