How to Write a Winning Grant Proposal!

Hey Changemakers,

Writing a grant proposal can feel overwhelming. It can be the looming monster in the back of your mind because you know a deadline is coming up, but you just can’t seem to make the time to sit down, read over the application guidelines and start writing.

Well, if you want that grant money for your projects, then tough. You need to sit down and in the words of Nike, ’Just do it!’ But how do you do it? Well that’s what we are going to talk about today. Let’s think of this as a basic grant application for a foundation.

BEFORE YOU START WRITING

So, let’s pretend you are writing a grant for a project of your nonprofit animal shelter called We Care for Paws! You found the perfect grant from XYZ Foundation and you are jumping up and down for joy because of the following:

• The XYZ Foundation has the priority for animal conservation!
• The application process is currently open
• You meet all the following requirements of the XYZ foundation:
• We Care for Paws is an IRS tax-exempt registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
• We Care for Paws has a board of directors
• We Care for Paws has been incorporated for at least two years

Now notice what you needed to look for BEFORE you even started to write that grant.

 1. ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION

This is where you gush about your organization in a very succinct way. Sound contradictive? Well, let’s take a look:

• What year We Care for Paws was established with nonprofit status
• When you were founded (usually before nonprofit status – see the example)
• Why you were founded

These three can be tied together into a couple of sentences to showcase the heartbeat of the nonprofit.

2. NEEDS & TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC

• Need: This is where you showcase statistics and the NEED, not the solution.
• Example: We Care for Paws still has a need to care for stray animals. In fact, 600 stray animals were brought into our facility in 2017 and we only had resources to spay and neuter 300 animals. There is a huge need to protect animal health and to increase resources for our spay and neuter program.
• Target Demographic: Who or what is your specific target market?
• Example: We Care for Paws takes in any stray animals in the urban area of Cool City. We cater to the needs in our area and serve approximately 45% cats and 50% dogs and 5% birds and other animals.

3. GOALS, OBJECTIVES, TIMELINE

•  Goal: What is the BIG outcome, and does it connect with any community goals?

Example: The project that XYZ Foundation will fund will help us create the Animals Thrive project. This project has the ultimate goal of creating healthy wellness for all animals in the urban area of Cool City.

Objective(s): Objectives are what you will specifically do for your project, how it will be measured, has a deadline, and relates to your goal. In most cases you will not want to use any more than three objectives in any given project.

Timeline: I love timelines. This is where it gets real. I believe that even if a funding source doesn’t request this that (if you have space!) you should add it in! I love laying this out in a graph format:

Objective

We Care for Paw’s Animal Thriveproject will spay and neuter 300 stray dogs and cats by the end of 2019. Visit Episode 042 for an example timeline.  

4. PROJECT APPROACH

 The project approach explains exactly what you will do and should include activities from the timeline.

We will be able to commence the spaying and neutering immediately with the animals we have in the shelter and on the waiting list. Based on previous numbers, we estimate spaying and neutering 30 cats and dogs per month for an estimated ten months (between month two and twelve of the grant funding), for a total of 300 animals. We will track the efforts in reports each month of the surgeries completed. We will also create an awareness campaign to encourage low-income families to bring their animals into the shelter for spaying and neutering of their animals. Programmatic and fiscal reports will be completed by the Project Manager and submitted to XYZ Foundation each month.

5. BUDGET AND BUDGET NARRATIVE

This is the fun part! Foundation’s usually want a line-by-line budget and short description to explain each item needed.

Example: Animals Thrive Budget

To see an example budget table visit, Episode 042. 

Example:

Personnel: $47,840

Veterinarian: Conduct 300 spays and neuters of animals at $35 per hour for 520 hours totaling $18,200. The veterinarian shall work, on average, ten hours per week and conduct approximately 30 spay and neuters per week.

Project Manager: Oversee the development of the campaign and reports at $25 per hour for 1,040 hours at $26,000. The Project Manager will create advertisements, graphics, oversee the social media and website development, order supplies, track animals that are spayed and neutered, work closely with the Executive Director and Veterinarian, and oversee all fiscal and programmatic reports.

Executive Director: This project will take 5% of the Executive Director’s time at $35 per hour for a total of $3,640. The executive director shall oversee the entire project, conduct the hiring, attend conferences and network within the community, and report to the board of directors.

For a more comprehensive, in-depth understanding on how to write a winning grant proposal tune into this week’s podcast Episode 42. See you next week!

Warmly,

Holly

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