Grant Writing Professional Ethics and Standards 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A grant writer is asked to sign a letter of intent on behalf of an organization claiming that a community partner has already agreed to collaborate. The partner has only had a preliminary conversation. This is:
- Acceptable if the partner agreed in principle during the conversation
- Unethical because it misrepresents the status of the partnership (Correct answer)
- Acceptable as long as the partnership is formalized before submission
- Standard practice to demonstrate organizational capacity early in the process
Correct answer: Unethical because it misrepresents the status of the partnership
Claiming confirmed partnerships that do not yet exist misrepresents organizational capacity and violates the ethical standard of truthfulness in all grant materials.
Question 2: Under the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), what is an unallowable cost that grant writers must help organizations avoid?
- Indirect costs calculated using a negotiated rate
- Lobbying activities conducted with federal grant funds (Correct answer)
- Program evaluation conducted by an independent third party
- Staff training directly related to grant-funded program delivery
Correct answer: Lobbying activities conducted with federal grant funds
Federal regulations prohibit using federal grant funds for lobbying activities, and grant writers must ensure proposed budgets exclude such unallowable costs.
Question 3: When two former colleagues ask a grant writer to review each other's competing proposals for the same grant, the most ethical response is to:
- Review both proposals and provide balanced feedback to each
- Decline to review either proposal to avoid any conflict of interest (Correct answer)
- Review only the proposal from the colleague hired most recently
- Review both proposals without sharing information between the two parties
Correct answer: Decline to review either proposal to avoid any conflict of interest
Reviewing competing proposals simultaneously creates an unavoidable conflict of interest and the ethical action is to decline involvement with both.
Question 4: What is the primary ethical concern with 'proposal mills' that sell pre-written generic grant applications?
- They are often more expensive than hiring a professional grant writer
- They present another organization's work and misrepresent organizational capacity (Correct answer)
- They typically include outdated statistics that weaken the needs assessment
- They usually do not comply with specific funder formatting requirements
Correct answer: They present another organization's work and misrepresent organizational capacity
Generic pre-written proposals misrepresent the applying organization's actual programs and capacity, and submitting them as original work is a form of deception toward funders.
Question 5: A grant writer learns that their client submitted a final report with fabricated outcome data to a major foundation. The grant writer's ethical obligation includes:
- Remaining neutral since they were not involved in writing the final report
- Advising the client to self-disclose the error to the funder and correct it (Correct answer)
- Continuing to work with the client while quietly encouraging better practices
- Notifying the funder directly without informing the client first
Correct answer: Advising the client to self-disclose the error to the funder and correct it
When aware of fraud or significant misrepresentation, grant professionals should advise the client to self-disclose and may need to withdraw from the engagement if the client refuses.
Question 6: Which statement about grant writers and intellectual property is most accurate?
- A grant writer who creates a proposal automatically owns the copyright to that document
- Work created for hire typically means the commissioning organization owns the grant materials (Correct answer)
- Funders own all proposals submitted to them once reviewed
- Grant proposals are in the public domain because they request public funds
Correct answer: Work created for hire typically means the commissioning organization owns the grant materials
Grant proposals created as work-for-hire belong to the commissioning organization, not the grant writer, unless a different arrangement is explicitly negotiated in the contract.
Question 7: How should a grant writer handle a situation where a nonprofit's executive director instructs them to inflate the number of program beneficiaries in a federal grant application?
- Inflate the numbers slightly to comply with the supervisor's request
- Refuse to include false data and document the refusal in writing (Correct answer)
- Request supporting documentation and use actual numbers if they cannot provide it
- Include a footnote explaining the numbers are projections to protect themselves legally
Correct answer: Refuse to include false data and document the refusal in writing
Inflating beneficiary numbers in a federal application constitutes grant fraud; the grant writer must refuse and should document the refusal to protect themselves professionally.
Grant Writing Professional Ethics and Standards 3
A grant writer is asked to sign a letter of intent on behalf of an organization claiming that a community partner has already agreed to collaborate.
The partner has only had a preliminary conversation.
This is: