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 .

 

The address of this page is http://GollyGrantsOnline.com/winning-proposal-on-first-try-030227.htm

Click here to add your name to a free electronic mailing list  for the latest Florida grants information. 
Click here for the flyer and registration form for our fall 2003 grant programs in Fort Lauderdale and Jupiter.
Visit Jay Mendell's many Web pages on grants and fundraising.

Write a Winning Proposal on the First Try.
27 and 28 February 2003, Florida Atlantic University, Davie Campus
Dr. Jay S. Mendell 

Jay S. Mendell, Ph. D.  GrantsAndGifts@houseofhopeonline.org  is professor of nonprofit management at FAU and advisor on grants and gifts for the House of Hope, Inc. in Fort Lauderdale. 

Take advantage of us (if you live or work in the service area of Florida Atlantic University, area codes 954 and 561).

CURE's Grantswriting Services. Address, Location
Internet pages on grantswriting. A free site on the Internet's World Wide Web which provides easy access to tutorials on grants writing, maps and statistics for use in needs analysis, and many other Internet-based services. GollyGrantsOnline.com

 
Virtual  library of successful proposals. Exemplary grants which can be obtained on the Internet. GollyGrantsOnline.com
Free searches in a database that contains  keyword searchable grant opportunities. We average 75 such searches a year and the request rate is steadily increasing Phone Professor Mendell at home, at 954.597-0574.

Or send e-mail to mendell at bellsouth dot net.

Be sure Jay knows your name, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, and street address. Explain in one paragraph what your organization does and what it needs money for.
Click here to add your name to a free electronic mailing list  for the latest Florida grants information.

Where to learn grant writing.

See the Foundation Center's sensational on-line course on proposal writing, plus several examples of grant application forms. http://fdncenter.org/onlib/shortcourse/prop1.html

To become an instant expert in your subject area, visit the Welfare Information Network.

An exercise in grant writing.

The scenario.

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. 

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?

After I tell you that your budget detail sheet looks okay, fill out the budget summary provided.

Budget summary sheet.

Where to  look for funding opportunities.

  1. Consult Florida Administrative Weekly for Tallahassee's listing of grants and procurements.
    Or click here to explore a recent issues. (to search for "grant," use the binocular icon.
  2. For federal grants: Visit Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance at http://www.cfda.gov. Enter the search term "transportation," or whatever you are interested in. This will give you an overview of what is available in your field. Contact the federal agency of interest or visit their Web page.
  3. For federal grants: Visit Federal Register at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces140.html. This is for very patient persons only. All other should ask for a free subscription to our weekly review of the Register: Click here to add your name to our electronic mailing list for the latest Federal Register grants information or to request our flyer of coming grants workshops and tutorials. 
  4. Super-quick access to several dozen federal, Florida, and county sites on grants.
    For pending federal grants: Go to http://    http://GollyGrantsOnline.com/environmental-scanning.htmGollyGrantsOnline.com
  5. Do your own keyword searches for grants through the Foundation Center's online search engine. (But expect to spend some time learning the keyword list.)
  6. A very nice, though not exhaustive list, from the Welfare Information Network, of grants for social services.
  7. Here is a secret method I developed myself for locating State of Florida grants (if you have patience!):
    In the form directly below, enter "grant: and the area you seek funding for. For instance, try entering "grant museum" and see what happens. (And don't use quotation marks, by the way.)     
    		8.   
  8. Try this. Go to Google, and enter "foundations grants yourkeyword"
  9. Top U. S. grantgivers in various categories. Top South Florida grantgivers.
  10. Special funding for community organizing and social justice.
  11. Use the form 990 PF  database to locate private foundations in your geographic area.

  12. (Public charities (most nonprofits) must file the IRS form 990. Here is where you can learn to use the form 990 in your donor research. And at Guidestar, you can search for the form 990 of a nonprofit of interest. For instance, if your nonprofit needs to know who is donating to a nonprofit X, you can look in their 990 to discover who their largest donors are.

    Private foundations (the biggest donors) must file the IRS form 990 PF. Here is where you can search for the form 990 PF of a foundation of interest. You can tghen discover to whom they are making gifts and grants. Here is a map of the useful info in the 990 PF.)

  13. The Foundation Center monitors late-breaking requests for proposals.

Consider launching your grant writing career by applying for uncomplicated, proposer-friendly grants.

 Organization. Source of funds. Links.
The Sun-Sentinel Report to the Community.
Various other Sun-Sentinel charities
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
Broward Cultural Arts
Broward County.
Broward Cultural Affairs flyers.

For those who want to see an RFP for "serious" grant writers, (that is, a burdensome RFP)

Here is the Palm Beach County RFP for a Community Development Block Grant. Please notice all the marginal notes by baffled grant writers.

"Must-have" items

Before you start your first proposal, see that the following are on hand.
Official name of the federally tax exempt organization, as listed with the Florida Secretary of State. Permanent address.
Report from the Florida Secretary of State's Web page.
Copy of the most recent IRS letter of determination on 501 tax status
IRS letter of determination of a nonprofit.
List of the directors of your 501 organization, their names, occupations, places of business, and business phones.
 
Copy of the state charter.
A state of Florida charter.
Copy of the articles of incorporation.
Articles of a Florida nonprofit.
Annual budget, approved by the board of directors. Must show executive director's salary.
Annual budget of House of Hope.
Copy of audited financial statement
Audits from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

When you read a "request for proposals" or "notice of funding availability," see if they reveal who is involved in their organization. Whom do you know?

Who is behind the Diversity Venture Fund?

When you read a "request for proposals" or "notice of funding availability," take care that your organization is among those eligible to apply.

The Sun-Sentinel Report to the Community. A list of recipients and their awards.
Broward Cultural Affairs.  eligibility.


Pay special attention to the scoring scheme.

Broward Cultural Affairs , for scoring.

Here is the mock Request for Proposals from a fictitious foundation.

Here is a mock letter of inquiry to response to the RFP of the RWFF.

On fundraising, especially how it is different from grant writing and when it is more appropriate.

Jay's  undergraduate course on funding for nonprofits.

Tony Poderis on fundraising.

Jay's graduate course in fundraising (to be posted later, so watch this space).

 

Jay's many Web pages on grants and gifts.

 

For Jay Mendell's FREE book on overcoming stigma in fund raising, please surf to http://black-sheep-library.com/  . To reach a portal to my syllabi, visit http://gollygrantsonline.com/indexold.htm.