Worthy Aspirations

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Worthy Aspirations

• Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
  Foundation Grants
• Support for
• Planning,
• Researching,
• Budgeting,
• and Writing
• Grant Proposals
• Robert P. DeSieno
• 173 Nelson Ave
• Saratoga Springs, NY
• siena_at_skidmore.edu
• 518.694.2214

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Worthy Aspirations

• Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
  Foundation Grants

• First thoughts
• What do you wish to accomplish with the aid of
  the funds you request?
• Why is it important to attain your objectives?
• Who will benefit from your work? How will they
  benefit?
• What are your qualifications for this project?

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• Finding the right foundation
• Begin by expressing, in two double-spaced pages,
  a summary of your project its objectives and
  merits.
• Research foundation missions and identify
  candidates who would appear to be interested in
  your objectives
• Call program officers, report your summary, gain
  their responses

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• Once you have identified a foundation receptive
  to reviewing your proposal
• Secure proposal guidelines from the foundation,
  read them and adhere to them rigorously (Font,
  margins, maximum number of pages, budget, order
  of topics, submittal deadline and address, number
  of copies, etc.)

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• Cover letter
• Who are you?
• What organization do you represent?
• Why are you writing?
• Project summary one page description
• The problem to be solved,
• The need for a solution,
• Your solution and its benefits,
• The timing for the project,
• The level of funding you seek.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• Project design
• History of earlier work by others to solve the
  problem.
• Your qualifications and those of your
  organization to solve the problem.
• Evidence you have gathered that motivates your
  approach to the problem.
• Detailed description of the specific steps you
  will take to solve the problem.
• Clear description of how these specific steps
  respond to particular aspects of the problem or
  of the need you have identified.
• Evidence of collaboration with other people or
  organizations who also wish to solve the problem.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• Evaluation plan
• Select particular project objectives and choose
  methods for measuring progress toward these
  objectives during the project and at the end of
  the enterprise.
• When possible, use numerical measures of project
  effectiveness (e.g., populations of
  participants, quantity of resources deployed,
  impact of the resources on the participants.)
• Describe how you will use evolving assessment of
  the project to guide revision of your work.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• Dissemination plan
• How will you alert others to the value of your
  findings? Publication in journals, development of
  web pages, talks at national meetings are the
  traditional answers, but foundations are often
  not satisfied with these answers.
• Collaboration with people at other institutions,
  people who are invested in your project, and who
  can observe its operations in their context,
  offer a dynamic basis for spreading the word
  about the value of your design and
  accomplishments.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• The Budget
• Provides a dollar-based description of your
  project.
• Distributes costs so they reconcile closely with
  the emphases within your proposal. Each cost
  should connect specifically to particular
  operations of the project and exhibit reasonable
  cost-benefit properties.
• Reports matching funds and other resources that
  your organization will provide for your project,
  and show how each match will increase the
  effectiveness of the foundations grant.
• Reports reliable estimates of all costs and cost
  categories for the project.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• Recommendations for content and style
• Report the problem, explore your solution, be
  concise, and help your reader grasp your
  initiative early on.
• Write clearly in language that the non-specialist
  can understand.
• Convey your concerns and strategies be brief and
  specific.
• Minimize boilerplate.
• Support your claims with evidence.
• Make the narrative compact place supporting
  evidence (tables, charts, etc.) in an appendix.
• Assure correct spelling, grammar, and clear
  organization of the proposal.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• Recommendations for preparation
• Start early, write a draft of the proposal, wait
  a week, then read your draft.
• Revise.
• Ask a friend, a colleague to read the proposal
  and gain their response.
• Revise.
• Prepare to submit the proposal.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• The proposal the heart of the matter
• Organizational information
• Location
• Federal, state identification data (Tax ID, DUNS,
  etc.)
• Brief history
• Mission
• Resources that support your project.

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Worthy Aspirations
Consulting Services for Non-Profits Seeking
Foundation Grants

• Last thoughts (on this topic)
• Communicate widely with others in your
  organization about your proposal. Harvest the
  good ideas of others.
• Assure that the leadership of your organization
  endorses your proposal.
• When your proposal is funded, write a diary of
  the project, record your actions, the results of
  your efforts, and maintain a well-documented
  record of your spending.
• Write reports to the foundation that tell of your
  successes and failures, and that help the
  foundation understand the value of its investment
  in your project.
• Learn from failure explore with foundation
  program officers the strengths and weaknesses of
  your proposal. Revise accordingly and resubmit.

RPDS 02.25.2007