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Dear Colleagues,
The GrantProse vision is to provide high quality, personalized services and resources that are reasonably priced and widely accessible. Toward this end, we provide this newsletter free and hope you will forward it to your colleagues.
We continue to add new features to our website to better serve the grants community. Our Grant Alerts are now in
downloadable .pdf format, refreshed twice a
month with new funding opportunities. We also recognize a growing number of GrantProse clients who have received grant awards.
As always, thank you for your appreciation of our work.
Bill Carruthers
GrantProse, Inc.
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 | Bulletin Board
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October 8, 2010. The North Carolina Network of Grantmakers, working with the NC Center for Nonprofits, is sponsoring a Foundation Fair in Greenville, NC. Foundation participants include The Duke Endowment, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and North Carolina Community Foundation, among others. The event is free for nonprofit participants, who will have the opportunity to talk one-on-one about their organizations and projects with foundation staff. Online registration is available until September 24; for more details, and for registration information, click here.
October 11-12, 2010. GrantProse, Inc., will conduct a two-day grant-writing workshop geared for participants from K-12 schools, nonprofits and local government agencies. Registration is limited to 30 participants to allow an individualized training experience. Visit the GrantProse training webpage for information on how to register.
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| Have You Ever Wondered . . . ?
| What is the definition of a fiscal year for the Federal government? Presently, each fiscal year (FY) is identified by the year in which it ends. For instance, FY 2011 begins October 1, 2010 and ends September 30, 2011. A brief describing "The Federal Fiscal Year" can be found at rules.house.gov.
When is a grant not a grant? Possibly when it's a cooperative agreement. The Federal government distinguishes between the two, although the distinction can be vague. Essentially, a cooperative agreement implies that the Federal government will have a more active involvement in your project than it would with a grant. For instance, NIH indicates that a grant is used when the agency anticipates "no substantial programmatic involvement with the recipient" and a cooperative agreement is used when "there will be substantial Federal scientific or programmatic involvement....[to] assist, guide, coordinate, or participate in project activities" (see NIH glossary).
Recently, when reviewing an RFP for a cooperative agreement posted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (RFP No. EPA-OSWER-OBLR-10-09) we found examples of "substantial involvement":
- Close monitoring of the recipient's performance to verify the results
- Collaborating during performance of the scope of work
- Reviewing substantive terms of proposed contracts
- Reviewing qualifications of key personnel
- Reviewing and commenting on reports prepared under the cooperative agreement
- Reviewing sites as meeting applicable eligibility criteria
As we always caution our clients: Be careful what you ask for--you might get it! |
| Program Research and Evaluation
| Evaluation in the Grant Writing Process
By Sarah Heinemeier, PhD, Compass Evaluation & Research
You mean I have to think about evaluation before the grant is even funded? In a word--YES! Evaluation begins the day funding is received. Thus, it is critical to design your evaluation when the grant proposal is developed. In fact, evaluation design is a useful heuristic in the proposal development process, and the logic model is the heart of the design. Good logic models link (a) an identified public need (i.e., a need worthy of public investment) to (b) goals for alleviating the need and (c) objectives or systemic changes that must occur for the goal(s) to be achieved. With objectives in place, you can identify your strategies, activities, inputs and outputs.
Once these elements have been identified, you are in evaluation territory. What service statistics will you track regarding strategy outputs? What measures will you use to determine that needs are alleviated, goals are achieved and objectives are fully addressed? What specific data items will be associated with your measures? How will data items be collected? What will your data sources be? How will you PROVE the unique contribution of your program? How will you calculate the return on your program's investments? Make sure your measures always "close the loop" and come back to your needs, goals and objectives statements.
These are a lot of questions to ask--but consider how helpful it is to ask them when developing the proposal. And once you've received funding, think of how glad you will be to have your evaluation plan already in place.
Compass Evaluation & Research, Inc., is a woman-owned and -operated firm offering an array of program evaluation and research services. Compass may be reached at 919-544-9004 or info@compasseval.com.
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| Grant Opportunities
| Deadline: 10/12/10 (letter of intent)
Program: Capacity Building Initiative
Agency: John Rex Endowment
Description: Funding for consultant assistance or training, and other organizational development needs.
Award Amount: $5,000 or $35,000
Website: John Rex Endowment
Eligibility: Nonprofits serving Wake County children or youth
Deadline: 11/15/10
Program: Sparks! Ignition Grants for Libraries and Museums
Agency: Institute of Museum and Library Services
Description: Grants to encourage libraries, archives and museums to support promising and groundbreaking new tools, products, services or organizational practices.
Award Amount: $25,000 max
Website: IMLSEligibility:Libraries, archives, museums
Looking for something specific? Email us a description (25 words or less) about the grant funding you are seeking, and we'll keep an eye out for suitable grants as we build our Grant Alerts. We post new Alerts twice a month.
To view the latest listings, and many more opportunities, visit our Grant Alerts webpage.
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