tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2 2008-08-18T00:34:31Z Movable Type 3.33 tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1176 2008-08-18T00:23:25Z 2008-08-18T00:34:31Z

The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the "dog days" of summer as the forty days beginning July 3 and ending August 11. Hopefully the hottest days of summer are now behind you and you are winding down your summer break. In...

Gary Carnow carnow The Old Farmer's Almanac lists the "dog days" of summer as the forty days beginning July 3 and ending August 11. Hopefully the hottest days of summer are now behind you and you are winding down your summer break. In these last few days or weeks before you return to the traditional school year (depending upon your fall start date), now is a good time to get organized for writing grant applications. The Grant Guru column will resume in mid-September. In the meantime, re-read some of the posted tips. There are thirty-eight articles for you to go through or catch up on. As you re-read, feel free to post any questions you may have. I will answer your questions in September. For those of you who don't go back until after Labor Day, enjoy the time left with your friends and family. Find the time to do something good for yourself too! tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1151 2008-06-08T20:44:27Z 2008-07-07T23:58:07Z

This series of tip sheets has been devoted on how to best write a winning proposal. Tips #1 to #37 will give you a great deal of detail to the various facets of the grant proposal process. I encourage you...

Gary Carnow carnow Step One: Find. Apply. Succeed. – Grants.gov As we focus on government grants, your first stop should be http:/www.grants.gov. Grants.gov is a clearinghouse for information about over 1,000 federal grant programs. The federal government grants approximately $400 billion dollars of grant awards each year. The Grants.gov website receives over 1.5 million visitors a week and distributes more than a million weekly emails to subscribers of its grant bulletins. The website lets you search grant opportunities on-line. The website is best described by its three-word byline: “Find. Apply. Succeed.” The federal government provides grants from 26 federal agencies in various categories. You will find a link on Grants.Gov website to the various grant-making agencies. One such agency of course, is the U.S. Department of Education (http://www.ed.gov). The 26 federal grant-making agencies offer grants in 21 categories. Included in these categories are Arts, Education, Science and Technology, as well as 18 other categories. From Grants.Gov you can link directly to many of these programs. Additionally, consider joining the EDInfo Mailing List. Go to http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/edinfo/index.html for information on signing up for one to two email messages a week describing federal teaching and learning resources and ED funding opportunities. Archives dating back to 2001 are also available so you can look at previous opportunities. Step Two: Some Organizations Worth Checking Out NGMA The National Grants Management Association (NGMA) does not award grants however provides its members with conferences and printed resource materials. You will find them at http://www.gma.org. The Foundation Center The Foundation Center’s website helps you locate grantmakers in your field, search their databases to see what is getting funded, and connect to help. You can easily lookup organizations and check statistics. The Grantsmanship Center, located in Los Angeles and on the web at http://www.tgci.com/ was the first center ever to offer a grantsmanship training program. The Center was founded in 1972 by Norton J. Kiritz, the author of Program Planning and Proposal Writing, the most widely read publication in nonprofit history. The center conducts over 150 workshops annually in grantsmanship training. The Grantsmanship Center boasts a roster of more than 110,000 alumni, of which I am a proud member. New to their website are a variety of podcasts which will be of high interest to any grantseeker. Step Three: Some of My Favorite Websites Visit http://www.grantwrangler.com to lasso your next grant. This website provides a free bi-weekly email update on the latest K-12 school and teacher grants. You can subscribe to their free eNewsletter and a blog of recent articles. Grant Wrangler will keep you in the loop of what is available. Web English Teacher, http://www.webenglishteacher.com, was founded by teacher Carla Beard. Although her career started in 1975 in the era of purple ditto masters, today she hosts a web site where beginning teachers can find guidance and experienced teachers can find inspiration. She calls it a “faculty library and a faculty workroom” on a global scale. A section of the site is devoted to grants, where to find them and how to write them. Check out the grants page at http://www.webenglishteacher.com/grants.html. I also recommend that you check with your local educational agency, county office of education or state department of education. These institutions often create websites, grant newsletters, and other publications of specific interest to your local agency. For an example, take a look at the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Technology Assistance Project website for Grants and Funding at http://ctap.lacoe.edu/content/Grants_and_Funding. ]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1143 2008-05-26T04:27:47Z 2008-05-26T04:29:13Z

Well-planned partnerships lead to excellent program results. Partnerships take time to develop and must be nourished and tended. For a partnership to be valuable, both parties must prosper. Look for ways to meaningfully involve your partners and jointly celebrate your...

Gary Carnow carnow Well-planned partnerships lead to excellent program results. Partnerships take time to develop and must be nourished and tended. For a partnership to be valuable, both parties must prosper. Look for ways to meaningfully involve your partners and jointly celebrate your successes. Existing partnerships are valuable at the time you seek grant funds. Larger grants want to see an appendix that may ask you to include letters of support. In your narrative and in your budget, you may make reference to a specific partner and what they will bring to your grant implementation. These citations in your proposal need to have a letter of support that speak directly to what your partner will provide. A partner may provide a variety of ways that will enrich your program, for examples: guidance through serving on an advisory council; specific resources such as hardware, software, or office supplies; office space; expert consultants; training or perhaps desktop publishing services. You often must assist your partner in preparing the letter of support. The letter should be written on letterhead, signed with an original signature and should contain three major points. First, the letter should confirm support for the proposed project. Second, describe the nature of your partnership. Has the partnership been recently formed or has it been existence for many years? What benefits do each of the collaborating partners gain by being a part of the partnership? Third, the letter should describe the kind of support, if it is cash, what amount? If it is a product or service, what is the actual value? Work far enough in advance so that you do not have to attach a faxed letter of support. The letter of support is read and scored as part of the entire grant evaluation process. The common sense test applies; will the described partnership enhance the project and provide the grantee with a good chance of project success? With a simple web search, you will find examples of partnership letters for many grant projects. In addition to letters of support from new or existing partners, it is not unusual to also include letters of support from community leaders that further enhance the validity of your program need. Describing ways that others in the community are willing to support the project provides the reader with additional assurance that your plan is well thought out. In asking others for letters of support, I like to meet with my collaborators face-to-face. I bring an abstract of what I am attempting to do and solicit their input and possible support. If a potential partner/collaborator is willing to assist, then I ask for the formal letter of support, not to exceed one page. I often give the collaborator a tip sheet for completing the letter. These include items such as the content, time constraints and format of the letter. I spell out the content by asking the partner to include the confirmation of support, description of the partnership, and the specific level of support (goods or services). Their commitments must be directly linked to the narrative in the proposal and in the program budget. I provide the letter writer with the name and address of whom the letter should be addressed. I ask that it go on letterhead; that it be more specific than generic; and I ask for an original signature. I arrange for the letter to be mailed to me in time for me to include it in my proposal and I provide a large envelope with postage. If time is tight, I ask when I can pick up the letter. Take the lead early in your grant process. A letter of support is not difficult to do; it is however, just one more thing for both you and your potential partner to do. How many letters do you need? You should get a letter of support from every formal partner and any organization that you have identified as a collaborator. Letters that provide support are often extraneous and you can attach them to your proposal as you see fit. In all cases, you must check the request for proposal instructions carefully and follow the page limits for attachments. For federal grants, letters of support from you local congressional representatives may or may not be appropriate. Meet with one of your representative’s field personnel to determine if this is feasible for your particular project. tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1138 2008-05-19T02:02:23Z 2008-05-19T02:09:13Z

My four fundamental rules apply whether you are looking for a grant, a gift, or a partnership (see tip #35). Following the four rules will assist you in writing winning proposals and in developing meaningful partnerships. As a quick review,...

Gary Carnow carnow Winning proposals and pitches require you to be able to: • Tell what kids are going to do. I can’t emphasize this enough. Be specific. What exactly is your program? Who will benefit and how will they benefit? How will you know you’ve made a difference? What are some of the milestone events that will take place? • Gain the support of all stakeholders involved. I like to begin any project with the support of my colleagues, especially administrators. Administrators are the “angels” out there that will give your program "wings." I recommend that you read Guy Kawasaki’s book Selling the Dream, for a complete discussion on what it takes to gain the support of others to your cause. Getting people on board sometimes opens the doors to other funding. • Make a realistic plan of action. What will you do first? How will you “market” your program? Is the timing right? Is your local community supportive or are there other issues that dominate at this time? Create a timeline. • Gain additional support for your program. Will you put plaques on donated computers? Create a school donor hall of fame? Find a business to match gifts over a certain amount? • Think big and finance creatively. Where is it that you really want to go? How will you get there? Do you have a plan? Is the plan flexible? Have others bought into the plan? Remember, with technology changing at such a rapid pace and the cost to implement on a wide-scale basis generally out of reach of most schools, you will more than likely be adding pieces to your plan incrementally. Some of what you will do may depend on gifts; other parts might come from general funds, fundraisers, grants, and one-time money. • Be succinct; be able to get to the essence of what you are trying to do. This will assure that funders realize that you know what you are doing. You know the road that you want to take and your car is full of gas and ready to hit the road. Partnerships Some grants require you to partner with outside entities. Sometimes these partnerships are with other school districts or with institutes of higher education. Your particular proposal might include a partnership with a local social service agency, mental health agency or law enforcement. Some grants specify that you must purchase certain services from outside agencies. This is very common especially for evaluation services. No matter what kind of partnership you pursue, its good practice to iron out the details up front and preferably in writing. Developing partnerships takes time, patience and connections. Take the time to learn about how you might benefit from creating a partnership. The Federal Government’s publication “A Guide to Promising Practices in Educational Partnerships” is archived and available for download on the web at <http://www.ed.gov/pubs/PromPract/index.html>. The Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education developed this document in 1996. The guide grew out of the documentation and evaluation of its educational partnerships program. It also serves as a good example of sustainability. Even though the projects are no longer funded, the lessons learned in the projects can live on. By reading through the document you will learn some of the key practices of stakeholders involved in an educational partnership. If you are interested in partnerships that include a coalition of arts, education, business, philanthropic and government organizations, be sure to check out the Arts Education Partnership website at <http://www.aep-arts.org>. You will find a rich resource of information and ideas for pursuing grants and educational partnerships in the arts. Similarly, the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sponsors a Partners in Education website, along with information on what makes successful partnerships. You can find more information at <http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/partners>. Searching the web will help you find a number of examples and sources for partnerships in not only the arts, but in the sciences, technology, vocational education and many more areas of interest.]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1134 2008-05-12T04:20:41Z 2008-05-12T04:34:23Z

I had the privilege of playing a small part in last Friday's outstanding Tech Forum: Insight and Innovation for Technology Users in Long Beach, California. The day was well planned and had something for everyone. The vendors who participated were...

Gary Carnow carnow http://www.techlearning.com/events/techforum/west08/. The conference vault will have some of the materials from the day and links to the select vendors posted within the next few days. My part of the program was to host a roundtable discussion. My topic was Finding the Funds, not a bad match for me. I prepared some questions in advance and hoped to share some insight with fellow attendees about the tech grants and the e-rate process. There were many other roundtables to choose from including: eBooks and eReading; Open Source Software in Education; Professional Development Online; Technology Strategies for English Language Learners; Blogging and Podcasting with Elementary Students; Harnessing Multimedia to Make Learning Stick; and Enhancing Student Engagement. I wanted to sit at all eight tables. Additionally, attendees could have also selected a session called Techies, Administrators and Curriculum Folks: Seeing Eye to Eye. My table filled with some interesting people. Having hosted sessions like this before, you never really know how to prepare. It is a discussion, not a presentation. Sometimes I bring a handout to these things, but this year since I have so many tip sheets now posted, I thought I would go green and point people to the website. The discussion that took place was lively and engaging. Over the course of the hour, my table included a technology expert from a District near my own, a former student from one of my college classes, a regional technology staff member, two highly motivated teachers and a principal. As I find in my full-day workshops, people want to know how to find a grant and what will it take to secure by the start of the next school year. My advice to grant-seekers has not changed over the years even though the technologies and the way you research and submit proposals has greatly changed. Let me share with you four fundamental rules. Rule number one, there is nothing like a good plan. With a good plan in hand, you know where you are going. Without a plan, any road will take you somewhere, but not necessarily where you want to go. My second rule works when you have a plan; people will help you with a cause that is locally based and will provide programs and services for their students. I know of four ways to get funds: grants, gifts, fundraising and partnerships. As a parent, I would rather give funds to my own child's school or classroom. As a local business owner, I would be more likely to sponsor an activity in my own town, rather than one a few miles down the road. As a company that may be interested in partnering with your school or school district, you must be able to determine the benefits for all partners. My third fundamental rule is you must clearly state how the funds that you secure will be used. This is your pitch or your one-minute elevator speech. Target your programs so that your donors, partners or grantors will know exactly what you will be doing with their money, goods, or services. In other words, plan, then seek. The easiest way for you to get hardware or supplies for your may be to get it gifted. The people most willing to help your local school are people who directly or indirectly benefit from the services your school provides. Who are some of the people most likely to be interested in helping you local school? Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles are a great place to start. Students are also important resources as well. Does your school have a tradition that each culminating class buys a gift for the school? Have you thought about tracking down alumni, even if you work in an elementary school? Have you thought about local service clubs and nearby business? My fourth fundamental rule is, it pays to advertise. DonorsChoose.org is a website that the New York Times says "addresses a fast-growing trend in contemporary philanthropy, that donors simply want greater control over their gift." My nephew teaches fourth grade in Los Angeles and recently created a proposal for a Fish Tank in the Classroom. If you have enjoyed these tips sheets over the last few months, consider making a small donation to his cause. You can learn more at http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=180876. There are a number of other sites like DonorsChoose.org; for example check out www.fundraising.com, www.firstgiving.com, and www.classroomwishlist.org. My four fundamental rules apply whether you are looking for a grant, a gift, to fundraise or form a partnership.]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1127 2008-05-04T23:33:47Z 2008-05-04T23:37:25Z

Your developed budget usually is placed on a budget form provided for you in the Request for Proposal (RFP). Most budget forms list the various categories of direct costs and a line item for indirect costs. Sometimes these kinds of...

Gary Carnow carnow Your developed budget usually is placed on a budget form provided for you in the Request for Proposal (RFP). Most budget forms list the various categories of direct costs and a line item for indirect costs. Sometimes these kinds of forms separate the amount requested and place a separate column for amount supported by your local educational agency (LEA) or other sources. For example, in your plan, the project director's salary might be split half from grant sources and half as "in-kind" support from your LEA. Perhaps supplies to complete the project will be donated from several local sources. These would also become "in-kind" support. Some budgets leave space for you to add a comment. The grant RFP/directions may instruct you to provide a line-item description and/or justification for each expenditure in every budget category. So instead of saying one project director, you would elaborate by saying one project direct and include some detail. This line item detail helps clarify your expenditures. This detail may include the percentage of a full time equivalent the director will work, the number of days or hours working on the project, and perhaps a daily or hourly rate. Likewise, instead of just saying materials and supplies, your line item detail might list major categories such as printing costs, software licenses, cost of books, binders, paper, and toner cartridges. Each item would appear on a separate line. The more complete the detail is, the better. For example, instead of "travel costs, $600"; it is better to state, "travel, per diem, $150 per day for two days times two trips." Some grants limit your expenses in certain areas. It is not uncommon to see in an RFP something like this, "note, the costs for computers, furniture, equipment and capitol expenses are not allowed." Equipment is usually defined as an expense greater than $500 and is the kind of an item that you could place an inventory tag on. For example, a $100 ink-jet printer would be a supply. So would a $600 video card. A video projector costing $800 would be equipment. Some proposals require you to fill out a series of budget forms. The directions often state your task as follows. Provide a budget and a budget narrative for the first two years of the grant for all sites; include, as appropriate, salaries, benefits, books, materials, supplies, services and other operating expenditures, travel and capitol outlay to be acquired with grant funding. Provide a description of each object of expenditure in sufficient detail to give grant readers a complete picture of how monies will be allocated. A recent grant I completed went even further and asked the writer to account for how a minimum of 25% of the total amount of the grant was allocated for high-quality professional development. Let me show you how this works. For a regional consortium grant that I wrote several years ago, I placed $202,386 into certificated personnel salaries in year one of a two-year grant. My explanation (line item detail) included the following: (1.) XYZ School District is the LEA for the project which includes the following four districts: ABC Elementary, DEF Unified, GHI Unified, and JKL Unified. We will contract with MNO School District for the services of the Project Coordinator, 1 FTE, 183 days plus ten additional days at a daily rate of $392.40. This rate is anticipated to rise in year 2 of the project due to salary scale adjustments and/or cost of living adjustment. (2.) In year one, $36,000 pays for $2,000 stipends to the 18 coach/mentors involved in the project. $22,000 will be used for sub-days for professional development and $55,500 will pay for extra duty pay for staff development. In year two, $36,000 will go for coach/mentors, $18,000 for sub days for professional development and $30,000 for extra duty pay. Here is a second example for a proposal involving two school districts. For Certificated Salaries, ABC is the LEA and fiscal agent for the consortium of two school districts, ABC Unified (4 middle schools) and DEF Unified (1 middle school). The project will hire one project coordinator (1 FTE) for the first year of the grant. Personnel costs include: a project coordinator’s salary (estimated at $85,000 for a teacher on special assignment for a 185 day work year plus 10 extra days for year one; a stipend for each project coach/mentor (two per site, $2,000 per year per person, for a cost of $20,000 in both years one and two); substitute days, approximately 150 for professional development ($15,000 a year for both years one and year two); and extra duty pay of $25,000 in year one and year two ($5,000 per site, each year) for project activities at established districts rate (currently $32.00 per hour). The second form in both of these grants asked for a budget narrative. Because my detail was so complete, I simply recapped some of the early provided material. This is how I handled this second form. "The budget form presented the overall consortium budget and each school budget as well as a project coordination budget. The explanations detail the expenditures on each page. This form recaps some of the previously presented material." I then went on to recap the major points. Most grants however, will have only one budget form and the RFP will ask you to highlight the budget within the narrative. This section is known as the budget narrative. tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1123 2008-04-28T05:09:16Z 2008-04-28T05:11:17Z

Let's look at some nuts and bolts of the budgeting process. There are some simple steps you can follow to assist you in developing your budget. First, read the RFP to carefully determine the time period of the proposal. How...

Gary Carnow carnow Let's look at some nuts and bolts of the budgeting process. There are some simple steps you can follow to assist you in developing your budget. First, read the RFP to carefully determine the time period of the proposal. How many months or years will your budget cover? The RFP may require a line item budget for each funding year. Some staff may need to be funded for 10 months; others may be 11 or 12 months. Build your budget with your ideal plan. If you are to successfully complete each activity, what expenditures will you need to make? As I have said before, I write the budget first. The budget drives what I can do programmatically. Because budgets are living documents and you often need to allow for flexibility and changes in your program plans. Program changes may require changes of budgeting expenditures. As a rule of thumb, most funders allow you to change up to ten percent of any budget category without approval of the funder. The second step is to estimate your expenses. I brainstorm a list of everything I will need. I determine my direct expenses by thinking about what it will take to fund program staff salaries and benefits; supplies, equipment, program-related travel, reprographic charges, and any outside contracts I may need. I next look at indirect costs, sometimes known as overhead. Many programs in your organization often share costs such as electricity, telephones, copier leases, etc. Your organization may charge an indirect rate as a way to recover these indirect costs. Your funder's RFP will give you specific guidelines to follow. In general, the costs must be reasonable and not more than your project's fair share. Work with your fiscal staff to determine how best to handle indirect costs. I use Excel to capture my brainstormed list. This way I can go back and place in a separate column what budget category this expense falls. By sorting on the categories, I have now a simple way to capture everything I need and have grouped these needs by account object codes (1000-1999 - Certificated Personnel Salaries; 2000-2999 - Classified Personnel Salaries; 3000-3999 - Employee Benefits; 4000-4999 - Books and Supplies; 5000-5999 - Services and Other Operating Expenditures; 6000-6999 - Equipment, Capital Outlay; and Indirect Costs). I expand my spreadsheet to include the following headings: Item, Account Object Code, Quantity, Cost, Quantity times Cost, Sales Tax, Shipping and Handling, Total Cost, and Comments. I include a comment category because this is where I write a budget justification statement. Estimating reasonable costs may take several days. For equipment, I generally don't use retail price, but usually use a "street" price. For salaries, I use my district's salary tables and include a 5% raise for each year as a possible cost of living adjustment and possible step or column movement. I take into account similar rises in benefit costs. Work with your district or university's business office. They may already have pre-established spreadsheets that you can use to simplify the calculating of benefits. The third step in developing your budget is to estimate donated goods and services that may be used in your project. Not all costs are paid in cash. Many nonprofits anticipate volunteer time and plan that into their budget. If you have a program computer donated, that reduces the amount you need in your equipment budget. These donated goods and services are known as "in-kind" contributions. Some funders require a certain portion of your budget to include in-kind because this is the way you can demonstrate community support or your agency support for your project. Typically, I list in-kind contributions as both income and expense. If a volunteer contributes $1,000 worth of time, you record this as income and pay out $1,000 as an expense. In some instances, the project you are creating may be funded by more than one source. If you are requesting funds from several foundations, let them know that up-front. For example, you might say, "This project has received a $2,000 commitment from XYZ Corporation." Hence, we are asked your foundation for a grant of $8,000, the balance of support needed to fund this worthwhile endeavor. The final step in budget preparation is to check for sense. Take a close look at your requested budget. Does it make sense? Does it correspond to the activities in your proposal? Do you have any budget red flags? Review the budget through the eyes of your grant reader. What is not clear? What is a possible concern? Cam you accomplish your objectives with the budget you have proposed? tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1116 2008-04-21T01:10:42Z 2008-04-21T01:14:45Z

Now, you are probably thinking what on earth could be fun about writing a budget? To me it is like a game, not unlike chess. Learning how to put a program into dollar terms is a science and an art,...

Gary Carnow carnow What are direct and indirect expenses? Direct expenses are those that are directly related to the project and include staff salaries and benefits, supplies, equipment, contracted services and program-related travel. Indirect costs are simply the overhead costs that your agency will incur by hosting your program. These costs are essential to all programs that your agency provides but tend to be difficult to assign to any one program. For example, your agency has costs associated to the building you occupy and utilities (gas, electric, water, telephones). Some funders (particularly federal and state agencies) will set a maximum allowable percentage for indirect costs. To create a line item for indirect, you total all of your budget costs (except Equipment, Capital Outlay) and multiply it by the set indirect rate of your local agency. These rates change to fluctuate yearly, but a figure around fiver percent is typical in K-12. It will soon be apparent to you why you put a budget together with the use of a spreadsheet. In fact some colleges and universities support their grant seekers with some pretty sophisticated budget templates to use in the preparation of grants. You can find some of these on the web with a search using these keywords "grant budget templates universities." Take a look at the sample provided by Columbia University’s Teachers College. Their Office of Sponsored Programs has posted what they require. It’s a good Excel example of planning for a multi-year proposal, see http://www.tc.columbia.edu/administration/osp/budgeting.htm for details. Next week we will look at the steps in the budgeting process so you have an idea about how to go about this task.]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1113 2008-04-13T00:13:08Z 2008-04-16T00:17:56Z

There are entire books written about the budget process as it relates to grantseeking. This article and the ones that follow in the next few weeks will help you write a winning budget. I've written a lot of grants and...

Gary Carnow carnow 1. Is there a connection among proposed expenditures and needs, goals and strategies? 2. Are types of technologies and the explanation of expenditures defined and justified? 3. Will the Local Educational Agency leverage funds and/or provide in-kind contributions that will enhance the program? As I wrote this section of the proposal, I used the rubric as my outline. In each case I tried to make a strong case for each of the questions. The rubric's highest scores were allotted to the preceding questions as follows: 1. There is a clear and strong connection among proposed expenditures and needs, goals and strategies. Proposed expenditures are reasonable and necessary and will support all program goals. 2. Technologies to be acquired are clearly explained. There is a strong tie between the proposed technology expenditures and the program goals. 3. The LEA will leverage funds from more than one source. In-kind contributions will be provided by the LEA and/or partnerships. The additional funds/contributions will be used to support and enhance the program. Your challenge will be to make sure that you just don't simply restate the question to answer it, but to build a case for each rubric item. Many grantwriters find that when they write a proposal, the budget is thrown together quickly as the deadline looms. This is a huge mistake. Budgets are complex and require research and detail. You will need to consult financial people in your school, district, college or university. You will need to educate yourself about direct and indirect costs, salaries, benefits, contracts, materials/supplies, and equipment. You will need to find out how your agency defines equipment versus supplies. You will also need to learn a bit about the account structure used in your state and how that relates to the grant you are writing. For example, your state may code certain equipment one way and the federal grant you are applying for does so in another way. A final word of caution, the time to learn Excel or the spreadsheet of your choice is not the night before your proposal is due. So, with that said, plan ahead. Budget your time. Refer back to Tip #12 for some tips to help you budget your time. Stay tuned for more next week.]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1105 2008-04-07T03:33:42Z 2008-04-07T03:46:21Z

This week we will explore two evaluation models, the Log Frame Logic Model and the Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), both of which may assist you in writing an evaluation plan. As you become more familiar with various ways to evaluate...

Gary Carnow carnow Log Frame Logic Model A log frame model, known as a logic model, is an evaluation model that incorporates continuous improvement, using the goals and objectives of your organization's work plan. The United Way uses this model extensively and more information can be found at < http://national.unitedway.org/outcomes/resources/mpo/ >. The logic model helps paint a picture of how your program will achieve results. The logic model process works at any point in the life of your program, beginning, middle or end. The process helps you and your organization understand and improve your work. Logic models have you systematically catalogue your resources and your actions that you think you will need to reach intended results. The next step requires you to document any connections among your resources, activities and your expected results. From here, you are able to describe your anticipated results in terms of measurable and specific timed outcomes. However, you do this in reverse. Your first step is to determine the outcomes and your intended results. These outcomes are both short and long term, along with the milestone points where you will measure your progress. The W. K. Kellogg Foundation suggests that outcomes should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic and Timed. For more information, refer to Chapter 2: Developing a Basic Logic Model for Your Program. You can find this on the web at < http://www.publichealth.arizona.edu/chwtoolkit/PDFs/Logicmod/chapter2.pdf >. Additionally, please study the toolkit provided by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation at their website at . Under Knowledgebase you will find a link to Toolkits, then to Evaluation. Here you will find a wealth of knowledge. CBAM The Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) is a framework for measuring and determining how practice has taken hold as a result of project professional development by measuring a series of participant concerns. CBAM was first proposed in Taking Charge of Change by Shirley M. Hord, William L. Rutherford, Leslie Huling-Austin, and Gene E. Hall, in 1987, published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. CBAM has been in use for more than 20 years. CBAM identifies and assess seven stages of concern (awareness, information, personal, management, consequence, collaboration, and refocusing). CBAM helps project planners address where people are and to address their questions prior to having them do what we are asking them to do. For example it is difficult to focus on student learning before teachers are comfortable with strategies and materials. Help over time is crucial as many implementations may take at least three years for early concerns to be resolved. CBAM offers the evaluator a set of tools for understanding and managing change in people. Many projects will not only measure specific SMART outcomes, but may also look to determine the effectiveness of professional development practices. To bring about change that sticks or takes hold it is necessary to support people in the change process. Change is a process, not an event. Change is an experience that is highly personal as participants grow in their feelings (their stages of concern) and in their skill (their personal levels of use). You can learn more about CBAM by reading The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): A Model for Change in Individuals. This article can be found on The National Academies website, a website that acts as an adviser to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. Follow this link < http://www.nas.edu/rise/backg4a.htm >. Additional information can be found on the National Staff Development Council's website at < http://www.nsdc.org >. The article CBAM Brings Order to the Tornado of Change can be found at < http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/horsley194.cfm >.]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1101 2008-03-31T04:51:39Z 2008-03-31T04:56:25Z

Breaking down your project into components will assist you in developing your evaluation plan. As you look at each component of your project you will be able to determine your results. For example, let's say you wish to develop a...

Gary Carnow carnow The ability to write effectively is vital in today's world. Writing is a survival skill in all aspects of K-12 and college instruction as well as an important social skill, enabling communication by email and letter. Writing is a source of voice and empowerment in a democratic society. Writing is a creative mode of self-expression. Writing is a life skill, needed to get a job, perform at a job, and advance. Writing is thinking. Students reflect, analyze and reconsider while they write. However, "in today's schools, writing is a prisoner of time." (The National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, 2003). Writing is increasingly shortchanged in the language arts classroom. Students need frequent practice, opportunities to revise their work and authentic feedback to develop writing skills. The recent National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges reports that students spend three hours a week or less on writing assignments; 15% of the time they spend watching television. The National Assessment of Educational Progress research reports that at grades four, eight, and twelve, about one student in five produces completely unsatisfactory prose, about half meet "basic" requirements and only one in five is "proficient." Middle school teachers understand the need to increase writing frequency and provide writing instruction and assignments so that students develop proficiency; however, the daunting task of correcting 150 papers curtails the number of assignments in any given week. If this sounds like a polished opening to a proposal, it is. This is the opening to a 2.2 million dollar Enhanced Education Through Technology grant that I was awarded and am currently implementing. I use this as an example to illustrate the various components of a proposal that will assist in determining results. For this project, I needed to evaluate the results of the program (on students and staff) and also meet a series of goals. The participant groups includes students, their teachers, and a group of coach/mentors to assist in implementing the program. My student group consists of approximately 4,000 students in grades 6, 7 and 8 in thirteen K-8 elementary schools. The second group consists of approximately 90 language arts teachers at these schools. The third group, is a group of 19 coach-mentors, a subset of the 90 language arts teachers, who will assist in guiding the project. In addition to the participating groups, there are also a series of goals. The first is to increase proficiency in writing. The second is to provide extensive access to computer resources to lower the student to computer ratio. The third goal is to increase communication and collaboration among home, school and community to support and improve student learning. Getting students to write more in grades 6, 7 and 8 require teachers to teach more writing skills, assign more writing and grade more papers. For a teacher with five classes a day, if each student writes one paper a week, the teacher now has over 150 papers a week to read, comment and return. If each paper takes fifteen minutes to score, a teacher would need to find 2,250 minutes or 37.5 hours a week to complete this task. Is it any wonder that students don't write more? This particular project incorporates the student and teacher use of an on-line writing tool known as MyAccess by Vantage. The project provides the use of the prompt-driven, web-based writing environment (Vantage Learning's online writing development tool). Each week (and often more), student writing responses are analyzed and scored with the assistance of Vantage's Intellimetric artificial intelligence-based electronic essay scoring system. Vantage provides immediate instructional feedback allowing teachers to conduct early diagnosis and assign writing more frequently. Each target group and project goal has its own set of intended results. Each project goal has an evaluation plan. The goal to increase writing proficiency is measured by standardized writing assessments, teacher evaluations and intellimetric scoring. To determine the extent that students have access to technology, I choose to look at milestone points in time to compare student to computer ratios. To measure the effectiveness of increased home and school collaboration, my evaluation plan includes opinion data of students, teachers, and parents. As you can see, there is no one way or a right way to do conduct your evaluation and determine results. Grant programs are complex and require you to evaluate component parts. Next week, we will look at two evaluation models to assist you and add to your toolkit of evaluation strategies.]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1094 2008-03-24T03:51:09Z 2008-03-24T04:45:07Z

Planning an effective evaluation begins when you first develop your proposal. As you identify your needs and develop your program goals and objectives, be thinking of how you would answer the following questions: What questions will your evaluation answer? What...

Gary Carnow carnow What questions will your evaluation answer? What are the time frames for each evaluation activity? What kind of data will you collect? When you will collect your data? What will you use to collect your data? Are there any specific instruments you will use in data collection? The data collection methods that you choose will be summarized and briefly described in the beginning of your evaluation plan. Your evaluation plan will make sense if you find the right fit between your selected methods, the questions you want to answer, and the information needs of those that are providing funding. There are several kinds of evaluations that could apply to your program. There are internal and external, as well as national evaluations. Internal evaluations are completed by your project personnel. External evaluations are conducted by someone that your organization has hired as a consultant. Occasionally, national evaluations may be conducted by the grant-awarding agency. National evaluations look at a variety of geographic locations where a particular project has been funded. This evaluation focuses on looking at results across similarly funded projects and organizations. Most evaluation plans you will design will combine elements of internal and external evaluation. Some RFPs will require you to hire an external evaluator (for example a college or university). In these cases, you will determine the cost and have line item budget detail to support your need. When not stated how to do so in the RFP, your organization will need to choose who and how your program is evaluated. Some funders will mandate an evaluation type. In these cases, the cost and evaluator may have already been selected. You simply include the cost as a line item in your budget. This kind of evaluation is common among national projects. When the evaluation type is not spelled out in the RFP, your organization would normally contract with a faculty member or another educational entity. External evaluations are most often completed by faculty from a nearby college or university. As part of your planning process you would negotiate an agreeable cost to include in your budget. Very small grants, for example, under $5,000, usually have less exacting evaluation designs. A small classroom is often evaluated with a simple survey of project staff and students involved in the program. Review the guidelines in the RFP carefully to determine what is required. Educational research is complex and there are many human factors involved in teaching and learning. As tempting as it may be to try comparing groups of students to a particular treatment, ultimately, you will find this to be very difficult. Many external factors make finding equal comparisons groups almost impossible. Additionally you will need to determine if a cause-and-effect relationship takes place. Overall, you may find it easier to collect baseline data and compare with data at future points in time. Think carefully about your baseline data. What kinds of numerical baselines will you use? Do you have a pretest or posttest in mind? Will you be looking for quarterly progress or a one-year follow-up? How will you determine that you implemented your program as planned? Will your evaluator create written reports? Who will the evaluator share the gathered reports with? Your evaluation plan will be strong if you are able to answer questions important to both the grantor and the grantee. What do you and your organization hope to learn, and what does the granting agent hope to learn? Blending the needs of both will create a strong project.]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1091 2008-03-17T04:39:47Z 2008-03-24T03:50:55Z

Evaluation plans tell you and your funder how you will know that your program is working and if not, why not. Good evaluation plans are tightly integrated into the proposal and links the evaluation to your project goals and objectives....

Gary Carnow carnow assessment to mean a measurement tool. If the measurement occurs over a specified time, it is known as a longitudinal study. Evaluators speak of qualitative and quantitative data. The main difference is that qualitative data usually involves the collecting of opinion surveys and anecdotal stories from participants. Quantitative data relies on numbers. Qualitative collects "soft" data while quantitative collects "hard" data. As you carry out your evaluation process, you operationalize your project to meet measurable outcomes. Your level of success is often measured by indicators. As you measure changes due to the result of your program, you are using benchmarks to match points in time. As your project progresses, you use the collected data and indicators to provide continuous improvement. ]]> tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1083 2008-03-10T05:46:47Z 2008-03-10T05:47:59Z

Grant activities are what you do to reach project goals. Well-designed projects have specific objectives that grantees interpret into the who, what, when, where, why and how of the proposal. Request for Proposals (RFPs) usually ask for a detailed plan...

Gary Carnow carnow Grant activities are what you do to reach project goals. Well-designed projects have specific objectives that grantees interpret into the who, what, when, where, why and how of the proposal. Request for Proposals (RFPs) usually ask for a detailed plan of action or action plan. The action plan provides the grantor a blueprint of what you, the grantee will do, and when you will do it. We have already discussed how objectives are the steps toward achieving the goals of the project. Now, your job as grantwriter is to figure out how you will achieve each objective through your grant activities. These plans need to be detailed enough to help the reader understand that you have thought through the steps you will follow. On the other hand, these activities need to be concise enough so that you don't go over your narrative's page limit as specified in the RFP or promise more than you can deliver. Each part of your plan, each activity, is best stated along with information about who is responsible for caring out the task. These action steps often add additional tasks for the people you work with. Before expanding other people's daily responsibilities, it is good practice to bring in high-level administration early on in your project design. In some cases, grant funding may pay for additional help or extra duty pay for current employees. Seek guidance on how to proceed so that you build ownership and community for your project. The culture and readiness of your particular situation will help you determine if this kind of potential change is even possible. Having the perspective of others up-front will save you grief down the road. Murphy's laws will prevail. Nearly everything you plan to do will take longer than you think. Nothing will be as easy as it looks. And every solution will breed new problems. Although Murphy's laws may be credited to events at Edwards Air Force Base in 1949, perhaps, or attributed to one of many other theories, the meaning is not lost here. When you write grants, you have a tendency to throw in as much as possible to build an exemplary solution set for the grantor. In doing so, you must keep asking yourself, will we have time to do this? How long will this activity take? What steps do I take if my actions create unplanned for reactions? The RFP will guide you as to whether your action plan, persons responsible and timeframe go in separate sections or if you can combine them. When allowed, I like to create a table or a grid. This is an efficient way to communicate a great deal of information in a short amount of space. Grids or tables work well because it helps break-up the narrative for the reader. If the grid is particularly complex, turning the page into landscape-mode works well (along with the entire grant), as long as the RFP allows this. Be sure to read the RFP carefully, some RFPs are very prescriptive, even delineating the size of fonts you are allowed to use in a table. Some RFPs may forbid color graphs and charts. Remember that you have a variety of ways to display information in black-and-white, gray-scale shading, and fonts. Make sure that your grantor can easily photocopy your proposal easily. Particularly when using shading, keep it to a light shade so that it is presentable after photocopied. Some processes you may describe just don't work well in a grid. Steps to show continuous planning and improvement cycles are often times better served by diagram. Diagrams lend themselves to circular processes. Whether you choose to use grids or diagrams, do so when they condense your text and make it easier for the reader to see what you are trying to accomplish. The activities you select are best described in terms of students, teachers, and other project participants. As you write your activities, if space permits, give the reader a word picture of what kids will do. This is particularly important for an educational grant. Keep your activities aligned and presented in the order that you have presented your goals and objectives. Keeping this parallel structure throughout your proposal will help the reader better understand your ideas. Next week, we will look at your proposal's evaluation plan. It will be no surprise to you that we continue the same parallel structure. tag:www.techlearning.com,2008:/blog/grantguru//2.1077 2008-03-03T05:12:33Z 2008-03-03T05:15:55Z

If you can write a lesson plan, I believe you can write a grant. Teachers write lesson plans every day. Grants are a lot like lesson plans. A lesson plan states objectives, has objectives, itemizes materials, describes steps, incorporates assessment,...

Gary Carnow carnow If you can write a lesson plan, I believe you can write a grant. Teachers write lesson plans every day. Grants are a lot like lesson plans. A lesson plan states objectives, has objectives, itemizes materials, describes steps, incorporates assessment, and is based on the needs of students. Grants do too. Today's tip will look at the heart of a grant, the part that is most like a lesson plan. At this point in your proposal you have introduced your project idea and have defended the need. Now it's time to spell out what you are going to do. Most Requests for Proposal (RFP) guidelines ask for you to describe your plan in broad statements that we call goals. Goals are the targets we aspire to. Your goals are not necessarily measurable. When I write a grant for a technology-infused program I like to create at least three goals, a student goal, a teacher goal and an over-all program goal. Each goal will have its own set of objectives. Whereas a goal is a broad statement, the objective will describe the program in measurable terms. Objectives describe the program in terms of students and staff and tell the reader how the program will benefit the participants. The outcomes you select will become the basis for your program's evaluation. What will change because of your project? The answers to this question are your outcomes. Now, how will you measure the change? The answer to this question will become your evaluation plan. I like to also include a timeline for meeting the objectives. These points on a timeline are my benchmarks. Each objective should relate to an obtainable and measurable outcome. The art of grant proposal development is to find a balance on what you promise to do to meet the expectations of your funders and at the same time, not over-promise what you can actually pull off. I have noticed that in recent RFPs the term "measurable outcomes" has taken the place of "goals and objectives." Although is not unusual for an RFP to ask for all three, goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes. Depending upon the RFP, goals, objectives, outcomes and timelines may lend themselves to charts within your narrative. The actual activities (for example, what students will do) are covered in the activities that follow your chart or goal/objective narrative. Objectives are what you plan to do and your activities are the steps you take to complete your objectives. Your measurable outcomes are the changes that take place because of your activities. At different points in time, you should plan to collect indicators about how well you are doing in meeting your objectives and it is good practice to mark these benchmarks as milestones. You may wish to do this periodically; at the beginning and the end of the grant period; or at a pre-determined time, for example, quarterly. Your overall timeline will reflect your milestone events. This timeline also becomes your grant schedule, your to-do list, which will guide your program implementation. It will help keep you on track. Knowing what will change and determining how you know the change will take place will lead to an outcome. Let me share with you a part of a grant that I wrote in the mid 1990s. These were the days of bilingual instruction in California schools and this particular school K-8 elementary school was in need of assistance in developing ways for limited English proficient students to access core social studies curriculum. My needs statements for this grant were divided into three parts, for students, for staff and for parents. I listed my needs and followed in parenthesis how I knew this was a need. For example my need for staff was as follows: staff need strategies and skills in social studies instruction with sheltered English and primary language instruction, as appropriate (limited number of language development certified teachers, bilingual program mandates). I created a parallel staff objective to match the need. It read as follows: staff objective (and expected outcome, based on staff need): Staff is trained in sheltered English language techniques to increase students acquisition of the social studies curriculum. Staff commits to integrate technology into units of study to enhance student knowledge and provide anchors for limited English students. Each grade level selects social studies units of study and each teacher commits to enhance the unit with the creation of a technology-infused student project (a HyperStudio or PowerPoint presentation, a video production, or a social studies newspaper, for example). This objective was placed in a chart that went on to list the activities, the person responsible for each activity and a timeline for each activity over the course of the grant project. The evaluation section of the proposal paralleled the structure set-up previously in the need, objective, and activity sections of the proposal. The grant was easy-to-read and score. We were funded for over $20,000 and went on to create wonderful technology projects with our students.