Rural Grant Writing

Teryl Eisinger, MA

Director

Stephanie Hansen

Education Coordinator

National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health

Why write a grant?

• There’s a lot of grant money out there – you might as well have some too!

• You need the money to pay salaries or buy equipment or make sure your program doesn’t shut down!

• Only one GOOD REASON

“There is a problem and you have a passion, a plan and some existing capacity to fix that problem.”

Be a M.O.M!

Getting organized

• 13 Questions to ask yourself

• The concept

• Organizing your consortium/team

Getting organized to write a grant

• Have a concept – What is the problem?– What do you want to do about it?

Services to be provided

– Who will do it with?Structure, responsibilities,expertise

– When will you do it?Steps to be taken

– How will you track your victory?– How much will it cost?

Concept paper

The job isn’t

started

until the

paperwork is done!

Organizing the team

• Players know the objective• Know the rules • Everyone has a position

– Conductor/Editor– Writer(s)– Support staff– Accountant– Evaluator– Reader– Sender

A word about consortiums

Time and commitment

Distinct roles

fiscal

service provider

target population

All participate and benefit

Talk to the funder

• Find the right contact

• Overview your concept

• Given this concept AND our background does this sound like a fundable project?

• Listen

Building Block #1 Statement of need

• You MUST be able to state your need …

Statement of need – what is the problem?

• Target population– General demographics community description

• What is their need?– Health status, incidence etc…

• What is the cause?– Risk factors

Sources of data

Needs assesments

Federal, state and county data

Provider data

Interviews

Focus groups

Community meeting

Literature review

Steal other people’s stuff - and credit them!

data, model programs, policy briefs, bibliographies, funded projects etc…

Budget Plan for how you will spend money to address the need.

• What is a budget? • Reviewers should be able to read the budget and

know what you plan to do and that you have the project management capacity to do it.

• Two parts– Budget form – rows and columns of numbers– Narrative or justification

• What will funds be used for • How was the cost calculated• What is important about funding this expense

Basic budget components

• Personnel– Salary and fringe

• Contractual– What – where will you “farm out”?– Partner deliverables?– How will contractor be selected if not “named”?

• Travel – cite your travel policy or gsa • Equipment – is it allowed – how is it defined?• Supplies – things that are expendable• Operating - routine expenses to operating the project• Other – be cautious about catch all

Additional budget components

• Indirect• “Match”

In – kind

Cash • Administrative

Budget narrative

• Lead sentences“Funds of ___ are requested to support a .50 FTE program

manager to oversee all aspects of the program including service delivery, consortium relations and ensuring all reporting requirements are met.”

“$___ in matching funds for personnel is provided by an in-kind contribution from the Smith county public health department. “

Budget strategy

• Check in with partners early!• How much detail is necessary?• Can you request equipment? • What about indirect? • What are your administrative costs?• Can I/should I pad the budget?

Project Plan What are you going to do to address the need?

“Goals and objectives”

“Timeline”

“Methodology”

“Logic model “

Writing Goals & Objectives

• Get ready – Review your problem statement

• Get set – Review your “solution”

• Go – Write what you want the results to be

Goals and objectives

• Goals are “General”

• Objectives tell about the “Operation”

SMART objectives

Specific – Is it clear?

Measurable – What can you measure/observe?

Achievable – Is it doable?

Relevant – Will it do what we think we should accomplish

Time frame – In what time period will the objective be accomplished?

Goals, Objectives, Timelines & Methodology

Goal: To disseminate information to policy makers, practitioners and community leaders on key rural health issues.

Objective: Plan and convene an annual “day at the legislature” for state of Michigan in January 2012.

Methodology: 1. Select and convene planning committee partners by June 2011.2. Confirm budget and other resources by July 2011.3. Draft agenda approved by September 2011.

Project Evaluation

“A systemic approach of social research procedures”

“To ascertain or fix the value”

OR

SO WHAT?

Project evaluation – key questions

• What is required?

• What is budgeted?

• What do we want to know then that we don’t have now?

3 focus areas of a simple evaluation plan

• Did you do what you said you were going to do? (process)

• What can you count? (outcomes)

• So what? (impact)

Begin with the end in mind

Goal: To disseminate information to policy makers, practioners and community leaders on key rural health issues.

Objectives:

Process Outcome Impact

Project evaluation plan narrative

• Who’s responsible – data collection, reporting, monitoring?

• Data collection – what, how, when?• Monitoring/correction

– Reporting– Information dissemination– Decision making

Evaluation – lead sentence

“The project will be evaluated by systematically examining and collecting data on process, outcomes and impacts of the project activities.”

Project narrative – pulling all the pieces together for success!

• Write for the reviewers

• Writing – right

• Important pieces

Project narrative – write for the reviewers!

• What is an “ORC”

• Reviewers are people with history, background, personalities and opinions

• Don’t make your reviewer work too hard to read your grant!

Writing – right!

• Write fast – revise later• Use their outline• Lead sentences to every paragraph• Transitions from one paragraph to the next• Use the same tense throughout • Use their language• Not just the facts – rationale, benefits, models• Format to use white space • Format to put your application at the top of the pile

How to find grants - Types of grants

• Challenge grants• Demonstration grants• Planning grants• Program development grants• General purpose or operational grants• Capital grants

How to find grant funds

• Read - periodicals and the news

• Network - with other organizations

• Search and re-search - Federal Office of Rural Health Policy- Rural Assistance Center

- Guidestar

What to do after you write the application

• Write thank you notes!

• Look for other sources of funds.

• Build your grant library.

Next steps

• What will you do when you get home?

• Consider the NOSORH Grant Writing Institute

• Stay in touch!

Teryl Eisinger, MA Director

teryle@nosorh.org

Stephanie Hansen, Education Coordinator

steph@nosorh.org