This is a practical guide to proposals writing organized around Eight Lessons-Learned by a highly successful grantmaker over a twenty years period. It is written for both novices and veterans. Novices will learn how to take a vague notion of something they want to do and turn it into a proposal. Veterans will learn how to improve their proposals while increasing the odds of receiving funding and the chances that the resulting programs will be strong and manageable. Purchase includes access to online tools that help clarify ideas and pull together the information needed to write proposals that the funder and the reviewer will appreciate and that also serve as blueprints for the implementation of strong programs that are built to last.