Applying What You've Learned 175 . be based on your individual (or team) preliminary research and should be documented with footnotes. Methodology. How will you accomplish your stated goals? Outline your plan for the project in a coherent and organized way, empha- sizing what makes your approach stand out as well as what makes it achievable. What specific activities will you undertake to achieve your desired objectives? Who from your organization will be involved? Convince your reader not only that your project is a great idea, but that you have a clear and comprehensive plan for implementing it. • Other funding sources. Make reference here to the $28,000 that, as noted earlier, you have already raised to support your project (and state again the additional amount of funding needed from the New Horizons Foundation). Also include an overview of the total funding needs of the project. • Summary. Close by quickly summarizing your project goals and by offering to provide any additional information needed (provide a contact name, address, and e-mail). Thank your readers for their consideration. Conclude, as you would in any formal letter, with a “sincerely” and your name/signature. Further help on this project. Grant Space provides a reasonably good sample letter asking the Blue Ridge Foundation to support internships for at-risk inner-city youth. To view this letter, visit grantspace.org and enter “Blue Ridge Foundation” in the search field. You might also want to refer to the student-generated letter of inquiry that appears at the end of this chapter (see page 198). APPLICATION 7-E Write a Grant Proposal The background. At its core, this project, presented as a team activity, is about obtaining funds to support a worthwhile goal. Many organizations, whether nonprofit or for-profit, raise money through investors and donors. For example, arts organizations usually survive because of their successful grant proposals and donor solicitations; science faculty in research universities engage annually in raising funds to continue their research projects; private businesses turn to investors to support new- product development; and entrepreneurs seek investors for their start-up companies. Your writing a grant proposal will enhance your skills in researching the evidence to support a financial request and in making a compelling case for your professional aspirations. In this application, your team is a nonprofit organization seeking a grant from the New Horizons Foundation for a worthwhile philanthropic Applying What You've Learned 179 • Executive Summary (2 pages). The Executive Summary provides a succinct overview of your organization's history and successes, the goals of your current nonprofit project, the methods you will use to address the identified problem or issue, and the basics of the budget needed for the project to be successful. The Executive Sum- mary must be focused and engaging, or busy reviewers might not read the rest of your proposal! (For an example of an Executive Summary, see pages 205–7.) • Problem or needs statement (5 to 7 pages). This section must be especially rich in supporting research. With the aid of available data, expert testimony, and anecdotes, define the problem or need you are addressing. What exactly is the problem, need, or shortfall that your project will address? If you are, for example, planning to help a certain group of people, specify such demographic details as their ages and ethnicities, where they live, their interests, their socioeconomic standing, and so on. Don't define the target need or population so broadly that the problem seems insurmountable. • Program or project description and methodology (5 to 7 pages). This section, too, will require a good deal of research, along with a lot of creative and logistical thinking. The creative aspect is your ability to think of ways that might truly remediate the problem you have defined. The logistical thinking shows that you have weighed all the practical steps and methods needed to address the problem successfully. In other words, how would you actually make “X” happen if you had the funds you are requesting? • Means of evaluating the project's success (2 to 4 pages). A grant organization wants to know what measures you will use to demonstrate that your program is actually working—that is, hav- ing the desired impact. The foundation wants to see accountability to be sure it is getting its money's worth. You should include a pro- jected time line for your reporting of results (perhaps in defined increments at the end of each year for a three-year period). • Budget with a narrative explanation, and your plans for future funding (2 to 3 pages). To construct a realistic budget, don't just guess about costs; rather, do some research on the costs of facili- ties you will need, of advertising the program, of supplies and services needed, of staff salaries, and so on. You will quickly find that the maximum you might have available for your program ($128,000) won't stretch as far as you would like. If this proves to be the case as you construct the budget, adjust the size and cover- age of your program proposal to fit the financial constraints. It's better to devote sufficient resources to a more limited program than to obtain mediocre results with a large, underfunded 178 CHAPTER 7 | More Complex Business Writing Projects International understanding Weekly reading and discussion groups concerning the United States and the world Community service Free (or low-cost) handy-person and painting services for the elderly or disabled . The audience. You are writing to people who are committed to philan- thropy but who also need to see substantial evidence that you have iden- tified an important need in your community and have devised an effec- tive and affordable plan to meet that need. You will need to persuade the reviewers at the NHF through the factual and anecdotal evidence you provide, through your creative and sensible solution to the issues identi- fied, and through the clarity, coherence, and storytelling power of your writing The communication strategy. With any grant proposal, you are com- peting with a number of other worthy organizations for funding. To dis- tinguish your request from those of other petitioners, you will need to provide research-based evidence and compelling anecdotes that show the need for your nonprofit project, offer creative solutions for addressing this need, and produce a document that is clear and well designed. Contents of the grant proposal. There is no single format used in all grant proposals, but the sections described below offer an effective approach to the overall structure: • Title page (1 page). Design an attractive and informative title page that includes the purpose of the proposal, the sender (your organization's name), the recipient (the New Horizons Founda- tion), and the date of submission. • Cover letter (1 page). Sometimes called a “transmittal letter,” this document uses a standard letter format, with the recipient's name and title and the foundation address. The cover letter states, suc- cinctly, why your proposal meets the goals of the New Horizons Foundation as announced in its RFP. The letter also briefly defines your nonprofit project and the amount of funding you are request- ing. The leader or facilitator of your team should sign the letter and provide contact information for your organization. • Table of contents (1 page). This page should designate the major sections of the proposal and the page on which each section begins. Your goal is to make it easy for readers to navigate through the document. Applying What You've Learned 177 • Pay close attention to creating a document design that makes the proposal visually appealing and easy for readers to follow. The purpose. Your purpose in writing this grant proposal is twofold: fir to demonstrate your creative thinking and research skills as you invent a worthwhile and feasible nonprofit project; second, to use your reasoning and research capabilities to devise a plan of action (with atten- dant financial costs) that will persuade the NHF to fund your project. To stimulate your thinking, here are some possible nonprofit project ideas for you to consider. You may develop one of these ideas or move entirely in your own direction. Education • Computers on wheels: an info-technology bus for school neighbor- hoods (after school) • Free, after-school, online tutoring for junior-high and high school students offered by college students Literacy project for adults (especially linked with jobs and careers) Energylenvironment • Solar-energy advising for homeowners and small businesses Animals • Pet-care assistance and information on pet care for the elderly • Pet-care or adoption services for pets stranded after storms or other disasters The arts • A service that allows individuals to borrow original works of art (and reproductions) for temporary display in their homes Health • After-school healthy eating workshops (and nutritious food prep) for junior-high students Economic concerns • Job-search counseling for the unemployed and underemployed • University-based workshops for students regarding personal bud- geting, savings and investment, use of credit cards and loans, and other personal-finance issues 176 CHAPTER 7 | More Complex Business Writing Projects project. (See this foundation's RFP on page 173.) As part of this project, you have been asked to write a preliminary letter of inquiry to the foun- dation (as described in Application 7-D), and your instructor might also require draft stages for the full grant proposal. Here are the underlying sumptions and ground rules for this application: • You have been part of an established nonprofit group for five years and have one or more successful projects or activities that you can briefly describe to the NHF as you make your case. • You have already raised $28,000 for your current proposal to the NHF. (You should research actual, relevant donor groups to name in connection with this information.) • You can request up to $100,000 from the NHF, meaning that you could have a total of $128,000 to pursue your philanthropic goals. • You mus be able to show the NHF how you will develop and sus- tain your proposed project over at least three years after receiving funding. Please note that in this activity you are writing a hybrid version of an actual grant proposal, one that prepares you for the real-world applica- tion process and that also responds to the academic goals of your college or university: • Some real-world grant proposals can be as brief as 1 page or as long as 100 pages, though the typical length is approximately 5 to 10 pages. The proposal created by your team should be 20 to 30 pages, single-spaced, in order for each team member to make sig- nificant research and writing contributions to the project. • Your grant proposal should be rooted in and supported by research; you are required to use footnote citations and to include a Works Cited (bibliography) section as well. This research expectation might be more rigorous than in some real-world proposals. (For more details on creating a Works Cited section, see page 180.) • Your grant proposal should provide a narrative explanation of the projected budget that relies less on the numbers themselves and more on your written analysis and explanation of what these num- bers demonstrate. (For a good example of this type of narrative, refer to the Budget section we've excerpted from a student grant proposal; see pages 210–13.) • You must include at least four graphics in your grant proposal to help make your case to the NHF. (For more information, see the suggestions on “Incorporating Visual Materials into Your Text” that appear in Chapter 4, pages 93–96.)