In this session led by the author of Grant Writing for Dummies, Dr. Bev (Browning) will share how the Statement of Need is viewed by grantmaking decision makers (and peer reviewers). Validating your Statement of Need can determine your grant application’s fate.

1. Sponsored by:
The Importance of Validating
Your Statement of Need
Dr. Beverly A. Browning
August 28, 2013
Twitter Hashtag - #npweb
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2. Sponsored by:
Advising nonprofits in:
• Strategy
• Planning
• Organizational Development
www.synthesispartnership.com
(617) 969-1881
info@synthesispartnership.com
INTEGRATED PLANNING
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4. Sponsored by:
Today’s Speakers
Dr. Beverly A. Browning
Vice President
eCivis, Inc.
Assisting with chat questions:
Jamie Maloney, 4Good
Founding Director of Nonprofit Webinars and Host:
Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership
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5. Facilitated by:
Dr. Bev Browning
Vice President
Grants Professional Services
eCivis, Inc.
480-768-7400
bbrowning@ecivis.com
www.ecivis.com
The Importance of
Validating Your
Statement of Need

6. Statement of Need AGENDA
• Vague descriptors
• Outdated or non-supporting
statistics
• Missing support documentation
• Why your grant application did
not get funded

7. Vague Descriptors

8. Are You Guilty of Using These
Descriptors in Place of Hard Numbers
and Percentages?
• A large percentage
• A lot
• A small percentage
• All
• All but
• Any
• Almost
• About
• Approaching
• Around
• Everyone
• Going on for
• In the region of
• Just about
• Many
• More or less
• Most
• Nearly
• Not far off from
• On the order of
• Roughly
• Roughly speaking
• Several
• Sometimes
• These
8

9. Can You Think of Any
More Vague Descriptors
in Place of Hard
Numbers and
Percentages?
9

10. How Many?
1. A large percentage of the
population has been exposed to
rotavirus.
2. A small percentage of U.S.
families saved in 529 plans in
2010, and those who did tended
to be wealthier than others.
10

11. How Many?
1. Due to past gang activity, the
Village has ordered all residents
to stay off of the streets after
sundown.
2. All but one of the U.S. diplomatic
posts closed this week in a
sweeping response to fears of a
possible al Qaeda attack will
reopen on Sunday, the State
Department said. 11

12. How Many?
1. Any child found to be
unvaccinated will be reported to
the Department of Education and
Public Health.
2. Almost everyone is in need of
temporary housing.
3. About 20% of the museum’s
patrons are upper income.
12

13. How Many?
1. Many of the residents are
approaching retirement.
2. Around half of the students have
failed to meet competencies in
mathematics, English language
arts, and science.
3. These issues have been going on
for some time.
13

14. How Many?
1. In the region of several hundred
acres of wetlands needs to be
preserved.
2. Just about most of the gallery was
damaged by torrential rains.
3. The 2010 Census is more or less
on target. Nearly everyone in the
town agrees that it’s not far off
from the actual count.
14

15. How Many?
1. We need on the order of several
crates of pasta for the classroom
art assignment.
2. Roughly everyone in the focus
groups agrees on the issues.
3. Roughly speaking, we have a lot
of homeless persons in our
town.
15

16. Outdated or Non-
Supporting Statistics

17. For 2013 Grant Requests…
• According to the U.S. Department
of Labor (2007), 25% of U.S.
workers make $8 an hour or less;
many families are living from
week to week, just on the edge of
emergency.
17

18. For 2013 Grant Requests…
• According to educational statistics
held by Hempstead Public Schools, a
decade ago, more than 39 percent of
high school students were absent or
tardy, the dropout rate was 29
percent, and the graduation rate, 27
percent, the lowest on Long Island.
18

19. For 2013 Grant Requests…
• The most recent Community
Needs Assessment (2000) was
conducted by the Cuyahoga
Housing Authority.
19

20. For 2013 Grant Requests…
• In 2008, Money.com reported that
there were 173 Fortune 500
corporations located within a 100-
mile radius of the Chicago MSA.
20

21. For 2013 Grant Requests…
Indicators 2010 2011 2012
Juvenile crime
rate
335 per 1,000 246 per 1,000 125 per 1,000
Dropout rate 47% 40% 22%
Truancy rate 22 per 100 18 per 100 7 per 100
21
When will these rates work in your favor?

22. Missing Support
Documentation

23. What Footnotes Are Needed?
• Approximately 75% of all youth
remanded to secure and non-secure
detention attended and return to nine
of the Island’s highest failure to
perform school districts: Freeport,
Hempstead, Roosevelt, Uniondale
and Westbury in Nassau County and
Amityville, Brentwood, Central Islip
and Wyandanch in Suffolk County.
23

24. What Footnotes Are Needed?
• Estimates from the City of
Natchez, Community Development
Office indicate that at least 1,500
evacuees are still here bringing the
2010 population to 19,840.
24

25. What Footnotes Are Needed?
• The percentage of children under
18 who lack full-time parental
supervision increased from 37% to
57%. Children who spend 10
hours or more per week
unsupervised are twice as likely to
become involved in substance
abuse and other negative
behaviors.
25

26. What Footnotes Are Needed?
• Asia is where the problem is the
worst—on the verge of becoming a
childhood “epidemic.” Already,
44% of the world’s road deaths
occur in Asia.
26

27. What Footnotes Are Needed?
• While Cass County’s number of
children ages 0–17 decreased by
over 5% between 2000 and 2010,
the number of minorities within this
age range increased by 30.6%
compared to the state increase of
23.9%. Cass County is home to
33% more American
Indian/Alaskan Native children
than the state average.
27

28. What Additional Support
Document Is Needed?
• The About Face! Program serves
nearly 350 middle school students
annually in a five-county area.
28

29. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• Traffic accidents are one of the
fastest growing causes of sudden
death and disability in developing
countries. The World Health
Organization estimates that road
accidents will be the world’s third
leading cause of premature death
for all ages.
29

30. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• No babies are born within the
county because there is no major
medical facility with full-service
labor and delivery services. In
fact, a high percentage of pregnant
women, including at-risk teens,
travel to Indiana to give birth.
30

31. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• The average percentage of
elementary children qualifying for
free or reduced price lunches is
above 48%. When the secondary
and elementary schools rates are
combined and averaged, it is
slightly above 42%. Data indicates
that in the past year, the free and
reduced lunch rate increased by
9.3%. 31

32. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• North Carolina children face a
palpable risk for injury and death
from residential fires. More than
12,000 residential fires occur
annually in North Carolina with the
most common causes of
residential fires attributed to
electrical and cooking equipment.
32

33. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• Children under age 14, the group
most vulnerable to residential fire
injuries, experience a fire death
risk nearly six times greater than
adults. These injuries are
tragedies that affect not just the
child and family, but the
community as a whole.
33

34. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• However, our greatest
risk/problem is an unreliable
pumper truck—our one and only.
We never know if the truck’s
brakes will fail, the pump will
malfunction, the emergency lights
or siren will quit, or the engine will
not start.
34

35. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• There is a widening gap between
the Arizona MBEs that have
managed to find the Council and
become better businesses due to
their MBE Certification and the
MBEs that the Council has not had
sufficient funding to identify, recruit
as members, and train.
35

36. What Additional Support
Documentation Is Needed?
• More perplexing is the low number
of graduates from Katy HS and
Mayde Creek HS who find
employment by the end of the first
quarter after they graduate. In
2011-2012, graduates from Katy
HS not attending college had not
found employment by September
30, 2012.
36

37. Why Your Grant
Application Was Not
Funded

38. • Partial
• Unjustified
• Unreasonable
• Undocumented
• Inappropriate
• Broad
• Limited
• Inadequate
• Careless
• Unfocused
• Incomplete
• Common
• Narrow
• Evidence-lacking
• Unsound
• Unqualified
• Weak
• Experience-
deficient
• Concealing
• Vague
• Impossible
• Undemonstrated
• Unspecific
Peer Reviewers Look for These
Weaknesses in Your Proposal –
Traps to Avoid!

39. Failing to…
• Delineate the problem or issue
within the community to be
addressed.
• Provide data to substantiate the
need.
• Include a human interest story or
example to make it personal.
39

40. Failing to…
• Focus on a specific issue that
relates clearly to the purposes
and goals of your organization.
• Present a problem that can be
reasonably addressed in a given
period of time.
• Analyze the problem and present
statistical comparisons.
40

41. Failing to…
• Fully address the review criteria
for rating the Statement of Need.
• Failing to use the full page limit
allocation for the Statement of
Need.
• Failing to incorporate graphics
into the Statement of Need.
41

42. Failing to…
42
• Know the peer review points or
percentage assigned to the
Statement of Need.
• Eliminate emotional need
language.

43. Failing to…
• Understand how to write to the
point value.
1. Total points for application: 100
2. Points assigned to Statement
Need: 20
3. Total pages allowed for
narrative: 30
4. Suggested pages to write the
Statement of Need: 6
43

44. Failing to…
• Ask more content- and
formatting-specific questions to
private sector funders
(foundations and corporations)
• Ask how the application will be
scored and what percent of
applications are not funded
because of a weak Statement of
Need.
44

45. The Statement of Need:
Missing the Boat Is Not
an Option!
45

46. www.wiley.com
www.amazon.com
Dr. Bev Browning’s Books