Grant writing tips from the perspective of an evaluator.
The IMLS Deputy Director of Museums was in the audience for this. She said this is exactly what grant writers should follow for a successful proposal.
2. WHAT NO TO WRIT
T
Donors and funding organizations expect
credibility and accountability.
E
Are you giving them what you claim?
Do you really know? How?
Evaluation helps you
Create, measure and prove the
outcomes you’re claiming
Demonstrate to donors and funding
organizations that you are serious about
creating the best possible programs and
exhibits.
3. WHAT NO TO WRIT
T E
We will be evaluating the program
through exit interviews, on line
surveys, questionnaires and focus
groups.
In other words.... we don't really know
what we're going to do yet so we
are covering all the bases.
4. WHAT TO WRIT
E
Formative evaluation will be conducted by Monica Post an independent professional
exhibit evaluator to ensure that the exhibits’ messages will be clearly understood by
the audience. The formative evaluation studies will be conducted at both the Zoo
and also at similar institutions that are more accessible to the designer and
evaluator. This multiple-site evaluation system allows for a more extensive
formative evaluation to occur and also acknowledges that the Zoo’s audiences are
not always local and viewpoints from outside the region will help in clarifying the final
product for all audiences. The formative evaluation will be conducted on mock-ups
of the proposed final exhibit components and incorporate two different methods of
evaluation: 1) cued questionnaires that will test the cognitive and affective outcomes
of the exhibits, and 2) timing and tracking which will test the attraction power of and
interactions with exhibit components. The formative evaluation will be conducted in
as many as three stages, each stage resulting in further refinement of the exhibit
components. Both methods of the first stage will be conducted on a sample size of
60, and each consecutive stage conducted on a sample size of 25. Sample
members in the tracking and timing study will participate unknowingly; sample
members in the cued questionnaire studies will do so knowingly. Eligible sample
members will be randomly selected visitors over the age of 8, not including school
and camp group participants.
5. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U W
Stage or stages of evaluation that you plan to use
•Front End- Conducted before the project gets underway
•Formative- Conducted during the design phase, when changes can be made
•Remedial- Conducted soon after the exhibit or program is open to the public
•Summative - Conducted after the exhibit or program is open to the public and
small fixes have been completed.
Formative evaluation will be conducted by Monica Post an independent
professional exhibit evaluator to ensure that the exhibits’ messages will be
clearly understood by the audience. The formative evaluation studies will
be conducted at both the Zoo and also at similar institutions……..
6. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U W
The methods of evaluation that you will be using:
•surveys
•questionnaires
•one on one interviews
•focus groups
•post it surveys
•concept mapping
The formative evaluation will be conducted on mock-ups of the
proposed final exhibit components and incorporate two different
methods of evaluation: 1) cued questionnaires that will test the
cognitive and affective outcomes of the exhibits, and 2) timing and
tracking which will test the attraction power of and interactions with
exhibit components…….
7. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U
What you want to learn from the evaluation
•what do visitors already know
W
•what do visitors want to learn
•how do they want to get their information
•are they reading or interacting with the graphics as planned
…two different methods of evaluation: 1) cued questionnaires that will test
the cognitive and affective outcomes of the exhibits, and 2) timing and
tracking which will test the attraction power of and interactions with exhibit
components. The formative evaluation will be conducted in as many as three
stages, each stage resulting in ….…..
8. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U W
The sample sizes that you will include in your testing
The formative evaluation will be conducted in as many as three
stages, each stage resulting in further refinement of the exhibit
components. Both methods of the first stage will be conducted
on a sample size of 60, and each consecutive stage conducted
on a sample size of 25. Sample members in the tracking and
timing study will participate unknowingly; sample members …..
9. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U
The audience that you will be testing:
•7th grade school children
W
•families with children under 12
•visitors
Both methods of the first stage will be conducted on a sample size of 60,
and each consecutive stage conducted on a sample size of 25. Sample
members in the tracking and timing study will participate unknowingly;
sample members in the cued questionnaire studies will do so knowingly.
Eligible sample members will be randomly selected visitors over the age of
8, not including school and camp group participants.
10. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U
The location where you will be testing:
•on site
W
•near by venue
•venue near exhibit developer
•site where underserved audiences are located
….will be clearly understood by the audience. The formative evaluation
studies will be conducted at both the Zoo and also at similar institutions that
are more accessible to the designer and evaluator. This multiple-site
evaluation system allows for a more extensive formative evaluation to occur
and also acknowledges that the Zoo’s audiences are not always local and
viewpoints from outside the region will help in clarifying the final product for
all audiences. The formative evaluation will be conducted ….
11. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U W
Any other details that demonstrate that you have an evaluation plan:
Formative evaluation will be conducted by Monica Post an independent professional exhibit
evaluator to ensure that the exhibits’ messages will be clearly understood by the audience.
The formative evaluation studies will be conducted at both the Zoo and also at similar
institutions that are more accessible to the designer and evaluator. This multiple-site
evaluation system allows for a more extensive formative evaluation to occur and also
acknowledges that the Zoo’s audiences are not always local and viewpoints from outside the
region will help in clarifying the final product for all audiences. The formative evaluation will be
conducted on mock-ups of the proposed final exhibit components and incorporate two different
methods of evaluation: 1) cued questionnaires that will test the cognitive and affective
outcomes of the exhibits, and 2) timing and tracking which will test the attraction power of and
interactions with exhibit components. The formative evaluation will be conducted in as many as
three stages, each stage resulting in further refinement of the exhibit components. Both
methods of the first stage will be conducted on a sample size of 60, and each consecutive
stage conducted on a sample size of 25. Sample members in the tracking and timing study will
participate unknowingly; sample members in the cued questionnaire studies will do so
knowingly. Eligible sample members will be randomly selected visitors over the age of 8, not
including school and camp group participants
12. WHAT YO NEED TO KNO
U W
Stage or stages of evaluation that you plan to use
The methods of evaluation that you will be using:
What you want to learn from the evaluation
The sample sizes that you will include in your testing
The audience that you will be testing:
The location where you will be testing:
Any other details that demonstrate that you have an evaluation plan
13. WHO T CONTACT
O
MONICA POST
MPR Museum Consulting
www.MPRconsultants.com
Phone: (515) 265-4837
e-mail: monica@mprconsultants.com
Editor's Notes
Introductions I want to begin by saying I am not a grant writer…..so I claim no expertise in the area. But I am an evaluator that has written the evaluation portion on many grants. Those that I have been successful with have been IMLS grants. But again I want to stress- I didn’t write the grant I wrote the evaluation portion of those grants. IMLS puts a huge emphasis on Evaluation. They call it Outcomes Based Planning and Evalution. That is what I am here to talk with you about today.
Donors and funding organizations expected credibility and accountability. If you are claiming to be an educational institution- can you prove it? Do you prove it? Just because you’re teaching doesn’t mean you visitors are learning? Would parents or a community have confidence in a school that only teaches- never tests? Imagine that you are plunging into writing for a grant, but you don’t have a plan for what you will do with the grant money. Who (besides your organization) will benefit from it. What would you write? We need 250,000. Not sure what we will do with it. Not sure who will benefit. How successful would that grant be? So whenever you write for a grant (including a planning grant) you have a plan. You know what the money will be used for, you know how much money you will need, you know who will benefit and you can outline the need. But too often when it comes to the evaluation portion, it is an unknown area and so you write something like this:
Notice how it’s not a plan- it’s a vague generlization. Now here is what to write.
It may seem huge, daunting- but in that one paragraph (only 233 words) that’s the extent of the evaluation plan. In that single paragraph is an entire evaluation plan that has all the key points that will tell a grant reviewer that your organization wants to make sure the grant money is spent in a way that will create the best possible program or exhibit, accomplish the outcomes you claim it will, and you intend to prove it. So in other words, you need to have the evaluation plan ready before you write the grant. Here is what you need to know.
You need to know the stage or stages of evaluation that you plan to use Front end evaluation is conducted before the project gets underway. Front end evaluation helps you know what your audience knows, the vocabulary they use, the misconceptions they may have, the way the want to get their information, key words that my turn on or off their attention…. Formative Evaluation is conducted during the design phase. It’s tweaking and trying. Trial and error. Does anyone in here sew…. Would you make a dress from start to finish without trying it on several times during the process to make sure it fits in all the right places. Remedial evaluation is conducted right after the exhibit or program is revealed to the public. Remedial is usually done in house. It’s purpose is to identify and fix the obvious prior to conducting a summative evaluation. Replacing burned out light bulbs, fixing a broken speaker…. Fixing things that can be fixed. Summative evaluation is conducted after the exhibit or program is open to the public. You don’t plan to make any changes. Summative is a final analysis. “How did we do” The summative evaluation won’t help the exhibit or program you’ve just unveiled, but it will show grant awarders what their money accomplished and it will help you in the future with the donors. In that 233 word paragraph- the first two words expressed the stage of evaluation we are going to use.
You also need to know the methods you will use- there are so many here are just a few: surveys, questionnaires, interviews …… Here are the methods we chose to use in this formative evaluation.
What do you want to learn from the evaluation? Why are you doing it? Like the methods- there are many, many things you may want to learn- but you will need to limit it to a few. Note: Evaluation is not the time to learn who your audience is. Demographic questions are included in evaluation, but not to determine who your audience is. Instead, they are there to verify that the evaluation participants are representative of your audience. In that evaluation paragraph this is the portion that states what we want to learn.
The sample sizes that you will include in your testing
The audience that you will include in your testing
The location or locations where you will be testing In this case we chose more than one location
Any other details that demonstrate that you have a plan.
To recap: These are the points of an evaluation plan that you need to know before you begin to write your grant proposal.
Please feel free to contact me any time. MPR Museum Consulting writes the evaluation portion of your grant proposal for free.
