Grant Writing Workshop

1. Grant Writing Workshop

2. Grant Writing Tutorial • Introduction • Grant Writing Basics • Commonly Missed Elements of Grants • Most important elements

3. Grant Writing Tutorial • Writing Your Proposal • Getting Started • Writing the Proposal Abstract • Building the Statement of Need • Developing Objectives • Creating Program Activities & Strategies • Designing the Program Evaluation • Preparing the Budget • Letters of Support • Letters of Agreement • Editing and Reviews

4. Grant Writing Tutorial Continued • Helpful Hints • How to prospect Grant Funders • How can start-ups market their program to be competitive with established organizations • How to formulate a successful grant for New/Alternative/Creative programs that do not have previous documented research • Discuss the importance of following all instructions – grant reviewers are subjective and score based on a diversity of priorities

5. Getting Started • Read everything. • Consider the funding priorities carefully. • Discuss ideas with decision-makers in your organization. • Identifying the need for a program through research, community assessment and evaluating geographical needs. • Explore opportunities for collaboration. • Allow sufficient time to complete the proposal. • Hold planning meetings: Work with a team & communicate with team often. • Develop time line with writing assignments

6. Writing the Proposal Abstract • First impressions are important, so place emphasis on preparing a well written abstract. • Be concise; Do not exceed 1200 characters (about 200 words). • Include brief summary statement of your proposal, your “case,” and your purpose. • Describe key activities +objectives + partners. • Summarize the evaluation methods. • Project the likely impact of the program. • Total budget request

7. Building the Statement of Need • Why is your agency submitting a proposal to fund this project? • The Statement of Need should be data driven. • To write the Statement of Need, review all data that can support your case and keep it as local as possible. • Try defining need in terms of: (1) the constituency you serve; (2) the community in which the services will be provided; and, (3) your agency. • Be sure to show lack of existing services or inability to fulfill demand as it relates to the needs identified. • Make certain your need is actual rather than projected or assumed.

8. Example #1 – Statement of Need • LOCAL NEED BASED ON COMMUNITY PROFILE - No Data or Source • The Lower West Side, where LMN’s two health clinics are situated, is marked by poverty, language barriers and other socio-economic and environmental threats that permeate low income/underserved communities. While a wide range of risk factors and diseases affect Latinos, nearly every health disparity they experience could be prevented or more effectively managed given timely access to health care.

9. Example #2 – Statement of Need • LOCAL NEED BASED ON BENEFICIARY PROFILE – Data + Source • Substantiating the impetus driving LMN’s school-based health clinic start-ups, in June 2008 the Chicago Tribune published a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data came from their newest version of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a comprehensive assessment of teenagers in 9th to 12th grade compiled every two years. One of the most worrisome trends was the alarming degree of sadness and despair among Hispanic youth. Nationally, an astonishing 42.3 percent of Hispanic girls reported feeling “sad or hopeless” as did 30.4 percent of Hispanic boys, exceeding figures for black and white teens. Twenty-one percent of Hispanic girls said they had “seriously considered attempting suicide” and 14 percent actually attempted suicide – again, the highest of any ethnic group. By contrast, 10.7 percent of Hispanic boys said they’d thought seriously about killing themselves and 6.3 percent actually tried.

10. Example #3 – Statement of Need • LOCAL NEED BASED ON INSTITUTIONAL STATISTICS – Data + Source • With Regard to Cicero: The health care system in Cicero and Berwyn is marked by a scarcity of primary health services for their Spanish-speaking, Latino, predominantly Mexican, uninsured or underinsured community. The tremendous lack of such services in the community, and the extent to which the existing health care system is not meeting the needs of the people in the community, becomes readily apparent when reviewing the discharge reports of HIJK Hospital’s Emergency Department. Between fiscal year 2005 and 2006, there was a 5% increase; between fiscal year 2006 and 2007 there was a 29% increase. HIJK rendered a total 6,400 Emergency Department visits in fiscal year 2007. Less than 10% of the intakes resulted in an inpatient admission, indicating that the majority of patients presented with non-emergency conditions that could have been treated in other clinical settings. The primary reason, then, that these 6,400 individuals went to the Emergency Department rather than see a private physician, was that they did not have a medical home. It also indicates that there is a lack of access to community-based health education, early stage diagnostics, and chronic disease prevention and treatment services.

11. Example #4 – Statement of Need • LOCAL BENEFICIARY NEED – Data + Source • In June 2008 the Chicago Tribune published a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data came from their newest version of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey……… • Overall, 30 percent of Chicago teens say they feel sad or hopeless, above the national average. Just over 10 percent try to commit suicide, but only a fraction of these cases end up being treated by a doctor or

12. Developing Objectives • Specific • Tangible • Concrete • Measurable • Achievable within the grant period • Define success • Form basis for evaluation(What evaluation tool will you • use?)

13. Developing Objectives Continued • If you have more than five objectives, consider dividing them • into two or three general goals. • Be realistic. (Can it be done with staff and funding during grant period?) • Who? • What? • By when? • At what cost?

14. Creating Program Activities & Strategies • Google is your friend! Find out what other agencies are doing around the country. Look for novel AND effective approaches. • Use evidence-based practices. Your ideas may sound great, but are they proven to work? • Be sure to only include activities that can be tracked and measured. (Although, this is particularly difficult with outreach projects!) • If the proposed activities were previously used, state why they are being used again. That is, give outcomes to indicate their effectiveness & maybe change them a bit based on lessons learned. • Use sentences that are short in length. Use paragraphs that are short in length. • It is absolutely okay to use bullet points to delineate major ideas.

15. Designing the Program Evaluation – PROCESS EVALUATION • What happened? • How it happened? • How much? • Where? • To whom?

16. Example #1 – “Process Evaluation” • 1 full-time child-parent psychotherapist will continue employment in RST’s programs for twelve months following the date of an award; and, • (2) 1 full-time child-parent psychotherapist will screen 30 children and provide Child-parent Psychotherapy to approximately 20 children, and their parent[s], within a twelve month timeframe.

17. Designing the Program Evaluation – IMPACT EVALUATION • Changes in: • Behavior • Knowledge • Attitudes • Beliefs • Change among • Individuals • Providers • Organizations • Communities

18. Example #1 – “Impact Evaluation” • 90% of the children receiving treatment for at least four months will exhibit a: • Reduction in symptomology and increase in age appropriate functions; Improved quality of attachment and negotiation of conflict; and, Decreased maladaptive maternal representations, decrease negative self-representation, and increased positive self-representation.

19. Preparing the Budget • Projects become reality because the central idea is sold, not because the proposal is cheap! • Be realistic! Ask for what you need. • Justify expenses. Do your costs follow with narrative program description? • Make sure to follow guideline percentages of budget. • Be certain numbers add correctly AND that they tie into any budgeted numbers that are referenced in the narrative sections. • Double-check the cost per person. Is your proposed project truly cost efficient?

20. Helpful Hints • Read the RFP carefully — follow ALL directions, including margin and font size. • Be innovative, realistic, specific. • Write clearly, use active rather than passive voice. • Avoid jargon or acronyms. • Allow plenty of time. • Keep a spiral bound notebook with you while writing to write down (and keep track of) your reminders, thoughts, and questions.

21. Example #1 – “Read RFP Thoroughly” • Describe how the applicant will plan to build a continuum of solutions (as defined in this notice) designed to significantly improve educational outcomes and to support the healthy development and well-being of children in the neighborhood. The plan to be developed by the applicant must ensure that children in the target school or schools described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 2(a)(ii), or 2(a)(iii) have access to a complete continuum of solutions. The applicant must explain how it will use its needs assessment and segmentation analysis to determine the children with the highest needs and ensure that they receive the appropriate services from the continuum of solutions. Each applicant will propose solutions, such as programs, policies, practices, services, systems, and supports that will result in improvements on the project indicators, as defined in this notice and described in paragraph 10 of this priority. There may be more than one solution for each project indicator, and a single solution may contribute to improvement on more than one project indicator. Applicants are not required to propose solutions for program indicators (as defined in this notice) that are not also project indicators (see paragraph 10 of this priority for an explanation of the difference between project indicators and program indicators).

22. Example #1 – “Read RFP Thoroughly”

23. Example #3 – “Write clearly, use active rather than passive voice.” • Eliminate the word “be” from your sentences: • The XYZ Program is innovative, groundbreaking, and a model for replication. • vs. • The XYZ Programs will be innovative, groundbreaking, and a model for replication. • _ _ _ _ _ _ • Our request to the ABC Foundation is for $25,000 to support the LMNOP Program. • vs. • Our request to the ABC Foundation is for $25,000 that would be used to support the LMNOP Program.

24. Wrap/Up (Q/A)Evaluation/Survey • Leticia Kees: Lkees@KomenChicago.org • 773-444-0061 • Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force • www.chicagobreastcancer.org • 312-942-3368