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Miscellaneous Suggestions for Grant Preparation

December 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

1.) Be clear about your organization’s priorities and your purpose in seeking funds.

2.) Identify and research foundations and corporation that make grants to your type of organization. Make sure the purpose of your proposal fits within the foundation’s guidelines (type of program, geographic area served, amount requested).

3.) Successful foundation or corporate funding is based on building relationships. Contact each foundation/corporation to identify application deadlines, funding cycles and any additional requirements. This initial contact begins the relationship.

4.) Always write your grant request with the reader/reviewer in mind. Never assume anything. Try to provide an easy to understand and easy to visualize description of your program. Proposals should be brief, concise and specific.

5.) Prepare a more or less generic one-page cover letter, signed by the board president and executive director, which includes:

a. Name of the program
b. Purpose of the program
c. A strategic reason for the foundation to fund the program
d. Amount requested
e. Time period
f. Name of contact person

6.) Use reputable data sources and current literature from reputable periodicals, magazines, newsletters and books to support your request.

7.) Describe in clear and concrete language what you plan to do and how you plan to do it.

8.) Address sustainability. What happens after the grant funds are expended?

9.) The proposed project and its services/activities/daily operations needs/and staffing requirements must always drive the budget.

10.) Always read, reread and follow the directions.

A resounding “yes” to the following questions means your organization is ready to submit a proposal.

  1. Can you justify that your project is important enough to be immediately funded?
  2. Do you have a practical solution to meet a need or solve a problem?
  3. Can results be measured when your project is funded?
  4. Does your staff have the necessary qualifications to conduct the project?
  5. If your project is funded, can it continue to operate?
  6. Can you provide a detailed summary of needs”?
  7. Do you have support documents available?

*Courtesy of Management Strategies, Jamestown, New York 14701 – taken from various internet and print resources.

Filed Under: Fund Development, Resources Tagged With:

Grant Checklist

November 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Grant Checklist      
Foundation  
Required Submitted  
IRS letter  
990  
Audited Financial Statement  
Operating Budget  
Project Budget  
Board List  
Cover letter  
Board Resolution  
Support letters  
Other  
       
Filed Under: Checklists, Fund Development, Resources Tagged With:

Decision Making Tools

October 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

1. Gather Ideas – Open – divergent thinking

Structured Brain Storming

  • Participants are asked to think about a particular issue and come up with possible solutions or ideas.
  • Participants are given time for individual reflection (talking to yourself on paper) and asked to generate their list.
  • Participants are asked to share, one idea at a time in round robin format.
  • All items are numbered and written on a flip chart just as presented.
  • Everyone has the option to pass on any round and join in on a later round.
  • The round robin continues until everyone’s ideas are on the flip chart.
  • The next step is clarification so everyone in the group has a common level of understanding of each statement.

 Structured Brainwriting

  • Distribute a piece of paper with 21 squares (seven rows of squares with 3 per column – see handout) to each participant.
  • Have each person write down three ideas and put the paper in a center pile.
  • Ask each person to draw a new paper from the pool and add three more ideas that are either new or expansions of ideas someone has already put on the form.
  • Keep exchanging papers until each form is nearly full.
  • Have members read aloud in a round robin the ideas on the forms. Participants should cross out ideas that are repeated on their own form.

Mind Mapping

  • Begin with a word or issue you want to think about
  • Place in the center of paper/flip chart
  • Add one or two word descriptions of the ideas on lines moving from the center

 

2. Prioritizing Ideas – Narrow – select from alternatives

Prioritizing

Each person reviews the list and identifies their top three items by number.

  • The facilitator goes around again round robin and collects the numbers and the group hears the reasons.
  • As numbers are called they are circled on the sheet.  Each number is circled only once no matter how often it is selected.
  • At this point there may be some combining if items sound similar.

3. Close

Multivoting

From a generated list of ideas each person votes for as many ideas as he or she likes.

  • The ideas that get the most votes are circled.
  • The remaining ideas are consolidated where possible.
  • Each person votes again, but this time for only half the number of ideas that are circled.
  • Multivoting continues until the list is down to at least three but no more than five ideas.

 

Dots

To prioritize participants can receive colored dots (3) and place them next to the circled items that they support.  Each dot is one vote and they can be placed individually and collectively next to the circled items.

10/4 Rule

Another method of prioritizing is called the 10/4 rule.  Each participant has 10 votes and can use them in favor of any circled items, but can place a maximum of 4 votes on any one item.

In both of the above, the dots or votes are counted and the highest numbers become the top priority.


Filed Under: Board Development, Resources Tagged With: , , ,

Consensus Decision Making

October 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Decisions cannot always meet with everyone’s complete agreement, but many decisions can be made acceptable so that everyone is at least willing to go along.  This means that no one has any disagreement that they consider important.  A decision that is acceptable to everyone is called a consensus decision

WHAT IS CONSENSUS?

  • All participants contribute.
  • Everyone’s opinions are used and encouraged.
  • Differences are viewed as helpful rather than hindering.
  • Those members who continue to disagree after full discussion indicate that they are willing to experiment for a prescribed period of time.
  • Enough time is spent so that all voices are heard and understood before an effort to finalize a decision is made, however long that takes.
  • All members share in the final decision
  • Everyone accepts the decision even thought they all may not completely agree: they are willing to go along.

 Advantages of Consensus Decision Making

  • Members are more likely to support the decision
  • Facilitates open communication
  • Requires members to listen and understand all sides of the issue
  • Consensus takes more time and member skill, but uses lots of resources before a decision is made.

 DISADVANTAGES OF CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING

  • Takes more time in a group, the larger the group, the more time needed.
  • Trust is needed among members to encourage sharing.
  • Leader or other member must have good facilitation skills
  • A group can coerce or manipulate individuals into saying they accept a decision, even when they don’t.  That is groupthink, not true consensus.

Acting according to consensus guidelines enables a group to take advantage of all group member’ ideas.  By combining their ideas, people can often create a higher –quality decision(when pooling knowledge is desirable) and higher commitment to action than a vote decision or a decision by a single individual.

However, consensus is not always the best way to make a decision.

Sources:Washington State University Cooperative Extension, Group Leadership and Decision Making Workbook, ACT UP

 

Courtesy of: Management Strategies, Jamestown, New York 14701,

Ph. 716 483-6939  Email: Manst542@aol.com

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Coming Soon – A new non-profit resource

December 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A few comments related to previous blogs prompted me to think about blogging again. It has been too long since I put fingers to the keys and published anything related to the non-profit sector….at least on my blog. 

I have spent the past year serving as Project Coordinator for a Long Term Care Council grant for Chautauqua County.  This brought me up close and personal with HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) of the Department of Health and Human Services.  By  up close and personal, I mean helping with the grant submission, attending a national training co-sponsored by HRSA and NCHN (National Cooperative of Health Networks Association), and participating in Peer-to-Peer calls on topics related to health networks. As a result of this experience, and that of serving as a grant reviewer for ReTool Erie, I decided to apply to be a Federal grant reviewer.  I passed the test, was approved and now await the opportunity to review grant applications.  All very interesting (at least to me) but that is not the point of this blog.  I want to tell you about a new resource. 

In the spring of the year I was invited to consider contributing an article to a forthcoming book to be published by CharityChannel Press, which is the latest off shoot of CharityChannel LLC.  For those of you who may not be familiar with CharityChannel, it is the oldest and largest community of non-profit professionals.  Founded by Stephen Nill in 1992 it is designed  to help colleagues to connect, share and discuss pertinent challenges and issues related to the non-profit sector.  Services include e-mail discussion forums, reviews, a Consultant Registry, Charity University which offers web-based workshops and now Charity Channel Press. For further information about Charity Channel go to www.charitychannel.com

The book was originally going to be called The Nonprofit Toolkit: An Introduction to Nonprofit Leadership, Management and Excellence – Practical Advice and Best Practices from the Trenches.  Yes that’s a mouth full!  According to my CharityChannel colleagues, Norman Olshansky and Linda Lysakowski, who dreamed up the concept, the book would include articles about nonprofit management, operations, fundraising, legal issues, marketing, governance and other related subjects.  After reading the contributor’s guidelines, I decided why not, and penned an article entitled, “Vision Quest – Finding a New Executive Director” in which I drew on my considerable experience related to the executive search process.  I submitted the article in June, faxed the contributor’s commitment form and then put it out of my mind.

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail that the book is at the publisher’s and the next steps are typesetting and jacket design and then the galley for the final reviews.  The book is expected to be marketed to the public in April.  It is expected to be over 400 pages and include over 70 articles and an extensive glossary.  Wow!  After finding that there were many publications which have toolkit in the title, the new title is (still lengthy) You and Your Nonprofit: Practical Advice and Tips from the CharityChannel Professional Community.  Their communication also indicated that they were unable to use all of the “excellent articles” which were submitted.  Luckily, mine will be included.

 

Many people dream of writing the ‘great American novel’, and I admit to flirting with that concept from time to time.  For now, however, I am going to have to be content with an article in a non-fiction book albeit conceived by others, with shared authorship by more than 40 contributing colleagues and a forward by a “well known national nonprofit leader.

I can’t wait to see the final product!

 

 

Filed Under: Resources