Tracks to Success
Common Grant Writing Mistakes You Can Fix Today!
by Alice Ruhnke, CEO, The Grant Advantage
Part 3
In the last two articles, four common grant writing mistakes were discussed: 1) assuming the funder knows what your organization does and the impact you have on the community; 2) discussing your organizational needs rather than the needs of your target population; 3) writing goals and objectives that only measure what you do instead of the changes in the target population; and 4) not “spending your money” in the approach section. When these sections are developed correctly, they establish your organization as credible, provide the baseline data to measure your impact on the population you serve, identify the change you are seeking to make on the population you serve, and outline a plan of action to meet your goals and objectives. These sections of a grant application lead into the two common errors in the evaluation and budget sections discussed in this article.
Mistake #5: Not outlining data collection sources and instruments
Evaluation is a critical piece of the project or program you are developing. It is important because this is the section where you “pay back” the funder for their money—you won’t pay back with dollars, you will pay back with data and demonstrated results.
Go back to your objectives and ask yourself where you are going to get the information to measure each objective. What are some sources you can look to?
- You can go to program records and use data that you have already collected or could collect.
- You can also go to other agencies’ program records as well. (For example, you might get school grades and attendance from the elementary school to measure the academic impact your afterschool program has had on youth.)
- Most often, we go to specific individuals—the participants themselves, or parents and families.
- The general public can be used with organizations that benefit the public at large. (For example, community residents could be used to determine the impact of your awareness campaign.)
- Finally, trained observers are sometimes a data source. They observe a situation based on a predetermined set of criteria and rate behavior, facilities, or environments.
So you have identified data sources, let’s move to data collection instruments. How to get data to measure your objectives? There are a number of methods, depending on your budget, time constraints, depth of information you need, and how you are going to use the data. Data instruments include questionnaires, surveys, checklists, interviews, focus groups, mechanical tests, observations, and documentation review. Each instrument has its pros and cons, so research what would work best to get the information you need to sdemonstrate your impact.
Here are the data collection sources and instruments that will be used for our sample application:
To ensure the goals and objectives have been met the following evaluation will be conducted. First, the workshop will be evaluated with the attached survey. This was designed to determine the net change in skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm before and after the workshop. The survey will help the trainers determine the increase in knowledge in addition to the intended use of the materials.
Second, each organization will submit their operating budgets before the workshop to determine the change in the financial health of the organization one year from the date of the workshop. Operating budgets will be recorded one year after the workshop.
Third, the trainers will conduct follow up interviews six months after the workshop with participants to determine (1) how many grant applications were written; (2) how many were submitted; (3) the amount of each grant submitted; (4) if the grants submitted were new or renewals; (5) how many were declined and how many were funded.
All of this information will be stored by The Grant Advantage to monitor results. The data will be kept in a locked file cabinet to ensure confidentiality.
Mistake #6: Mistakes in calculating your budget request
As we discussed in the last article, everything requested in the budget should clearly be explained through the activities in the approach. Generally, a budget narrative is also required. Its purpose is to show how each of the line items was formulated.
As previously mentioned, it is important to make sure that all elements of the project are in the budget and nothing is in the budget that isn’t reflected in the approach. One of the most common ways reviewers withhold points in scoring the proposal is to note disparities between the narrative description of the project and the budget, so it’s important to achieve complete transparency. Do not expect the reviewer to trust you. Instead, make your project so clear and logical that the reviewer can’t miss how the words and numbers are related.
Budgets narratives (or budgets themselves if there is no narrative required) usually require that you detail how you calculated each line item as demonstrated in the sample below. While it sounds obvious, make sure your calculations add up. This is another common reason that reviewers reject proposals…the numbers don’t add up.
Sample Budget
Item |
Request |
Match(workshop registration 50 participants @ $150/person) |
Total |
Salaries |
|
|
|
Alice Ruhnke, Owner of The Grant Advantage: 50 hours @ $50/hour |
$1,000 |
$1,500 |
$2,500 |
Trish Hatfield, Owner of CharacterEthics: 50 hours @ $50/hour |
$1,000 |
$1,500 |
$2,500 |
Equipment |
|
|
|
Dell LCD Projector |
$1,000 |
$1,000 |
$2,000 |
Dell Laptop Computer |
$900 |
$700 |
$1,600 |
Supplies |
|
|
|
Paper, toner, pens for workshop preparation ($300/trainer) |
$300 |
$300 |
$600 |
Workshop Expenses |
|
|
|
Workshop handouts and materials 50 participants @ $15/person |
$750 |
$0 |
$750 |
Food and facilities rental 50 participants @ $50/person |
$0 |
$2,500 |
$2,500 |
TOTAL |
$4,950 |
$7,500 |
$12,450 |
In the last three articles we have reviewed mistakes that are often made in each major section of a grant proposal. In the final article of this series we will discuss other common errors made in formatting and submitting grants proposals.
Other articles in this series:
Main Page
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
This article was edited by Julie Kaufman. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, useful tips, or are interested in writing a series for us, please email our Research team, or call our toll-free number: 877-784-7268.