For Jay Mendell's book on overcoming stigma in fund raising, please surf to http://black-sheep-library.com  That's Black Sheep Fundraising: Obtaining Dollars Despite Stigma and Prejudice toward Abortion, AIDS, Alcoholism, Birth Control, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Drug Abuse, Eating Disorders, Gambling, Homelessness, Homosexuality, Mental Disorders, Partner Violence,  Sex Education, Teenage Pregnancy, the Unemployed, the Ex-Offenders, the Illegal Immigrants, the Juvenile Offenders, the Elderly, and Other Outcast Causes .

 

Hello. I'm Jay Mendell, professor of public administration at Florida Atlantic University. My various Internet pages are accessible by starting at GollyGrantsOnline.com.  

To initiate a live chat with Jay Mendell, surf to http://black-sheep-library.com.

The address of this page is GollyGrantsOnline.com/6233-GW-summer-2006.htm.  

Seminar in Grants Writing for
Public and Nonprofit Administration
(PAD 6233)

Florida Atlantic University
PAD 6233, SEMINAR IN GRANTS WRITING, Sequence #13188
Term begins on  Mon 05-15-2006. Term ends Fri 08-11-2006

Jupiter Campus of Florida Atlantic University, Room HC 111
Tuesdays, 06:30 p. m. to 09:40 p. m.

Jay S. Mendell, Ph. D., Professor
Home phone.954.755-8928, Cell phone.954.895-6364
 

Do you really want to be in this class?

Aggressive, motivated people do grant writing because they need resources to do important stuff. I can teach you how.  But if you do not plan to write grants, if you just need three credits on a Tuesday evening, I am not going to try to make you happy.
Most of what you will learn in here is not written down anywhere, at least not in a well organized way. You will have to show up on time every time, having studied in advance the material below, and pay attention; and you well have to ask questions, then go out and study the additional materials that I direct you to. You can't be passive. By the way, if you are late or skip class or let your attention wander, you are sure to miss something important. And that's your tough luck.
I do not try very hard to be well organized. I launch into stream of consciousness lectures, and you get the point if you pay attention and ask questions, or you don't. If you don't, that too is your tough luck.

"Bad things happen to people who do not follow my advice." -- My mentor, Hayman Kite

 

Various ways to really annoy the professor (the guy who assigns your grade)

  1. Skip classes without offering a job-related reason.
  2. Skip classes while repeatedly offering a personal reason you should have anticipated before you enrolled.
  3. Skip one of his classes to accommodate a less senior professor (any other professor at FAU).
  4. Turn in homework late.
  5. Turn in HW extra-late.
  6. Turn in HW late and then act surprised that the professor has misplaced it.
  7. Same as above except that the HW has been faxed or e-mailed, even if it arrives before it is due.
  8. E-mail him a crucial inquiry under the epithet  "La-Dee-Da" and expect him to figure out you are "Lakme de Dario." 
  9. Fail to retrieve the HW the evening the professor returns it and then act surprised that the professor has misplaced or trashed it.
  10. Leave the HW in a mailbox that the professor checks infrequently or does not even know exists.
  11. Fail to put your name on every single page you submit.
  12. Submit HW that is so vague that the professor cannot tell which assignment it is supposed to satisfy.
  13. Ask if you can have an "incomplete" until the next time the course is offered.

"Skip" means arrive late, fail to arrive, or leave early.

 

On Web updates and email.

Several times a week you will please have to check this Web page for additions and clarifications. Go the bottom and check for added notations.
To send me email, please use mendelljay@gmail.com.  In the subject line type "I am a student in PAD grant writing."  And when you send me e-mail, be sure to include your name, not just your e-mail address. It is helpful if you include your phone numbers at home and work and your cell phone number.
 
Grading.

 Your grade will principally be based on how well you complete the individual pieces of a proposal that I assign.

Assignments delivered into my hand on time will be graded High Pass (HP), Pass>(P>), or Unsatisfactory> (U>). Those received late will be graded Pass (Px), Unsatisfactory (Ux), or Highly Unsatisfactory (HUx).

The symbol > means you may do the work over for a better grade. The symbol x means you are stuck with what I have given you.
 

For the first class.

 1. I have written a mock solicitation of a letter of inquiry (http://GollyGrantsOnline.com/download/RWF-Mock-request-for-proposal.PDF) and a responsive letter of inquiry (http://GollyGrantsOnline.com/download/SSS-Center-mock.PDF). The example is quite a bit shorter than the proposal you will write this term.
2.  An exercise in writing a concept paper for a public school is located on my site, "Write a Winning Grant Proposal on Your First Try." 

 
Here is the course sequence.
 
Unit 01
Required
  1. Read the Foundation Center's online course on proposal writing.
Recommended readings (this means you read the materials before class and perhaps reread them after class.)
  1. Browse the EPA's grants tutorial.
  2. Review the mock request for proposals from the Ralph Waldo Firestone Foundation, and my letter of inquiry.
Please start to collect the following, if you plan to write a proposal for a private nonprofit.  It will be due later; but start ASAP.
  1. A clear copy of the IRS letter of determination [2-3 pages] establishing that the organization has 501 status. If your organization is a school, church, or other organization that does not require to file for 501 status, submit a typed explanation of why it is exempt.  
  2. Provide clean copy of the most recent annual budget (income, expenses). 
  3. If the organization is 2 years old or older, the name, address, and phone) of its auditor. 

None of this will be considered confidential. At the end of the term it will be part of your final project and will not be returned.

Please start to do the following, if you plan to write a proposal for a governmental agency. It will be due later; but start ASAP.
  1. Simply state that you are a governmental agency and are therefore are  federally tax exempt. One sentence will do the trick.
  2. A clean copy of the most recent annual budget, for instance, your city's/county's budget summary.
  3. Explain who audits your agency and how the results are reported and to whom. Give name, address, and phone
None of this will be considered confidential. 

Please do the following if you plan to write a grant for an organization that is not governmental and has no IRS nonprofit status: Find another organization, or discuss the situation with the professor.
Unit 02
Due 2006-MAY-30.
  1. The items listed above for a nonprofit organization; or
  2. The items requested above for a governmental agency.
Recommended readings
  1. Read the Foundation Center's online course on proposal writing.
  2. Start browsing hard-to-classify worksheets and examples. Don't miss this.
    3.
  3. Review the EPA grants tutorial.
  4. Start browsing proposals available online. An interesting source of exemplary proposals (http://www.guru.com/category.cfm/504)
Unit 03
Due 2006-June-6 Use a single sheet of untabbed colored paper to separate the sections.
  1. Give me a 200-300 word description of a new project you would like to undertake through a grant. It must not be a request for seed or general operating support or the extension of a currently funded project or funding for a project that is about to expire for lack of funding. It has to be something new in the range of $3000 to $200,000. 

    The description should be labeled "Executive Summary."
  2. On a separate sheet, set off by an un-tabbed sheet of colored paper, give me a statement of why you are doing this project and why writing this proposal will advance your career. This section should be labeled "What's in It for Me." If all you can write is "I need to write a proposal to pass this course," you are hopeless.
Required readings
  1. Read the Foundation Center's online course on proposal writing.
Recommended readings
  1. Proposals available online. An interesting source of exemplary proposals (http://www.guru.com/category.cfm/504)

  2. The EPA grants tutorial
Unit 04
Due 2006-June-13
Need analysis is due. Write a one, two, or three page need analysis for your organization's fundable project. Label this "Need analysis."
Required readings
  1. Here is a crisp explanation of needs analysis (which happens to be embedded in a top-notch essay on grants writing).
  2. Proposals available online. An interesting source of exemplary proposals (http://www.guru.com/category.cfm/504) Study many proposals until you find one that resembles one for your project.
Recommended readings.
  1. Read the Foundation Center's online course on proposal writing.

  2. If you want to see a typical set of federal specs for a need analysis, visit and browse in http://gollygrantsonline.com/download/Pages from hud youthbuild.pdf

Unit 05
Due 27 June 2006.  
Label this "Project Plan." Project plan is due. Two or three pages, an overview of what you intend to do.
Required reading
  1. Proposals available online. An interesting source of exemplary proposals (http://www.guru.com/category.cfm/504) Study many proposals until you find one that resembles one for your project.
Recommended reading
  1. Reread the Foundation Center's online course on proposal writing
Unit 06
HW Due 11 July 2007
Label this "Searching for funders."
Who is going to fund your proposal? Name a potential Do a free online search using online search tools.
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE WEB. USE GRANTSELECT -->For a nonprofit, do a keyword search for grants through the Foundation Center's online search engine. (But expect to spend some time learning the keyword list.) 
Straight to private foundations.
Straight to corporate grant givers.
Straight to public charities.<--SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE WEB. USE GRANTSELECT

The Foundation Center's complete database may be consulted at four locations in the Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. In WPB, go to the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.(http://www.yourcommunityfoundation.org/) In Boca Raton, a few blocks east of FAU is the Junior League of Boca Raton.(http://www.jlbr.org/) In Fort Lauderdale, Nova University (http://www.nova.edu/library/nsulibs.htm) is the archive, and in Miami, the United Way. (http://www.centeronnonprofiteffectiveness.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.resource_center)

For governmental grants, see the Florida Resource Guide, the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, and grants.gov. To do an additional search for state Florida grants go into Google.com and use
SITE:MYFLORIDA.COM (GRANT OR GRANTS) YOUR-TOPIC-GOES-HERE.

Use GrantSelect in the FAU online library. First, get an Owl Card. Then use the proxy server to log in (https://login.ezproxy.fau.edu/login). Then go to the electronic collection (http://www.library.fau.edu/ecollect/ecollect.htm) and find GrantSelect.

 

Unit 07
Due 18 July 2006
 Label this "Budget."
Budget. I need you to prepare a budget detail sheet and a budget summary for your proposal. The detail sheet must follow the DoJ format described below. 
Required reading
Here is a wonderful how-to (with examples) on budgets from the Department of Justice. Same file may be found here. You will need a free Acrobat .pdf reader. To view files in this format you must first have to download a copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader and follow the instructions for installation.

Here is the budget from a YMCA proposal.

Here is the Web page that contains the tutoring scenario. Thanks to Howard Kassof, here is the budget summary's structure.

Recommended reading
Proposals available online. An interesting source of exemplary proposals (http://www.guru.com/category.cfm/504)
Unit 08
Due 1-AUG-2006
Bring me a concise description of the outcomes of your project. Be careful not to confuse inputs or output with outcomes. Label this "Outcomes."
Required reading
The key reference is the booklet by United Way (http://www.Unitedway.org/outcomes/).
Recommended reading
  1. See House of Hope.org/evaluation.htm.
  2. How to write an evaluation plan into your proposal. This is embedded in a larger document on proposal writing.

  3. Here is the list of ready-made excuses for failing to measure up to your predicted guidelines.

  4. Links on logic models
    http://www.insites.org/documents/logmod.htm, 
    http://www.wkkf.org/Pubs/Tools/Evaluation/Pub3669.pdf    , best of the bunch.
    http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/WC041
Unit 09
Due 8  August  Label this "Qualifications."
Give me a concise statement of the organization's qualifications to carry out its program. Emphasize past and current grants and contracts, accreditations, and professional qualifications of the staff.

Links on best practices
http://www.bestpractices.org/ 

Additional Material

Here is access to the Welfare Information Network's "cheat sheets."

Visit the FAU library online to register for netLibrary.com. This requires an Owl Card.

Here is material on fundraising.

Grantwriting and fundraising for arts and letters.

Here are suggestions for locating info on the Web.

Learn how to squeeze a search engine http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/

Squeeze the FAU library online

Main screen done - http://www.fau.edu/library/

Proxy Server -done-  https://login.ezproxy.fau.edu/login

Books http://webluis.fcla.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/fclwlv3/wlv3/DBwebluis/CM02/DGcat/DBFA/P1basic, 
Advanced http://webluis.fcla.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/fclwlv3/wlv3/DBFA/DI28905892/DGcat/RP3/CM2/P1advsrch

Electronic collection http://www.library.fau.edu/ecollect/ecollect.htm
Databases sorted by subject http://www.library.fau.edu/ecollect/dbsub.htm

Under databases, note the Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center.

Under electronic books, note the Britannica (http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/ref/ebooks.htm)
Compare Britannica with http://answers.com and the Wikipedia. (http://search.netscape.com/ns/search?query=wikipedia+criticism&x=0&y=0&st=webresults&fromPage=NSCPResultsT)

netLibrary (http://www.netlibrary.com/library_home_page.asp)

Interlibrary Loan http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/ill/illdept.htm Invisible Web/Deep Web (Invisible Web/Deep Web (http://www.answers.com/deep%20web)

Example: Now, using Google, find databases on brownfield pollution in Broward, by selecting buzz words from each column in the following table (one buzz word from each column). (Don't feel you have to read straight across the table; feel free to mix and match.)

database "real estate" brownfields
"data set" social conditions pollution
statistics pollution environment
abstracts brownfields  
reports political conditions  
profiles economy  
indicators economic conditions  
 
Posted 2006-02-18.
Case statement for a clinic in Georgia
 

Posted 2006-05-24 for Ms. Breen. Links to GW and FR for museums.

http://www.museummarketingtips.com/links/funding.html

http://www.florida-arts.org/grants/GrantwritingWorkshops.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=museum+fundraising&btnG=Google+Search

Posted 2006-05-29

Here is an old list of links to specimen proosals. Some may be dead or out of date.

  1. A highly technical proposal from University of Florida on telecommunications. Marked as "under construction."
  2. A source of sample grant proposals. May be temporarily offline. (Don't hold your breath!)
  3. Here is a specimen proposal from Michigan State University.
  4. A superior example of a proposal budget. To view this, you must first download and install an Adobe Acrobat .pdf viewer. .
  5. A proposal from the UK.
  6. The year 2000 request for proposals  (RFP) from United Way of Broward County and the House of Hope proposal in response to the RFP. Go here and download the RFP, then download the House of Hope proposal. (To download the file, place your cursor over "RFP" or "House of Hope Proposal," then click your right mouse button. When a menu pops up, select "Save link as . . ." Save the files to your Windows desktop or any other folder you can find easily. After you have saved the files, double-click on them to view them, then print them from inside their viewer. Be persistent. Don't give up, since printing and reading these files is required. This proposal was not funded, probably because UWB decided not to add any new agencies in 2000-01.
  7. Here is a make-believe request for proposal.
  8. Arts proposal: Chinese-American culture.
  9. Linda Fisher of Pinellas county, FL, provides the following site: http://www.co.pinellas.fl.us/ppc/archivelist.htm#GP
  10. Funding for schools.
  11. A million here and a million there, and before you know it, you are talking about Big Money. Here are two winning proposals from the YMCA of Broward (Fort Lauderdale): Children's Services Board  ($1.3 million) (and its attachments) and an arts grant from the county Cultural Affairs Board (and its attachments) . You will will need a free Adobe Acrobat .PDF reader and the knowledge of how to download a file. But these are worth the trouble.
  12. J Deiorio found this collection of grants, moslty for firefighters.
  13. The Foundation Center provides examples of all sorts of NPO documents, including proposal cover letters. Go here, for specimen proposals specifically.
  14. Use the WiseNut search engine to find "grants examples". Click here to launch a pre-configured search.
  15. Go the the Brechner Center and learn to write a FOIA letter to request a winning federal proposal.

Posted 2006-05-31

If you go to http://google.com and enter 
SPOTLIGHT SITE:FDNCENTER.ORG YOURFIELD
where YOURFIELD is whatever interests you, you will find (among the clutter) mini-proposals in whatever interest you.

For instance,
SPOTLIGHT SITE:FDNCENTER.ORG HIV
will get you mini-proposals dealing with HIV

Try it.

Posted 2006-06-10
The FAU Independence Day holiday falls on Tu 4 July 2007. It is a one-day-only holiday.

Posted 2006-06-14
The grant scoring sheet that I showed you last night is at http://gollygrantsonline.com/download/Broward%20Cultural%20Affairs%20grant-2%20scoring.pdf


Posted 2006-06-21
I have fixed Unit 6 by adding resource material and a due date for HW..

Posted 2006-07-04
This site contains interesting instructions on budgets (http://www.epa.gov/ogd/recipient/tips.htm).

This shows third-party funding in a budget summary (http://www.fws.gov/refuges/roads/bywayscriteria.html).

Posted 2006-07-05.
Starting tomorrow, Thursday, July 6, IRM will begin providing the University community with 24x7 online and phone computing support, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with no or minimal hold time. This change is possible because IRM has contracted with Presidium Learning to provide first tier phone support. IRM staff will continue to handle all other support.

In conjunction with this change, IRM has implemented new software to make it quicker and easier to get help online. Starting today, you can search an online knowledge base at http://www.fau.edu/helpdesk for the information you need. If you don't find the answer, use the website to submit your own helpdesk ticket; just select the Request Support tab and then click on Submit a Ticket.

Because the new support site lets you enter your own questions/tickets and check on their status, you will need to log into the system. Your login is your FAU e-mail address (the full address, as in jsmith@fau.edu) and your initial password will be your first name (you should change your password as soon as you login the first time).

Note that to ask for computing help or otherwise contact the helpdesk, you will no longer send an e-mail to 3999@fau.edu: just go to website (http://www.fau.edu/helpdesk).

The phone number for helpdesk support will remain the same (7-3999 from on campus or (561) 297-3999 off campus). Starting tomorrow, though, callers from outside the local area will also be able to use a toll-free number to contact the helpdesk: (866) 885-8325.

We look forward to providing better and faster support to the University community! As with any new system, we also anticipate revising and finetuning it over the summer. Please be sure to complete the survey you get when your help desk tickets are closed to help us see how we're doing.

 

Posted 2006-07-09
Here are is a document that will help me explain budgets.
http://www.epa.gov/ogd/recipient/tips.htm 

Posted 2006-07-14
Reverse chronological order
August 14 Monday Grades due
August 11 Friday Semester ends
August 8 Tues Last required class GW

Posted 2006-07=19
You have your choice of turning in the HW on outcomes or the HW on qualfications.