The Concept Paper
The concept paper, sometimes called a prospectus, preliminary proposal, or pre-proposal, is a useful tool for several purposes. It helps clarify and organize ideas in a written form and provides the basis for a funding search. From the concept paper, an individual is able to develop any number of grant applications for the same idea.
Read more about the concept paper (PDF)

Proposal Guidelines
If you are submitting a proposal to an agency with specific guidelines, follow those guidelines closely. Often, applications that do not follow guidelines, organization, content, format, etc., exactly are returned to the Principal Investigator (PI) without being reviewed. When such guidelines are unavailable, use the following elements of a good proposal. (PDF)

Helpful Guides

• "Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal" by S. Joseph Levine, Ph.D.
• A Practical Guide for Writing Proposals by Alice Reid, M.Ed
• Sciencecareers.org “How Not to Kill a Grant Application”
• OCLC- Grant Writing Guide
• University of Pittsburgh Proposal Key Components
• Foundation Center- Proposal Writing Short Course

Specific Agency Guidelines

• Grants.gov- Apply for Grant
• DOE- Grantmaking at ED (PDF)
• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance: Developing and Writing Grant Proposals