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Creating a Grantseeking Calendar for 2010 – Part 3
by Cynthia M. Adams, CEO GrantStation
Identifying Needed Funding
As mentioned earlier in this series, one of your first tasks in developing a grants calendar is to identify all of your organization’s projects and programs that need support so that you can focus both your grants research and proposal writing on specific goals.
Once you have determined what you want to fund and approximately how much money you will need, the next step is to fill out a Project Description Worksheet for each identified project and program. You won't be sharing these worksheets with anyone outside the organization, so don't spend hours writing them. They are only used to guide your grants research.
Here is a Project Description Worksheet template (DOC) that you can use to draft a description for each program or project that will require grant support in the next 12 to 18 months.
The following is an example of a completed Project Description Worksheet:
Project Title: Carver County Watchable Wildlife Area
Lead Staff Person: Mary Jane Hoffman, Environmental Education Coordinator
Project Description: We have 310 acres that is adjacent to the Carver County Park which was donated to our organization in 2008. This acreage is rich in wildlife including several bald eagle nests and a hot springs that attracts numerous animals from the surrounding county park. The main objective is ongoing protection of this wildlife habitat and developing it as an environmental education resource. We need to design and print educational materials specifically for this Watchable Wildlife area.
In addition, in order to make this area universally accessible, we need to develop a parking area and trail-head facilities. Much of the trail itself will be boardwalk. There needs to be signage throughout the area for the safety of all visitors.
The Need: This newly donated 310 acres will augment the 500 acre county park, and provide the opportunity for residents and visitors to experience the outdoors and view some of the most interesting large mammals and bird life in this part of the country. The tri-county region (total population is 87, 699 covering 7,210 acres) only offers one other set of public trails (total of 2.5 miles) that are universally accessible, yet our demographics clearly indicate that 15,356 or 17% are physically disabled.
Relationship to Past Projects: This is the second Watchable Wildlife area we’ve established in the tri-county region. The first area was opened to visitors in 1994 and was funded mainly through state funding. It has been the most heavily used recreation site in the tri-county region since it was opened.
Budget Summary: The total estimated budget for this project is $160,000 (includes planning, development, and three years of trail and trail head facilities maintenance).
| Planning | $5,000 |
| Parking area | $40,000 |
| Trail-head facilities | $60,000 |
| Signage | $9,000 |
| Educational materials | $11,000 |
| Three-year maintenance contract | $35,000 |
| Total Budget | $160,000 |
Key words:
1. What is the geographic focus of this project (if any)?
Carver County, Arkansas
2. What areas of interest are we covering with this project?
Environmental education
Trails
People with disabilities
Physical fitness
Safety
3. What type of support do we need for this project?
Project planning
Infrastructure (ingress, egress, parking)
Facilities and buildings
Project support
Maintenance
This two-page worksheet is used to guide your funding research for each project. Take some time to develop these worksheets. If you expect a general operating shortfall, or if you always plan for a percentage of your budget to be covered by grants, be sure to complete a Project Description Worksheet for general operating funds as well.
The next step in building a grants calendar is to identify those grantmakers that are most likely to fund the projects summarized in the worksheets, creating a grants strategy that supports each project. In the next article we’ll talk about doing the grants research and sculpting a strategy for each project.
Other articles in this series:
Main Page
Part 1 – Adopting a Process
Part 2 –Developing a Decision Matrix
Part 3 – Identifying Needed Funding
Part 4 – Generating a Grants Strategy
Part 5 – Establishing a Grantseeking Calendar