• Need – A well thought out description of the target population and the associated need(s). Too often, organizations providing services focus on what they need to provide a quality education. The proposal should never be about the organization’s lack of resources.  Instead, it should focus on the organization’s ability to meet the need(s) of the population it serves and why it is important to address the specific need(s).
• Innovation – What are you doing differently? How does it help your students and families thrive? How will your activities be impacted by your grant funds? Education funders want to support classroom programs that are rethinking the way students learn and utilizing findings from experts in the field, which leads us to…
• Research and Evidence – Do you know which interventions work for children and families? Can you cite sources to support your argument? Why is your innovative way of teaching more likely to produce higher student achievement than the old way, and which research supports your theory? It’s not enough to say that you believe your way of teaching is better based on a hunch. Citing evidence-based practices is a great way to communicate to the funder that your program is well thought out and will likely yield the expected results.
• Assessment and Evaluation –
  1. Assessment – How are you measuring the change in your students and families? What goals or outcomes do you expect to achieve as a result of your intervention? Assessment can measure what students know (knowledge) and are able to do (skills or behavior). It is also used to measure changes in their feeling about an activity, practice, or themselves (attitude).
  2. Evaluation – Part of rolling out a new project is analyzing how well it is implemented. What will you look at determine whether you should change anything about the project? Common questions:

1) Did you implement the activities on time?

2) Did you have any problems or challenges you had to overcome or that limited the success of your implementation?

As you complete step four, you may uncover student needs that were previously unconsidered, and thus the cycle may begin again until it is clear that your program has taken the needs of all students into account and students and families can be successful in your classroom, school, or district.

Contact Assel Grant Services for appropriate grant resources to meet the needs of your students and their families.

GPC Competency 3: Knowledge of strategies for effective program and project design and development.  Skill 5:  Identify appropriate definitions of and interrelationships among elements of project design (e.g., project goals, objectives, activities, evaluation).