Providing fund raising and grant writing contract services, consulting and technical assistance for progressive, community-based non-profit organizations.

How To Write A Winning Grant Proposal

Cover Sheet - 1 page Colorado Common Grant Format

• Summary info
• Name, address, phone, fax, mission, short summary of program, amount requested
• Cover Letter 1-2 pages
• Ask for amount and purpose of grant in first sentence
• Remind the reader of any connection you have with the foundation
• Briefly state the mission of the organization
• State three primary reasons for funding based upon their funding priorities. How does your program meet the funder's guidelines and interests?
• Unique selling point - what is unique about your program. State reasons showing how your program differs from others.

Proposal (3- 5 pages)

• Be brief, concise
• Use casual, conversational language. No academia, no big words or jargon

  Rule of Seven

  • No more than seven lines in a paragraph - long paragraphs don’t get read
  • No more than seven pages of proposal - most limit you to four or five pages

Easy to read - liberal use of white space, bullets, bold and underlines
Use Problem-Solution format

Problem or Need Statement

• What is the need in terms of current issues and the hot buttons of that funder?
• Back up with statistics (local, if possible) and human interest stories
• Appeal to reason with facts, appeal to emotions with real life success stories

Solution

• How does your program solve the problem?
• Think like a marketing director! What is your unique selling point? Repeat that unique selling point throughout the proposal.
• Who is your target population? How does the program best suit the needs of that target population?
• (Include any special needs - low income, minority, disabilities, gay/lesbian, elder). What skills and special components does your program offer the target population?
• Think holistically. What is the big picture solution? Don't let your thinking be limited by traditional boundaries.

Goals/Objectives

• Goal: General concept you hope to accomplish
• Objective: Tangible, measurable accomplishment as a result of the program
• Process Objective: A process to meet
• Outcome Objective: A results-oriented outcome

Use outcome objectives instead of process objectives.

• Examples
  • Goal: Improve the social, language and academic skills of low-income students whose first language is not English.
  • Outcome Objective: By June 5, 2000, 90% of the Pre-K students who have participated in the program for two or more years will have learned primary school readiness skills regarding colors, shapes, numbers and letters as measured by the Colorado Pre-School Project Evaluation.
  • Process Objective: By June 5, 2000, 26 students will have completed the Pre-K program for ESL students.
  • Goal: Decrease risk for academic failure in elementary school.
  • Outcome Objective: By June 2000, 75% of the children involved in the after school program for at least twelve months have improved their grades in at least one subject area.
  • Process Objective: By June 2000, 50 students attended the after school program three or more time a week.
  • Goal: Model appropriate parenting skills for parenting teens.
  • Outcome Objective: By May 31, 2000, at least 80% of the teens are exhibiting healthy parent-child relationships as measured by the Parenting Competency Assessment Tool as a result of parenting, coping and healthy relationship skills learned from the mentoring program, support group and parenting classes.
  • Process Objective: By May 31, 2000, 40 parenting teens participated in the mentoring program, support group or parenting classes.

Activities

• What activities do you plan to implement to accomplish the goals and objectives?

Timeline

• When do you plan to implement activities?

Formula for Success

• Why is your program successful? What track records prove that it works?
• Competitive analysis: How does your program solve the problem best in comparison with similar programs? What is unique about your program? What is unique about your agency? What do you do that no other organization does?

Collaboration

• Who are your community partners and collaborators in providing the program? Emphasize inter-agency and intra-agency collaboration.

Funding Strategies

• What funding strategies do you use to ensure sustainability? Emphasize a diversified funding plan.

Evaluation Plan

• How will you evaluate success of the program?
• How will you prove the program works?
• Qualitative evaluation - subjective opinion of staff, board, client, etc
• Quantitative evaluation - pre- and post test results, improvement in research results, measurable results. Use attainment of goals and objectives to measure effectiveness.
• Outcomes - what expected outcomes do you hope to accomplish long term and short term

Funding Plan

• How do you expect to raise funds in the future to replace this grant?

Financials

A. Budget - Future

What funds do you expect to raise and how do you expect to spend it?
Income:
Foundations, Board, Individuals, Corporations, Special Events, Earned Income, Government
Expenses:
Salaries, Taxes/Benefits, Program Materials, Phone, Postage, Printing, Utilities, Space, etc.

B. Financial Statement - Past

How much money did you actually raise last year?
How much did you spend last year?

• Balance Sheet - snapshot of current financial standing at this point in time (account balance, value of assets, liabilities, etc)
• Income and Expense Statement - Also called Profit and Loss Statement. Line items of amounts and sources of income. Line items of amounts and purpose of expenses. Net income is income minus expenses. This is your bottom line (surplus or deficit).

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