You are here > Home > News & Views > Tracks to Success

Tracks to Success - A Weekly Primer on Grants Development

Organizing Information: Typical Proposal Sections
Part Five

Last week's article dealt with the importance of identifying appropriate Internet resources from which you can gather reliable data to substantiate the need for your organization's project or program. We also discussed how you can save time before you begin writing letters of inquiry or proposals by having already determined how to use these resources.

Before we move on to more time-saving techniques, it's important to remind you that online research is not the only way to substantiate the problem your organization is trying to address. Never underestimate the value of person-to-person contact.

Hands-on research can humanize a needs statement and engage the reviewer much more quickly than a set of statistics. Circulate your own surveys. Hold community meetings to discuss the problem. Talk with experts in the field, particularly people on the ground whose daily work is an effort to address or resolve the issues, such as juvenile detention officers, Head Start teachers, high school athletic coaches. Once you've gathered this information, you'll be able to integrate it with the statistical data for a compelling need statement.

The most efficient way to collect individual stories or opinions is to recruit a Board member or volunteer to do this job for you. Ask the volunteer to take careful notes, draft the story or opinion statement, go back to their source to check the facts, and then submit it to you. Having a small file of these vignettes and expert opinions can be very helpful when you begin grant writing.

You can also ask Board members or volunteers to clip magazine and newspaper articles that pertain to the problem your organization seeks to address. They should note the name of the publication and date, and toss these clippings in a “needs” basket (someplace accessible, such as the reception desk). One of the most effective openings to a need statement I've ever read was simply a series of newspaper headlines clipped out of the same paper over a six-month-period that referred to deaths by fire.

Time-Saving Tips for Budget Building
I also collect information that pertains to budget items. Let's say I am reading a magazine and I come across an ad for a vendor that provides conference registration software. If I know we'll need to add some sort of registration software to the budget for our annual conference, I'll rip out the ad and toss it in a budget basket.

When it is time to build my budget for a grant request, I go to the basket and rifle through it to see if there are any items I need for my grant proposal. For example, if I am developing the proposal for the annual conference, then I would retrieve the ad for registration software. Even if I don't ultimately use that specific product, the ad has given me a place to start my research.

Be sure to keep a file of personnel salaries and notes on how fringe benefits are calculated. If you have a negotiated indirect cost rate with the government, keep a copy of this on file as well. If you do not have a negotiated indirect cost rate with the government, you should at least have a copy of a motion passed by the board of directors that indicates what the indirect rate for your organization will be this budget year.

Creating Templates for Other Proposal Sections
Another way to save time is to draft proposal sections that you know will be used over and over, such as the organizational history. I always write two organizational histories: one is about half a page long and can be used in letters of inquiry or requests for corporate support (which are fairly short); and the other may be as long as two pages and can be used in full grant proposals. I review and update each version of the history once a year.

Other parts of the grant proposal that can be written ahead of time include the board and staff bios. Be sure you date stamp these bios as well. Here's an example of a board member bio for a performing arts organization:

Jennifer Smith is the Vice President of Commercial Loans at First National Bank of Baltimore, and has served on the Baltimore Performing Arts Association Board for three years as Secretary/Treasurer. Ms. Smith served as the Baltimore United Way Chair in 2007, and has recently been appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve a five-year term on the Maryland Department of Commerce, Revolving Loan Fund Board. Ms. Smith brings 20 years of financial management to the Arts Association Board.

Keep these files up-to-date as new board members are elected and others leave, and as staff come and go. You want these bios short, but colorful. They need to generate a level of credibility in your organization.

To compliment these bios, you will want résumés of all staff on file at all times. Many grantmakers will ask you to attach copies of staff résumés, so it's important that these documents are kept current.

You will also want to develop and maintain a staff organizational chart that includes board, staff, consultants, and partners. At the top of this chart you should indicate who you serve. For example, if your organization provides an after-school program for two K-6 schools, the top box on the organizational chart might say: Approximately 245 Youth, K-6.

Always have the latest copy (date stamped) of your operating plan and operating budget on hand. You won't get far pursuing grant awards without these two critical pieces of information.

In addition, keep copies of your most recent independent financial audit, IRS tax exempt certification, and articles of incorporation in a readily accessible file.

If you have any on-going contracts or agreements in place, keep copies of these close at hand as well.

Archive all of your brochures and annual reports (hard copy and electronic). Although you may have occasion to attach hard copies to proposals, the electronic copies of these documents will be the most useful. Let's say you are trying to secure a capacity building grant. If you want to demonstrate the growth of the organization over the past ten years, then referring to the annual reports from this period can make a significant impression on the grantmaker. Pick something from each report, for example the number of clients your organization served each year, and highlight it. This simple technique tells the grantmaker a lot about your organization without being wordy.

Some grant application guidelines will ask how you intend to evaluate the project outcomes. To make this section quick and easy to develop, identify two or three evaluators that you will work with on a fairly regular basis. Keep their résumés and bios on file. Set up agreements to submit copies of all drafted grant requests to each evaluator so that they can develop outlines describing how they would evaluate your project. You can then select the approach you like the best, flesh it out a bit (if needed), and include it as your evaluation section.

In Summary
Keep all of these files in one folder on your computer desktop, and hard copies in a standard file. Make sure everything is typed in the same font, with the same margins, and no special formatting. You want to be able to cut and paste with minimal effort.

Time-saving tips can only take you so far. If you really want to make time, then you need to make good decisions about which grantmakers you will pursue.

Next week we'll teach you how to develop and apply a decision-making matrix to help you decide if you will take the time to respond to a specific request for proposals.

Throughout this series, I encourage you to send me your own tips, thoughts, and ideas about how to make grant writing more efficient. (Email me at cadams@grantstation.com. Be sure to note the subject: Tracks to Success Series Comments.)

Have you missed any of the articles in this series? Click here to see the previous articles.

top