Exercise in Grant Writing

An exercise in grant writing.

_{You are a retired school teacher from the northeast,
living in a south Florida community where you have befriended many other
retired professional people. You recently met the principal of an elementary
school located in across town. She told you that her school has been rated as a
"D" school by the criteria of the Florida education department, and
she fears that unless something is specifically done to improve the reading scores
of her students, her school will slip to "F" level next year.}

_{She has asked you to organize a group of retired
volunteer processionals to tutor her students in literacy.}

_{Further, the youth program coordinator for the
sheriff has orally expressed an interest in putting some grant money into your
project, if you can round up volunteers. The sheriff’s office has asked you to
write "something that looks like a credible proposal. You know, something with needs, objectives, a program plan, and
a budget. About four or five pages should do it."}

_{Let’s take this step by step.}

_{Write a need analysis.}

_{Keep it to less than 250 well chosen words.}

_{Remember, the sheriff is already disposed in your
favor. But do display some understanding of what it means to a school, its
teachers, its students, its parents, and its community if the school is rated
"D" or "F." Sound like an expert.}

_{Consider
inputs, outputs, and outcomes.}

_{Before you
start writing, try to clarify your concept of an input, an output, and an
outcome.}

_{Start by
reflecting on who the client is: the school, the principal, the teachers, your
volunteers, the students, or all of these.}

_{Then make a
list of every input you can think of. Then every output.
Then every outcome. Maybe you should also list every
plausible measurable output or outcome. Discuss your choices/guesses/ideas with
Jay and Rupa.}

_{When we tell
you to, write 100-200 words on your objectives.}

Review your inputs and outputs and write a program plan.

Make sure that you keep it concise, but do mention or foreshadow at every item that will appear later in your budget.

Now we do the budget detail or budget narrative section.

Be sure to examine the specimen budget detail sheet located at http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/buddetws.pdf

Here are some of the questions you must ask yourself:

Will there be any paid personnel? Will they be charged to the sheriff? How many hours and at what hourly rate?

Will there be any volunteers? How many hours? What is their value in dollars per hour?

Will the school board provide any free personnel services? For how many hours? And at what estimated hourly rate?

Does social security apply to any of the personnel items? What about benefits? Which items?

Will you want the sheriff to pay for any facilities used by your tutors?

Will the school board provide any facilities at no cost? What is their estimated value?

Will any materials be paid for by the sheriff? Provided by the school board? Provided by your people?

What have I forgotten?