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Write a funding application draft with AI (and check it yourself)
Use AI to get a first draft on the page. You still check every fact before it goes in.
I use this when I'm staring at a long application and need a starting point, not a finished submission. A draft can save an afternoon. A draft you don't check can cost you the funding.
Gather these first
- The official program guide or application form
- Your facts file
- What the money is for, in one paragraph, with a real amount if you have one
- Any dates, quotes, and documents you already have (quotes, letters, incorporation papers)
If you don't have the official guide open, stop and get it. The helper should answer the questions the program actually asks.
Copy this prompt
Help me draft answers for this funding application. Use only the facts I provide. If a question needs a number, a date, a partner, or a letter I have not given you, leave a clear blank and tell me what I need to add. Do not invent results, statistics, testimonials, or community benefits. Do not change the official wording of the program. Official questions or section I need to answer: [Paste the questions from the program guide] My facts file: [Paste your facts file here] What the money is for, in my own words: [Paste your paragraph] Facts I can prove (amounts, dates, documents I already have): [Paste only what is real]
What you must check yourself
Go through the draft line by line. This is the part you can't skip.
- Every number. Amounts, dates, staff counts, and budgets. If you didn't give the number, delete it.
- Eligibility. Does the program actually fit your business, your location, and your ownership? Don't let a hopeful sentence paper over a no.
- Community benefit. Only keep claims you can stand behind, in your own words.
- Names and letters. If a Band or Nation letter, a partner letter, or a signature isn't in hand yet, don't write as if it is.
- Official wording. If the draft changed the program's words, put the real ones back.
- Invented proof. Cut any statistic or testimonial you didn't provide.
When a program asks for a Band or Nation letter, board documents, or incorporation papers, those come from you and the people who have to sign them. A helper can't produce those.
Indigenous Financial Institutions and official program staff can help you read the guide. A draft is not advice, and it is not a submission.
One job this week
Pick one section of an application you have open, or one you plan to start. Draft it with the prompt. Then print it or read it out loud, and mark every line you can't prove. Fix those lines yourself before anyone else sees it.
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