Writing a Winning Grant Proposal Stan Smith

Warrensburg R6 Schools ssmith@warrensburgr6.org

Typical Grant Sections

- Introduction - Need - Activities - Objectives - Budget

IMPORTANT TIP #1: RIFTS! Consider the following: Some time ago in our school district we initiated a program of giving grants to teachers for classroom projects and supplies. In a committee meeting we were trying to come up with a grant proposal application for the teachers to complete. As we were discussing how much detail teachers should be required to describe the learning program that they wanted the money for, one of the committee members said, “Why should they be required to describe a specific learning program? What if they need the money simply because they need the stuff? What if they just need more computers, or books, or whatever?” Think about what this person was asking. She was suggesting that teachers should get money simply because they believe that they need some “stuff.” Because their computers are old, or because they don’t have enough books or supplies. This way of thinking is a mistake. Do you think that parents care whether or not a teacher or school has technology? They do not. Should parents care whether a school has books? They should not. Do they care if a teacher has lots of “Stuff?” Why should they? They send their kids to school to gain knowledge and skills. That is all that matters. They do not care if you have computers or not… unless those can be used to enhance knowledge and skills. They do not care if you have any “stuff,” unless that stuff can be used to enhance knowledge and skills. Do you see what I mean? It simply doesn’t matter what you or your school has, or what you want. No one cares. It only matters what you DO with what you have that leads to enhanced knowledge and skills. So it doesn’t do any good to ask for money for stuff. It only works to ask for money to enhance knowledge and skills of your students. The bottom line is: Does it benefit your students? When planning a grant, you MUST keep the following acronym in mind:

RIFTS! Remember, it’s for the Students!

When it comes to grants related to education, that’s all that matters. And if you begin writing a grant with this in mind, your grant will end up with this as the central theme. If your proposal does not scream out that it is designed to enhance the learning in students, it will fail. If you ask for money to buy things, your grant will not be funded. If you ask for money to pay for a creative, innovative project that will almost certainly enhance the learning in your students, then you may get funded (assuming you also learn the other concepts of writing good grant proposals). When someone reads your proposal, will it come across as if you are asking for money to buy equipment or supplies? If so, you need to start over. Will it come across as if you are planning a wonderful program for learning? If so, then you are on the right track! IMPORTANT TIP #1: CREATIVE = COMPETITIVE Since most grant funding programs are very competitive, it is logical to assume that only those proposals that are creative and exciting will be funded. Consider this… You have volunteered to evaluate grants to help choose the winners, and you have a pile of proposals you are looking at. Currently you are comparing two of them. One of these is asking for money to buy computers to teach writing skills to students. The other describes a project in which students interview senior citizens in their community about their experiences during World War II, and then they will develop their writing skills by creating “Living History” web pages that share these important stories with the rest of the world. Now both of these teachers may have a need for the funds, and the students of one teacher are no less deserving than those of the other. But which of these projects is the better bet for investing this money to improve education? Easy choice, right?

So… CREATIVE = COMPETITIVE

If your learning project is creative, it is MUCH more likely to be funded. The more applicants there are for the funds, the more creative your project must be in order to get a share of those funds. Like it or not, that is reality. Now we probably need to qualify this somewhat. It is possible to have a very creative project, but one that will not result in improved learning. For example, it would be creative (and fun) to have your students create an 8-foot tall 3D model of the White House. But would this be an effective way to teach them about American government? It could be, of course, depending on how you embed creative lessons about government into the process of building the structure. It must involve good teaching practices.

So… CREATIVE + GOOD TEACHING = COMPETITIVE

IMPORTANT CONCEPT #3: The NEED statement should be fundamental,

and is the foundation of your entire proposal

It is difficult to describe what makes a good statement of need, but let’s try this. The easiest way to approach this is to force ourselves to remember this: RIFTS! (Remember, it’s for the students!). As an educator, what is your most fundamental role? As discussed previously, it is to maximize meaningful learning in your students (knowledge, understanding, and skills). That is why schools exist. That is why the teaching profession exists. That is what parents expect you to do. Let’s take a common need stated by teachers, and restate it until it represents your most fundamental need:

State your Need: Our students need computers. This sound like you are simply asking for stuff. You should ask yourself, Why? Why do your students need computers? No one really cares if they have computers. What is it that you really care about?

Restate the Need . . . . Our students need computers because they need to learn word processing.

This still doesn’t work. Word processing is only a means to an end. You should ask yourself, Why? Why do your students need to learn word processing? What is it that you really care about?

Restate the Need . . . . Our students need to be able to edit and revise their work. This still doesn’t quite work. Editing their work is still only a means to an end. You should ask yourself, Why? Why do your students need to be able to edit their work? What is it that you really care about?

Restate the Need . . . . Our students need to be able to communicate clearly. Now we are getting there! This is a fundamental need that students have. There are more ways to accomplish this than with computers (and grant evaluators will know this). But still you need to somehow teach this to your students. And so this need statement is a great example of a foundation for a grant proposal. So, when you are trying to come up with your idea for your grant proposal, and you are defining the need that you have, continue restating it until you reach your fundamental need. If you do that, then your entire proposal will come across as a project designed to accomplish this, rather than an opportunistic attempt to get some stuff. Hint: If there is a “thing” that can be purchased in your Need Statement, you are probably not there yet. Of course, it is also possible to reach a point where it is too fundamental. If we were to continue to restate the above example, we might go too far and end up with something like: Our students need to be able to breathe oxygen. Clearly that is too fundamental, right?

If you reach a need that is “too fundamental,” you can back up a level or two. Ready to try this yourself? Below are five different “grant starters.” The teachers making these statements definitely have important needs. But they will not write successful grants until they have restated their needs as fundamental ones. Try reducing several of them to fundamental need statements that could be used as a foundation for a good grant proposal.

Grant Project Starters “We need more computers! We don’t even have a computer in every classroom, and half the computers in our lab don’t work.”

“The kids these days are different! They have no respect. I can’t deal with them anymore. I need to quite teaching or try something different!”

“There are three state parks near our town, and two good museums less than an hour away. But our kids don’t get to experience these because fields trips are too expensive and too much hassle.”

“How am I supposed to teach these students science? They can hardly read when they come into my class!”

“I am so tired of having to make do at this school! My textbooks are 7 years old, I have no instructional supply budget, and I have to spend my own money on classroom materials.” IMPORTANT CONCEPT #4: Needs must be measured locally

Outcomes must be locally measurable

First let’s consider the statement: Needs must be measured locally. Obviously, in order to convince grant evaluators that you deserve some money to implement an education grant, you must convince them that your students have a significant need. Since the purpose of education is to teach students knowledge, understanding, and skills, you must provide evidence that your students are not learning important knowledge, understanding, or skills. They need to be failing at something. Not only that, but it needs to be your students who are failing at something. So it doesn’t do any good to show evidence that average American students are missing out on something, or students in Missouri. Instead, it must be your students who are failing to learn something important. The best way to show that your students are failing to learn something is with quantitative data (measurable data). So you need to provide sets of data, such as test scores, standardized assessment scores, student surveys, parent surveys, attendance records, dropout records, and so on. Now let’s consider this statement: Outcomes must be locally measurable. Think about it this way: if your grant states specific needs (data that shows that your students are failing to learn important knowledge, understanding, or skills), then it is only logical that you should measure the success of your grant by quantitatively measuring how well your students learn these things at the conclusion of the project. In other words, if you state a need, then the purpose of the grant project is to meet this need. And you must be able to measure this, so that the grant evaluators know that you will be able to provide quantitative data in order to show project success (for an education grant, success is always related to student learning). IMPORTANT CONCEPT #5: A grant project idea can be generated by

answering nine questions I have come up with NINE questions that should be answered before someone begins writing a grant proposal. The first, of course, is to define an educational need that you have. This is the basis of any education grant. Then come up with a basic idea for a learning project, based upon good teaching strategies, which will address that need. Next, you will refine the idea, establishing the basic things you need to know before you start writing. Below is a list of the nine questions, with a brief explanation for each one:

Turning an Idea into a Proposal: 1. What is the need, as far as students are concerned?

Make sure your need is a student need, not a need that the teacher or school has. It should be one of the basic goals of our education system. It is one of the real reasons parents send their children to school.

2. How can you document this need (documented with data)? You must quantitatively show that there is a need. You can do this with student, parent, or teacher surveys; student test scores; office discipline records; dropout rates; and any other data that shows that the students in your school have this need.

3. What are the expected learning outcomes of your program? (are they measurable?) You will have to measure the success of your learning program. Generally, you can do this with the same tools that you use to show a need (tests, surveys, etc.). But you must focus on outcomes that are measurable. Why would someone want to give you money if you cannot quantitatively show that the money has been used to increase learning in your students?

4. What will you purchase to implement your program idea, and why? (equipment, materials, training, other services) What will you actually spend the money on? Eventually, as you write the grant, you will have to list everything and provide accurate costs for each item, but for now you need to at least have a general idea of the goods or services and their costs.

5. How much money will it take to purchase these goods or services? Based on your answer to #4 above, what is the total amount you are requesting? Keep in mind that almost all grant programs have a specific limit, so some funding programs are not suitable for some project ideas.

6. What activities will the students do to accomplish this program? This is very important. What will your students be doing as a result of the grant? Remember, your grant is for the students (RIFTS!), so this should focus on the innovative learning activities that will result in improved learning in your students. It is these activities that result in you being able to quantitatively show that the program is successful (see #3 above).

7. What activities will the staff need to do to accomplish this program? Although not as important as the student activities, there are many things that you will need to do to make the project work (order the materials and equipment and set it all up, create the project assessments, administer the assessments, promote the program in your community, etc.).

8. What is your schedule of these student and staff activities? Often you will be asked to arrange these (#6 and #7 above) in chronological order, typically month by month.

9. What is a good title for your program? This might seem trivial, but the title is VERY important. The grant evaluator sees this first, and first impressions are critical. It is almost as important as the title of a book. When you are shopping for a new book to read, it is often the cover and/or title alone that catches your eye and gets you interested. The first few seconds after the evaluator picks up your proposal to read it are very important. A catchy or thought-provoking title could influence that person’s mood as they read the entire proposal.

These are the nine things that you should establish firmly in your mind before you actually start writing your proposal. If these things are firmly established in your mind, it is much easier to create a proposal that is cohesive… one that flows well and fits together well. IMPORTANT CONCEPT #6: A grant proposal should be well-written and

pleasant to read Think about this… The person who is reading and evaluating your grant proposal is probably an educator who has volunteered to do this task. He (or she) is probably doing it out of the kindness of his heart, and because he knows it will make him a better grant writer. He had to take at least one day off from work to drive to a central location (such as Columbia or Jefferson City) to do this. He has been subjected to at least two-hours of training on how to properly evaluate your grant, and then he was handed a large pile of perhaps twenty or more grants to evaluate. Each one of them can take an hour or more to evaluate. He is staying up late to get as many done tonight as possible so that he can finish them up tomorrow and get back home to enjoy what is left of the weekend. He is on grant number 12, and they are all starting to look the same. Some of them are better than others, and some of them are terrible.

The above is a fairly accurate description of what it is like to be a grant evaluator (I have evaluated grants at least four times). It is a great way to learn how to write better grants, and I highly recommend doing it at least once, but it is very tedious and tiring work. Ask yourself this: How do you think this evaluator is going to react if he gets to your proposal and it is poorly written, with confusing sentences and spelling errors, and it describes a fairly mundane project? How would you react if you were in this person’s shoes? Now ask yourself this: How do you think this evaluator is going to react if he has spent the last 13 hours evaluating grants, some of them average and some very poor, and then he gets to your proposal and it opens with a few catchy paragraphs, written to capture his attention, and continues with very well-structured writing that is extremely easy to follow and is even (God forbid!) fun to read? Picture this person sitting up straight, a smile forming on his face as he reads the proposal. And then he is very generous in assigning points to the sections of your grant. That is likely to be the result. And that is precisely why Important Concept #6 is so important. It often makes the difference between being funded or not being funded. So let’s start looking at this aspect of grant writing… good writing skills. Dr. Michael Gershowitz, a successful grant-writing consultant who has personally raised more than $80 million for school technology programs in the last 20 years, shares these five ideas for winning money for your school: 1. Tell a good story To interest a reader in your project, you’ve got to write compellingly. Think of your proposal as a story – you want to spark the reader’s curiosity as you bring your project to his or her attention. Talk about people. Case studies are interesting; statistics are not. To engage the reader immediately, consider starting your proposal with a description of the people—the students, teachers, parents, or administrators—who will benefit from the grant. Feel free to use names, although not necessarily the peoples’ real names. This will bring your project to life and create an identity for the reader to grasp as he or she reads through the rest of the proposal. Compare the following two opening paragraphs of a proposal. Which one is more likely to grab the reader’s attention and make him want to read on?

“This project is designed to serve the needs of economically disadvantaged children in the inner-city neighborhoods of Chicago. Access to technology in the home is scarce in these neighborhoods, so we propose to build a technology center where students can come after school to get the technology training they need to succeed in the 21st century.”

Or…

“This project is designed to serve the needs of students like 12-year-old Jose, a bright and inquisitive sixth-grader who lives with his mother and four sisters in a subsidized one-bedroom apartment in Chicago. While some of Jose’s classmates use home computers to create PowerPoint presentations for their homework, Jose is lucky if he has enough light to read by at night, never mind a computer. To ensure that students like Jose have an equal chance to succeed in the 21st century, we propose to build a technology center where students can come after school to get the technology training they need.

2. Make Statistics Interesting

To demonstrate a need for your project, you will have to cite statistics eventually. When you do, don’t overwhelm the reader; instead, use only the most startling or dramatic ones. A few well-chosen facts and figures can punctuate the conditions you’ve described. But throwing too many figures at your reader will most likely weaken your case. Compare the two following sections of a proposal:

“The counties to be served by this project, and their respective populations, is as follows: Banner, 894; Sioux, 905; Sheridan, 2,850; Box Butte, 3,197; Morrill, 3,265; Dawes, 6,243; and Scotts Bluff, 24,439. From these figures, it can be seen that the total population for the area to be served is 41,793. The counties involved with the project encompass 32,251 square miles. Therefore, the population density of the region to be served is 1.29 persons per square mile.”

Or…

“Think about this: Alaska’s population density (Anchorage excepted) is about two people per square mile. That’s sparse. Now think about this: The population density of the Nebraska panhandle is just one person per square mile – half the density of Alaska! We don’t usually think of the Midwest as being that remote or sparsely populated. But the statistics say otherwise.”

3. Write Concisely Most people who write grant proposals write so densely that the reader has to work to understand the proposal. The minute the reader has to struggle to understand what you’re saying, you’ve lost his full attention – and most likely the grant as well. Keep your sentences short. Keep your words short. And keep your paragraphs short. Avoid falling into the false, official-sounding language we have a tendency to use when we are trying to impress someone, or when we are trying to sound like an authority. Have someone proofread your proposal to weed out sentences and paragraphs like the following:

“At the start of the second phase of the project, it will be necessary to bring all members of the instructional staff together at a central point for a meeting, to be addressed by the key district administrators including the Superintendent, Director of Technology, and Director of Media Services. At this session, the instructional staff will be informed regarding the requisite measures to be initiated in order to achieve maximum effectiveness of the project outcomes.”

Wouldn’t that paragraph be easier to read like this…

“We think it would be a good idea to bring teachers and administrators together about two months after the project’s start date. This face-to-face session will allow open give-and-take about the project’s perceived impact. It will also let teachers and administrators decide on steps to ensure that the project meets the intended goals.”

4. Slow the reader down When you’ve got 25 proposals to read in a weekend, your natural tendency after reading the first few—particularly if the intended projects are similar in nature—is to start skimming through the remainder. As a grant writer, you want to slow the reader down to make sure he or she considers your proposal carefully. To do this, you can use verbal cues to make the reader stop and think about what you have written. Cues can be simple phrases like: “Did you know…” “Think about this…” “Keep this in mind…”

Another way to slow the reader down is to use bullets to highlight major points. 5. Use an active, conversational voice Many people think grant writing should be done in a formal, third-person, passive voice. I don’t know where this notion started, but when it comes to education grants (and I am sure other grant types as well), it is completely false. This type of writing will most likely put the reader to sleep and it won’t establish an emotional connection. If you really want to connect with the reader, you can do it much better by writing in the first person and using a conversational tone. Perhaps the National Science Foundation and certain other federal agencies may discourage this—but for 99 out of 100 education-related proposals, it’s okay to write like this (in fact, it is much, MUCH better!). An active voice brings action—and your proposal—to life. Consider the following alternatives:

“The teachers will be trained by the Professional Development Coordinator, utilizing materials supplied by the publisher of the software. The effectiveness of the training will be measured by pre-post surveys of the trainees. The data collected in these surveys will be analyzed by the external evaluator and the project director will be provided with the results.

Let’s make that a little more active…

“The software publisher has created and will provide training materials. The Professional Development Coordinator will use them to train the teachers. Pre-post surveys will measure the impact of the training, and the external evaluator will analyze the data and report the results to the project director.”

A conversational tone will make your proposal easier to read and will help establish a connection to your reader. Instead of writing, “Current users of these materials have stated their satisfaction with the results,” why not write, “We spoke with three districts that have used these materials for at least a year, and all three spoke highly of the experience.” How you write a grant proposal is as important as what you write. You want to make the proposal as reader-friendly and engaging as possible. Here are some specific suggestions for simplifying and clarifying your writing: Instead of... Write in view of because in a number of cases some or several in the nature of like or similar to in view of the fact that because in order to to in the majority of instances usually in all probability probably for the purpose of to have a preference for prefer with the exception of except in excess of more than in the near future soon in addition to also at this point in time now last but not least finally

in the event of if in the course of while or during in the vicinity of near it would thus appear apparently on a few occasions occasionally on the other hand or make decisions decide take action act give assistance to assist utilize use Okay… time for you to practice this. Below is an excerpt from a grant proposal. This text is far too difficult to read (it violates almost all the suggestions given above!). Take this excerpt and condense it down to only 110 words, without losing the major messages of the text. And it should be intriguing to read! Here is the excerpt:

There is a real need for improvement in the performance of Memphis students. Memphis City Schools' students score below the national norm in academic achievement. According to the results of the 1997-1998 standardized achievement tests, there were only 16% of the district's 3rd to 8th grade students scored at or above the 50th percentile in reading; only 19% of the district's 3rd to 8th grade students scored at or above the 50th percentile in math; only 26% of the district's 3rd to 8th grade students scored at or above the 50th percentile in language; only 14% of the district's 3rd to 8th grade students scored at or above the 50th percentile in science, and 14% in social studies. Twenty-eight percent of the students in Memphis City Schools are two or more years overage for their assigned grade. The Memphis district's cohort dropout rate is 28%. The Memphis district’s inner-city students would benefit from having additional time and innovative teaching and learning strategies to succeed academically.

The decision to have this grant program target elementary age students was a decision that was based on current studies. Current brain research has indicated that children are most able to learn at early ages, from years three through ten. The research indicates that if the learning experiences of students of this age range are enhanced during this period, the probability for future academic success is increased significantly. Also, current research has shown that students who are experiencing significant academic difficulties in grade four are more likely to continue a pattern of difficulty, as indicated by academic failure, truancy and eventually sometimes even dropping out. The focus of this grant project will be to intervene in the primary grades to prevent this pattern of school failure. Another focus of this grant project will be to achieve the national goal for all children to read on grade level by age eight. Below are the opening paragraphs from the Introduction sections of two grant proposals I have written. My goal was to set the tone as upbeat and pleasant as possible:

From “Learning with iAdventures” grant (funded for $50,000): What  would  Lewis  and  Clark  have  done  differently  if  they  were  able  to  access  unlimited  information  on  weather  patterns  and  geology  of  North  America?    How  would  Gregor  Mendel  have  changed  his  famous  genetic  experiments  on  peas  if  he  could  instantly  access  the  results  of  every  scientific  study  ever  published?    How  would  Laura  Ingalls  Wilder  describe  her  childhood  if  her  family  could  have  used  the  Internet  to  order  their  supplies  needed  to  build  their  "Little  House  on  the  Prairie?"    Perhaps  these  questions  can  never  be  answered.    Or  can  they?    Welcome  to  Learning  with  iAdventures!  

From “Nature Conundrums” grant (funded for $10,000): How  do  we  make  kids  love  math?    By  integrating  math  with  what  they  do  love!    Kids  love  solving  puzzles.    They  love  cameras  and  taking  photographs.    They  love  the  Internet,  and  animals,  and  nature,  and  being  outdoors.    Mix  these  all  together  and  you  have  Nature  Conundrums!  

Tips on Writing the Specific Grant Sections Keep in mind that each funding program is different. The rules for writing any specific grant are provided by the funding organization in the form of a Request for Proposals (RFP). In the RFP you will find out what types of projects they are willing to fund, how much money they are willing to give for each project, what sections the grant should include, what each section should contain, how to format the grant (font, text size, margin size, etc.), how many pages the grant should be (either for the entire grant or for each section), the submission deadline, and often a variety of other important things. The RFP is your guide for writing a proposal for a specific grant program. Typical Grant Application Sections

• Introduction (or Abstract) This is a summary of the entire proposal, condensed down to only one or two pages (the desired length will be specified in the RFP). This section is critical because it is what the evaluator reads first. If they are not impressed by the time they finish reading the Introduction, your grant will likely not be funded.

• Needs Assessment This is where you quantitatively demonstrate that your students have a need. You must show that there is a local need (your students in your school), rather than a global need. In other words, it is not good enough to show that students in the U.S. (or Missouri) have this need… you need to show that your students have this need.

• Plan of Action This is where you explain what you are going to do for this learning project. This is your chance to convince the evaluator that your students will be experiencing learning activities that will improve their achievement and their overall well-being. Generally, this is laid out in a month-by-month format, and sometimes you will be asked to separate this into student activities and staff activities.

• Review of Current Research Often this section is not required for education grants. But when it is, you are expected to show that there is research that supports the effectiveness of the learning activities that you are proposing. Research is typically in the form of published studies, but can also be explanations of successful programs you have visited at other schools, other grants that have been successfully funded and carried out, etc.

• Evaluation Methods This is where you provide details on how you are going to quantitatively measure the success of your program. This must be directly related to the Needs section above. In other words, there is no reason to state that your students have a need unless you are going to try addressing that need. And there is no reason for someone to give you money unless you have a realistic way to measure whether the needs have been met. This is a critical part of your proposal, and you will be expected to carry out these evaluations if the grant is funded.

• Budget and Budget Narrative This is obviously where you describe exactly what you are planning to purchase with the money, and how much everything is going to cost. Generally this will be an itemized list, with specific prices, divided up into categories (such as salaries, purchased services, materials, and equipment).

• Section on Sustainability

Sometimes there is not a separate section just for this, but it is always expected that you explain how you plan to continue implementing the project after the period of grant funding is over (education grants are typically one year, and sometimes two years).

Tips for writing the INTRODUCTION (or Abstract): As stated above, the Introduction is typically a short version of the entire proposal. It is designed to do two things:

1. Catch the attention of the grant evaluator, to let him/her know that this proposal is really special.

2. Provide a summary of the project, so the reader can better understand as he/she reads the more detailed sections to follow.

As you can imagine, the Introduction can make or break a grant proposal, simply because it is the evaluator’s first impression of the overall project. So it is crucial that you very carefully write it, using all of the writing skills that we have discussed in the last few lessons. If there are spelling errors, grammatical errors, an uninteresting writing style, or uninteresting project ideas, you will blow your chance to catch the evaluator’s attention early. In fact you may turn them off entirely, prompting them to glaze over the remainder of your proposal with no expectations of seeing anything worthwhile.

Below is a list of the most important strategies for writing a good Introduction:

• Write it as a SUMMARY OF THE ENTIRE PROGRAM! Consider this a condensed version of all sections. This makes it so that the subsequent, more detailed

sections will not be confusing to the evaluator. The last thing you want to do is confuse the evaluator!

• Include the goals, benefits to students, main approach or activities, main expenses (not numbers, though), who's involved, etc.

In other words, it is a summary of the entire program (but written to be very engaging and concise).

• Write the Introduction last. You cannot summarize a program unless you have already planned the program out entirely. And you

will change some of these plans as you write the detailed sections, so it is a waste of time to try to write a good Introduction before you have finished all the other sections.

• Write the Introduction as if it were the only page the readers will see. This is their first, most important, impression! If the remainder of the proposal were missing, would

the evaluator get the whole picture of what you plan to do by reading nothing but the Introduction? Would they be impressed by what they have read? Would they want to fund your project? If not, then your Introduction needs more work.

• Use KEY WORDS that show up later throughout the proposal This helps the reader to see that there is consistency throughout the proposal. This writing trick is very important in grant writing. If readers see several key words show up consistently throughout your proposal, they get the impression that your proposal is focused and cohesive. These key words should be related to the main student learning benefits of your project, such as communication skills, or career exploration, or math achievement, or inquiry skills, or targeted science standards, etc.

Tips for writing the NEEDS section: The need section can sometimes be the most difficult grant section to write. This is where you must provide quantitative evidence that your students have a specific set of needs that could be met if the grant were funded. These cannot just be any needs; they must be significant needs related to the learning of important skills. Usually these needs are related to the failure of students to demonstrate that they have

learned the knowledge and/or skills that your project focuses on. The need could also be a lack of opportunity to experience things that are known to benefit students (particularly if these experiences are typically available to other students at other schools).

This section of the grant focuses primarily on data, and therefore it requires good grant writing skills to make it so that it is not boring to read, and does not focus on too many statistics.

Below is a list of the most important strategies for writing a good Needs section:

• Demonstrated needs must be local needs. It is easy to show that students across the nation are lagging behind in science. But that is not good

enough. You must show that your students are lagging behind in science—Your students in your school. In order to do this you must provide local data, not state data or national data.

• Evidence of opportunity or need (Or both!) In addition to (but not in place of!) demonstrated needs, it is often helpful to explain opportunities.

Examples of evidence of opportunity: -- Availability of equipment or services that could benefit your students -- New approaches supported by research, which could be adapted or implemented -- School's proximity to a unique site or resource (field trips of visitors to the school)

Examples of evidence of need: -- Test scores -- Attitude surveys -- Questionnaires from students, teachers, parents -- School records (drop-out rates, discipline, etc.)

• Avoid Opinions! Avoid quoting individuals to show a need. Real data is much more powerful. It is one thing for a principal of a school to say that the students there are not achieving in math. It is an altogether different thing when you have school-wide test scores showing that the students are not achieving in math.

On the other hand, it is okay to use opinions of many people. That is where surveys come in. Again, it is one thing if a superintendent of a school district says that the district’s students are not as technologically literate as they should be. It is an altogether different thing when 94% of the 800 parents surveyed indicate that the district’s students are not learning enough about technology. This is a much more powerful form of evidence than the opinions of one person.

• Match your stated needs to your measurable objectives Later on in the grant proposal, you will have a section that explains how you are going to quantitatively measure the success of the grant program. Generally, this is done by defining specific objectives that can be measured. When writing your Needs section, be sure to describe needs that can be matched to your set of objectives. This makes for a much more cohesive proposal. Think about it this way: what is the point of showing that your students cannot communicate effectively if you do not plan to fix this problem and then measure their improvement in communication skills? Why talk about poor math skills unless you are going to measure the improvement of math skills at the end of the project? In other words, do not describe needs that are irrelevant to the learning goals of your project.

It helps to even tag your various needs to the specific corresponding measurable objectives. You could do this by putting the objective number in parentheses in the text of the Needs section. For example, at the end of a paragraph that explains poor test scores in math, you could include: (see Object #3 in the grant evaluation section).

Tips for writing the ACTIVITIES section: Regardless of the name given in the RFP (Request for Proposals) to this section, it is the section in which you describe the events that will take place as you carry out the project. The amount of detail that you include for each of the major activities depends upon the number of pages you are allowed to use. If you have more space, it is to your benefit because it allows you to better describe the wonderful learning activities your students will experience if the project is funded. But the reality is that most RFPs only allow a limited number of pages for each section.

Below is a list of the most important strategies for writing a good Project Activities section:

• Chronological order Generally it is easier to understand how all the activities complement each other if you arrange them in chronological order. The activities should be arranged month by month. Why? Because this way you are not trying to come up with specific dates or weeks for the activities. So you are not obligating yourself to stick to such a rigid schedule. It is hard enough to plan out what you are going to do next week, so it is nearly impossible to plan the exact dates you will do activities eight months from now!

• Include a brief summary of all activities It is important to show that you have carefully considered and planned out all the major activities of the project. One way to show this is to describe the activities in detail. Remember to focus on the learning value of the activities and how the students will benefit. This is where the reader really sees that you have come up with creative, instructionally effective ideas.

• Tie the activities to the project objectives Make it clear that your activities are connected directly to the desired outcomes of the project.

• Include both Management Activities and Student Learning Activities Obviously the student learning activities are the most important, but these could not take place without the management tasks that must be completed. So it is important that you include both, to show that you have carefully planned out every aspect of the program. Some grant RFPs even divide the program description into two parts, the student activities and the facilitator activities.

Here are some examples of student learning activities you would include: - Field trips - Research projects - Multimedia projects - Guest speakers - Hands-on investigations - Service-learning activities - Student performances or product showcases

And here are some examples of management activities: - Ordering and setting up equipment - Curriculum materials preparation - Pre-tests and post-tests (creating and administering) - Arranging guest speakers - Teacher training (planning and implementing)

Tips for writing the OBJECTIVES section: In the Needs section of your grant you explained the important deficiencies that your school and students have that need to be improved. The Goal and Objectives section is where you show how you are going to evaluate the success of your project in meeting these needs. In other words, you explain how you will gather the quantitative data to show that students have benefited from the project.

One very effective way to start this section is with a general Goal statement. This is a short sentence or two that summarizes the desired outcomes. It is like providing a preview (or abstract) of the more detailed Objectives that will follow.

Below is a list of the most important strategies for writing a good Goal statement:

GOAL: -- Several concise sentences summarizing the student benefits -- Should have also been stated in the introduction. -- Should be a narrative summary of the objectives described in detail below.

Following your Goal statement will be the most important part of this section, the measurable Objectives. Each of these objectives is something that you will measure. It is extremely time-consuming and tedious to carry out project evaluation tasks like this, so you want to be realistic here. Do not bite off more than you can chew. Generally you should have from two to four measurable objectives. If you have more than this it may be impossible to carry out all these evaluations (there are only so many surveys, pre-tests, post-tests, observations, and performance evaluations that you can do, right?). Writing good measurable Objective statements requires some practice. It has to be realistic. Do not be too ambitious in the amount of improvement that students will make. Expecting a 50% increase in test scores is unrealistic, regardless of how great your program is. A more realistic improvement would be between 5% and 15% improvement. Also, an Objective should be a self-contained statement that includes all the elements of evaluation. It should include the following five elements: Who? (Who is the specific audience that will be measured?) Does what? (What knowledge or skills will these people demonstrate?) How well? (What quantitative level of success do you expect?) When? (By what date will this happen?) How measured? (What specific form of evaluation will be administered to these people?) Let’s look at an example objective and identify each of the above parts in it. EXAMPLE OBJECTIVE: Objective: By the end of the 2010-2011 school year (When?), 85% of the 7th grade students at WMS (Who?) will show at least 10% improvement (How well?) on a teacher-made assessment (How measured?) of their ability to organize science concepts into multimedia applications (Does what?). Evaluation: During August, project teachers will develop a pre/post assessment of students’ ability to organize science concepts into multimedia applications. The pre-test of skills will be given to 7th graders in September. The post-test will be given at the end of the school year, In May. Scores will be compared to see if 85% of the students have improved by at least 10%.

Your Objective statement must include all five of these elements. Even though the Objective above includes all five of the required elements, I think it is a good idea to also provide additional detail, in the form of the Evaluation statement seen above. It clarifies things by adding additional details. Tips for writing the BUDGET section: Generally, a good grant budget will include two parts, the itemized list of expenses and the budget narrative. The itemized list is self-explanatory. The budget narrative is a good idea (even if not requested in the RFP) because this gives you a chance to explain some of the items on the expense list that may not be very clear to the evaluator. After all, there isn’t much room on an itemized list to describe anything, and you cannot describe all of your items in the earlier sections of the grant narrative. You do not want the evaluator to be confused by the grant budget. If they see things there that they are not sure about, they will likely question the quality of your entire proposal.

Below is a list of the most important strategies for writing the best possible Budget section:

• Description of what the money will be used for Include a narrative before or after the itemized list. This can really help to clarify the items on the list. It is well worth doing this, in order to avoid confusion in the evaluator (confusion will always result in a lower score).

• Itemization of purchases In your itemized list, you should be specific without trying to include too much detail. For example, if you are purchasing printers, you should state the brand and model (instead of just “printers”). But if you are purchasing 75 different books for students to read, it would be too much detail to list the titles of all these books! IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that different grant programs have different requirements. You might encounter an RFP that requests that you list every single item that you will purchase.

• Should be no surprises! Do not include major purchases unless they are described in the narrative portions of the grant. If you need a computer for your program, discuss it throughout the proposal. You do not want the reader to see something like that for the first time near the end of the proposal in the budget. If it is important to your project, it needs to be discussed in the program description. If it is not essential, don't include it at all. If the grant evaluator sees something as significant as computers for the first time in the budget, it will appear that the grant is opportunistic (that you are just trying to get some equipment by sneaking the items into your proposal).

• Double-check your figures!! Have another person go through them and do the math for you. You do NOT want to have an addition error in the budget section of your grant!

• Some programs have limits for some of the categories, so don’t exceed these It is not unusual to see a funding program in which you cannot use any of the money for equipment (computers, etc.). And sometimes a program will allow you to use only a certain percent of the funds for equipment (such as 35%). The rest of the funds have to be used for professional development, purchased services, and materials. If these limits are in place, do not go beyond them.

That concludes coverage of the main sections of a typical grant proposal:

• Introduction • Needs • Program Description • Goal and Objectives • Budget and Budget Narrative

Let’s look at two lists from the National Endowment of the Humanities (a large grant funding organization). The first one is typical characteristics of well-written grants:

CHARACTERISTICS OF WELL-WRITTEN GRANTS 1. Correct grant format (followed directions!) 2. Length – use the maximum length allowed, but be precise 3. Print quality of the actual grant proposal 4. Letters of support from individuals involved (if allowed) 5. A clear understanding of the grant guidelines (do not focus on areas not requested) 6. Well-written (no typos or grammatical errors) 7. An innovative idea 8. Should reflect concerns of the funding agency 9. Ask for enough money to do the project well 10. Evidence of interest in the target audience (Remember, It’s For The Students!) 11. Sufficient personnel and resources to realistically carry it out 12. Sufficient time and reasonable deadlines

The above list is simply a list of the characteristics of grants that are successful in getting funds. Therefore those are IMPORTANT items! The next list is the opposite. It is a list of common mistakes that make proposals fail:

COMMON MISTAKES WHEN SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL 1. Not eligible for the grant being requested 2. Missed deadline 3. Not signed by the proper authority 4. Incorrect budget

a. Budget items not justified in narrative b. Cost of equipment listed incorrectly

5. Guidelines not followed exactly (sections noted in RFP omitted) 6. Not an innovative idea 7. Lack of clarity in methodology (procedures) 8. Lack of knowledge of current literature or activities in the field 9. Lack of facilities or expertise – may not be able to carry out the project 10. High cost for small return (few students impacted) 11. Writing skills are weak (convoluted reasoning, redundancies, poor quality of expression) 12. Document had “mechanical” defects which reflects inadequate planning or concern for detail

Sometimes we have an easier time accomplishing something if we have deadlines and structure for the set of necessary tasks (well maybe that’s just me… I am sure none of you are procrastinators, right?). The following plan is meant to do just that. It is designed in a logical sequence, with the tasks in an order that facilitates the writing process as much as possible:

Grant writing time-line A 4-week plan for teachers

DAY 1 First, make sure you have a copy of the "Applicant's Guide" or RFP. Read through the relevant sections of this guide. Formulate a basic idea for a grant program. Consider, particularly, how you might demonstrate a need or opportunity for instructional improvement, as well as the objectives you intend to measure. Use the following nine questions to help develop your idea:

1. What is the need, as far as students are concerned? 2. How can you document this need (data)? 3. What is the expected learning outcome of your program? (Is it measurable?) 4. What do you need to implement you program idea, and why? (equipment, materials, training?) 5. How much money will you need to get these things? 6. What activities will the students do to accomplish this program? 7. What activities will the staff need to do to accomplish this program? 8. What is your schedule of these student and staff activities? 9. What is a good title for your program?

Promise yourself that, by next week, you will complete rough drafts of the following:

• List of all budget items, with their cost It helps to start out by creating a clear outline of what you think your students will do during the project, then list all of the items and services that will be needed. Then research the approximate cost of all items. This makes it much easier to describe the program as you write the proposal. This page with a list of all expenses will later be included with the budget explanation in the final proposal.

• Needs section It is important to complete this section early because if you can't figure out how to demonstrate a learning need, then you don't really need the grant, right? Remember to match the needs to the objectives, which you will complete this week also. And remember, the need has nothing to do with buying “things,” so this is not the place to mention computers or other technology (or anything else that can be purchased). And it is not the place to mention how you are going to meet the need (your proposed teaching strategy). It is only to show that your specific students are not learning something they should be learning.

• Goals and objectives section Remember that these were stated also in the "Needs..." section above (no point in stating a need unless you have an objective of meeting that need, right?). Each objective should be measurable. They must each have a description of how they will be evaluated. You only need 2 to 4 objectives. Do not overdo it!

**IMPORTANT** Most grants (particularly those that require matching funds from the school district) must be approved by the Board of Education before being submitted. At this time, go ahead and write up a 1-page description of your proposed project. Submit it to your administration for tentative approval now. It would be a BIG shame to waste all this time on a proposal, only to find that your district cannot or will not approve it!

DAY 7 Look over your drafts of the parts above, and have someone else read them. Are those objectives really measurable? Are they realistic? Are there only 2 to 4? Are the needs well supported with test scores, surveys, etc.? Promise yourself that, by next week, you will complete rough drafts of the following:

• Research (if needed) Some grant programs require that you support your idea with research that shows that your approach is effective. Remember that this should offer support to your proposal using education research, magazine articles, other funded grants, or expert opinions. Each source should be cited (although there is rarely a need to use a specific citation format). Usually one page is enough for an education grant.

• Proposed Budget Explanation This will go together with your budget list (described above). Now that you have your list of expenses, it should be relatively easy to write a budget description. This narrative description should probably be a page or less. Do not leave out any of the significant expenses! Imagine a reader who finds a $1500 item in the budget, but did not see the item mentioned any place else in the entire proposal. They should have no big surprises when they see the budget.

• Planned Activities and Timeline Put the activities in chronological order. Be sure to include a brief description of each significant activity. Two pages may be fine (depends on the requirements in the RFP), but include all of the important grant-related activities. Larger projects will require more pages. Keep in mind that this is the only place where you actually describe in detail the innovative activities the students will be engaged in, so it is very important!

DAY 14 Look over your drafts of the parts above, and have someone else read them. Is the description of cited research meaningful? Are they cited properly? Does it make sense? When you read the budget description, does anything seem excessive? Do the numbers add up correctly? Is the schedule of planned activities realistic? Does it show a clear focus on student learning? Can it all be done in the stated time frame? What about spelling and grammatical errors? Promise yourself that, by next week, you will complete rough drafts of the following:

• Prior Planning This is sometimes requested as part of the Introduction section. This describes the planning you have done BEFORE submitting the grant proposal. This is why it is extremely useful to record any significant training, meetings, research, phone calls, etc. that you make. If you just keep an ongoing log of ALL such activities, ALL the time, you will always know where to look when it comes time to record them in a grant proposal. Start recording such events now! You never know what you may be able to include in a proposal in the future.

• Introduction This section provides a descriptive, yet concise, overview of the program. It should clearly state your goals, planned activities, and highlights of the budget (without specific numbers). Write this section as if it were the only section that the evaluator will read!

DAY 21 Look over your drafts of the parts above and have someone else read them. Is it clear in the portion on Planning that you are well prepared to effectively carry out the proposed program? Does the Introduction include a good, concise overview of the program, stressing the positive benefits to the students? Does it leave out anything important? Does it mention the major budget items? If you read nothing but the

Introduction, would you be impressed with the overall idea and teacher preparation? Would you be convinced that it would be money well spent? Promise yourself that, by next week, you will complete the following:

• Completed Cover Page and completed Budget Grid page Most grants have an official cover page and an official grant budget grid page. These two original pages must be filled out and included with the proposal (the narrative sections can usually be done in a word processor). It is absolutely essential that the correct information be entered on these pages! Check the correct boxes. Type the correct numbers. Enter the correct code numbers. EVERYTHING MUST BE CORRECT!! Some proposals are thrown out simply because the wrong box was checked or because important items were left blank. Usually the cover page will require a signature from a building principal or district-level administrator. Be sure to get these signatures at this time. Don’t wait until the last minute because your administrator may be out of the office that day, and some administrators like to take their time and read a grant proposal before signing it. So don’t wait to do this until the day it must be postmarked!

• Revised, semi-final drafts of all the other sections Now that you have written and proofed the main grant sections, it is time to go through and revise them and print up the semi-final draft. I say semi-final because I encourage you to have someone else read them one more time and you should be prepared to edit and reprint one more time if necessary.

DAY 28 This is it! The grant proposal should be finished, or nearly finished. Now take the time to carefully proofread the entire proposal and then have another person read the entire proposal yet again. VERY carefully check the details of the cover page and the budget grid page. Are there any minor mistakes?

Correct all these errors and print a final copy. Take it to the copy machine and make the number of copies that are requested in the RFP (plus several copies for you to keep).

Your grant is finished! You should celebrate and reward yourself for your hard work. Good luck!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above plan should give you the structure you need to keep yourself on track for the large task of writing a grant proposal. Depending on your time schedule, you could simply change the section headers to months instead of weeks. Then it would be a four-month plan. But if you are like me and tend to always be pressed for time, you could change the section headers to days, and it will be a 4-day plan!

So You Got the Grant! Now What?? Tips for managing grants in a school district

Notification of Acceptance: You will receive notification of acceptance in the spring or summer (for a program starting in the Fall). This could be in the form of a phone call, an email, or a regular letter. If you get a notice of acceptance, you should celebrate! Treat yourself to something you like, because now the REAL work begins… you have to carry out the grant project!

NOTE: Just because you have been notified of acceptance, this does not mean you can start spending money right away! There is usually a specific date that your school district or organization will receive the funds, or formal notification of funding. In many cases you do not receive any money until after you have SPENT the money. In other words, your school district receives official notification that the grant was funded, and then you spend district money on the items and services, and then you submit a request for funds to the granting agency, with a specific list of expenses, and then the funding agency will send that amount as a reimbursement to the school district.

Grant Negotiation: This is a common requirement, particularly if your grant is administered by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and is often done over the phone. A representative from the grantor will go over the grant with you, particularly the budget. One of the main purposes of this is to trim the expenses. Be sure to not allow them to take out anything essential to the grant program! Their goal is to reduce the budget as much as possible so that they can give more grants to more teachers or schools. BUT… you don’t want to reduce it to the point where it is difficult to carry the project out correctly.

Final Approved Grant: After the negotiation, a final copy of the grant, with signatures and date of negotiation, is generally sent to your school district. This is the “legal” copy of the grant, and often serves as the official notice of funding so that you can start spending district money on the items and services you need. This official copy of the grant must be on file when the grant is audited (usually all grants are audited at the end of each year, to be sure that all expenses are used the way they are supposed to be used).

Account Codes: Using the final approved copy of the budget, your district or organization financial personnel will assign account codes to each of the expense categories for your grant (salaries, benefits, purchased services, materials, equipment). Generally, when you get these account codes, this is when you can start spending the money (assuming there is no other specific starting date determined by the grantor… if there is, be sure to wait until that date!!).

Purchase Orders: Purchase orders (POs) are created, with appropriate account codes on them, name and address of the vendor, specific items you are ordering, and shipping address. Authorized district personnel must sign your POs. Purchase orders are mailed or faxed to the vendors. Faxing is much faster and can speed up the process of starting your grant project.

NOTE: Some schools require you to go through a bid process for things like equipment. NOTE: Call the company before creating a PO, to confirm exact pricing, discounts, and shipping. NOTE: Follow up with a phone call to make sure the company received the PO (regardless of whether you faxed it or mailed it). Otherwise you could lose days or weeks of precious time waiting for items to come but the company doesn’t even know you ordered.

Receiving Items: When items arrive, packing slips and appropriate copies of POs are given to your accounts people.

NOTE: Be sure to check all the final invoice amounts against the original PO amounts. NOTE: Keep copies of all your POs. Your records are crucial! They may be the most accurate. Keep accurate records of final invoice amounts for each account code. Ask your accounts people to supply you with a monthly printout of the activity on your codes, so you can compare your records to theirs. NOTE: Check all your items as soon as they arrive. Most items have only a 30-day guarantee from the company that sells them. If you wait 30 days or more to open the boxes and try the equipment out and it doesn’t work, or is damaged, or is missing pieces, it will be MUCH more difficult to get it replaced. You may even have to pay for it.

As you Carry Out the Grant Project: One of the biggest challenges to a grant project is carrying out the project evaluation activities that you planned (in the Goal and Objectives section). But remember, by putting those evaluation tasks into the proposal, you are committed to carrying them out. You should set up a schedule or calendar that has all the project evaluation tasks clearly marked. Then check this schedule regularly to make sure you are getting it all done.

Also, review your original grant proposal every few weeks. This way it is unlikely you will forget to carry out some component of the grant evaluation.

Tips for working with a group of people on a grant project: Often, a grant program will involve numerous teachers, who may be responsible for carrying out student assessments, professional development, self-evaluations, or other tasks related to the grant.

• Do not overwhelm these people with too many tasks at one time. This indicates poor planning on your part. Spread the tasks out over time and give them plenty of notice.

• Contact them frequently (email messages, notes in their mailboxes, phone calls, or personal visits)

with offers to help).

• Send regular updates of all progress related to the grant. They will appreciate being informed. • Schedule regular (short) meetings with them. It is nice if some of the preparation work can be

done together as a group. Plan for these meetings in the grant budget as you write the grant.

So the Grant Project is Over! Now What? Completing your Grant Final Reports

NOTE: This explanation is based on the assumption that your grant requires only one final end-of-the-year report. Some grant programs might require two, or even four, reports throughout the year(s) of the program.

Grant Final Reports tend to consist of two main parts: 1. Did you meet the program objectives? 2. Did you spend the money the way your proposal said you would?

1. Did you meet the program objectives? This is where you find out if your program objectives were too ambitious! Generally, just follow the guidelines for the final report supplied by the grantor. TIP: Review your original grant proposal every few weeks. This way it is unlikely you will forget to

carry out some component of the grant evaluation.

TIP: Place all the important items from your grant time-line and evaluation sections into your calendar or planner

TIP: When writing the grant, build these chores into the salaried time for the grant. It is easier to be motivated to complete tedious tasks if you are being paid to complete them!

2. Did you spend the money the way your proposal said you would? Again, keep accurate records of all POs and check these regularly against the records of your district’s accounts people. This part of the final report usually requires specific amounts spent in each category. If you need to make a change of some kind in the budget, most grant programs allow small changes to be made without a formal amendment. Larger changes (usually anything more than 10% of any of the account categories), will require a formal amendment. Some RFP’s include a copy of these amendment forms. If not, contact the grantor about this.

NOTE: Most grant programs have a designated deadline for spending all the money (such as March 31st).

BIG TIP: Spend all the grant money! Get an amendment if you have to, but be sure to spend all the money (of course your expenses must support the grant program).