Sponsored by:

The Importance of Validating Your Statement of Need

Dr. Beverly A. Browning

August 28, 2013

Twitter Hashtag - #npweb Part

Of:

Sponsored by:

Advising nonprofits in:

• Strategy

• Planning

• Organizational Development

www.synthesispartnership.com

(617) 969-1881

info@synthesispartnership.com

INTEGRATED PLANNING

Part

Of:

Sponsored by: Part

Of:

Coming Soon

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

Part

Of:

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

Statement of Need AGENDA

• Vague descriptors

• Outdated or non-supporting

statistics

• Missing support documentation

• Why your grant application did

not get funded

Vague Descriptors

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

Can You Think of Any

More Vague Descriptors

in Place of Hard

Numbers and

Percentages?

9

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outdated or Non-

Supporting Statistics

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

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

For 2013 Grant Requests…

• The most recent Community

Needs Assessment (2000) was

conducted by the Cuyahoga

Housing Authority.

19

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

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?

Missing Support

Documentation

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

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

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

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

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

What Additional Support

Document Is Needed?

• The About Face! Program serves

nearly 350 middle school students

annually in a five-county area.

28

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Your Grant

Application Was Not

Funded

• 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!

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

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

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

Failing to…

42

• Know the peer review points or

percentage assigned to the

Statement of Need.

• Eliminate emotional need

language.

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

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

The Statement of Need:

Missing the Boat Is Not

an Option!

45

www.wiley.com

www.amazon.com

Dr. Bev Browning’s Books