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Abstract

u showcase your story telling ability and pull heartstrings. You will need to craft a narrative outlining the gap in services to the target population that your agency and proposal are uniquely qualified to satisfy. Point out the downside for the target population if the need is not addressed. Add a piece of hard data or third party article that reinforces the need without detracting from the socially conscious tone. Upload visual media if applicable.</p><h2 id="fd3b">Goals and objectives</h2><p id="01c5">Write a clearly stated project objective with periodic, date specific goals that match those of the funder for this parcel of project funding. Outline exactly how many people will be served for the duration of the project. Your funder will want to be able to quantify the number of people served so as to allocate resources for maximum benefit. Quantify your desired result in numbers so that the funder can measure their impact per dollar spent. This section should be written as an extension of your statement of need.</p><h2 id="33d0">Methods and strategies</h2><p id="310e">How will you achieve the goals of your proposal? This is where you show your organization’s expertise to successfully see the project through to fruition. Lay out a chronological plan starting from the day you receive notification of acceptance of your proposal. Make it easy to understand for someone unaccustomed to the terminology of your sector. This is usually the longest and most detailed component of your proposal. It should indirectly and repeatedly demonstrate your organization’s capacity to successfully execute the project.</p><h2 id="305b">Plan of evaluation</h2><p id="8966">Every funder will require an end of project report and most ask for an interim report as well. Keeping statistics on your project benchmarks and milestones will be necessary to accurately report how close you are to fulfilling the project plan. Break statistics into graphs, columns and tables for easy visual navigation. Each performance benchmark in the funder’s statement of goals for the funding parcel should be addressed. A good Plan of Evaluation should be written so that the project can be successfully continued and evaluated if the team members change over the life of the project.</p><h2 id="5e58">Budget</h2><p id="1afb">Include all your costs in an easy to understand format including administration and in kind contributions from partners. If you are paying staff, factor in applicable premiums for benefits, overtime and statutory holiday pay. Put spending categories into graphs, columns and tables for easy visual navigation.</p><h2 id="6f28">Organizational background</h2><p id="abf9">Describe the nature, organizational structure and tax status (charity, public sector, non-profit) of your organization. List the contributing partners and key contacts for communicating throughout the life of the project. State your organization’s mandate both relating to and independent of the project.</p><h1 id="13fd">Tips</h1><p id="a11f">Include a plan or strategy to sustain the service to the target population after the life of the project funding. Every funder asks for this because they rarely fund the same project twice. Don’t worry if you don’t have an ironclad solution at the time of writing. Your intention to petition other sources of funding from public, charitable and private sources is a legitimate answer.</p><p id="3863">Whether or not you are asked to include these as part of your proposal, you are advised to gather signed letters of support for your project in advance. These can be from community agencies, elected officials, ministers of faith or other leaders familiar with your agency’s work. They should truthfully attest to your organization’s positive contribution to community life and state their support for your proposal.</p><p id="ec3b">A well written letter of support should include an introduction, the mutual history your organizations share and contact info for the signer. It shouldn’t surprise you if your prospective supporter may n

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ot know how to write a letter of support. Chasing documentation like this can drag on and endanger your proposal’s punctual filing.</p><p id="52a2">Write a template letter for your prospective supporter that they can copy and paste onto their organizational stationary and sign in short order. Offer to pick up the signed copy in person to avoid delay. Send a thank you card to each supporter and keep them apprised as to the success of your proposal.</p><p id="a43d">Be prepared to deliver an amended project with 15 to 25% less funding than the amount applied for. Funders like to support as many projects as possible and one strategy they use is to add one more project to their funding parcel by taking out some out of every other proposal. They’ll expect the applicant to absorb the resulting administrative costs.</p><h1 id="cacf">Managing ethical relationships</h1><p id="fb14">Your grant funding proposal is the beginning of a relationship of trust between your organization and the funder. An accepted proposal is a binding contract. Honor your end of it and you will have established a fruitful relationship where both your organization and the foundation can see their goals realized by your collaboration.</p><p id="1413">Be mindful of the organizational culture of your employer as you build relationships of trust with funders. Bringing in funds from outside sources can bolster your career and make you a star. It can also attract unwanted interest from colleagues in units unrelated to the fulfillment of your proposal.</p><p id="f471">People do not always act rationally or ethically at budget time. I have seen liaisons with foundations imperiled by managers seeking to paper over their work unit’s budgetary problems with foundation funds. Be prepared to make an ethical stand if you work in such an organization. A former colleague of mine had to threaten to inform the funder if foundation funds were not returned for their intended use.</p><p id="6d8e">You will need to commit to informing the funder if your project is in danger of failing to meet objectives. Failing to do so could harm your and your employer’s reputation and invite administrative, public relations and financial disaster. Maintaining trust, transparency and open communication with your funder is paramount. If this means returning funds to a foundation, so be it. Misuse of funds is a career ender.</p><p id="a2e1">Funders network and gossip. When you successfully execute one funded project, list it on your next grant proposal. Having one established relationship of credibility and trust is a great entrée to building another. Funders want to work with organizations and individuals who successfully execute projects that change lives for the better. What better way to establish your reputation for caring professionalism than making the world a better place?</p><div id="e196" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-generational-divide-in-writing-and-blogging-75367566aa0a"> <div> <div> <h2>The Generational Divide in Writing and Blogging</h2> <div><h3>tradition and novelty</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*VvKW0bhlNNQLO-ktHZwaAw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="54ea" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-choose-a-copywriting-course-e2d1fc43c8fe"> <div> <div> <h2>How To Choose a Copywriting Course</h2> <div><h3>Advice for the inexperienced novice</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*ViN-X821wy2_bn_jcrn2VQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

A Grant Funding Proposal is a contract

Establishing trust between two parties

So you’ve found a source of funding that would help your organization perform a much needed public service. One that could have lasting social impact with an application deadline far enough into the future to allow you to craft a quality proposal. Your work is just beginning and it’s not just the work of grant writing.

Does the decision to proceed with this project reside with you or your superiors? If you need organizational buy in, seek and secure it. Not just to perform the service and positively impact the community but to convince your employer to allow you to spend company time and resources required to draft the proposal.

In all likelihood, you will need to engage your workplace colleagues. Your supporting manager should inform your officemates of the expectation to spend work time assisting you with fact finding and number crunching in crafting a project budget.

Will your organization undertake this project alone or with collaborating partners? If the latter, a memorandum of understanding will have to be drawn up outlining the responsibilities on each party and, importantly, whose liability insurance will be in force for the duration of the project.

The selection of a collaborating partner should not be undertaken lightly. If this project is a success, the contributions of both parties will be cited and recognized. Who is going to perform outreach to engage the target population? Is the agency competent and capable of fulfilling their end of your partnership? Be prepared to include their logo on any promotional campaign or outreach related to the project.

Is a charitable organization required to be the lead applicant? Then that organization will be the applicant of record and receive the funds. The organization receiving the funds will perform the administration and record keeping. They will want to be compensated accordingly.

Is your project partner donating non-monetary goods and resources? These should be listed as in kind contributions. These could be use of facilities, equipment, services or staff time. Wherever possible, attach a dollar value to these.

The presence of partners aids your proposal in several ways. It signals that you are looking for ways to deliver the project that are not exclusively reliant on the funder. It also shows broad based community support for your project. If other agencies in your community are willing to devote resources, the funder will see this as enhanced credibility of your organization and proposal.

That’s a lot of legwork and we haven’t begun writing yet!

Proposal

The funder may provide an application or proposal template. It will likely have a limited number of typed characters or space to write in. Be prepared to get your point across with an economy of words. See if their application has a guide for applicants with FAQ.

Some funders have project officers available for grant application questions. Ask early before you work on the section needing clarification. If it’s a web based portal, learn to navigate the site and the draft writing process so that your work is saved after each log in session. If it’s on hard copy, have a working draft, scan it and back it up on a cloud based file storage system.

Your funder may have different section heading titles but your proposal will require the following elements:

Statement of need

This is where you showcase your story telling ability and pull heartstrings. You will need to craft a narrative outlining the gap in services to the target population that your agency and proposal are uniquely qualified to satisfy. Point out the downside for the target population if the need is not addressed. Add a piece of hard data or third party article that reinforces the need without detracting from the socially conscious tone. Upload visual media if applicable.

Goals and objectives

Write a clearly stated project objective with periodic, date specific goals that match those of the funder for this parcel of project funding. Outline exactly how many people will be served for the duration of the project. Your funder will want to be able to quantify the number of people served so as to allocate resources for maximum benefit. Quantify your desired result in numbers so that the funder can measure their impact per dollar spent. This section should be written as an extension of your statement of need.

Methods and strategies

How will you achieve the goals of your proposal? This is where you show your organization’s expertise to successfully see the project through to fruition. Lay out a chronological plan starting from the day you receive notification of acceptance of your proposal. Make it easy to understand for someone unaccustomed to the terminology of your sector. This is usually the longest and most detailed component of your proposal. It should indirectly and repeatedly demonstrate your organization’s capacity to successfully execute the project.

Plan of evaluation

Every funder will require an end of project report and most ask for an interim report as well. Keeping statistics on your project benchmarks and milestones will be necessary to accurately report how close you are to fulfilling the project plan. Break statistics into graphs, columns and tables for easy visual navigation. Each performance benchmark in the funder’s statement of goals for the funding parcel should be addressed. A good Plan of Evaluation should be written so that the project can be successfully continued and evaluated if the team members change over the life of the project.

Budget

Include all your costs in an easy to understand format including administration and in kind contributions from partners. If you are paying staff, factor in applicable premiums for benefits, overtime and statutory holiday pay. Put spending categories into graphs, columns and tables for easy visual navigation.

Organizational background

Describe the nature, organizational structure and tax status (charity, public sector, non-profit) of your organization. List the contributing partners and key contacts for communicating throughout the life of the project. State your organization’s mandate both relating to and independent of the project.

Tips

Include a plan or strategy to sustain the service to the target population after the life of the project funding. Every funder asks for this because they rarely fund the same project twice. Don’t worry if you don’t have an ironclad solution at the time of writing. Your intention to petition other sources of funding from public, charitable and private sources is a legitimate answer.

Whether or not you are asked to include these as part of your proposal, you are advised to gather signed letters of support for your project in advance. These can be from community agencies, elected officials, ministers of faith or other leaders familiar with your agency’s work. They should truthfully attest to your organization’s positive contribution to community life and state their support for your proposal.

A well written letter of support should include an introduction, the mutual history your organizations share and contact info for the signer. It shouldn’t surprise you if your prospective supporter may not know how to write a letter of support. Chasing documentation like this can drag on and endanger your proposal’s punctual filing.

Write a template letter for your prospective supporter that they can copy and paste onto their organizational stationary and sign in short order. Offer to pick up the signed copy in person to avoid delay. Send a thank you card to each supporter and keep them apprised as to the success of your proposal.

Be prepared to deliver an amended project with 15 to 25% less funding than the amount applied for. Funders like to support as many projects as possible and one strategy they use is to add one more project to their funding parcel by taking out some out of every other proposal. They’ll expect the applicant to absorb the resulting administrative costs.

Managing ethical relationships

Your grant funding proposal is the beginning of a relationship of trust between your organization and the funder. An accepted proposal is a binding contract. Honor your end of it and you will have established a fruitful relationship where both your organization and the foundation can see their goals realized by your collaboration.

Be mindful of the organizational culture of your employer as you build relationships of trust with funders. Bringing in funds from outside sources can bolster your career and make you a star. It can also attract unwanted interest from colleagues in units unrelated to the fulfillment of your proposal.

People do not always act rationally or ethically at budget time. I have seen liaisons with foundations imperiled by managers seeking to paper over their work unit’s budgetary problems with foundation funds. Be prepared to make an ethical stand if you work in such an organization. A former colleague of mine had to threaten to inform the funder if foundation funds were not returned for their intended use.

You will need to commit to informing the funder if your project is in danger of failing to meet objectives. Failing to do so could harm your and your employer’s reputation and invite administrative, public relations and financial disaster. Maintaining trust, transparency and open communication with your funder is paramount. If this means returning funds to a foundation, so be it. Misuse of funds is a career ender.

Funders network and gossip. When you successfully execute one funded project, list it on your next grant proposal. Having one established relationship of credibility and trust is a great entrée to building another. Funders want to work with organizations and individuals who successfully execute projects that change lives for the better. What better way to establish your reputation for caring professionalism than making the world a better place?