The Alliance 2000 Project offers training, technical assistance, and information to programs preparing personnel for careers in special education and related services at institutions of higher education whose enrollments include 25 percent or more students from historically under-represented ethnic groups. A major emphasis is to increase the success rate of these programs in acquiring grants from the Division of Personnel Preparation (DPP) of the Office of Special Education Programs, through capacity building, training for groups of participants, provision of trained mentors, technical assistance, collegial linkages and networking, and national and regional conferences. This resource manual for trainers first provides an overview of the DPP, an introduction to training and objectives, and a sample agenda. The manual then provides material on finding requests for proposals (RFPs); reading RFPs; using the Federal Register; smarter grantsmanship; specific components of the proposal (impact and needs, capacity, plan of operation, evaluation, and cost effectiveness); and budget development. Support material includes common core knowledge and skills essential for all beginning special education teachers, developed by the Council for Exceptional Children, and statistics on grantsmanship. Numerous transparency masters are provided. The Foundation Center Cooperating Collections Network is included. (DB)