Turning Ideas into Reality: Tips for Writing Grants

1. Turning Ideas into Reality: Tips for Writing Grants Maryann Jones, MATR Lorinda Tait, Lansing Public Schools

2. Increase your knowledge about grants - how to successfully write a grant, what to include in each part of a grant. Learn about things you need to know about your district. Increase knowledge of sources of funding. Increase understanding of Medicaid funding Find out what grants are available now. Objectives

3. How do you find out about grants? • Join listservs: michigan grant writers group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/michigangrantwriters. • Subscribe to school technology news: send a blank email to “join-stn-alert@listserv.eschoolnews • Get on listservs i.e.phonic ear, ablenet, kurzweil, MACUL, etc. • Foundation center collections (Jon Harrison) • Google Web Directory. Grant Making Foundations. • Michigan Department of Education. www.mde.gov

4. Available Grants • Starfish Grants .Mitsubishi Foundation. Deadline July 1, 2003. http://www.meaf.org Benefit young people with disabilities through the use of technology. Grants range between $6,000 and $75,000. • Oracle’s Help Us Help Grants. Oracle Corp http://www.helpushelp.org/index.html • Beaumont Foundation of America. http://www.bmtfoundation.com/grants/ • Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

5. Available Grants • Meemic Foundation http://www.meemic.com • Michigan Department of Education. 2002-03 Title II, Part D - Enhancing Education Through Technology (E3T2) (517) 373-1806 http://meis.mde.state.mi.us/megs • SMARTer Kids Foundation. www.smarterkids.org • Jim Mullen Foundation

6. You’ve found a grant! • Reading the guidelines is much more important than writing the proposal. • 99.9% of what you need to know is in the grant guidelines when looking at eligibility.

7. Tips • You may not succeed in getting your first or second grant, but be persistent! • Find out what went wrong! • Remember that funding is a process of exchange: you’re not asking for money, you are offering a service or product of value and presenting it to potential buyers in the best possible light. • Keep a folder of related information, i.e. newspaper clippings about your district.

8. Always follow the guidelines, no matter how silly they may seem! Do’s and don’ts handout. Ten Steps to Success handout. When all is written, have someone not involved with the project read it with an objective mind. More Tips

9. Resources • The First Time Grantwriter’s Guide to Success. Cynthia Knowles. Corwin Press.$24.95. • Simplified Grantwiting. Mary Ann Burke. Corwin Press. $24.95 www.corwinpress.com • Information for Seeking Foundation and Corporate Grants. Council of Michigan Foundations. www.cmif.org • Foundation report.

10. Know your district’s policy for grant applications. • Do you have to get board approval if over a certain amount? • Does the superintendent need to approve it? • What are the necessary steps that have to be taken before submitting a grant? • Touch base with the accounting department. • Are others in your district writing for the same grant?

11. Research your topic • Know the funding source. • Do you need letters of support? • State the essence of your idea in one simple sentence. • Give yourself time, know the deadline. • Checklist-Criterion/Consideration. • Obtaining Grant funding handout.

12. Private funding:Your qualifications or credibility may have more to do with your being funded than anything else. Government funding:you may be asked for a description of the applicant or background of the applicant. Clearly establish who is applying for funds Describe purpose and goals of the department Describe programs Describe students Provide evidence of accomplishment Offer statistics to support credibility The Introduction

13. Introduction, continued • Lead logically to problem statement • Interesting • Free of jargon • Brief - may limit the number of words. • Constructing a Competitive Proposal handout.

14. The Problem Statement or Needs Assessment • This focuses on the conditions in the lives of your students that you wish to change. • This area should lead the reader from knowing little or nothing about the problem to an informed state. • Use research to substantiate the need or the problem. • Use data and published literature to support the problem or need. • Discuss how your proposal will help that need.

15. Checklist for problem statement • Relate to purposes and goals of organization • Is of reasonable dimensions • Is supported by statistical evidence • Is supported by statements from authorities • Is stated in terms of clients or beneficiaries • Is developed with input from clients and beneficiaries • Is not the lack of a method

16. Program objectives that are measurable become the criteria by which you judge the effectiveness of your program. 1.Tell who 2. Is going to be doing what 3. When 4. How Much 5. How we will measure it? Program Objectives

17. Describes problem related outcomes of your program Does not describe your methods Describes the population served States the time when the objectives will be met Describes the objectives in numerical terms if possible. Checklist for objectives

18. Methods • State reasons for selection of activities • Describe sequence of activities • Describe staffing of program • Describe clients and client selection • Presents a reasonable scope of activities that can be accomplished within the time allotted for program and within the resources of the applicant

19. Developing the evaluation component of a proposal: • Objectives should be clear and measurable. • Who will conduct the evaluation?

20. Sharpen your skills by reading grants • Learn what type of projects capture people’s attention and how people look at proposals. • Discussing proposals’ strengths and weaknesses with other reviewers can give you better insight into project design and proposal development.

21. Become a reviewer • The department of ed’s listserv notifies subscribers about grant programs that are looking for reviewers: send an email to listproc@inet.ed.gov “subscribe edinfo- your name” leave the subject line blank. • Check the website for specific grant programs to see if they have info. to become a reviewer. • Contact the local united way or community foundation to see if they use a citizen review review process to make funding decisions.

22. Medicaid Funding • For AAC Assessment must be done by a qualified provider (Type 80). Mary Fee Bed Outpatient. Phone 616-242-0366. Book 3 mo. ahead. • Dr. must certify medical necessity. Need a physician’s prescription. • AAC -Meet definition of durable medical equipment, prosthetic device;or reasonable and necessary to overcome inability to speak.

23. Need a copy of the IEP, MET, as well as the OT, PT, Psych. and Speech and Language reports. Speech report should show the difference between receptive and expressive vocabularies. Letters of support. In Michigan: Dynavox, Words Plus, PrenkeRomich, Zygo, Mayer Johnson (AMDI Tech Talk, Tech Scan) Takes from 3 months to 2 years. AAC Funding

24. Guidelines • Medicaid guidelines can be found at: www.aac-rerc.com • Some private companies are beginning to follow their guidelines. • Other private companies feel speech is a luxury and will not fund AAC: Priority Health and Physicians Health Plan (PHP)

25. Medicaid • AT decisions based on both expected outcomes and durability of the AT. • Recommend device to improve, maintain or prevent functional decline.

26. Certificate of Medical Necessity • Diagnosis (es) ICD-9-CM code (s) • Functional limitation • Person’s status - Due to the patient’s (functional limitation), he/she is not able to -perform: activities of daily living (specify); “the use of equipment will… allow the person to ..function independently with this device …communicate verbally, in writing, independently over phone? Be required as a lifetime medical need (if not, explain duration)

27. Sources of Information • Kelly Fonner, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Closing The Gap. • American Speech and Hearing Association. • Medicaid. Sister Kathryn McGillicutty. Mary Free Bed. • The world wide web. • Michigan Department of Education.