Webinar: Grant Writing 101

today we're thrilled to have an expert with us talking to us about grant writing we wanted to do this now because the solicitation from the Bureau of Justice Assistance to apply for Kara grants is out and the applications will be due at the end of April so we wanted to have this session so that anybody in the stakeholder community who has an interest in applying for Kara funds can have the benefit of the expertise that Valerie tickle is going to give us today but we also want this to be useful for any grant not just for Kara so her presentation is related to grant writing generally not just about Kara so that we can use these principles of good grant writing for any grant regardless of the topic we hope these lessons will be applicable in the future so we thank Valerie tickle who is the criminal justice coordinator with the Delaware criminal justice counsel she has years of successful experience in applying for grants from the Department of Justice and other agencies but as important she reviews grants by localities and nonprofits in Delaware so she knows what grants need to look like and she conducts regular training for potential grantees in Delaware so let me just start with a few housekeeping matters all attendees will be on mute throughout the duration of the webinar if you want to ask questions please do you can do it using the questions drop down menu in the GoToWebinar control panel and we are recording the webinar today and we'll make it available on our web sites afterwards so Valerie with that I will turn it over to you Thank You Elizabeth and thank you everyone for attending today's webinar I have been doing grant writing for several years now it's something I do enjoy and it's a topic we try to make as much as it is useful so this particular webinar today is a grant writing 101 so I just wanted to let the listeners know that it's a basic overview of grant writing there may be the wide mixture of experience on the line so we ask you to go ahead and hang in there there could be some sort of gem or thing that may be useful as a grant writer I do attend other other trainings to see what one thing might help elevate my grant writing to the next level so let us begin on how to design a program and write a grant proposal so in the world of grant writing and designing programs we use logic models and you can hear this number of times and a lot of times with Koch logic models two grants and they're really the connection between the activities inputs the outcomes and there are a series of v and statement so logic models can be very simple or complex we use logic models every day I think you know even in coming to work if it is raining outside then I'll need to bring an umbrella if there is traffic on the highway that I'm going to take then I'll take an alternative route so it's really a linear way of thinking logically through a process and it's very useful in that in the grant writing world grants are always tied to objectives so when we think about creating objectives and being measurable we have an acronym we love acronyms and smart objectives so when you think about your program and designing your grant you want it to be specific measurable ambitious realistic and time-bound so we'll go over each one of these different types of objectives and how the works smart objectives into your proposal as you're as you're writing and planning your grant so in the program design this is a nice visual I've kept this up in front of me as a logic model to work through the grant writing process and it really breaks it down in the few steps needed to write the grant and it keeps everything on track and in line and organized in in a fashion that's easy to follow so we start with the problem statement and just to disclose I am a big superhero fan so you'll notice in my example the little love for superheroes there and so we focused on Gotham City because if there are any superhero fans on the line we know Batman has the best villains and Gotham City is just riddled with crime so that was what we chose to use as our example so in your problem statement it's really you're taking look at what's wrong an assessment of what needs to change what's going on in your specific area you absolutely want to use local data and statistics as much as possible and evidence based arguments so when you think about your problem it's really you're trying to convey to the reader what's going on in your specific area in your world what do you want to address so the example here adult victims of crime in Gotham City do not have available services to adequately recover and then there's you site where you have that information as a result 50 percent experience and decrease in their job school performance family life and mental health so further 50 percent of individuals with prior victimization are prone to read victimization against writing where you get these statistics because it's important to tie them back to a source of other information so as a result Gotham City police seek to start a victim service unit to aid the victims in crime locating relevant services assisting through the prosecution process so this unit will be started and led by the new victim service coordinator and Gotham City Precinct the VSC will contact victims within 48 hours the initial report by offering the victims in health services those of victims will Sylvester audible less fear and increase trust in the system after working with the new victim service coordinator so that's a really short synopsis of a problem statement I also try to let people know I come from a chicken little family so you know we don't want to say the sky is falling we don't want to put every different statistic of every different problem into a problem statement we want to make sure that we're talking about the specific problem that's relevant to the program you're about to propose so any factors that might play a part you also and you know when you're using local statistics it's okay to start broad the way I generally do it as I might use a national statistic and say you know across the nation and such and such as happening then I kind of bring it in so I might say across the nation and then pare it down even to maybe east coast or west coast and then within my specific state down and down so on and so forth - if the grant is dealing with some kind of even specific geographic location drilling down the data accordingly but you want to just make sure that you're describing a problem that is the same size of your proposed solution so when you're thinking about the problem statement it kind of feels like English class you're thinking about the who what where when and why so if you're answering these questions you're really building the solid problem statement so who is your target population in this particular example we're looking at adult crime victims the what what's causing this particular issue or problem there's negative outcomes when within 48 hours of the initial report and where where is this problem taking place and it's in the GCPD Central Precinct and why what might be causing this crimes are a fit in Gotham City which is causing an influx of victims so again a quick synopsis of the problem statement there Gotham City victims and Gotham City lack the services to navigate the system so the prone to experience the negative outcomes next you want to look at your goal statement so all the program activities are tied to the goal your goal is really your broad sweeping statement what you want to do what you want to address and you want this to be measurable so following our example the victim service coordinator will provide direct services to a hundred unduplicated victims per year the DCP PD anticipates the number will increase three to five percent each year due to the increased presence and trust in the community now what's important here too is to note that a baseline will be established because a lot of times if you're putting in a measurable objective I've got something to measure against so creating a baseline to measure against is important so someone who is reading the grant knows that you have a way to measure these things to the goal statement again following the problem how will it have a proposed program provides a resolution to the stated problem what will be done and what action will be measured so how your flowing through here and then the implementation objectives the implementation objectives when you're when you're writing a grant is really your description of how you're going to get this project off the piece of paper and into the real world so a lot of times these are the time limited and they're tied directly to the program so there are the inputs the things that you need to build your particular project comprehensively are you hiring people are you what materials are are you buying do you need equipment so all these different inputs that you would need to put into your program and you want to make sure to describe them in your grant writing and in your proposal exactly what you need so in our example the GCPD wants to provide direct service to victims so if they want to do that then they will need to hire the staff establish office space by the staff person that computer they mainly volunteers access to a car the transport victims and again this example is transferable I would say to a lot of different program areas so in a lot of different topics so then the the new coordinator will work with local agencies to coordinate wraparound services and transport the victims when necessary so following our logic model the implementation again dresses how the program will become functional how are we going to begin to move this from from a design from a concept from the think tank onto the paper out into the real world so looking at personnel equipment and who will conduct the activity of the program it's essential to describe the roles and responsibilities and in the different grants and proposals you want to make sure you're very clear and stating who will be doing what if you're hiring a new person what what's that person's job duties what's their responsibilities to the program that you're proposing at what steps and different things will they be assigned to address directly the problem that you have stayed your performance objectives are really your day-to-day activities so it's the operation the frequency of your particular program what the program does and how often so this is the result your activities your input your focusing here on what's being done not what has changed yet so with your outputs so some different examples here would be on a daily basis or on a quarterly basis you want to make sure you're describing kind of that timeframe again you may it's just ninety victims provide seventy-five referrals to service providers advocacy and support to a hundred different individuals so these are just some examples of the daily activities so now that you have described your problem you went ahead and establish your goal you've hired your people obtained your necessary items now what are you going to do with all of that how are you going to to function in the program so a lot of times in the applications and that next logical step would be how you're going to implement and what that implementation looks like and the daily activities so how are you going to accomplish those goals who was a program serve and how many people will be served and after all that we want to evaluate the impact what is the outcome of the project so you can look at we impact objectives in several ways there's the initial and intermediate and a long-term and grants a lot of the grants will run in certain time frames they might be two years they might be three years or even one-year grant so a lot of times you can only do so much in that time frames so you want to make sure when you're establishing your impact objectives and what the program accomplished that you have that in mind so of course your initial outcomes or what's closely related to those outputs what first benefits might have happened or changes the participants or clients or whoever you're serving what have they experienced an intermediate program outcome is what difference the program made so it refers back to the problem and addresses whether that identified problem was truly and being affected by the presence of your particular program so it's the so what you know we have addressed we've established there was this problem we have put these things in place so what has happened so here you are focusing on what has changed and did something make a difference are there new behaviors or changes based on the operation of your program are there has knowledge been shared have connections in made to programs to resources skills that have been built your long term is looking way out into the future your ultimate change the all this has happened and as a result of it the world is the better place the changes in the condition a status of the participant the life change that's happened so we can get into the examples here so examples of our impact objectives our initial impact so if the GCB GCPD created a victim service coordinator position then 75% of victims served report a greater knowledge of a the community resources be the safety planning see their rights and options and be the criminal justice process so that's what they got immediately they they think traced their knowledge base now taking that increased knowledge then at least 50% of the victims will access the relevant service so now we've given them the knowledge hopefully they're accessing the services so then in the long term if they are accessing their services then we envision that at least 25% will being greater coping mechanisms and reduce the risk of future victimization so here you can see how it kind of lays out accordingly from start to finish as a result of the program so just to go over the impact of objectives once again what did the program do what did the program accomplish what were these different impacts so 75% of the victims reported greater knowledge the community resources and then take advantage of that knowledge so when you're thinking about designing your proposal and your grant have to consider a lot of different things when you're talking about what you're going to measure you have to think about what what's going to be the data source for the program and these are all important things to describe when you're writing your grant how will you obtain the information is it realistic can you get that information so if you are maybe talking about outcomes as a result of a problem I work a lot in the offender re-entry world so if we talk about recidivism and decreasing that number I have to also make sure I have access to that data and I know where that data is coming from and how will it be collected how will it be addressed so I want to make sure that I described in the program in the proposal those different elements can I get it and can I convey that my program is a success but it's also important to describe how will success or failure be determined so I am very clear in saying success of the program will be and making sure that the reader understands how that's going to be determined as a result of the program so in writing the brand you want to definitely make sure that the narrative is convincing it's really a unique style of writing I've learned over the years because when you're writing a problem statement it feels a little bit like maybe a research paper when you're going into your program design it's really kind of pitching your idea it's kind of a creative way to talk about your story and and what you see and something that would help and you want to write with confidence I think that's kind of an important thing when you go in and you're you're structuring your grant proposal you want to make sure the reader knows that you can operate this program so you want to make sure when you're telling your story and designing your objective that you fill in all those holes and you are absolutely confident and you come across in the writing of your grant and these things I always keep in mind because writing the grants when you think about objectives a lot of times people will get a little apprehensive about putting numbers in you know oh my goodness if I say I'm going to decrease recidivism by 10% what if that doesn't happen or if I say I'm going to serve 100 individuals and that doesn't really come to fruition I think they also in all my experiences with grant writing and and different entities and different projects you want to be measurable in your objectives go ahead and put a number in put it in confidently and keep in mind that things are usually pretty flexible and if you find when you're operating your program something is a little awry definitely talk to whatever funder you might have or a program manager I tell the different grantees here in Delaware you know it's that good faith effort as well so if you're establish your objective and you're not quite moving with just let us know how let us know why and then if that needs to be changed so I they never let those sorts of things get in the way of your writing you want to make sure that you've thought out your program and it is realistic but you also want to be ambitious and it's a little hard to kind of maybe find that fine line between the two but keep in mind that that that those things can often be looked at throughout the process of the grant and of the project and also I keep in mind that designing programs in the in the real world there's all these different factors that affect grant environmental personality experience you know sometimes a particular program works very well and it might be that the particular person operating the program that was just the perfect person for the job and you know we have to think about that when we're designing a project or for replicating something you know what what things make that grant work one example I used years ago we were writing grant for offender re-entry and we also teamed up with several other entities in the state and we were looking at a Department of Labor grant and a bureau of justice assistance grant and we we got everything together got it and we were successful in painting the grant and it was back in that 2008 timeframe when employment just started going a little further down and not being quite so easy for those returning from incarceration so we had no idea that that was really going to happen when we were planning the project but that was one of those kind of broader factors that came after the fact we were still we had the grant we were still moving forward with employment it was just we had to kind of think about how we would do that as a result of something that was kind of out of our hands so when thinking about the logic model it offers that relationship and just keep in mind things that that correlation does not exactly equal the causation so when they're thinking about looking at the impact and the program evaluation you want to keep that in mind a lot of different grants call for researchers and they are wonderful in helping you design those portions of your program and of your grant it will help guide you in looking at those sorts of things so again just talking about the performance measurement it's really important and that we describe the program and that it is measurable and it's important for a lot of different reasons it's important for the broad spectrum of the different grant or proposal you have federal reporting accountability evaluation replication a lot of times we want to make sure that our particular program is going to give whatever funder the information needed to continue funding these sorts of things to continue helping people across the country or within your state you want to make sure that it's very useful in the information it also helps with in the program the stakeholders there so it helps you with your design implementation and manage program and the different decisions you have to make as you move forward evaluating and then of course with grant funding we know that it's got time limits and then it's over and we want to make sure our program continues on and they're sustainable beyond just those grant funds so it's important we have a strong program design up front that you can take it to the next level find that our funding to continue on so you also have to develop the budget it's kind of interesting in the grant world a lot of times we wear two hats so I get to write and I get to do the calculations and play with the budget so when you're looking at your budget you want to make sure that you're looking at the different categories it's usually in the different grant space for a detailed budget worksheet and a budget narrative so we'll talk about both of those and what those items look like it should really the budget should really reflect the quality of your program planning you want to make sure that you cover all the costs associated with your program so make sure you pay attention to all those little things that you need estimates are acceptable kind of like with the objectives you know you want to put your numbers in there but knowing that sometimes you have to estimate you want to pay attention to the amount of funding available and a number of years to spend the funds so that's really important as you're planning your program make sure you you know you double check how many years you might have to spend it now this bullet point here is important I know that we do it a lot of us do it when you see a proposal a solicitation advertised you go right we flip through and you go right how much money can I get that's great keep in mind they're designing your program you want to only put in there what the program costs it may or may not being the total amount of available funding there have been several times when we have planned a program and we did the whole design and took a look at it and the budget came up and it wasn't exactly to the ceiling of the dollar amount so I just put in for what we needed and sometimes that really works to your benefit because if a few people have done that then the funder may be able to award instead of five or six grants seven or eight grants so it's important to keep in mind that you're really asking for in the budget exactly what what your program is paying for so make sure that those things are related and make sense you don't want to kind of just put a lot of random things in your budgets because the whole grant proposals they'll all tie to a point system so you want to make sure everything makes sense and maximize your chances and receiving more funds now this may be applicable to some and not to others but in a lot of the grants I write they are justice grants so several grants might ask for a match so the match dollars or your program buy-in so in the budget I make sure it is very clear what costs are federal dollars and what costs are maybe state local resources what they call match and a lot of times if a solicitation or a grant is asking for program buy-in or match it will be clear in the solicitation and they give you what calculation you have to use so the different budget categories usually the funder will give them to you but you have your basic ones personnel your friends travel equipment supplies consultants others so your budget narrative is really your explanation of your cost in words so it really answers the question why do you need this item in the budget so it looks over those expenses it should be brief only a few sentences so I'm going to go through the different budget categories I might go to them just a little quickly because I do want to make sure we get to the program tips at the end of the presentation and that we also leave some time for questions so when you're looking at the budget personnel you want to ask yourself do you need to hire personnel to implement it and if so you want to list the position title what percentage of the position is being paid for in the grant if you know who will be working on the grant it's okay if you don't sometimes it's a new hire so you want to show that computation the other important thing is as if there isn't any personnel that you're hiring I always mark the different categories na and and make sure it's zero I want to lose no questions in a reviewers mind so you want to make sure that if it's not something you're doing make sure it's clear that you didn't forget it that you actually just aren't using that category so here you can see how we broke down the calculations of the personnel you want to show your math so an example of a budget narrative statement Gotham City police since they are starting the victim service unit and they're locating the relevant services to assist them through the prosecution process so it kind of describes where the person is going to be at why they're needed for the grant that a hundred percent of the grant funded activities so the funds will pay for the the victim service coordinator there's going to be a supervisor involved and then a little job description of what that coordinator is going to do and then you also want to say how you came up with that cost so you've faced that salary on maybe different job duties and workloads by similar coordinators and it follows your agency hiring scales so you want to make sure that you're not just kind of pulling it out of thin air you want to tell where you got these these figures and how you came up with the numbers so if you hire somebody you have to add fringe benefits as well so you want to list them accordingly so it's only for the percentage of time hours devoted to the project so if you've hired someone a hundred percent or percent of our friends would be listed if it's 50 percent and so on and so forth so you want to make sure that in your calculations you show that as well and then again in the narrative just explaining what the benefit rate might be for your particular agency and then that breakdown and the travel to this Travel category you want to list you know a few of the different grants might require trainings or conferences so you want to make sure you read in the solicitation in all those different areas and see if there's required training or there's anything that you have to include in this particular example you know we have the individuals going to Metropolis to get training which is the hometown of my favorite superhero Superman but anyway so we want to look at how those rates were determined and the GSA website is how you come up with those different calculations if you just google GSA it will give you the rate for any area in the country and what the per diem is and all those calculations that you need to show in your budget so do you need equipment to meet your objectives and we want to list that as well a lot of times equipments a one-time cost so be careful if you're planning with multiple years if you're copying and pasting your budget or something like that just be sure that if you have equipment listed near one that you're not resigning it near to take that back out a reviewer will pick up on that so you want to make sure that you've got everything set accordingly and again a justification as to why you need that equipment and if you've obtained a quote or not and you have your supplies and operating so you want to just list whatever is included in that category for the grant and then justify what those costs are your office space your office supplies you need cabinets and then you have the consultant contract area if you do have someone coming in to do a particular service and then making sure that you're following any guidelines with the funder the federal rate that allowable cost is six hundred and fifty a day so you just want to make sure you include those items and those calculations and again why you would need that particular person and then the other category of these are just things that they'll fall nicely into into one of the President established budget categories a lot of times it's the registration for different conferences trainings or workshops that would fall in your other category and then what the justification for those items are and then you want to do a summary so what the overall costs look like oh I break it down per year and then I do a total so you it's very clear where we're going in each of the different grant years and then it if there are max dollars I make sure it's clearly labeled as such in my budget so just plan for everything so again looking at the review of the program design describing their problem establishing your goal then your implementation or your input objectives your performance your output your budget and your evaluation impact and outcome so here's your logic model follows through accordingly through the different steps and really a very basic format of describing your problem and then following it through to what you really want to do to institute change so what we talked about before the performance measurement tools will benefit all different parties and are used very broadly a lot of times to continue funding projects the logic model is a nice tool for program design basic for your next steps and formulating your objective and I'll say this a few times the absolute absolute if anyone asked me what is the number one rule of grant writing if there was only one thing to tell about grant writing and designing the proposal the most important thing sounds so simple but it absolutely 100% is follow the directions what definitely follows the directions exactly a lot of times what I find in reading different proposals when you in there and you're writing and you're kind of in the groove you can talk a lot about your different problem and your program or your design and you might lose sight a little bit of what exactly the solicitation has asked so following the directions is absolutely crucial so grant writing can be I think a little overwhelming to some and at some times so if you look at it in the whole broad picture if you might oh my goodness you know this is a lot of work so I try to take it one piece at a time okay today I'm going to work on this section tomorrow I'll look at this section so you just want to make sure that you take it off in little chunks it's it's a bit of work it's very rewarding though when when you're successful and you obtain that award it really is truly a great feeling so the tips part is I think one of the most illuminating parts for me I love this section so keep these things in mind so before a proposal even comes out work with the different people in your agency to hold regular brainstorming sessions continue to look at as a group what needs your addressing what are the visions what you'd like to do always check the literature the newsletters the websites for announcements and things that might be useful I am a paper and an electronic packrat by now so any documents that come across and I think I might be able to use to justify a different program or different area I'm looking at Anna Brandt I keep that all in little folders to use to justify if I'm looking at a certain program and I know it worked in another bate or it is on one of the best practices you know game at gather that information and keep that for a future use and this is important when an opportunity surfaces you want to determine the feasibility of obtaining that grant if you get the grant are you going to be able to actually operate it can the agency manage another program does the agency have the experience and expertise a lot of times we see a bunch of different proposals and some are very appropriate for our agency and some just clearly aren't so then I pass them forward to maybe a different agency that that it is more appropriate for so you want to make sure you you can actually handle the program that you're you're designing if you have questions definitely contact the program manager or the help desk or any person associated with the funding source you want to make sure that that you don't go forward with maybe any unanswered questions if there's something you're in doubt get confirmation contact their world of help it is just much better to ask those questions upfront and everyone's very useful and giving the guidance you would need if you think something's appropriate or fits in a particular grant or or might not so again follow the application guidelines in detail you want to make sure that you have that solicitation and you're looking at each of those different items create a timetable and gather appropriate personnel for the grant writing as soon as that funding availabilities announced a lot of times you know we'll do a lot of team writing there's various people in the agency you have some maybe knew of someone who's very great at describing the problem and it is it's more data based person someone who's much better at the budget calculations so kind of build your team and create timetable for you to finish those different items and take a look at who's good at what and how you can all work together you want to keep in mind that you have to customize that proposal for the target funder so when you're talking about your program making sure it's appropriate for the solicitation you're responding to a lot of times I might take a previous grant if it follows the same format to kind of jumpstart me when I'm writing the next grant so you want to make sure though that you take a look at that and it's actually targeted to the right funder you want to describe the program with which detail measurable objectives and not empty adjectives and expressive languages I love language I talk a lot I know that one thing I keep in mind in my grant writing is to get to the point you want to be able to say what you need to say and say it in a very convincing pointed fashion so while there's some lovely adjectives and some you know great use of words and a lot of the things I read you you know want to make sure that you kind of hone in on what exactly you're doing and I think that there are some great statements like you know as a result of this program everyone will get along better and the whole world will change and that's lovely you just want to make sure that when you're writing that you've got things measurable and things straight to the point and in the grant world you definitely want to propose your innovative ideas and solutions so grants are the opportunity to maybe take a look outside the box take a look at what's different not something maybe that's been traditionally in in any kind of agency budget this is your opportunity to try something new try a solution that maybe you've had and just haven't had the available funds to do so I know a lot of different states and agencies like being budget situations so you want to describe that that there's not funding available and I mean in their problem statement definitely say you know we can't get this off the ground because and then this is your opportunity to be creative to try something that's different to look at the solution you want to use subheadings and citations so you want to make sure that if when I look at a solicitation if it says statement of problem the heading I use is statement of problem if it says problem statement I say problem statement it might sound like a little bit of a stickler but I want to mirror back the exact language in the solicitation and that's important that keeps it on point for the different funder that you're applying to so you want to also avoid the passive voice you want to use active verbs so you want when you're writing your grant proposal know that you're going to do it know that you're you're doing this program your again like I said earlier that it's that you're confident that it comes out very convincing so you use the active verbs not you think may be the result will be go ahead and claim it you want to make sure that that the reader knows that you're going for it you know I'm going to come in we will do this this many people are going to be served and we want to make sure that it comes across then you're writing and then we talked about describing the problem that the same size is the solution you know don't chicken little it up you want to use your local data and if the data needs to be updated or if there's some data that that's called for and you don't quite have it what I do is I go ahead and I call myself out in the solicitation if I maybe have a recidivism rate or some sort of number that it calls for and maybe it's dated I'll say ok this is the most current data I have and then I describe the plan to obtain you know the updated information so if something is there you don't want to let something go through and you don't want to lose points so I'm not mentioning maybe a particular required item if you don't have it call yourself out and then give the action plan as to what you're going to do to get that this is big you don't want to assume the reader knows the reader of your proposal knows much about the subject matter so a lot of times when we're reviewing grants here we will put in somebody from a completely different grant area or somebody from a whole different population or a whole different set of eyes so you want to make sure when you're writing your your whole proposal that you describe exactly what you need to for it could be a full package my for families a lot of times I'll bring home a grant and say you know read this and does it make sense can you tell me what we're going to do you know take someone who's outside of your whole world maybe and have them take a look at it if they have the time and see if they can articulate back to you what your problem is and what you're going to do about it in some kind of cohesive way so again keep in mind your capability of measuring the impact objectives you want to make sure that you can go ahead and get any data that you need it's very important it sounds again so simple to keep the format and the page limits you want to keep them in mind if the solicitation says 12-point New Times room and 12 inch margins double-spaced absolutely do that make sure it is double-spaced make sure because a lot of times if you have maybe only 15 pages it doesn't feel like a lot when you're writing so but if you cut the corners or make it single spaced it could actually depends you potentially bump you out of the running you want to make sure that you don't do these little tiny things that knock you out of any consideration so I follow it to attain Allen the page limits are definitely there for a reason and as a reader of a lot of proposals when you review the grant they it's a blessing when they're all in here too so I immediately when I look at a solicitation I pay attention to the review criteria so I will go through and find out if there's a scoring mechanism and what that looks like you want to make sure you understand what emphasis is given to what section of each section of the proposal so and they change they change for different brands so when I go in and I look I might say that the problem statement for one grant is 30% of my points on another grant it might only be 15% so I try to keep in mind how much of the proposal is dedicated to that section so if you have 15 pages and your problem statement might only be 10 or 15% and you go back and you look and you have five or six pages of a problem statement you might want to consider pairing that down a little bit it may maybe the first section you do want to hook your reader but you want to make sure that if you're writing in a particular section that it's about the right page length that matches kind of the weight it's been given in the review criteria when I look at the solicitation I actually copy the bullet points in a lot especially the bj grant the solicitation will give you each of the different bullet points in each of the different subsections of a narrative I will copy and paste the exact questions from the solicitation and put them in my document and until I answered that question I don't erase it I will leave it in there and bold and red and I go back and make sure because those bullet points are how your proposal is scored so you want to make sure that you answer every single question that's contained in the solicitation that's how you're going to get funded that's how the the scores are going to be built so make sure every bullet point is answered in that program narrative you want to build the rapport with the different partners so make sure that if you're working maybe on a program in the community but your referral source is the Department of Corrections or a school or some different entity make sure you've built that rapport with those partners ahead of time as best as possible and building the rapport is is crucial in grant writing because a lot of times you're running up against some deadlines and they come fast you want to be able to pick up the phone and call somebody for that data right away you want to make sure that when you're getting your letters of support or your memorandums of understanding that you've already built a rapport with these different partners so they have the trust in you when they're bringing this grant in this application to them and they feel comfortable signing on and in doing that I always write like the reader so if when I'm writing my my different grants in my proposal I will write and then go back you know like I'm the reader I want to know what I fund me so does this sound convincing so I always try to write in keeping the reader in mind so what would what would I think of this program and how I described it so always proofread and we're getting close to time here I think I'm very close to the end so a couple other little things I do I use bold text and exact wording to direct the reviewers to the required elements so if they're asking for a target population I might put the word target population in bold so the reviewer goes exactly to that and they see that I mentioned that required element you want to be mindful of all the attachments and the document those are little things that will hold you up so you want to make sure you have all the different things and components for your grant all the attachments all the different letters what I do is they say in the solicitation name the files accordingly I do if it's called program narrative I call it program narrative and then one little simple thing I do in my computer I make a final document folder for that particular grant I call it final documents that way you don't accidentally upload maybe a draft it makes it very clear and calling it that final folder use the checklist that they give you in the solicitations or create one pay attention to the required elements necessary for moving forward in the review process they'll tell you which items are essential to submit to make sure you get into the review and then follow the directions again it is one of the most important things absolutely to take here I just give you some different websites that contain useful and for me so go ahead and hop on those and find different things that could be useful for your grants and that's all I have so I'm Valerie tickle and I just thank you all for joining me thank you so much Valerie this was really really good very helpful and thorough and so well organized - I I know I learned a lot I'm sure everybody else did so we have questions coming in if anybody does have a question feel free to send it through the questions function on the go to webinar control panel we don't have a lot of time for questions but we have a couple that have come in that I think are important and we'll just ask them and I guess maybe if you can keep your answers brief and if we need to do any further follow-up we can yes so there are a couple of short questions that are just sort of factual here one is how do you do the budget in an Excel spreadsheet and do the breakdown that way and just hand it in to the department in your Excel spreadsheet there a lot of times there are detailed worksheets that may be given to you so if the funder has a worksheet you can certainly use that sometime Excel and I aren't friends so I will also I've used a word document in the past because it works use what works for you unless you notice the solicitation says it is required you use this document this format so for instance in an abstract there's a particular format in the budget they'll say this is suggested but if you use your own just make sure you capture these categories so I'd say you know do what works for you to make sure and just make sure you have all those elements but if there required document use that okay great and then how long does it typically take to get an answer about whether you've been awarded a grant or not sometimes it feels like an eternity I will tell you in the world that I live in a lot of the grants go in and the pies the springtime and then the late spring in the summers when they're reviewed and usually we hear by September so it depends there may or may not be a timeline on the solicitation when I do solicitations in state I will tell them my timeline so if I've heard something's in less than a month and I've heard others over several months but generally speaking it is a few months because it takes time to review them and a related question is there any way to see successful sample grant proposals and it can be can people go online and see examples of good proposals that have been awarded been successful a lot I know and I can speak a bit more heavily from my experience with the Bureau of Justice Assistance so I'll let that be known they will put on the website the different states that have been awarded I don't contacted the states directly a lot of times I share mine you know people may or may not want to want you know have their different comfort levels but a lot of times you can find successful grant proposals if you just maybe go to the funders website or see what previously has been funded also just contact a different state agency if you have heard that they received an award if that's helpful okay great next question is on program planning and how to design to decide what to measure and how to access that data how does this relate to the performance measures or the PMT that vja in this case it's going to put out and it's going to ask all grantees to submit to you how do you sort of decide what you want to measure and how to access that data so what I do and and this is an interesting piece there in the solicitation it'll say these are the performance measures you don't need to repeat them all I think people also feel inclined to copy and paste that chart we don't have to get that detailed and giving v-j back their words very have them I will take a look at those and use them as a guideline and then tailor some of the objectives specifically to our program in our design and looking at the hiring of the people what performance we're going to do what impact we're going to make with the grant so I think that they can be related but you do want to create some that are tailored to your program and that way you can say you know I've got this we want to definitely describe that you're going to keep those in mind I always give full disclosure I am I'm aware of these performance measures and I speed it as such in in the program in them in the grant proposal I'm aware of these measures this is who's responsible for collecting that data this is who we'll be reporting this is the kind of amplified version of what we're going to look at and that's specific to our program does that answer the question I think so I think it's a complicated issue but yes you answer the question thank you um you said that you have most success with our most experienced wizard Department of Justice grants but for Cara the other half of the Cara program is Samsa so this question is about whether you have any tips for success with Samsa applications and I would say I would I would add to that around any sort of performance measures and data that people are going to want to take advantage of I haven't written I've only written a handful of the Samsa ones I know that they sometimes are even more broad and more detailed in what it needs to be included I would say go to the website definitely make sure that there are any documents related to the solicitation that you have them sometimes I believe it is mr. grants and maybe the National Institute of Justice grants the NIJ grants because I've only written a handful then there's a solicitation that's specific for the grant then they also have their general grant writing rules so you want to make sure you look at both of them and then keeping in mind what the particular fund er is interested in so when you're designing your objectives or your program look at the mission statement of the funder look at what they're interested in what difference they want to make what other programs what other research if they've done those sorts of things so you can make sure that you're speaking to that funder because if they're putting money into into a particular program you want to respond accordingly and make sure it's within their mission does that you know that great okay okay perfect we're we're a little over time so I'm going to ask the question which may be specific to one or to an audience but actually it may be applicable to more so this person says we are a new 501 C 3 organization applying for a local grant the application says you have to be in existence for two years or show validation of credibility in the community if less than two years old any thoughts on best ways to show credibility in the community this particular person is I'm using the fact that major companies in their community have donated funds to them but for anybody how do they establish credibility they are new or even if they're small and has never applied for a grant of this kind before okay I would say when I look at history and and understanding the population when I'm reviewing the grants sometimes you can talk about maybe the individuals if it's a small agency how long have you worked in the field may be your new 501c3 but what has been your prior experience I also think partnerships are really essential a lot of times a new 501c3 might be kind of working with some other community entities or other agencies that have been in existence for a long period of time so building that rapport saying I work with these people and saying you know hey I have such expertise as a new 501 C 3 and what you don't have maybe you're going to partner up to fill that gap so I think you you know if you're creating a new agency there's should be some experience probably that you can talk about as to why or where you're going or where you're going to supplement whatever thing you might not touch in your new agency what I think that that that's important is that the whole question Elizabeth yeah that's a great answer partners are always important so here's the last one if they're a list that people can get on some sort of website or or pushed out list from the federal government about solicitations available and I would just add before you answer that Valerie I would just add that we at MC J it's a national criminal justice Association do that service for our members so we push out a list of all grants available in the criminal justice arena and dual justice arena I think it's every other week we call it connect to grants I did the member benefit so you would have to be a member and we would encourage that as well but that's one way to do it and I see that you brought back that slide for sources of information so I'll turn it to you yes grants.gov that is actually a clearinghouse for grants all kinds of grants because I think in grant writing as soon as you say you do grant writing the number one thing your friends family and new people you get will say is they can you get me a grant you become an ATM machine what it's okay but you want to look at grants.gov there's a way to filter the search that you can find maybe what you're looking for and again I have NCJ on there as a useful website and BJ a lot of time if you get on these websites there may be enriched serves that you can sign up word that gives you generating emails and so sign up for anything and everything that you can and I think once you start opening that doorway the information about grants will come flooding your way and then also looking the crimesolutions.gov is another fantastic site that talks about other programs across the nation that are maybe promising practices best practices or evidence-based practices take a look at maybe something that might be similar and how did they get their money always ask the question how did you get funding so I always going to also ask the questions of others to try to continue the search for other grants great perfect thank you so much Valerie this has just been really wonderful just perfect to the audience again work this has been recorded and we're going to put it up on the addiction policy forum and the national criminal justice Association websites within the next couple of days her presentation is available will be available on the web sites but is also available I understand it if you click on that handouts drop down menu on the control panel and you have Valerie's contact information there so I know she's willing to take problems as well so thank you everybody very much

Channel: Addiction Policy Forum

Views: 11,596

Rating: 4.9170985 out of 5

Keywords: grant writing

Id: UyaP6kph8CE

Length: 70min 39sec (4239 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 11 2017