Grant Proposal Completion

GRANTS PROPOSAL 1

GRANTS PROPOSAL 2

Brianna Ahmad

April 27, 2019

South University

Need Statement

Our program is purposing to address the financial literacy problem that many of the people do experience in the United States. From the research that was carried on the financial literacy on the 15-year olds by the USA Today revealed the United States fell in at Number 9, 8 points behind the overall average of young adults who grasped the concept of finance. Basic financial literacy skills questions were asked during the study such as the purpose of the invoice, how to prepare a balance sheet. Then complex questions were asked such comparing and choosing the better of two loan proposals (Krasselt, 2014). There is a need for information on basic bank account balancing, the importance of understanding credit, and multiple in-depth informative sessions on budgeting and staying out of debt. For the students in South Carolina, a school system does not require students to have financial literacy in order to graduate. In order to meet this need, the educators of Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC organization would like to propose a grant program to expand the financial knowledge of young adults around South Carolina.

Bigger Than the Standard, SC is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. Our purpose is to equip young adults by expanding their minds to information that the school doesn’t require as a part of the standard to graduate but is included in the standard of life. We are looking forward to partner with school districts, athletic departments, and communities across South Carolina to provide mentoring to students between the ages of 13-18 every other Saturday throughout the entire year. We will work to provide the students with the life skill development of being able to budget and maintain their finances in order to decrease the number of young adults in debt.

In order to ensure that we fully address the identified need of the financial literacy with targeting students between the ages of 13-18 years, we will offer a free Financial Knowledge Camp to serve the students of the community. Beyond contributing to the development of the financial literacy the camp is designed for the students to come together and learn and build a relationship with other members of the community, ultimately building a stronger bond and a safety net for students (Fritz, 2018).

Goal Statement and Objectives

Our goal statement is to provide students between the ages of 13-18 with life skill development of being able to budget and maintain their finances in order to decrease the number of young adults in debt.

We have two main objectives that we would like to achieve through the program. First, ensure that students leaving the high school of the age 13-18 years in South Carolina have attained and increased basic financial knowledge for their own benefits and benefit of the society. Second, use the program to bring students within South Carolina together, learn and build a relationship with other members of the community, ultimately building a stronger bond and a safety net for students.

Project Narrative

In order to achieve our set objectives of increasing the financial literacy amongst the high school students in South Carolina and ensuring that bonding of the students takes place; Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC organization will offer a free Financial Knowledge Camp to serve the students of the community. This is expected to increase financial literacy and creates a platform where the students will be able to bond. Details of the camp are given below;

Time: 8:00am-12:00 pm

Date: June 8, 2019

Location: Richland County Public Library

Participation Ages: 10-18 years old

Details of the contract: In order for students to participate, in the Financial Literacy Camp they must have an updated completed signed a waiver on file. If the student is under the age of 18 the parent or guardian will have to sign the form before they are eligible to participate in any activities. The waiver will disclosure any learning disabilities, food allergies, or special information about the student instructors will need to be informed on. Breakfast, snacks, and water will be provided on site for students to enjoy. The camp will be based on the following fundamentals and the following time frames.

Time 8:00am-8: 30 am- The time allocation will be designed for everyone to come together and learning some basics about one another. We will get together and do icebreakers and become familiar with the names and financial informative backgrounds of each student in the camp while enjoying breakfast.

Time 8:30am-9: 00 am- This time will be allocated to breaking up into groups based on knowledge and ages. Groups will be broken down in ages from 10-12 years old, 13-15-year old’s and 16-18-year-olds with an exception of students who have financial knowledge who may move up or down to another group.

Time 9:00am-10: 00 am- First session of learning will consist of gaining knowledge of budgeting and savings. Each instructor of their specific groups will have age-appropriate information and activities to inform their group of what those students should be aware of when looking to budget and save.

Time 10:00am-11:00am-This session will be based on credit information and the basics. Each group will learn the importance of credit, how it is calculated, what it is used for and how to work toward increasing the credit score.

Time 11:00am-12:00pm-This time will be used to inform students of assets they can be used to assist in financial goals. We will end the session with an overview and activities that will be completed at the next session.

Groups Invited to the Community Forum: Richland School District 1 faculty, Richland School District 2 faculty, Lexington School District 5 faculty, Pine Hurst Community Park, Meadow Lake Recreation Center, Richland County Public Library-St. Andrews, Richland County Public Library-Main, Burke & Burke Accounting Firm, John Thomas Financial Advisor and Seniors of Bachelorette Studies -Accounting/Finance Majors.

Our next activity, we will partner with school districts, athletic departments, and communities across South Carolina to provide mentoring to students between the ages of 13-18 every other Saturday throughout the entire year. This is the main activity that we intend to use to introduce and increase financial literacy amongst the high school students where they will know how to budget to budget and maintain their finances in order to decrease the number of young adults in debt.

In free financial camp, we are expecting total attendance of 10,000 which translated to $100,000 which will cater for meals. We will have to remunerate the accounting professionals who will help us run the program of the day and this will cost approximately $30,000.

On running the other activity, which is every Saturday mentorship, which will take place across all the district schools in South Carolina, this translates to 85 district school in SC. To make this happen, we will contract account professionals who will help us to mentor students and they will work every Saturday from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon at cost of $10 per hour. We will have accountant professionals who correspond to the number of the schools, working for 48 Saturdays that we have set aside for the year and this gives a total cost of $163,000. Additionally, we have a director of the project, evaluators to help determine the progress of the program after every 3 months, secretary, internal auditor, office guards and offices where the materials and planning take place. All these facilities and additional personnel cost $200,000 annually. Other expenditures that we will encounter are the purchase of the materials to facilitate learning and this is expected to cost $300,000, fringe benefits of $3200, travel expense $30,000 and administrative expense of $45,000.

In order to meet the cost of free financial and our rolled out program for financial mentorship every Saturday and also the facilities, we look forward to the financial assistance of $700,000. This financial support will help educators of Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC organization achieve its objectives hence realizing the main goal statement.

The goal of the program is closely related to the objectives of the program. Having previously determined that the study revealed that Young student in the USA lack basic skills of the financial literacy, educators of Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit have taken the initiative to address this problem majorly in the South Carolina. It has two main activities that are aimed to increase financial literacy to high school students aged 13-18 years and equip them with basic skills of preparing a budget and maintaining their finances prudently to ensure they do not find themselves in debts for no reason. The other objective of the firm builds strong bond amongst the student by bringing them together where they learn and acquire basic financial skills which are to their good and also the good of the society. This helps to bridge the gap of financial illiteracy and helps the young students have increased knowledge of financial literacy.

Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit is expecting to run the financial literacy program for the next 5 years. After 5 years, we will have a report that will help us to assess the impact caused by the project. We will share the data with our supporters to demonstrate our transparency and after the assessment; we will determine the next course of action (White, 2013).

Annual Budget and Budget Justification

In order to fund our activities and achieve our goal the following is the proposed annual budget for Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC to begin on the 10th of May 2019.

	Total Budget	Funds Requested
Personnel
Salaries and wages	$283,000	$245,000
Fringe benefits	$32000	$30,000
Consultant and contract services	$30,000	$15,000
Subtotal	$345,000	$290,000
Non-personnel
Office rent	$50,000	$30,000
Financial learning materials	$300,000	$200,000
Free Camp day meals	$100,000	$70,000
Travel	$30,000	0
Administrative costs	$45000	$25,000
Subtotal	$525,000	$325,000
Total	$870,000	$615,000

From the above annual budget, it is appeal to the granters to support Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC with $615,000 that will help cover the deficit and gives us the privilege to implement the program activities in the bid to expand the financial literacy for students within the age of 13 to 18 years within South Carolina.

Cash flow Budget

Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC has the following cash flow statement;

Cash flow from operating activities
Annual expense from annual budget	($870,000)
Depreciation	$15,000
Prepaid expense and other assets	$106,000
Account payable	$150,000
Accrued other liabilities	($50,000)
Net cash (used in) provided in operating activities	(649,000).
Cash flows from investing activities
Funds from grants	$615,000
Net (deficit) surplus in cash	($34,000)
Cash, end year	($34,000)

From the above cash flow statement when the Bigger Than the Standard Nonprofit, LLC prudently manages and carries out its program activities it will have a deficit of $34,000 which will be starting balance in the next period.

References

Fritz, J. (2018). How to Write a Great Needs Statement for Your Grant Proposal. Retrieved from https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-write-a-need-statement-for-your-grant-proposal-2501959

Krasselt, K. (2014). In financial literacy, U.S. teens score below Latvia. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/07/09/united-states-financial-literacy/12404527/

White, V. (Ed.). (2013). Grant proposals that succeeded. Springer Science & Business Media.