Grant Writing (Spring 2005)

Editing Your Prose

In the final stages of the grant writing process, it’s time to edit your prose for conciseness and clarity as well as proofreading your prose to remove errors. Here are some guidelines to help you do so.

Editing for Conciseness and Clarity

In grant writing, like most professional writing, you want your sentences to be concise and clear. This does not necessarily mean that you write short sentences; it means that you have carefully chosen your words and arranged them in order to precisely convey meaning.

In general, it’s easier to write a first draft to get ideas on paper and to then refine your sentences for conciseness and clarity.

Ways to Edit for Conciseness
(From Conciseness: Methods of Eliminating Wordiness)

1. Eliminate unnecessary determiners and modifiers (kind of, sort of, basically, for all intents and purposes, actually, generally, literally).

Basically, the agency has for all intents and purposes been forced to literally close its doors.
The agency has been forced to close its doors.

2. Change phrases into single words where possible.

The students showing the best performance will be encouraged in the presentation of their research at a conference.
The best students will be encouraged to present their research at a conference.

3. Change unnecessary that, who, and which clauses into phrases when possible. (Sometimes, however, they are necessary!)

Our agency, which recently won an award for service to the community, strives to help people that are less fortunate.
Our agency, which recently won a community service award, strives to help the less fortunate.

4. Avoid overusing expletives at the beginning of sentences. (It is or There are constructions)

There are four guidelines that will be followed in determining who qualifies for aid.
Four guidelines will be followed to determine who qualifies for aid.

5. Use active rather than passive verbs. (Passive voice can be used if you need or want to mask the subject, but active voice is preferable in most cases.)

The budget was checked for accuracy. (By whom?)
The agency’s accountant checked the budget for accuracy.

6. Avoid overusing noun forms of verbs.

The focus of the agency’s mission is the eradication of poverty.
The agency focuses on eradicating poverty.

7. Reword unnecessary infinitive phrases

The duties of the lifeguards will be to monitor the pool and to inform people of behavior violations.
Lifeguards will monitor the pool and inform people of behavior violations.

8. Replace circumlocutions with direct expressions

Owing to the fact that economic hardship has fallen on the county, it is crucial that our agency has the opportunity to stay open in order to serve the many affected people.
Because the county is experiencing economic hardship, our agency must stay open to serve the many affected people.

9. Omit words that explain the obvious or provide excessive detail — if you find passages that explain or describe in detail what would already be obvious to readers, delete or reword them.

It is clear to even the most casual observer that this problem will persist if left unchecked.
This problem will persist if left unchecked.

10. Omit repetitive wording

The agency employs two full-time employees. These employees are responsible for the day-to-day administrative decisions.
The agency employs two full-time employees who are responsible for day-to-day administrative decisions.

Conciseness Exercise

Using the ten recommendations above, go through one of the grant drafts and circle or underline sentences that could be improved by applying one or more of these tips. Re-write the sentences on a separate sheet of paper.

Proofreading for Problems

Even after revising for conciseness, you’ll want to proofread (or ask someone to proofread) your document carefully. When you proofread, you’ll want to pay attention to the following areas:

• Word choice: have you chosen the correct word based on its meaning in the sentence? (Homonym groups such as they’re/there/their/, it’s/its, two/too/too, effect/affect, resident/residence are common mistakes in this category.)
• Comma use and comma abuse: are commas being used to separate introductory phrases and clauses at the beginnings of sentences, to separate items in a series, and to separate compound sentences? Are commas not being used to separate two complete sentences?
• Run-on sentences and sentence fragments. Is each sentence expressing a complete thought? Are two sets of complete thoughts joined with a semi-colon or a conjunction?
• Subject-verb agreement: Does each verb agree in number with its subject?
• Pronouns and antecedents: Does every pronoun have a clear antecedent?

Proofreading Exercise

Proofread one of the grant applications and cross out and insert corrections where necessary.

Monday, May 2

Today we’ll work on evaluating and responding to the content of your grant proposals.

Assignment For Next Class: Read over the feedback that you received on your grant proposals.

Wednesday, May 4

Today we’ll work on editing and proofreading your grant proposals for correctness and style.

Assignment For Next Class: The final version of your grant proposal is due along with a cover letter and a memo to the instructor.

Friday, May 6

Today you’ll turn in the final versions of your grant proposals. We’ll wrap up the course and conduct course evaluations.

Ethical Decisions in GrantmakingGranting Agency’s Ethics

• Fair and honest accounting practices
• Making and keeping committments
• Founding principles and overall mission
• Fairness in evaluation and response
• Being accountable for their actions
• Avoiding conflicts of interest

Grant Seeker’s Ethics

• Mission and principles
• Aligning with agencies that support mission/principles
• Being honest and truthful in representing the agency
• Fair and honest accounting practices
• Fair and honest spending practices
• Being accountable for their actions
• Avoiding conflicts of interest

Grant Writer’s Ethics

• Creating an accurate budget
• Creating an accurate representation of reality in the grant
• Using the work of others appropriately
• Maintaining privacy and security of information
• Being accountable for their actions
• Avoiding conflicts of interest

Questions

• What is a conflict of interest? How can you spot one before you’re involved in one?
• What do you do if the agency changes its mission or needs after you’ve received the grant?
• How do you fairly and accurately report on what you’ve done with the money?
• What do you do if you discover that you’ve made a mistake after you’ve submitted the grant application?
• What do you do if you discover your agency is not spending money fairly or trying to expense non-grant related expenses on the budget?
• How do you make sure that your agency would pass an audit?

Scenarios

• You submit an application to a large philanthropic agency. After you do so, you find out that your aunt is actually employed as a reviewer by the granting agency. You didn’t know that she was employed there. Is this a conflict of interest? For whom is it a conflict of interest? What do you do?
• You’re facing a tight deadline for a very large grant. The person who was supposed to get you estimates for some key budget items hasn’t gotten back to you. When you check in with him, you discover that he’s gone to a conference and won’t be back until the deadline has passed. “Just create some numbers and put them in the budget. They won’t look seriously at it anyways,” he says when you finally get ahold of him. What do you do?
• You are working for a non-profit agency who have just received a grant to implement a specific program. As you are preparing the final report, you discover that money has been used from the grant to pay for the personal expenses of several employees. The budget did not allow for this kind of expense. What do you do?
• You are a new grant writer for a non-profit agency that is seeking funds for construction of a new building. You underestimate the amount of money that it will take in your budget and run out of funds halfway through the project. What do you do? Have you or the agency behaved unethically?
• You are a new grant writer for a non-profit agency. Your boss asks you to apply for a grant that you don’t qualify for, because your agency doesn’t serve that type of population. Your boss tells you to invent data or include data from another agency that does serve the population so that you can get the money and spend it on other programs. What do you do?
• You are searching for grants for your church and you discover a great grant opportunity from a philanthropic agency. The only problem is that the agency’s mission statement contains religious values that are completely opposite from the ones that your church professes. However, the grant application doesn’t ask for a statement of belief or values from your church, so there’s no way for them to know that your values conflict unless you say so. What do you do?

Monday, April 25

Today we’ll talk about the two end possibilities for grants: receiving the grant or not receiving the grant and what those possibilities entail for you and your agency.

Assignment for Next Class: Please read “Recommended Principles and Practices for Effective Grantmaking” and the American Association of Grant Professionals Code of Ethics.

Wednesday, April 27

Today we’ll discuss some of the ethical issues and questions implicit in the grantseeking process from the perspective of foundations who give money and foundations who seek money.

Assignment for Next Class: Please continue to work on your grant drafts.

Friday, April 29

Class is cancelled today to allow you time to work on the penultimate drafts of your grant proposals or to visit me during office hours with any questions that you have.

Assignment for Next Class: Please bring copies (eight if possible) of a partial or complete draft of your completed grant application to class for an in-class editing and commenting workshop. Or, if you e-mail me your drafts by Sunday, I can make copies for everyone on Monday morning.

Grant Writing: The Next Steps

After you’ve submitted your grant application, you and your agency then must endure a waiting period. The granting agency may contact you during this period if they have questions or additional requests. Finally, you’ll hear from the agency. At this point, your options are:

• Acceptance! Your grant has been approved and you’re receiving the full amount of funding.
• Partial acceptance. Your grant has been approved, but for a lesser amount of funding or resources than you requested.
• Rejection. Your grant application has been rejected.

Acceptance: Questions to Consider

If your application is accepted or partially accepted, you’ll need to think about the following questions:

• What’s the payout schedule for your funding?
• What’s the time schedule in which you must complete the project and spend all of the money?
• How prepared is your agency to spring into action should you get funding?
• How will you handle receipt of the money? Who is your fiscal agent?
• How will you track how money is spent and keep track of expenses?
• How will you keep accurate records in case of an audit?
• What follow-up steps (such as a final report, process reporting, or a site visit) will the granting agency require?
• If you’ve received partial funding, how will you make up the difference or adapt the program to compensate?
• Is there an opportunity to apply for future funding or a renewal of the grant?
• How can we keep the program going after the grant funding has been spent?

Make sure that you have clear answers to all of these questions; ask the granting agency if you have any questions.

Rejection: Questions to Consider

If your grant application has been rejected, you’ll need to think about the following questions:

• Can you get feedback from the agency about why you were rejected?
• Can you re-apply in the future?
• What do you need to improve about your application or your choice of funders to ensure future success?
• Where can you go from here?

General Questions

• Do you think that what happened in “No Mercy from the Margin Police” was ethical? Do you think it was fair?
• What would you do if a grant application of yours got rejected for a reason like that?
• How can you avoid situations like that as a grant seeker?

The Submission Process

When a grant proposal has been prepared, it’s time to submit it to the funding agency. Before you do, you need to:

• Check to make sure that the proposal has been formatted according to the application guidelines and that all parts are in place.
• Check the submission guidelines for the grant — will it be mailed to the agency as a paper copy or submitted online via email or a Web-based form? If both options are available, which option will present your grant in the most favorable way?
• Prepare a cover letter or cover e-mail if the proposal is being sent by postal mail or e-mail.
• Prepare the final document and package it appropriately, or prepare a final electronic version of the document for submission.
• Put the document in the mail, e-mail the document, or submit it online.
• Wait for confirmation that your grant has been received.
• Follow-up with the agency if you notice any problems.

Thinking About Your Submission Process

Take a moment to answer the following questions.

• What guidelines are in place for formatting and submitting your proposal?
• How will your proposal be submitted?
• Do you need to write a cover letter or cover email to accompany it?

Formatting Grant Proposals

Rule Number One of Grant Proposals: Follow the guidelines to the letter! For formatting, this means adhering to any written guidelines for:

• Page limits or word limits
• Spacing (single or double and space between paragraphs)
• Font size and type
• Headings
• Page numbering
• Presentation of identifying information
• Forms
• Attaching documents (staples, paperclips, binders/report covers)

What if there are no guidelines?

If there are no guidelines for formatting, here are some general guidelines for formatting a paper document.

• Choose a 10 or 12 point serif font such as Times New Roman or Palatino.
• Use one inch margins on all sides.
• Number pages consecutively in the right hand corner.
• Single space the proposal and separate paragraphs with spaces.
• Use bold font and space to set off headings.
• Prepare a cover letter with your identifying information.
• Paperclip the proposal together instead of stapling so that it can be easily separated. Don’t use a report binder unless you feel that the agency would find that appropriate.

How do I format an electronic document?

E-mailed Documents:

• Determine whether the agency wants one large document or several smaller documents.
• Determine what file formats the agency will accept (.doc, .rtf, .txt, .pdf).
• Create the appropriate version of your document(s).
• Prepare a cover e-mail.
• Send your document from the agency’s address and not a personal email address.

Web Submissions:

• Determine whether you will be copying and pasting information into a form or if you will be uploading a file.
• For file upload, create the appropriate file(s).
• For copying and pasting, prepare an electronic version of your document and save it as a plain text (.txt) file to avoid garbled special characters such as smart quotes when copying and pasting.
• Give yourself plenty of time to enter the information.
• Make sure that you have received confirmation (such as a page or an email) that your grant has been submitted. If you haven’t, follow up with the contact e-mail on the page.

Formatting Activity

Highlight, underline, or make a list of any formatting guidelines given on your grant application. If guidelines are missing, write down what formatting guidelines you think you should use in preparing your proposal.

Cover Letters/Cover Emails

These allow you to introduce yourself and your agency, to briefly explain your grant’s purpose, and to provide contact information. Cover letters will most likely be separated from your main proposal, so it’s okay to repeat certain pieces of vital information. Never mention anything vital exclusively in the cover letter.

Cover Letter/Email Guidelines (From Cover Letters for Proposals)

• “The first paragraph traditionally indicates why the project is a good match for the funder’s guidelines and refer to any relationship with the funder.
• The second paragraph should give a summary of the project and the ‘ask amount,’ suitable for the program officer to use in internal documents that list all pending proposals. 
• The third paragraph might note your organization’s enthusiasm for the project and describe how other funding can be leveraged for this gift. If appropriate based on your funder research, offer to host a site visit or provide additional information or call the funder in two weeks to check the proposal’s status. Indicate the contact person for the proposal, who might be different from the Executive Director or Board President who signs the letter.”
• Letters should be no more than one page.

Cover Letter/Email Activity

Outline a sample cover letter or email that could accompany your grant proposal.

Summaries

• Summaries are sometimes also called: abstracts or executive summaries.
• Summaries should provide a short (one paragraph to one page
• depending on guidelines) description of the contents of the entire grant proposal. They are similar to the copy on a book jacket.
• The summary includes
  • “a description of the applicant
  • a definition of the problem to be solved
  • a statement of the objectives to be achieved
  • an outline of the procedures to be used to accomplish those objectives
  • a description of the evaluation design plans for the project at the end of the grant
  • a statement of what it will cost the funding agency.” (From “Creating A Grant Proposal“)
• Summaries are important because they are often used by funding agencies to determine the first round of qualified applicants. Your summary needs to demonstrate that your proposal meets all of the guidelines.
• Summaries should be written last (or close to last), since they should be reflective of the contents of the actual grant proposal and not the ideal grant proposal.
• Have people outside of your team read your summaries for content (what can they predict about the proposal from reading it?) and edit your summaries to ensure that they use correct English.

Summary Activity

Take a moment to write or revise a one-paragraph summary of your proposal or to revise your existing summary into one paragraph. Email your summary to the instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu) so that she can put it up on the overhead for discussion.

Headings

• Headings are used in documents such as grant proposals to create and signal transitions between different sections or subsections of a document.
• Headings allow readers to easily skim parts of a document looking for required information; they’re essentially a floating outline.
• Some grant proposals provide headings as part of their instructions or as part of the form. Or, questions asked by the granting agency should form headings. In these cases, use the exact headings or questions specified by the agency.
• If you have a chance to create your own headings, here are some guidelines.
• Headings and subheadings can be created to signal different types of divisions. Common divisions are:
  • By Part: Indicating the different functional parts of the narrative, such as Summary, Introduction, Agency Description, Problem Description, Project Description, Etc.
  • By Subject Matter: indicating the content expressed in a part of the document.
  • Combination: Combinations of part and subject matter.
• Headings should use parallel structure — they should all be the same type of phrase, clause, question, or sentence, or begin with the same type of word.
• Headings should be set off from the body text by any combination of space, bold/italics, or font size.

Headings Activity

Take a moment to either list the headings required in your grant application or create a set of headings (either subject, part, or combination) for your grant. Do the headings use parallel structure? Do they help you navigate the document? Are there any places where you need subheadings?

You’ve spent the entire semester researching, writing, and editing a grant proposal for a specific program or cause while learning about the grant writing process. The culmination of this course will be when you submit the final version of your grant proposal at the end of the semester.

Specifics

On the last day of class (May 6), you need to submit:

• A grant proposal form or instructions for writing the grant
• A completed grant proposal that meets all of the requirements set out in the instructions
• A cover letter that could accompany the proposal
• A one-page memo to the instructor where you summarize your grant writing process and reflect on your experiences writing the grant.

We will spend the last week of class (May 2 and May 4) reviewing and editing proposal draft. You will be expected to bring in a copy of your draft on one of those days for in-class review and editing.

Grading Criteria

Your final drafts will be graded on:

• How well they meet the criteria set out by the granting agency for content and form
• How well they reflect an understanding of how grants work
• How well they use hard and soft data to create appealing and persuasive arguments
• How well they use the English language

Grading rubrics will be provided to explain standards for each category. You can earn a total of 250 points for this project.

Due Dates

In-Class Editing: May 2/May 4
Final Due Date: May 6

Monday, April 18

Today we’ll conduct a workshop on our last two proposals and talk about the final project requirements for the class.

Assignment For Next Class: Please read Chapter 9 in Storytelling for Grantseekers. Please bring an electronic copy of your grant proposal to class – we’ll be using the laptops on Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 20

Today we’ll discuss strategies for writing summaries for grant proposals and dividing up a narrative with headings. We’ll look at some sample summaries and then you’ll write your own grant summaries or revise your existing summaries.

Assignment For Next Class: Please read Chapter 10 in Storytelling for Grantseekers and “Tips for Submitting E-grant Applications”

Friday, April 22

Today we’ll discuss packaging, formatting, and cover letter strategies for grants, as well as how online submission is changing many of the rules discussed in chapter 10. We’ll work to generate possible cover letters for your grant applications or for your projects and talk about your unique submission requirements.

Assignment For Next Class: Please read “No Mercy from the Margin Police” and “You’ve Got the Grant, Now What?”

Monday, April 11

Today we’ll be workshopping two drafts and hearing an oral presentation from one of our class members.

Assignment for Next Class: Please read the next drafts and take notes for our workshop.

Wednesday, April 13

Today, the grant workshop will continue with two more drafts.

Assignment for Next Class: Please read the next drafts and take notes for our workshop.

Friday, April 15

Class is cancelled today (someone else needs to use our classroom.)

In the next few class meetings, we’ll be conducting workshops on the proposal drafts submitted by class members. As a participant, you’ll be expected to do the following:

1. Read the drafts before the workshop.
2. Take notes about different aspects of the draft using the guidelines below.
3. Contribute comments to the discussion of the draft in class.

When your draft is discussed, you will be asked to give a brief statement about how the process is going for you and any specific questions that you have for the workshop participants before we begin considering your draft.

Comment Guidelines

Please use these guidelines to help you think about different aspects of the draft. However, if you have feedback in other areas, please add that to your comments.

Grant Requirements

If grant instructions or a form are included, please read them. If not, please base your feedback on the general grant guidelines that we went over this semester and which are in Storytelling for Grantseekers.

1. Does the application currently contain all of the necessary parts? What’s missing? What’s incomplete?
2. Does the application appear to meet the requirements set out by the granting agency? If it doesn’t, where doesn’t it and how could the author improve?

Content

1. Is it easy for you to understand the contents of this grant? Are there any places where you don’t understand or need clarification?
2. Does any necessary information seem missing or incomplete?
3. Is the writer using soft data and hard data as necessary? Are there places where he or she needs to present more evidence or more appeals?
4. Do you find this grant application persuasive and appealing? Why or why not?

Budget

1. Is the budget easy to understand? Do you know where the money is going and where it’s coming from?
2. Are there any sources of revenue or expenses that you feel the writer should add?
3. Are there any discrepancies in the budget?

Tone/Style

1. Is the tone appropriate for this type of grant? Would you advise the author to revise any sentences or paragraphs to make them more appealing?
2. Is the use of language appropriately formal?

Document Design


1. Do you have any suggestions for how the author can make this a visually appealing document?

Monday, April 4

Today four class members will give their oral presentations.

Assignment for Next Class: Prepare to give your oral presentation if you didn’t give it on Monday.

Wednesday, April 6

Today four class members will give their oral presentations.

Assignment for Next Class: Please read over the packet of proposals and take some notes for our discussion on Friday.

Friday, April 8

Today we’ll discuss the grant proposal drafts of three people in the class.

Assignment for Next Class: Please read over the packet of proposals and take some notes for our discussion on Monday.

Today in class we’ll be working on PowerPoint presentations and handouts for your oral presentations. Here are some useful guidelines for working on these documents.

PowerPoint Presentations

• PowerPoint presentations should contain a summary of your argument – not your entire argument. They’re there to complement your speech, not supplement your speech.
• The rule of seven: PowerPoint presentations should not present more than seven lines with seven words per line. Exceptions to this rule can be made for more academic presentations that may need to include quotations.
• Graphical elements should only be used if they contribute to the purpose of your argument. They should enhance your argument and not just be “filler.” They should also match the tone of your speech – you don’t want to use cartoon-like, humorous graphics when you’re making a serious point, and vice versa.
• Make sure that visuals such as charts or graphs are large and easy to read.

Be consistent (make the same choices) for the following elements of your presentation: Color

• Use a color palette of five or fewer colors.
• Use dark text on a light background for presentation in a bright room.
• Use light text on a dark background for presentation in a darkened room.
• Use dark text on a light background for transparencies.
• Avoid light text on a light background e.g., yellow text on a white background.
• Avoid dark text on a dark background e.g., red text on a blue background. (Taken from “How to Prepare A Slide Presentation“)

Fonts

• Sans-serif fonts (such as Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana) are easier for audiences to read at large point sizes.
• Use the same font on all of your slides. You can use a different font for headings and a different font for body text, but make sure that all slides use the same fonts.
• Don’t use a font size under 20 points in a presentation. Generally, font sizes between 28-40 points are the best sizes to use.

Animation/Transitions

• Avoid over-using animation and transitions. They can be effective if used simply and consistently. Pick one effect and apply it to all slides.

Alignment

• Use left alignment by default, since people read from left to right.

Ensuring Consistency

• You can make all slides look the same by editing the slide master (View Slide Master) . This allows you to customize colors, fonts, transitions, animations, and header and footer information. This will save you a lot of time and ensure that your slides have a consistent appearance.
• Consistency makes your slides easier to read and presents a unified appearance. Make your presentation reflect your organization –use their logos, pictures, or color choices as part of your scheme. Include information about the organization on the last slide and on your handout.

Handout Guidelines

On your handouts, make sure that you provide:

• A summary of the necessary information and visuals that you have spoken about.
• Contact information for you and your agency.
• More than just a printout of your PowerPoint slides. You can re-use the same information, but don’t just print out the slides.

When creating handouts (and any type of document) pay attention to:

• Contrast: the creation of difference between elements in a document. For example: the difference between text color and background color, the difference between different types of fonts, the difference in space between headings and text
• Repetition: choosing to make the same design choices consistently throughout a document. This is the most important principle of design.
• Alignment: left, right, or centered. Generally documents are left-justified.
• Proximity: placing related elements close together and non-related elements farther apart.

What Lies Ahead

Before the semester ends, we will:

• Complete oral presentations (next week)
• Review grant proposal drafts
• Learn about packaging and formatting for a grant proposal
• Produce the final versions of the proposal

Assessing Your Progress

Please get together in small groups (or a small group) and talk about the progress you’ve made on their proposals. Create a list of questions that you have in common (or that you think are important) to ask the rest of the class.

Oral Presentations

In your oral presentations, you’ll be presenting their project as if you were presenting it to the funding agency. The class will be playing the role of the funding agency and will ask questions and give brief written feedback on the proposals. The purpose of your oral presentation is inform your audience about your project and persuade them that they should fund your project.Since your presentation will be persuasive and informative, you’ll want to think about:

• What information your audience needs to know in order to understand your project (as well as what information that they already know)
• What appeals will best convince your audience that your project needs to be funded
  • Logos: fact or information based appeals
  • Ethos: character based appeals
  • Pathos: emotion-based appeals

Please take a moment and write down what appeals you’ll be using in their presentations. Provide an example for each appeal.

Guidelines for Oral Presentations
Oral presentations should focus on engaging with the audience through speech, body language, and supplemental materials.
Appropriate speech and body language includes:

• Paying attention to tone and pitch of your voice
• Using appropriate gestures
• Facing the audience and making eye contact
• Not reading completely from notes or from a PowerPoint presentation
• Responding to audience reaction by clarifying and repeating information
• Paying attention to time limits and keeping your presentation within those limits.
• Listening and responding to questions from the audience

Supplemental materials should complement your presentation, but your speaking should be the heart of the presentation. Supplemental materials (powerpoints, handouts) should allow you to do the following:

• Give the audience something to take away with them that offers a brief summary of your points and contact information.
• Present a visual summary of your points.
• Present visual information that your audience needs or that will be appealing (photographs, plans, diagrams, etc).
• Use principles of visual rhetoric to organize and present information (contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity)

Please make a list of any visuals that you think might need to go into your supplementary materials.

Wednesday, March 30

Today you’ll turn in your preliminary proposals and we’ll discuss your progress on your proposals in small groups and as a class. Next, we’ll discuss what needs to go into your oral presentations and go over the ways that oral presentations work as a genre.

Assignment for Next Class: Prepare a brief outline of what you expect to cover in your oral presentation.

Friday, April 1

Today we’ll talk about strategies for creating good oral presentations related to your grant proposals and use the laptops to help create PowerPoints and handouts.

Assignment for Next Class: Get ready to give your oral presentation on Monday or Wednesday.

Terms to Know: Epilogues and Evaluations

The last section of a grant proposal (before the budget and other materials) is usually called the evaluation section.
In these, you:

• Explain how the program will be evaluated in terms of outcomes and methods for assessing those outcomes.
• Explain your plans to make the program self-sustaining (if necessary)/ offer a plan for future funding
• Offer a vision for the future
• Justify (again) how the grant will be worth the agency’s investement.

Ducks In A Row: Getting Ready to Write the Proposal

We’re going to use the sample grant questions that Ms. Rivers provided us with on Friday to go over all of the parts of a grant application and to make sure that you’re ready to write each of those parts. Please fill in the answers to each question as directed.

From Whence Comes This Advice?

We’ll look at the advice given by the grantwriters that was given to us on Friday and talk about what meanings and implications it has.

Monday, March 14

Today we’ll discuss writing the “epilogue” to your grant proposal (also known as the evaluation and sustainability sections). We’ll also review what we’ve learned about grant proposals so far, and talk about some of the advice from grantwriters that our guest speaker gave us on Friday.

March 16-March 28: No Class (Conference and Spring Break).

Assignment for March 30: The first draft of your grant proposal (plus a brief memo to the instructor) is due. Please see the preliminary proposal guidelines for more details.

Terms to Know

• Goals: “the ultimate result that an agency hopes to achieve” (63) Goals are large sweeping statements about what you hope to accomplish.
• Objectives: specific, measurable, quantifiable changes that you hope to achieve that allow you to achieve your goals.
• Outcomes: the changes that you will see and how they will be measured (often conflated with objectives).
• Methods: the specific ways that you will accomplish your goals and objectives and create the desired outcomes.

Ways That Goals, Objectives, and Methods Are Presented

• Preparing a timeline. This can be as simple as creating a list, or you can create a project plan table or Gantt chart. The timeline can be presented in the application, attached as an appendix, or used to help you keep track of what you’ve written and what you need to write.
• Preparing bulleted lists which use parallel structure. Each point can represent a goal, objective, outcome, or method.

Ways To Organize Objectives and Methods Sections
If the grant application hasn’t given specific instructions as to how to separate goals, objectives/outcomes, and methods, you should present them in a way that they feel makes the most sense. You can choose to:

• List goals and objectives/outcomes first, and then discuss methods
• List goals, then objectives, and then methods for each objective
  
• Create other combinations as appropriate

Examining Sample Grant Proposals

Please examine the goals/objectives/methods sections (as available) in the sample grant proposals and take notes on how they were implemented.

Preparing Your Own Goals, Objectives, and Methods

Please take some time in-class to:

• Create a detailed list of goals and objectives
• Create a timeline or list that shows how the project will be implemented and presents the methods that will be used

Monday, March 7

Today Beverly Junevic from the Controller’s Office will be coming to give a lesson on budgeting.

Assignment For Next Class: Please read chapter 6 in Storytelling for Grantseekers and make a process journal post about the goals and outcomes related to your grant.

Wednesday, March 9

Today we’ll talk about defining goals and outcomes and quantifying that in words and numbers. We’ll examine sample grant proposals and talk about how you can do this in your own proposal.

Assignment For Next Class: Please prepare any questions that you might have for our guest speaker on grant writing.

Friday, March 11

Today Denise Rivers will be coming to speak to our class about grant writing.

Assignment For Next Class: Please read chapter 7 in Storytelling for Grantseekers and make a process journal post about what you’ll include in the epilogue of your grant proposal.

Budget-Related Terms

• Program budget: The budget for a specific program (usually funded by the grant)
• Agency or Overall Budget: The budget for all expenses and revenues related to an agency or group (of which the program is just one part).
• Expected revenue: sources of income or money for your project. This includes:
  • Fee-for-service (Money paid by clients)
    
  • Unrelated income (Money earned by activities)
  • Grants
  • Fundraising
  • Contributions
  • Endowment Income
  • In-kind expenses (the monetary value of goods and services donated to your agency)
• Expected expenses: where and how you spend money. This includes:
  • Salaries: money paid to employees or contractors
  • Fringe benefits: insurance and other benefit costs for employees
  • Rent: cost related to property or space for the agency
  • Equipment: new equipment, upgrades to existing equipment
  • Supplies: material goods necessary to the program (or the agency)
  • Other costs: depending on what you’re doing
  • In-kind expenses (the monetary value of goods and services donated to your agency)
• Overhead percentage: the amount of overhead costs that can be allocated to the program budget from the agency budget
• Estimated costs: how much you think something will cost

Sample Budget

Look at the sample budgets in the textbook and the sample budget from the Mary and Elizabeth Center and take notes how they use these terms.

Budgeting Activity

Fill out the chart given out in class for the budgetary needs that you anticipate for your project.