Grant Proposal Consulting

TYPES OF GRANT MAKERS
There are several types of grant makers. They include:
• Private Foundations
• Community Foundations
• Corporations
• Government
• Civic Organizations
• Churches

Private Foundations are the most common grant makers and are established by an individual, group or a family. They are typically controlled by the donor and family and members of the board of trustees.

Community Foundations, sometimes called public foundations, are publicly funded and are founded for a specific interest or geographic area. These foundations actively raise money as well as make grants. Community foundations often have both unrestricted funds and designated funds.

Corporations
• Corporate Foundations…Corporations often create a separate entity called a corporate foundation which distributes part of its profit in the form of grants.
• Corporate Giving Programs…Corporations make a direct gift from operational funds, exclusive of a foundation.
• Corporate Sponsorships…Corporations allocate money from their marketing budget to support visible activity in return for publicity of the corporation.
• Employee Matching Grants…Some corporations match gifts of their employees charitable gifts.
• In-kind Giving…Corporations often donate goods or services instead of cash…which may include the company product, cast-off furniture and equipment

Government
Funding available at the federal, state and local levels is usually organized with agencies by subject area. Applications are often complex, competitive and outcome sensitive.

Civic Organizations
These organizations, such as Rotary Club, VFW, tend to give to local activities and the application procedure is relatively simple.

Churches
Many denominations have giving programs with a relatively simple application process.

Developing a Successful Grant Proposal
Organizations and Institutions will significantly improve their chances of obtaining a grant by including the necessary elements of successful grant requests. Although each foundation or corporation is unique, Griesgraber & Associates has found the following ten components fundamental to every successful grant proposal.

1. A Cover Letter highlighting the most significant aspects of the proposal. This assumes that you have done your homework and determined that the donor organization supports projects such as the one in your proposal.
2. A Table of Contents that gives page numbers to each document within the proposal.
3. An Executive Summary that describes the problem your proposal seeks to address. Included in the summary should be an outline of action, the budget of the project, and the expected outcomes.
4. A Brief Overview of your Institution/Organization with enough background to build confidence that you will be successful for the project.
5. The Statement of Need indicating, whenever possible, statistics or recent studies to validate the need. Make certain that the scope of your project is within your organization’s ability to achieve its goal.
6. A List of the Goals and Objective that specifically address the need. If you have a recent strategic plan, use these goals and objectives and indicate the process used to determine them.
7. The Implementation Timeline indicating who is going to do what by when.
8. The Evaluation process that will be used to measure the success of the project to be funded.
9. The Budget should indicate the resources that will be used to fund the project. Most foundations and corporations will expect a significant financial commitment from the organization before they will provide “outside funding”.
10. What Future Funding will be needed to continue the project after the grant has been expended? In other words, how will your institution sustain itself and the project beyond the grant?