Creating an Effective Grant Application

Planning and Analysis

A good grant application has to be persuasive and backed by solid data. Consequently, a good deal of research and analysis should go into every grant application. Before writing your application, you should:

Explore your options. A number of alternatives likely exist to your proposed investment or solution. Explore these different alternatives, taking into account the respective needs of the different stakeholders that will be involved in or impacted by your initiative.

Research potential funding sources. Prospective funders should be identified. Look for organizations that have a stated interest in your type of organization and the issues you seek to address.

Study other agencies’ business cases. Many criminal justice programs make documents such as business cases available for free online. These documents can be incredibly valuable resources, and can help you to better understand what resources will be required as well how to present a persuasive case for your initiative.

Analyze and model current business processes. Closely study the business processes of your agency as well as any agency whose business processes will be impacted by your project. Identify points where improvements are made, processes are streamlined or redundant tasks are eliminated.

Gather statistical data. Your grant application won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on unless it is backed up by hard data. Discuss what kinds of data and reports would help you to argue your case, identifying those which you believe will be the most effective.

The data stored in your JustWare database is one of the most valuable assets you have for proving your assertions. The robust reporting tool provided with JustWare allows you to query, display and print out statistics in a way that is both flexible and easy to use. JustWare’s intuitive reporting tool brings true ad-hoc reporting to all authorized members of your staff—not just programmers. Grant writing staff and administrators can quickly and easily track required information for grants.

Compile a “brag file.” Most funding sources have already decided to fund a specific cause or need; they don’t need to be convinced of the relevance or importance of the problems they’re trying to combat. What donors haven’t decided is who they will fund and make champions of their cause. The grant application process exists largely so they can find the people and organizations that will give them the biggest return on their investment.

Consequently, it is vital that you make your grant application stand apart from the masses. The first step in accomplishing this is using the introduction of your grant proposal to build credibility with your potential donor. To ensure that this section is written as effectively as possible, gather all documents and information that will help you to build credibility into a “brag file.” This file should include:

• Any information that mentions your agency in a positive way (letters to the editor, newspaper articles, audio clips from radio, video clips from television, letters of thanks, etc.).

• Statements from political leaders that endorse programs like yours (even if they don’t specifically mention your proposed initiative).

• Information about your agency’s history.

• Letters of endorsement.

• Documents detailing the accomplishments of both the agency as a whole and the individuals working there.

Putting it on Paper

Now that you’ve gathered some useful raw data, you’re ready to construct a documented argument for your project. Your grant application should do the following:

Establish credibility. By making some simple introductory statements about your organization, you will develop credibility with your funding source. In particular, you should discuss:

• How long your agency has been around and how it has grown.

• Any unique aspects of your agency that might set you apart from the masses. For example, “we were the first agency in the state to implement….”

• Agency purpose and goals.

• Some of your most significant accomplishments.

• The successes you’ve enjoyed with related projects.

• Support you have received from other organizations and individuals.

This introduction may prove to be more important than the rest of your proposal, as sometimes it is the only part that gets read. It should be brief, specific and interesting. Avoid using jargon or any language that might not be readily understood by someone outside of your agency.

Define the problem. Now that you’ve defined who you are and why you are a worthy candidate for funding you need to focus on the specific problem or problems that you propose to address. This is done by putting together a problem statement that describes the factors that caused you to apply for grant funding. You should refer to real life examples from your region (but outside your agency) to illustrate and give relevance to the problem. For example, Alaska’s Strategic Plan for CJIS Integration discusses the incident of a Fairbanks man who sexually assaulted and murdered a young boy he was baby sitting. The man had been prohibited from living with children as a condition of community supervision, but key individuals who could have prevented the murder were unaware of the man’s criminal past or correctional supervision conditions.

Problem statements should not:

• Discuss the internal needs of your agency (unless the grant you are applying for is specifically designed to improve agency efficacy).

• Name low funding or a lack of money as the problem.

An effective problem statement describes a problem that impacts the lives of people within the community you serve. Issues such as rising crime rates, homelessness, etc. will help you to capture the attention of your potential funders. Use statistics as well as statements from professionals and community members to support the existence and the severity of the problem in your area.

Properly distinguish between needs and methods. One of the most common mistakes that grant applicants make is failing to properly differentiate between problems and needs and the methods used for solving them. For example, imagine that a probation office is having a difficult time keeping up with its rapidly increasing caseload. To the agency, it might seem like their need is more staff members. Hiring more people, however, is actually a method for solving the real problem (the probation office’s rapidly increasing workload). While it might be a viable solution, it is very unlikely that it is the only solution to be considered.

To prevent yourself from labeling a method as a need, avoid using “lack of” statements. Saying that your agency has “a lack of funding,” “a lack of personnel,” or “a lack of integration” is really just saying that your office lacks the means to solve the underlying problem.

Outline specific goals and objectives. Now that you’ve established the credibility of your agency and the relevance of the problem you want to solve, you need to prove to your potential funders that you will effectively use their funding. This is done by detailing specific goals and objectives that you plan to accomplish with the grant funding that they are offering.

Just as it is important that you are able to distinguish between problems and methods, it is vital that you understand the difference between goals and objectives. Goals are broad statements about what you want to accomplish. Reducing crime, making people feel safer in your community, providing counseling for minors, etc. are examples of goals. Objectives, on the other hand, are specific, quantifiable outcomes of your proposed solution. When you state an objective you are essentially promising a specific change in the situation you outlined in your problem statement.

Objectives should also not be confused with methods. Providing counseling for juvenile offenders in your community, creating a new division of your agency to handle environmental crimes, etc. are methods for solving the stated problem, not objectives. Well-written objectives estimate the amount of benefit that can be expected from your proposed solution. “The number of repeat juvenile offenders will decrease by 15% over the next three years,” or “arrests relating to domestic abuse will increase by 7% by the end of the year,” are examples of objectives.

When putting your objectives down on paper, it is essential that you don’t simply make numbers up in order to look impressive or sound like you’ve done your homework. Such an approach is dangerous for a number of reasons:

• The numbers may be too low. If similar programs have experienced much higher success rates your initiative will end up looking very unimpressive.

• The numbers may be too high. While you want to look impressive, you don’t want your objectives to appear unrealistic or unattainable.

• The numbers may make you look like uninformed. If your numbers are unimpressive or unattainable, any credibility that you have established with the potential donors up to this point will instantly be erased.

Discuss your preferred method for solving the problem. Describe in detail the combination of activities and strategies that you would employ to achieve your goals and objectives. Discuss how you will utilize your staff and when the program will be implemented. State your short-term and long-term action plans, providing a timetable and detailing major milestones. Be sure to outline specific performance benchmarks, as donors will want a way to confirm that you are delivering on your promises. Define both tangible (time and dollar savings), and intangible (increased public confidence) indicators of success.

Compare alternatives. Justifying your proposed solution requires you to know something about similar programs and the approaches that they adopted. Detail alternative approaches to your solution that have been tried in the past and are being tried now as well as their results. Compare each of the alternatives to each other and discuss why you selected the preferred solution.

Outline a budget.Preparing a budget is a crucial part of any grant application. Some potential costs that you should address in your budget include:

• Staff salaries. The amount of funding needed to cover an individual’s salary can be determined by multiplying their yearly pay by the amount of time they will be dedicating to the project. For example, if a staff member earns $40,000 a year and will be spending 50% of their time on the project, their line item salary charge will be $20,000.
• Travel expenses. This includes transportation, lodging, meals, etc.Supplies and materials. This includes office supplies and nearly any other expendable item necessary to the operation of your program.
• Equipment. Detail where you plan on purchasing equipment, what brands you plan on purchasing and how you will utilize your newly acquired resources.

Summarize your case. While summaries are included on the first page of grant applications, it is important that you write this section last. As this will likely be the first thing that a potential donor will read, it should be clear, polished, concise (it shouldn’t take more than thirty seconds to read) and specific. A good summary communicates:

• Who you are.The problem that you wish to address.

• What you wish to accomplish and how you plan to accomplish it.

• The timeframe for your program.The cost of your program and how much you’re requesting.

• Why you’re approaching this funding source.

• How much you’ve invested in the project.

Customization and Delivery

Each grant application should be customized to the donor. Choosing the most effective tactic for each audience is the key to your success. For example, the best way to make your proposal stand out to an elected official is to tailor your business case to address their policy priorities.

Be sure to read carefully through the funding source’s Request for Proposal (RFP) and make sure that you clearly understand their intent in providing money. Do not deviate from any of the RFP’s documented mandates, as this will greatly increase the chances that your application won’t be considered. Mimic the language of the RFP throughout your proposal. For example, if the RFP states that “the purpose of this grant is to decrease the production of methamphetamine” your objective should read something like “this project will decrease the production of methamphetamine by….”

Conclusion

While funding sources may seem limited, by carefully crafting a persuasive and well-reasoned proposal for your initiative you can secure the necessary funding to make your agency’s vision into a reality.