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This week’s theme is addressing common areas of “going overboard” in a grant. The first area we’ll explore is the needs statement.
Many people who work in nonprofit organizations that offer services in the community are very aware of their community’s needs. In serving communities each day, every need is important and it can seem that every organization activity is equal. But, for a grant, only the needs that directly relate to the program you are proposing are relevant.
If you keep going on and on about all of the needs within your community, you likely will make the grant reader respond in one of two ways: fatigue or hopelessness. The reader could feel burdened by your application from the start, or, with an extended statement describing how in need a community is, the reader might feel that the problem is insurmountable. Both of these reactions result in your application being dead in the water.
It takes a lot of discipline to determine needs that should be stated in a proposal; all needs are important in the grand scheme of things, but only some are important enough to be mentioned in your application. So, to best help you get the funding you need to remedy the needs your program will serve, here are a few guidelines to streamline the composition of your needs statement:
-Who: Identify those who will benefit from your project. If you are planning a program that will offer after school physical education opportunities for students in grades 7-9, describe the demographics of the students, the schools they attend, and the community they live in. Give the reader an adequate picture of who will benefit from this service, but avoid giving too much unnecessary detail.
-Focus: If you have identified a need that your program will not directly serve, get rid of it. If your program will not reduce crime or increase test scores, then do not mention high crime rates or low test scores. All needs presented in the needs statement should translate directly to goals and objectives that your program will meet.
-Prove it: Make sure that every relevant need you present has research to support it. Use data. Depending on the identified need, local and national data may need to be included. This data helps further establish that your community needs align with the type of need the funding agency would like to address.
-Give hope: By not making the needs insurmountable, you have set yourself up to present an attainable solution to meeting them. Only briefly describe your solution, as you will have more room in the activities section to ensure each program activity is linked to meeting a need (as well as project goals and objectives).
That should be it. No more, no less.
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