Where to
Find Money to Enhance Educational Opportunities
The
Elements of a Grant Proposal
Adapted from Dennis
Norris' work in the 1996 Pioneering Partners Notebook.
Dennis is a featured author in Electronic Learning Magazine on the topic of Grantwriting
- Summary or abstract - Write this part last. Establish your credibility, state
your goal, sample activities, and cost. The summary should be brief,
clear, and informative and of very high quality. STAY FOCUSED!
- Introduction - This section highlights your credibility and your school's
credibility. Give some background without being philosophical. Include
data on the demographics of the population/community to be served
and any significant info that will show the funder that you can
carry out the grant work proposed.
- Needs Assessment - Address the problem(s) you wish to correct. This should
be related to your goals/objectives. Support this information with
evidence/data. Do some RESEARCH. State the needs in terms of students,
not the problems.
- Objectives - Objectives are "outcomes" that define your activities.
Tell who, what, when, and how. Make sure that you can assess
the objectives.
- Activities - Include justification and make sure that they are clear
to any audience. Accompany these with a rational of why these activities
will help you accomplish your goals.
- Evaluation - There are two types of evaluation - product evaluation that evaluates your program's results, and process evaluation that evaluates the way the program was conducted. Evaluation of
a grant is the second most important part, next to the needs assessment.
It is a wonderul opportunity to BE CREATIVE.
- Future Funding - How can the program be sustained? Are you planning other
fund raising efforts? Will your district assume responsible if the
program is successful? The more specific you can be in your proposal
regarding future fundign, the more confidence it will create in
the funding source.
- Budget -
This is an ESTIMATE of the cost of the program. Funders will usually
provide you with a degree of latitude in the actual spending as
long as you do not exceed the total amount of the grant. DO NOT
list vague categories like "miscellaneous" without an explanation.
Make sure to include in-kind contributions, shared expenses, other
funding, etc. This looks great on a proposal even though it is not
always required.
This grant writing
pages were written by Nancy Powell, teacher at Bloomington High School,
Bloomington, IL, and a former TeachNet Web Mentor.
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