Assignment5

How to Write an Outreach Grant

Proposal By Karen M. Markin SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

Plenty of advice is available for scientists seeking research grants. But what if you are

looking for money to create an after-school science program or a training session for

nurses who work with an increasingly elderly population?

Writing a grant for community or "outreach" activities is different from writing a

research grant. In a scientific grant proposal, it is understood that researchers are

exploring new realms and cannot know exactly what they will encounter. That's the

definition of basic science, and delving into the unknown is what makes it exciting.

In contrast, an outreach grant proposal represents a road map for a project in which

the applicants know where they are going and how to get there, and anticipates bumps

in the road.

Foundations and agencies that support outreach programs want to see their money

make a difference. While the full significance of a physicist's new findings in

nonlinear dynamics may not be recognized for years, an outreach program is expected

to show results -- here and now. That could mean higher test scores for students or

increased fitness among the elderly. Whatever the target, you must provide evidence

that your approach can succeed.

Don't assume that outreach grants are limited to human activities. For example, the

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration provides money for coral-

reef conservation projects as well as efforts to remove marine debris such as derelict

boats and abandoned crab pots. So faculty members from many disciplines have the

opportunity to seek grants for community activities.

If you are seeking money for such activities, it helps to know a little grant lingo when

you search in databases or in directories. Under "award type" or "type of support,"

select "service delivery," "program development," "demonstration program" or

"outreach."

In writing grant proposals, scientists are familiar with a format that includes the

project's significance with respect to existing knowledge, its objectives, perhaps some

preliminary data, and a research-design and methods section. A proposal for an

outreach project is similar but uses different terminology for the sections. It includes

five basic components: a description of the problem you want to deal with, what you

hope to achieve by tackling the problem, how you will approach the problem, who

will be in charge of which activities, and how you will measure your success.

Showing the Problem

Establishing the need for the work you propose is an essential first step. While a

scientific-research project usually doesn't have to identify practical applications for

the work, an outreach proposal must show the existence of a problem that needs to be

remedied. A strong "statement of need," as it is sometimes called in the application,

lists specific problems and supports those claims with documentation. It is akin to the

significance section of a research proposal. The U.S. Department of Education's Web

site provides several examples of successful proposals that include detailed need

statements.

For example, a proposal for a new physical-education program for a school district

documented the old and scarce equipment. There aren't enough soccer balls, so teams

had to wait their turn to play. But idle time is not good for those students, because

many are obese and do not meet basic fitness standards for children their age. The

school district sought money for new sports equipment for activities that would appeal

to more students, such as tennis, strength training, and aerobics.

In a proposal for a community technology center, the applicant showed the need for

the facility by reporting the high poverty level of the surrounding area, along with the

low standardized test scores in the schools. That was supported by national statistics

showing less computer ownership among lower-income families.

Goals and Objectives

The terms "goals" and "objectives" may seem interchangeable, but there is an

important distinction between them in a grant proposal, particularly in a results-

oriented outreach grant.

A goal is the situation you want to achieve in the long run. World peace is an example

of a lofty goal. But no one will give you money to pursue world peace. Instead, you

must identify some concrete results you can achieve during the grant period that will

take the world a few steps closer to that ideal.

First, you need to set a more realistic goal, such as reducing violent behavior in a

particular school roiled by student fighting. Then think of measurable ways to

document a decline in violent behavior. Those are your objectives. They might

include reducing the number of referrals to juvenile authorities, times the school nurse

has to treat fight-related wounds, and detentions issued as a result of fights.

The use of measurable outcomes is increasingly important as federal agencies face

pressure to show they are putting taxpayer dollars to good use. But be realistic about

what you promise to achieve in the project. Reviewers won't be fooled by exaggerated

claims. They will accept that you can decrease the number of black eyes at the school;

they won't believe that the students will be singing "Kumbaya" at the end of the grant.

The Road Map

The next component common to outreach grants is a work plan. That is a detailed

description of the activities that will lead you to your goals and objectives. It is similar

to the methods section of a scientific-research proposal but more detailed with regard

to what you will do and when. In a scientific proposal, you need not explain each

standard laboratory technique in detail. But an outreach grant often involves

describing unique and innovative activities.

The agency will also want to know why your proposed activities are worth the risk of

investment. Use evidence to make a strong case. Perhaps the scholarly literature

supports your belief that your approach will succeed. Or perhaps others have used

similar methods with good results. Mention those, and describe how you are

modifying the approach to fit the unique needs of your situation.

A realistic timetable for completing the proposed work during the grant period is

another must for this type of project. Prepare a calendar that shows when you will

perform the proposed activities. Focus on major accomplishments, or milestones, as

they are sometimes called in the application. If it's a multiyear grant, it is acceptable to

be less specific about activities that will occur late in the grant period. In fact, your

proposal will be stronger if you can show that you will learn as you go along and

adjust program activities accordingly. That is called "formative evaluation" in

education-related grants.

Organization and Management

Who will do the recruiting and training? Who will reserve the space? Those questions

need to be answered in a section usually called the management plan. Here again, you

will need to provide more detail about the project leadership than you would in a

scientific proposal.

Work in a laboratory follows standard procedures, with the investigator, postdocs,

graduate students, and undergraduates playing well-defined roles. In contrast, each

outreach project has its own team with its own plan of action. If you are not clear

about who is responsible for what, some tasks may never get done.

If you are writing your plan of activities using the passive voice, it's a signal that you

are failing to assign responsibility for some tasks. For example, if you say, "Workshop

facilitators will be trained in the first month of the project," it is unclear who will do

the training. Reviewers will notice that and ding you for it.

You may be asked to provide charts as a way to expand on the information in your

management plan. There are a couple of ways to document the organization and

management of your project. One way is to create a bar-chart-style timeline. On the

vertical axis, list the tasks that need to be performed. On the horizontal axis, list each

month of the grant period, and indicate the months in which each task will be done.

You can also include on the horizontal axis a column that shows who will be

responsible for each task.

Another way to illustrate management of your project is with an organizational chart,

showing who reports to whom. Accompany the chart with descriptions of the job

responsibilities of each position. Your application instructions will indicate which of

those charts, if any, is sought.

In addition, the agency will want evidence that key personnel have the qualifications

for their roles in the project. That may involve summaries of their backgrounds or

résumés included in an appendix. Avoid attaching long CV's and instead focus on

citing the work experience of participants that is most relevant to the project.

For example, if a biology professor will be presenting an after-school program to

elementary school children to get them interested in science, don't provide an

exhaustive list of that person's publications about the role of nitrogen in the growth of

sea lettuce. Briefly establish the professor's scholarly credentials, and then emphasize

his or her relevant activities, such as involvement in a highly successful summer

science camp or some other work with school-age children.

Evaluation: The Measure of Success

Outreach grants are about results. Careers of individual program officers as well as

future support for a given program can depend on how well current grantees perform.

Most likely you will be asked to include an evaluation plan in your proposal so you

can document whether you have been successful.

Evaluation conducted at the end of a project is called "summative evaluation" in

education-related grants. Demonstrate your success by showing your achievement of

the measurable objectives listed at the beginning of the proposal. One way to

document performance is by quantifying things you can quantify, such as services and

participants. In our example about the violent school, we could set a target of serving

25 students through biweekly workshops of 90 minutes each. If we want to reduce

referrals to juvenile authorities, we need to know how often they occurred before the

outreach project. Then we need to remember to tally them again after the project. You

need to be thinking about evaluation while you are planning your project activities,

not after.

If that is unfamiliar territory for you, consider hiring someone else to design and

conduct the evaluation. Experts in evaluation can be found in schools of education as

well as in social-science departments. They will often prepare an evaluation plan for

your proposal at no charge, provided you write them into the budget to perform the

work if the project wins a grant. It's best to involve that person in the project planning

so that valid measurements can be developed alongside program activities. If you try

to retrofit the measures, you may have a harder time illustrating success.