The Grants Scorecard A Simple System for Stronger Proposals

Hi everybody. Hello beautiful people. How's everybody doing on this Super Tuesday? I call it Super Tuesday because it's a sale day and we love sales. We love sales. So, as you're coming in, say hello to me and let me know what do you need in dollar amount for the rest of the year. We're in the final quarter. How much do you need? And I won't say sustain your organization because we're forever, you know, seeking to have funding come in, but give me a dollar amount if you were to you you should I'm not going to say if you were to guess because you probably should know how much you need. We need >> $100,000 to make it to the end of the year. So, hello um Bach Choir of Pittsburgh and Allison and Brandy, Carla, um Carol, Kate, welcome on in. Chris, hello everybody. Um, we're going to start in less than two minutes. So, those of you who've been here before, you know how it works. You're going to get the recording and the slides and the video replay later today. Technology acts right or early in the morning. But I want to know in the chat um from Brandy or Carla, how much See, you guys are thinking I know you're thinking now. Okay, there we go. Dr. Evette, we have been blessed this year and we don't have any needs for the rest of the year. >> What? Very nice. Isn't that awesome? >> Oh, amazing. I love it. I love that means Dr. that you guys have been putting in the work because I know it's work. So, congratulations on that. That's amazing. We're going to start in less than a minute. So, thank you guys if you're just joining us. The question that I asked is how much do you need for the rest of the year to sustain your organization? Hello from Kayla. Kayla, it's good morning or you are. I know people are coming from the north, the south, the east, and the west. Um, a thank you Dr. Tech has been very, very helpful. We appreciate that. We appreciate you being a member and coming here and let us know. We love those moments when you let us know that we're making a difference and that we've been helpful in your nonprofit's life span or life cycle. David said, "Brand, we just started. We have no idea how much we need." Lol. Still learning. Well, you're in the right place, David. Welcome. Welcome on in, guys. Um Adena says, "We have enough for this year. We're just beginning with grants and we want to add that to raising funds for our nonprofit." Very good. Very good. Well, you're in the right place. Carol said, "We're set for this year. Next year, we're starting over." I look I see this I hope this is encouraging everybody who's here because I know that sometimes it's it's shocking to see somebody say, "We're set for the year. We're good." This is good. Right, Alice? Absolutely. It's excellent. Yeah. Yeah. >> Very, very rare. Well, we're at the top of the hour. So, thank you guys for being here. My name is Artha Simmons. Welcome again. I'm going to read this title correct because last time, Alice, I read it wrong and you didn't say anything to me. [laughter] Today, we're talking about the grant scorecard. Listen, you have an expert here. Alice Runky is going to give you some simple system for stronger proposals and she's going to tell you more about the grant station sale. I'm gonna turn it over to you because she needs all this time to take you on in. Have a great webinar, Alice. Thank you. >> Excellent. Thanks, Artha. And thank you all for being here on this Tuesday. Um we are really excited at both Grand Station and Tech Soup today. um because exactly of what Artha had mentioned that um today and tomorrow is our annual Tech Soup sale promo and so these two days only you can get a Grant Station membership for only $119 a year. Um so we always want to make sure that everybody has access to it um and gets uh the gets in on the goodness um before the sale ends. So, it's just again today and tomorrow. If you already have a membership, we'll stack another year onto that membership. Um, so this could be uh really your great time to save in your budgets um because this is the cheapest that we offer Grant Station um at any time of the year. So, this is our biggest promo. So, you can come to us, find those funders that you need um to do the good work that you do. Um but what we're going to talk about today um is about your proposals themselves. Um you maybe joined us in our last session um when we talked more about the kind of finding the right uh funders and and how do we select the right funders and today we're going to spend time on then how do we submit the strongest proposal possible and I have tools for you to use um in a lot of different ways. So we're going to go through this all together today. Um, but one of the things that is challenging just in the the grant sphere, if you will, is that if you took the set of instructions from 10 different funders and you laid them out in front of yourself, and you read them all, you would look and feel like that that 10 funders are asking for 10 completely different things. Um, they have different words that they use. They put everything in a different order. And so one funer might call something a uh a needs analysis and someone else calls it a need statement and someone else calls it a situation analysis. So there's a lot of terminology that makes us think that funders are looking for different things, but in reality they're really looking for the same core components. And so once you kind of know those core components and you can kind of translate the terminology, it really lights a light bulb off in your head when all of a sudden you see that while the terms are different and while you know the headings and orders are different that they're looking for the same things. So, what we're going to talk about today are those core components and how you can improve the different sections as you're writing them. Um, you know, we are in a really tough funding environment right now. Not going to sugarcoat that. We all know that. Um, but uh hopefully through today's webinar, what you're going to learn is how you can write the best application and how you can um you know figure out what the heck it is reviewers are asking for before you write the applications. So, um that's what we're going to do today. So, we're going to walk through a scorecard um that will help you evaluate your different proposals from section to section um and also then kind of do that terminology translation of how again funders are using different terms that mean the same thing. Um so you can start your process you know using my terms um but then you can translate those terms into the what the funer is using. You do always want to use the funers terms, the funers headings, the funers order, all those sorts of things. But at least from this starting point, you're going to see what each section is about, what I'm calling it, other synonymous terms for it, and be able to make that translation across the way funders do things and name things. Um, and then, uh, with the scorecard, there's different ways that you can use it. Um, we have some um uh different different tools that you can use. I'm going to show you those um and how you can then take the results of this and and learn ways to improve your applications before you submit them. So, you're submitting the strongest um proposal possible. So, what the grant score scorecard is, um, you will get a paper version of the scorecard that we're going to go through today, but there's also some AI tools that we have that we've incorporated the scorecard into. Um, so that we've fed a a custom GPT this information. we um added information from very well-written proposals um so that the model learned from the best of the best. Um and so you there's different ways that you can use it, but but what we're going to go through e any way that you choose to use it um it's it's a tool that you can use either by you know reading and evaluating those sections or using different online tools. And you're going to score each section from, you know, weak to strong. Um, and then you can start to identify, okay, you know, quite obviously if this is my very weak section, this is one that I want to prioritize. So, we'll talk about how we, you know, kind of prioritize uh your revisions. Um, and again, a scorecard you can use over and over across different funders because while the language changes, what they're looking for isn't. Um, so we're going to talk about what it is they're looking for and how to make those very strong. So the scale goes from, you know, strong to weak. Um, where in the strong end of everything, it's very well supported. Um, it's exactly what the reviewer wants to see. There's very clear, specific information that answers their questions. Um, if you're not in the strong and you're getting into the middle area, you know, you're doing a good job, but there's either some, you know, layers that are missing, there's some maybe specificity that you might want to put into that to be more um to really let that reviewer know what's going on. Um just another um little little tip before we get into all this, but one of the things that's really important is to treat each application like you are educating the reviewer or the funer about you and treating it as a as a blank learning slate. So, not assuming that they know anything about the need or what you do or how you do it or your organization's reputation, like all those things because they don't know those things. Um, so we really want to make sure that we're really communicating to them all the things that they need to know. Um, then kind of toward towards the, you know, towards the end, there's not enough details. um reviewers are really, you know, keyed in on picking up uh vague information. Um you know, all those sorts of things. They they flag that stuff pretty easily. Um and then all the way down to weak where there's just you didn't answer questions or, you know, you you answered the same question twice but in different ways. um and your application actually starts to kind of undermine your credibility when you're really at that weak end. Um so these are the four, you know, kind of parts of our scale that we'll go through. Um and what we're going to do is go through it's it sounds like a lot. I'm glad we have all the time. Um but these 10 major components um from the organizational background to your needs statement. Um, usually these three things, we'll we'll take these together, but your approach, like what you're going to do, your partnerships, and your work plan are usually kind of packaged into one section. Um, quite, you know, quite frequently, not always, but pretty frequently, these three things go together. Um, then your goals and objectives or your outcomes and indicators. We'll talk about all those terms and your evaluation. Then you have your budget um information on sustainability and then I just have a little bit about kind of writing style. Um so we'll take each one um what is it that the funers looking for? Um and then how do we improve those different sections. So, we're going to start with the organizational background, which is where you're establishing your credibility as an organization. Okay? And with our scorecard, you know, those that are very strong in in the narrative, you have um really demonstrated that you have um success in offering these programs in your community and you can document that success. um really showing that your organization is very strong. Um they can see that you have provided solutions to to things in the past um and that they you know really feel that credibility as an organization. They start to get a little weaker when you haven't evaluated your programs and and been able to determine um that you have, you know, made the changes that you want to change. um or sometimes that you know um you've had some success in some areas but maybe not so much in this area, a funer is going to be able to kind of see through that and see you know where your success lies based on the information that you're giving them. um when you're not providing that evidence of success and you're using statement like statements like you know everyone did very well um you know it doesn't tell the reviewer anything um you know our participants were successful it doesn't tell me anything about you know what how they got better what difference you made right so and then all the way down to kind of uh that week where you don't have a track record of offering a program um you know your organization maybe isn't staffed appropriately or maybe run appropriately with a board and things like that. Um so there's there's our continuum. Um and here's just um with each section here is just kind of that um also known as section. So, I'm calling it an organizational background section, but another funer could say, "Give me an organizational description or an organizational profile or your organization's capacity." Again, they're all using different terms. But what they're really trying to parse out is, do you have the ability, have you done this in the past with a good track record of what what you've done to show me your success in the past? Okay. And and again, don't don't let the terminology knock, you know, knock you out. That's what you're really trying to do. Um is demonstrate that success that you've had in the past. Um, as you're looking at that organizational background, if you find that you're, you know, not on the the strong end of the continuum, some of the things that you can do, um, first off is make sure when you're doing your funding research that you are aligning with the funers priority areas. Um, at Grant Station, if you have a membership to us, you can find those areas that the funer likes to fund that they that they are set out to address. Um, and you really want to key in with them on how, you know, your programs and their, you know, mission and vision overlap. Um, so, you know, making sure that alignment is good. Um, and that starts at the grant prospecting stage. Um, which is where Grant Station comes in. Um, also just kind of understanding the funer, using the funers's language, understanding how they have funded in the past, all that information you can dig out of Grant Station's profiles. So, you get that that idea of um, you know, you wouldn't want to write a proposal to an organization that maybe only gives out um, you know, $2,000 grants when you're looking for $100,000, you know. So understanding the funer, how they fund, looking at their uh giving history, all those sorts of things really helps you make sure that this funding opportunity is good for you. Um, and then as you're writing, these three um, last bullets are about when you're doing your actual writing, being able to demonstrate that you've had the outcomes that you've intended to have with your participants and really telling them with numbers and stories, you know, the difference that you've made in people's lives. as you're writing your entire proposal, you really want to highlight your organization's strengths and put your best foot forward. Um, this isn't a time to be modest and and not want to, you know, brag, if you will, about your organization, this is your time to do that. Um, and if you are a new program or, you know, you're piloting a new, maybe you're a set organization who's piloting a new program, you know, I I think that some of the things that that you really want to talk about if you're piloting a new program, you know, demonstrating that you've you've uh, you know, worked with the target population, you know, and had success or potentially that you've, you know, had success with this program in other areas. and now you want to branch out to a new geographic area or target population. Um, and if you don't have any history at all, I think the way that you're going to want to really talk about this section is really talking about um, you know, what you have brought together, what you have created as an organization and the strengths of that process in kind of getting that pilot off the ground. um to demonstrate that you have that organizational background. And then just kind of as a last little note, you know, funders usually don't aren't real happy with the kind of if if you give us the money for it, we'll build it and then they'll come and and take our services, right? They usually like to see that you have um already worked with that target population or with that community, right? So just showing that um in any way that you can. So um here's just uh you know an example of of kind of a weak uh statement in an organizational background of you know our organization has been serving the community for many years and wants to expand our reach with this program. Um again a fine statement to make um but it it lacks in that specificity. it doesn't have the numbers and the data and the the information that a reviewer would want. So you can see here, you know, since 2021, our organization has helped over 1,200 students build stronger futures through an afterchool program. And as a result, 90% of students improve their reading scores, bringing 40% up to the statewide proficiency level. Right? So that's telling a completely different story um between those two sentences. And these are the kinds of things, the information, the level of information that's going to make that section strong. Our statement of need is our second component. Um, again, those really strong ones are are showing um information with uh data that's up todate, that's very local to your community. um you've cited your sources and you've really told that story in a compelling manner. So those are you know the really strong ways of writing a need section. Um when we get to you start to see um you know outofdate sources usually three years is kind of my cut off limit. Um if the the data that you're presenting isn't relevant to the proposal so it's just confusing. that isn't good. When you don't site your sources, that also makes your proposals very weak. Um, so again, you can come back and look at the whole continuum with this and you'll you'll get this uh as slides and a handout. Um, so here's just the slide. I'm not going to go through this every time. You can just come back to it, but again, you know, one funer calls it what's the current situation or a needs assessment or a statement of the problem. you know, all those sorts of things. But there's a time when you're going to talk about your community and your target population and what they're struggling with. And in that section, you want that data to be um like I said on that earlier slide, local. So, you know, if you're serving a county, you want to use countywide data. If you're serving a state, you can use statewide data, but you want to drill down your data as local as possible. You want it relevant to the proposal. So if you're serving, you know, veterans, but you're telling information about high school dropout rates, that does that just confuses the reader. They're then reading the proposal looking for um what are we going to do to help those high school dropouts? And you know, that's not your program. Um like I said with up todate, three years is over three years. Uh as a as a writer, I would go find more up-to-date information. um citing those sources within your applications. And then I would also use visuals when I felt that could help the reviewer see the problem better through maybe a pie chart or a some sort of line graph or something like that if it was allowed. You know, a lot a lot of online applications you can't do that. But I would use visuals whenever I felt that it would just help tell my story in just a visual way um and really grab their attention. Um, so just a couple of things as you're looking for that data to tell that story. Um, one really, you know, uh, highly used process is the American Community Survey. This comes from the census information. So the census is done every 10 years, but the the American Community Survey comes up every year and updates all those all that information on population and income and health and housing and education and all the the components. Um, so their site has gotten a lot easier to use. And with that, you can also drill down into um, you know, information for a city, you can drill down to a county, you can drill down to a neighborhood and certain census tracks. So, this really helps you drill down that information to get as local as possible. And then Grant Station also has a free tool, the Pathfinder Library, where you can go in and find information. And one of the categories is data sources. And we just have different data sources in there that then you can also explore, just real reputable data sources. Um, so just a free tool for anybody if you're a member of Grant Station or not. Um, so here's just that example. Again, that very vague statement of, you know, many families in our area struggle with food insecurity. Um, again, not a terrible statement, but could it be written stronger? Um, yes. You can see over here, you know, in this county, uh, one in five households live before the below the poverty line and struggle to put sufficient food on the table. And the need is accelerating. The local food bank has seen a 32% surge in first-time visitors since 2024. Um, so you can see there that the sources are cited. It's local to the area. It shows the trends of what's going on. It has the actual data in it. Um, and makes a much stronger um, uh, part of that narrative. So, now we're going to go on to the three of the three of the sections because I said, like I said, usually these kind of tie together. they they might not in a funer's application, but they they will mentally tie together if nothing else. Um, so with your approach section, it might be called your project design or your approach or something like that. This is where you're telling the funer what you're going to do. Um, this is also where I think sometimes we just make some assumptions that funders know what we do. So, you know, funders know what a financial literacy program is and how it operates. No, not necessarily. Do they know how a housing program operates? No. Um, so there's, you know, details that you want to tell them exactly of, you know, what you're going to do and how you're going to do it, where you're going to do it, and all those kinds of details. Um, and when they look at that that that project plan or that approach, they really feel like, okay, I I mean, I can see how you're addressing all these things. I can see exactly what you're going to do. This makes perfect sense to me. Um, and when you're also showing that you're building on other work in the community, when you're bringing in partners, which we'll talk about next, um, that that that when they have a role in the project and they see you sharing community resources, that they very likely already are paying for for the other organization, they really like to see that that their that their work is being scaled up. um that the things that they're investing is really helping across across your community. Um so again, you can kind of go go down the list of of of where your approach might be. Um and here's just again one one funer is going to say, "Give me your action plan or your methodologies or your plan of operation," you know, but this is where you're telling them what you're going to do. Like I said, you're going to use their headings. Um, but there's going to be a section where you tell them what you're going to do. Um, there's almost always usually a section then about partners and who you're partnering with. Um, and what makes those partnership components really strong is where you're really showing that the partners are contributing um, and they know what they're contributing to the to the project. So, you're really outlining that this this organization is going to be doing the recruitment and um assessments of our participants. Um this other organization is going to be doing the uh one-on-one counseling. Um and you're really bringing in the resources of others to help. Um, and when they can see that, you know, you're all working together collaboratively, that you're all kind of sharing this vision to address the root cause of the problem and you're doing it collaboratively, it really adds strengths to your proposals. Um, and so, but when they see something that doesn't um, talk about a name of a partner or particularly what they're doing, then again, it's too weak. they don't see that as as a strong uh component because you didn't tell me the name of the fund partner and you didn't tell me what they were going to do. So, I don't know what role they're taking in your project. Um, so partnerships are always very important. And then sometimes a funer will ask for a timeline or a work plan. If they have their own form, you're going to use that form. Um, but what they're looking at, you know, is looking at the overall project. Does it seem logical? Are you going to be able to do all the work that you proposed in the amount of time that you, you know, have within the grant period? Um, you know, is it laid out well? Do does is there um, you know, for each activity that has to happen, is there a time frame for it? Is there a person or an organization responsible for it? um those kinds of things. So they can really just kind of look and see how this program is going to operate. Um again when when when things are overestimated of you know what people think they could do um you know that isn't an an an advantage. If it really feels like I don't think you can do this amount of work in this amount of time um you know then then you know funders you know just because you proposed too much doesn't mean that that automatically like you would get more points right I mean they can tell they know um the work and what you can do in what in what period of time um if you overlook different things about you know well you didn't even talk about the recruitment of participants then they'll be like well how did the people even find you you know those sorts of things. So um really having that sufficient outline that tells from beginning to end what you're going to do. Um and that's where some of the ways to enhance these sections. Again having that logical approach um showing how the whole group is working to address root causes of the issues that you're dealing with. Having that sufficient detail um again people don't know the ins and outs. they don't know the day-to-day of what you're doing like you do. Um, and so sometimes when we write it, we make assumptions that they do know. Um, other ways to just kind of, you know, showing that, uh, I think through your partnerships, um, you're also showing that you are a nonprofit engaged in the nonprofit community. Um, and that is kind of demonstrated through your partnerships and and how you interact and how you do your services. Um, and then that other part about partners, I did mention that earlier, but it's really critical that you, you know, mention the partner's name and then what role they're going to take on in the uh uh program. is if people just tell me that, you know, we partner with businesses and the Chamber of Commerce and social service organizations and they make a blank statement like that. To me, that's like a a nonsense um statement as a reviewer because I I don't know what agencies, I don't know what they're doing. So, I don't really think that you're partnering with them if you can't name them. Um so, that's where that level of specificity really helps. Um so this again is just another um you know we will run workshops to help participants um is is again a okay statement but not so informative. Um and you can see here you know a stronger one um as one part of the program. You know, building on our proven partnership with this college, we're going to deliver eight weekly financial literacy workshops, each led by a certified instructor and reinforced by peer mentors who's who's completed the project themselves. Um, so, you know, again, this isn't an entire need section, but um, as a statement, um, you know, we'll run workshops to help participants isn't enough information. Um so the stronger the more details um the the the more that a funder is going to um you know rate that section as strong. Okay. Well, we are zipping through here. We're halfway through. So um goals, objectives, objectives, and evaluation is what we're going to touch on next. Um, when we're looking at goals and objectives, um, usually just the the basic definition of goals or you could even uh use the term outcomes in this situation. Usually your goals are more of those lofty things of what you're trying to achieve. You know, what how are you hoping your participants are going to change in your programs? Um, and so usually the goals are kind of those statements of change or outcomes are statements of change. And then the objectives or the or um or the indicators, you could translate that um is when you start to develop the measurable things that you're going to go out there and evaluate um to demonstrate that you met those goals or those outcomes. Um, so we just had a webinar um at Grant Station about all of this right here uh of logic models um and how we put those those goals and objectives or um outcomes and indicators as I call them. Um but you really want to be able to to tell the funer the difference that you're going to make in people's lives and how they will change. And that's where your goals and objectives come in. That you're telling them, you know, the so what of what you're doing. You know, how many people will have a home? How many people will manage their budgets? How many people will open checking accounts? Like whatever it is that you're doing will be self-sufficient. How many, you know, whatever area will have food for 30 days because of your food pantry, right? So really saying, you know, how the participants change. Um I think that one of the other hard parts, even though there's not as many words on this on this slide, um with goals and objectives, it's like about the terminology. And so um you know, again, I usually call them outcomes and indicators. You could use goals and objectives. Some funders are going to say, you know, what are your results going to be, which is the same thing, or what's your impact going to be? Or how do you define success? Um, those are all things that funders are using synonymously to talk about the changes in the people that you serve and what's going to happen to them throughout um your projects and programs. Um so what are some different ways to enhance um you know having that system where you've identified the the goals and objectives or outcomes and indicators and you've set up the system to measure that change um you know is usually the first step if you haven't done that yet. That's the first step in making these sections strong. Um, so that you know that all the work that you're doing, let's say you're working with those students to get them, you know, to graduate from high school, you know, you ultimately want to know what those graduation rates are and and how many students, you know, then went on to um, you know, any sort of higher ed or trading program or into the workforce and things like that. What difference did all that work that you did getting those students, you know, through high school, what difference did it make? Um, and you're usually tying those goals and objectives to whatever need it was you were talking about in that need section, right? So, you were talking about the need and how many kids were dropping out of school. And now, when you're looking at your goals of injectives, you're telling the funer, okay, in the future, you know, this number will decrease or the graduation rate will increase by how much? And that sort of thing. So, that tells that seamless story. Um, and if you're um, uh, you know, kind of familiar with these terms, you know, this is kind of what a logic model is. It it tells about what difference you make in people's lives. Um, so um, you know, learning more about that um, can really help you um, you know, make these these uh, this section a lot stronger. Um, an overall evaluation part. Um, again, lots of different terms that I'll use for this. Um, but usually what makes this, not usually, what makes this strong is when you have a process to measure those outcomes in the participants you serve. And that's again usually called an outcome evaluation. and where you're also developing that process that you're measuring what you do. Um measuring how much you do, measuring how many people you serve, measuring how many hours of services you're providing to them. And so when you measure what you do, that's usually called a process evaluation, right? So they like to see both that you're measuring the outcomes in the people that you serve and you're also measuring your process. how much do you do? I don't think a process evaluation is as hard um because we're pretty used to evaluating, you know, how many flyers did we send and how many people did we recruit, how many people did we sign up and how many hours of service did we provide to them, you know, those sorts of things. But those are the two components that really make those sections strong when you're able to do both of them. Um and then again you can go down down the line of you know either you haven't identified that you're going to have this evaluation or um you know you haven't really talked about the tools that you're going to use or the process that you're going to use. It's just going to magically be done. Um you know usually within um you know an application and within you know a a grant you're going to be reporting back to the funer. So always make sure that you are including um you know the the funds for somebody to do this evaluation. You know it might be the project director you know that's doing all of this. It might be someone else. Um but always making sure that you have this kind of like assigned as you're writing the proposal. Um because it's going to be something that's required of you to write those reports and and find this information. Um, so you better plan on it ahead of time so that you know that that you haven't um missed out on work that people need to do. Um, and those sorts of things. Um, and then again, you know, all these different words where usually if you're looking at formative evaluation, I don't hear that as much. It used to be the formative and sumitive used to be a real education term. Um but formative would be that process evaluation of what you do. Sumitive would be that outcome evaluation of measuring the outcomes in your participants. Um but they might just say you know what are your results going to be or what's your how are you what's how are you assessing your success or something like that. So they could use lots of different terms. Um I think I've kind of talked about this. So, kind of the the process um you know, making sure that you have both of those, the process and the outcome evaluation. Um and then, you know, a lot of times within an evaluation section, um you might be directly asked this question. Um and or it it's a good thing to put in if you have the space and and you've answered every other question sufficiently in in the evaluation section. Um but but talking then about how you use the data. um h about how you know you you get this information back and it really helps inform your program design. If you find that you're not having the outcomes that you are intending, then that's a good time to look at what you're doing and figure out how to do it better. Um and so using this data is the value of it. um you know, if you're going to go through the whole process, you might as well use it um to make your programs better, to make your organization stronger. And so, you know, sometimes writing in some information about that, about how you use the information can really make that strong as well. Um so, here's just uh kind of a before and after again. So, you know, participants will learn new skills and feel more confident. Okay? you know, all right, good enough. Um, but how do we make that stronger? Um, by program and um 75% of participants will move from developing from developing to confident financial decisionmaking, which will be measured by a 20 point gain in a pre-post assessment. Um, so you can see here, you know, it's much more direct. Um uh it's it's much more measurable because you're what you're measuring is their financial decision making. Um it has the timebound kind of thing in there. You have kind of that quantity that you're looking for people to change as well. Um so again more details and and you understand better exactly what you know what new skills you want participants to have um or what kind of competence do you want them to have. Um so uh having that level is is what makes those very strong. Okay. So we're going to come to the last two of budget and sustainability. Um do the numbers hold up? Always always a really good uh question. So one of the things that I want to talk about is when you're writing your budget, everything in your approach should be discussed in your budget. And so what I mean by that is is anything that you ask for in your budget, how that's going to be carried out, the work that's going to happen should be talked about in the approach. So your budget and your approach should really mirror one another. Not in words and numbers, but the approach is telling um let me start this way. The budget is saying I'm asking for this staff person. the approach is then talking all the work that that staff person is going to be doing, right? So there should be no disconnect if there's um something that you're asking for. And and what would happen a lot when I was a consultant was my clients would give me the budgets last and then they would throw in some information like in the budget not information but they'd throw in some things like oh we're going to add this you know new software so we can track outcomes from our participants. you know, we had some extra money, so we're going to do that and uh we're going to have a consultant come in and, you know, help train our staff, which was all legitimate costs, all logical, all made sense. But I didn't talk about that in the approach because we hadn't talked about that, right? And so I would have to go back and re, you know, write things into the approach section because you can't like have something in the budget that you didn't talk about in the approach. It's like, I don't know what you need this money for. You didn't tell me you were going to use a new software system or a, you know, tracking system. Um, I I didn't see that you were using consultants in your project, so I can't fund that part of your project. That sort of thing. Um, so the really strong uh uh uh budgets um you know have all the the costs laid out, everything is is covered. It's reasonable um to you know the standard is to a prudent person. You know um you know do you need a a Tesla uh to go do your community health outreach or can you do it with you know a Ford Fiesta, right? Like you know if you if you need the Tesla you're going to have to justify the Tesla, right? Um, so making sure that you know the costs are covered, that they're reasonable, um, and that you're using resources well. Um, and so, um, a lot of times, you know, you might find that something does cost more or you need something and it's about justifying it in the budget narrative. Um, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that next. Um, so when you're looking at ways to enhance your budget, um, I think I have a lot of these, but um, making sure those are are covered. Um, and then we're going to talk when we talk about a budget, it's usually just a form with numbers and it has a line item and how much you're requesting, you know, and maybe how much you have coming in from other sources and a total project cost. Um, when we get to the budget narrative, which we're going to talk about next, that's when you're starting to show how you calculated the numbers that are in your budget. So, in your budget narratives, you're showing the calculations of how you came up with this $40,000 request for personnel. Um, and line lining that up. um and then providing any of those justifications of why it's needed, you know, um of and and I have some examples here uh or an example next. Oh, where'd it go? Wait a minute. I move I moved it out of order. Sorry. This is the example. I'll come back to those other ones in a second. Um, so here when you're writing the budget narrative, um, uh, I have a a three instead of just two. But if you, you know, had in your budget and your budget narrative, I need $45,000 for personnel. Um, that's very weak because I don't know what roles, you know, what staff are you staffing this program with. I don't know what they're doing in the project. I don't know how much you're paying individual people. I just it doesn't it's it's just very weak. I I I wouldn't that would be really a negative thing to see. Um it'd be better if you you know at least had well the program director is who we're funding. Um we're asking for half of a full-time equivalency FTE. So half time. Um and so we're paying them $45,000. Okay. So that's a little better. Um but where does it really get good? Okay. So, you know, the program director, we're taking half of uh his or her time um of $90,000. That's what they get paid full-time. We're asking for half of that that they're working on this program. And then in that justification, you know, it doesn't have to be super long and this and that, but you can just see the program director will oversee direct service delivery for 120 youth participants, ensuring quality and fidelity to the evidence-based model that you were using in the approach. Um, so this is the best um, you know, uh, nar you know budget narrative because it has all those components. What exactly is your funding? How did you calculate it? and how is it justified? Um, so that's what your budget narratives are. And I'm going to go back to here and uh we'll talk about sustainability. Now, sustainability is is quite often kind of the hardest part to write. Um, sometimes we haven't thought necessarily, you know, exactly about how this program is going to be funded in the long term. Um, and sometimes, you know, how you are going to be funded in the long term is to continue seeking grants. Um, you know, there's nothing wrong with that as an answer. Um, but some of the things that you really that what you're really trying to share with the the funer and the reviewer is kind of your more a little bit more about your organization sustainability. what are those strengths of your organization that's going to keep that organization moving forward into the future? Um, and when you open it up a little bit more from just the project to your organization, you get to bring in more of your organization strengths and how you're working from a a set strategic plan. um how you're you know working with your board and your volunteers to you know do xyz um and showing you know just the overall strengths of your organization. um you can you know drill down to a program um but again a lot of times which is also you know a fine part of the answer um is that you know we're looking to seek to more diversified funding sources or we're trying to um you know reduce some of our reliance on grants over time. So, we're doing more, you know, fundraisers um to lessen some of that that the the grant costs that are out there so that our programs, you know, have more unrestricted dollars um all those sorts of things. Um so, that section um you know, it isn't always always in a grant, but usually, again, it usually is. They want to know that they they want to know that they're not going to give money to you this year and then you're just going to go bankrupt the next year and then that was kind of just a waste of money, right? So, it's how do you share that information of your strong uh organization and how it's going to continue in the future. Um, and so I think I already said those. Yay. So, um, those are some ways to enhance. Um, so, uh, we're doing really good on time. Um, the writing style again, um, this is I've never honestly seen a grant not get submit, not get funded because it was written poorly. However, I do believe that in a very competitive environment, a poorly written grant reflects poorly on you. Um, it just does. Um, and I think that, um, if it's written poorly and if the sections aren't connected to each other, it takes the reviewer more time to really understand what you're doing. You know, it just you didn't make connections. You didn't um, you know, make it flow into a coherent story. And if they're really working hard to figure it out, you've lost them. you know, um there's other ones that are in the pile that are telling that coherent story, right? So, um I think that you want to write in a way that's engaging um that that isn't just the facts. I think you want to bring in uh the the data and information that the funer needs and also pull kind of on their heartstrings. So you're weaving in, you know, um, real, you know, stories of participants or you're, you know, taking the data and information that you're presenting and you're you're painting that picture of that person. Um, so they get tied to that person and start to care about that person in your programs, right? And then it it translates out to kind of, you know, then supporting your programs. Um, so, uh, you know, again, this is not something that's usually technically scored, but I think that if if it's not well written, um, then you've you've kind of lost them and and you don't need to make them work any harder than they're already working. Um, so, you know, keep it simple. Avoid jargon and excessive acronyms. I mean, you do want to you can use acronyms, you want to explain them. Um, you can have people read it, have somebody not related to your organization at all read it. Um, because again, there will be assumptions that you've made that someone in your field would totally understand that somebody out of your field doesn't understand at all. Um, bring in, you know, engage their hearts and mind. And, you know, it's it's okay to be interesting, right? You don't want to um you don't have to just stick to just the facts, man. Um because sometimes they're also very boring to read and you don't want a really really boring application either. Um, so here's just kind of a funny example though, but I can just in in uh a kind of um nonprofit speak of, you know, the organization is endeavoring to actualize a paradigm shift utilizing synergistic methodologies to optimize stakeholder income outcomes, right? So like I don't even know what that meant. um where you know just really strong we're changing how afterchool support works in our county starting with the families who need it the most. Um, I always found that when I was writing, if I was getting like almost tongue-tied in in my writing, I would just stop and say, "Alice, what are you trying to say?" And it would just be a simple, you know, statement, right, of, you know, like these people need, you know, this support more than other people and, you know, support it with data, right? But it's like, oh, you know, just sometimes keep it simple, you know, keep it simple so that people understand it. Um so just some different things about how to use the scorecard. So um the complete scorecard again it has these 10 sections. Um you can go through and take the paper scorecard and score them yourselves. You know one um one to four um and come up with that answer. So you can always just do this independently or you know have you know take um take what you've written and take the scorecard and have somebody else do it that again unrelated to your organization and you can you know then figure out what things you need to improve to make it better. Um so that's something you can always do. Um and then you know it also doesn't hurt depending on if you have the time to kind of look at okay you know which ones of all those things on the other you know form um are the highest impact lowest effort that I can really just knock out and and get that done. So we were weak on evaluation and goals and objectives. Let's just let's do that fast. Um, we might have to, you know, we can look at, you know, high impact, high effort, you know, where maybe you do need to work a little bit more on the design. Um, it's going to take a little bit of work, but it's going to be worth it. Um, you know, the lower impact, low effort, you know, maybe polishing up a certain section. Um, a low impact, high effort, you know, wholesale rewrites of, you know, starting from scratch. Um, so you know, again, you can put things where they where they belong and then focus in on the the highest impact, lowest effort kinds of things. Um, if you can't get to everything, um, to make it as strong as possible. Um, we also have, um, this is just the plan, so you can come back to that. That's everything we just talked about. Um, but we also have this this scorecard in a custom GPT that you can use. So, like I said earlier, this custom GPT, um, you you can use it by using this link here. Um, and you do have to have a free chat GPT account in order to use it. Uh, but you don't have to have a paid one. Um, but what we've done is we've we've and this works with both the one with the membership and the custom GPT, but we fed it the scorecard and what made each section strong, you know, medium, weak, all those those four things. And then we reinforced it with our award-winning grant proposals to teach the model again the best of the best. the award-winning grant proposals that we have on our site that you can also go look at to read um are there there's almost no flaws in these things. I mean they're they're that's how good they are. Um and so you know the models were trained with the best. So you can go in and you can um use the chat GBT and it's going to measure on those 10 um different things that are also here. Um or if you're uh if you have you have to have a membership to do this to Grandst Station, but you can also come in and just use it if you have a membership to here. Well, you just come in, you put the title, you upload the file, and then you can you can click on which ones? All of them if you want, some of them, and it's going to give you that score. Both of those two things will give you scores back um of, you know, this section was weak, this section was strong. Um and they will also give you um like personalized tips on you know um you know the data was insufficient or you know consider adding you know um this didn't these these data uh points weren't didn't have sources cited or you know this part was confusing this really wasn't an outcome you know all those sorts of things and it'll give you strengths and weaknesses of each section that you can then go and fix from there. Um, so a really great resource again for all of you. You can use it free with the custom with the the custom GPT grant station members can use it as often as they want right within their um right within the platform um and save those reports in their dashboard um for future use. Um so great resources there for you. Um, so, uh, yeah. So, I think we've really talked about all of this. Um, I think this is a great tool for you to use. Again, don't want you to forget that today and tomorrow are the only two days left in 2026 to get the best price at Grand Station. So, get that membership today and tomorrow. And I think I will take a drink and we can answer some of your questions. >> Perfect. Um, I'm Jeremy Smith with Grand Station. I've been in the chat chatting with everybody back and forth. Just a couple things I want to clear up as you are getting ready for the final bound of questions or having to go. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate that. We do hope you take advantage of this sale. And quick note, you will be getting a copy of the slides. You'll be able to put together your own approach to this or if you were to purchase a membership, you can do all of this easily right from your dashboard. You could submit your application and it is only used internally. It's not used to externally train chat GPT or anything. It's only used with our internal information. It won't be used for external training at all. Just saying that twice to make sure it's clear. And you will again be getting a copy of this recording and the slides. So with that said, Alice, let's go into an area I know that you know quite a bit about um and that is computer building. No, just kidding. This one is about logic models. Um, okay. What >> do you recommend having a logic model for each proposal or should you have one for the org as a whole? >> Yeah, so um it it depends on your organization, but usually um I would probably have a logic model for each individual project. Um just to keep you know to keep it kind of streamlined to keep it very understandable about each initiative that you do and what you need for that initiative and what you do in it and how much you do in it and what your outcomes are. Um and so generally I would have one for every program. Now you might have a very small organization you know that you kind of do one thing. Um I was on a literacy board. All we did was not all but we did adult literacy. That was the only service we provided. So that could have been an organizational one as well. Um but I would have one for each because just because you achieve different things usually with your different programs and so it be you know real clear and crisp. This question has come up a bit in the chat and also a couple times in the Q&A section. uh character maximums when you are trying to put them into the application forms, they make it a little bit difficult to have that sort of complete the strong responses that you've been talking about. Do you have any thoughts on how to navigate these restrictions? >> Yeah. So, um the one of the things I mean it it is hard to do. I I won't lie to you on that. It can be really tedious to get um you know a longer narrative down to a shorter narrative. Um, but I think that I I also do like to use AI tools for that though. Um, because it really it doesn't get you to an exact word count, but if you, you know, need to take something and, you know, it's a two-page thing and you need it into two paragraphs, um, it really will pull the most salient points out, um, and put them in a way that that, you know, in less verbiage. Um, and so I think that, you know, back in the day, I literally just did it line by line, sentence by sentence, you know, like like seriously that's how I did it. Um, but I think these chat GPT or just any sort of AI tools will help you do that. Um, they won't get you down to the exact number, but they'll get you in a good ballpark that you can then edit yourself. >> Excellent. Um, let's see. There's a couple good ones here, but we only have a little bit of time left. Let's see. Okay, here's an interesting one. Um, more specific, but if you are a for-profit in Mary's example, and you have a lengthy history, but you're now a new nonprofit, this come up a couple times with new nonprofits, how do you use your your history as a for-profit in one situation or your nonhistory if you're a new nonprofit to really show that story of success? Yeah. So, I think that if you so if you were a for-profit and you moved over to a nonprofit situation, I think you could bring any success over that you've had. I mean, if you've done the work in the past and it's the work that you're proposing to do in the future, um I think that's a track record of of working with uh the target population, working in the community, and the fact that it was done in a for-profit situation doesn't make it any less. Um, and then so I would include it. And then if you were also kind of going a little bit on the flip side of that, if you have, let's say, done a lot of things all as volunteers, not paid, um, you know, maybe you didn't even have your 501c3 yet, um, but then you start applying for grants, I would still use that information of the things that you did for free, um, you know, the outcomes that you had working with your participants even before you were a nonprofit. And as long as you've kept those records and you, you know, have your track record, I would use both of those. Um, and then just mention how, you know, how you, how you've changed. So, how you've moved from a for-profit to a nonprofit or how you've moved from, you know, volunteer only to a official 501c3. Just explaining that. But I would use that past history if you have it. >> And what if you have a new organization that doesn't didn't transition from a for-profit? It's it's just a new organization. How do you show that history or that track record that you can trust us, we won't just blow your money, >> right? And I think that that's where you're going to talk more about maybe I mean if you're just starting brand new you're going to talk more about how the the people that got together about you know being very concerned about this issue about what it is that you've developed together why you know a stronger emphasis on why you think you're going to be successful. you know, you're really going to have to put a lot of information in there to for that funer to, you know, really, you know, kind of believe you. I mean, because you don't have the track record. So, I think it's, you know, about the strengths of the people and, you know, what you brought together and how you brought it together. Um, and and just showing that background work that you did, you know, really infusing it with where you think it's it's going to go in the future. And one thing I want to leave everybody on is that the information that we have on grandstation.com, you can actually take a quick little tour that we have there that walks you through everything that you can find there, information we've expressed today, information we talked about in the chat and in Q&A section. All that information is available on our website. You can go ahead and look at that at any time you'd like before you make your decision if you were going to purchase today. And also keep in mind that if you are doing work outside the US, maybe you are, you know, doing some work in Mexico like one of the people was mentioning in the chat, we actually have an international database that focuses on funding that gives across all borders, gives across specific countries, gives in just specific regions, all that's available for searching. So, if you have any type of funding you need for international work, Canadian work, US-based work, we have it in our humanled and human research database ready and waiting for you. So, hopefully this series of webinars we provided for you have been helpful and enjoyable. I see there's a lot of good talk about that in the chat. People have asked some good things and people have asked of course always more questions than we have time to answer. But if you still have a specific question, reach out to us. We have humans everywhere. So go ahead and email us at infogranstation.com. More than happy to help you out with that. With that all said, Artha, I'm going to hand it back to you to do one last push for the special $119 special that you can take advantage of right now. >> Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go to texas.org and click on that button. Get that. I mean, who wants to pass up on this sale? It ends tomorrow. So we look forward to seeing you on future webinars. Have a great day everybody. >> Thank you all. >> Bye everyone.