This document provides guidance on key components to include in a successful grant proposal, such as measurable outcomes, staffing details, evaluation plans, budgets, and organizational background. It emphasizes the importance of establishing clear goals and metrics for success, demonstrating the viability and impact of the project, and providing a well-thought-out evaluation strategy to track outcomes. Budgets should include all relevant costs and be realistic, while the organizational overview gives necessary context but remains brief.

3. Measurable outcomes of the program
Tangible, specific, concrete, measurable,
achievable in a specific time period
• Behavioral: A human action is anticipated.
• Performance: A specific time frame within which a
behavior will occur at an expected proficiency level, is
anticipated.
• Process: The manner in which something occurs is an
end in itself.
• Product: A tangible item will result.

4. What will be achieved by the project
• How
• When
• Why

5. Staffing: Volunteers, board members,
consultants, paid staff
How will you free up the time of an already
fully deployed individual?

6. How you and the funder will know if the
proposed project succeeds or not

7. Demonstrating in a concrete way the long-
term financial viability of the project to be
funded and of nonprofit organization itself.

9. It’s essential for the nonprofit to have a
plan to evaluate its programs, strategies.
Grantmakers expect to see at least two
paragraphs describing a well-thought-out
evaluation plan.
Some want a formal evaluation; some
want monitoring reports only.

10. It’s critical to match the evaluation to the
project.
When writing the evaluation section of your
proposal, it should proceed in a linear
fashion, from objectives and activities of
your project descriptions to the anticipated
outcomes, and then to the ultimate impact
on the audience you serve—your theory of
change.

11.  What do you consider success to be?
 What do you suppose the funder considers success to
be?
 Are you using qualitative or quantitative measures, or
both?
 What specific evaluative mechanisms do you plan to
utilize?
 What format will you use to depict the various stages
of the evaluation?
 Will the evaluation be performed by in-house staff or
by an outside consultant?

12.  When the nonprofit’s staff or volunteers
engage in evaluation activities, go beyond
simply tracking program outputs to
determining the actual outcomes of the grant
project and the ultimate impact on the
project’s beneficiaries.
 Outside evaluators employ technical and
professional skills in the application of
rigorous design grounded in the social
sciences to the evaluation plan and its
implementation.

14.  Go back through the proposal narrative and
make a list of all personnel and non-
personnel items related to the operation of
the project
 Include as line items operating costs of the
agency that will be specifically devoted to
running the project—costs of supervision and
occupancy.
 Include other costs incurred by your
organization that benefit your project
indirectly—overhead costs, administrative
costs, supporting services, or shared costs.

15. Administrative staff
Equipment rental
Insurance
Legal fees
Audit fees
Meeting of the board of directors
Occupancy
Utilities

16.  If grant support has already been awarded to the
project, or if you expect project activities to generate
income, a support revenue statement is the place to
provide this information.
 An earned income statement deals with anticipated
revenues. The difference between expenses and
revenues is usually labeled “Balance Requested”
rather than “Amount to Be Raised.”
 Take time to analyze it objectively. Don’t overestimate
costs. Be realistic about the size of your project and its
budget.

17. Used to explain line items in the budget,
particularly unusual ones not always
needed.
The basic narrative about the project and
your organization belong elsewhere in the
proposal, not in the budget narrative.

19. Should come at the end of your proposal.
Should not overwhelm the reader with
impertinent facts about your organization.
Should be brief

20.  How your nonprofit came into existence
 Your organization’s mission
 How the proposal fits / extends the mission
 The organization’s structure
 Its programs and special staff expertise
 The size of the board, how it was recruited, its level of
participation
 The kinds of activities in which your staff engage (the
assistance you provide, audience you serve, why they
rely on you)

21. A paragraph or two
Calls attention to the future
Follow-up activities you’ll undertake
Appeal for your project (reiterating what
your nonprofit wants to do and why it’s
important)