How You Will Make It Happen
You have to give the funder a concrete description of how the program will work. Be as specific as possible without putting too many limitations on your program staff. Will you meet with each client five times? How many hot lunches will you distribute? What are the steps your literacy program follows to involve adults and children? Let’s look at a couple of short examples:
The Managing Your Board workshop series will consist of four weekly sessions, each lasting two hours. Workshops will begin with a lecture by an expert in board and executive director issues followed by a question-and-answer period. During the final half hour of each session, participants will break down into groups of 10 or fewer to discuss what they have learned in practical terms that relate to their organizations. The themes of the workshops will be Avoiding Micromanagement, Helping a Board Fundraise, Making the Executive Director’s Performance Review Work for You, and Building the Board You Need.
The Music for Kids program will provide musical instruction to young people living in the city’s largest homeless shelter. Transportation will be provided to our partner’s recreational facility after school two days each week. The emphasis will be on rhythm and simple songs, rather than trying to teach them how to read music. This remains a transient population requiring short-term goals each of the young people can meet. Most of the 90-minute sessions will be devoted to working all together, but there will be time each day for more personalized attention from the teaching assistants.
HOW TO SAY IT
Never underestimate the power of negative writing. Any negativity in your proposal about a past failure to meet a goal or frequent personnel transitions at your nonprofit will cast enough doubt to sink your proposal. Be honest by all means, but keep it positive.
Note that both paragraphs briefly describe the format of the sessions, give information on the content, and give the time participants will be involved in the programs. A real proposal would go into additional detail. You might also want to include a month-by-month time line to show how the different steps in a program will come together.
When deciding how technical you can be in your proposal, take into consideration who will be reading it. You want to give details and examples the reader will understand. In general, proposals reviewed by peer panels can include more technical language than ones that will be seen only by foundation trustees who may or may not possess technical knowledge related to your proposal.
Also take into consideration other grantees of the funder and any other nonprofit connections the funder’s trustees might have and how your proposal might affect them. An online service for which I was raising funds, on face value, might have appeared to compete with services offered by other grantees of a particular funder.
I was careful in the cover letter and the proposal to describe in detail how our new service would drive people to the websites of the other grantees rather than taking clients away from them.
Do not mention anyone or any organization as participating in your program without clearing it with them first. This is especially true if a peer panel will evaluate your proposal. When writing your proposal, keep in mind whom those people might be. If your proposal calls for working with other organizations (or even just using their mailing lists), give examples that include some of the potential panelists if possible. Be especially sure you don’t criticize any other organization.
HOW TO SAY IT
Don’t let too many details take away the flexibility the program staff will need to run the program. Don’t say “We will hire John Jones as our management consultant.” Instead say, “We will hire a management consultant such as John Jones, Mary Chin, or Thomas Brown.”
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