writing an effective narrative statement assistance aid

Writing an Effective Narrative Statement

Assistance Aid

Writing an Effective Narrative Statement

Assistance Aid

PurposePurpose

The purpose of this presentation is to offer tutorial help in writing the “Narrative Statement” for the 2009 US Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant.

Importance of the Narrative StatementImportance of the Narrative Statement

The “Narrative Statement” is your opportunity to describe your community's needs, program details and request justification for federal grant funds.

Don't Underestimate the Importance of the "Narrative Statement!"Don't Underestimate the Importance of the "Narrative Statement!"

The Narrative Statement is where you must convince the peer reviewers by defining your risk, describing your need and identifying your viable solution.

Ask several members of your organization to help develop an outline of the requested grant's most significant benefits.

One Person should write the narrative. Ask several other people to review the narrative

in order to make sure the project is clearly defined, and your financial need and cost-benefit are demonstrated.

Explain how your ability to protect life and property in your community will be improved.

Narrative StatementNarrative Statement

1. Project description and budget

2. Financial need

3. Cost-Benefit: What are the benefits to your organization?

4. Effect on daily operations: How would receiving the grant affect your organization's daily operations and improve its ability to protect lives and property?

To write a detailed and well-organized “Narrative Statement,” the four topic areas shown below should be presented in order:

Key Points !Key Points ! Write your narrative offline in a word

processing document. Copy and paste the final version into the

application screen once it has been completed.

There is a five-page limit. Plan to devote one page (or about 300

words) to each of the four topic areas. Don't be tied to a word count just for the sake

of filling a page. Do not type your entire narrative in capital

letters. Use spell check.


What are the service issues? What are the funding problems? Use numbers and statistics to

illustrate the problem to be addressed.

Provide a Detailed Description of the Proposed Project and Budget

Note: Describing the problem sets the stage for finding a solution and describing how it will benefit your department or organization. These should be based on a risk assessment.

Key Point!Key Point!

If your grant request includes equipment to be used in mass casualty events, explain the critical infrastructure you protect and how your request is consistent with your State's strategic plan.


What will you purchase with the grant?

How will it be used? How does it address the problem

you described?

Tie the Solution to the Problem


Why do you need the money? Why has your organization or region been unable

to fund the project? What situations impact your ability to meet the

financial need? What steps have you taken recently to seek

alternate funding? Give details about the cash flow necessary to

maintain your organization. What are your monthly expenses? How much is

needed to maintain the organization's normal operations?

Demonstrate Your Financial Need


What partnerships and collaborative efforts will this project initiate or support?

How will awarding this grant benefit the members of your organization, region or community?

What steps have you taken to keep the cost down while adequately addressing the problem or risk?

Describe the Cost-Benefit to prove that you have selected the best possible solution for the lowest possible cost and your proposed solution will have significant impact.


Identifying the total population served by the region

How many fire departments/districts or EMS providers will be affected by this grant application

The number and identities of all agencies represented in the application

The negative impact on the region if your application is not awarded

If you are applying as a host for a regional application, ensure you address:


How will the grant help your organization's daily operations? Give specific examples.

How will the grant help protect lives and property?

Consult your members to identify the most significant benefits.

How Will the Grant Activities Help Your Organization or Region?

Key Points !Key Points ! Use Standard English writing style

with all relevant punctuation and sentence structure.

Do not use all capital letters, bullets, graphics, or attachments.

You are limited to five single-spaced pages or 19,000 characters, including spaces.

Make sure none of your text is cut off at the end of your narrative before submitting.

Key Points !Key Points ! Take several days to draft the

outline and write and edit the narrative.

Make each step a separate activity and focus on the results.

Have a team review the narrative against the four topic areas.

Include key words to help build a convincing snapshot of your community, need, and the solution.

Top Five Reasons Applications Do Not Make it to Panel Review

Top 5 Reasons Why Applications Do Not Make it to Panel ReviewTop 5 Reasons Why Applications Do Not Make it to Panel Review

Applications are evaluated in two phases. The initial phase of the evaluation is

computer-based and designed to provide higher ratings for those applications most consistent with grant program priorities.

If your application has scored competitively in the initial phase of the evaluation, it progresses to the second phase, which is the peer panel review.

This is the phase where the information in your application narrative is read, scored and recommended for funding. There are many reasons why applications do not make it to panel review.

#5 Applicant's request does not match program priorities or is ineligible.#5 Applicant's request does not match program priorities or is ineligible.

In order to be considered for panel review, your request MUST match the PRIORITIES of the Program as described in the Program Guidance. Some applicants request items that are not eligible or do not match any of the program's priorities. For example, regional hosts may not request a Wellness and Fitness program. That application would be deemed ineligible.

The more consistent your request is with the highest priority items, as described in the Program Guidance, the better the chance your application will qualify for panel review. The Program Guidance clearly identifies the program's priorities. Considering the level of competition, only those items identified as highest priority can be funded. An applicant may need or want something that is a lower priority item, but requesting such an item lessens their chances of being funded.

#4 Applicants request items identified by DHS in the 2009 Program Guidance as low or medium priority items.

#4 Applicants request items identified by DHS in the 2009 Program Guidance as low or medium priority items.

#3 Program activity requests do not meet state or national standards or requirements.

#3 Program activity requests do not meet state or national standards or requirements.

The program is designed to help applicants meet state and national standards. However, since many items are not required by any standard, requesting those lower priority items may result in a lower score. Requesting any item that does not result in state or national certification, or comply with recognized standards, may result in a lower score.

ISO requirements are not standards the program recognizes. Therefore, requesting items to meet ISO requirements, or in order to improve the ISO rating, may not be considered a priority for funding unless the ISO standard happens to be consistent with NFPA.

For example, while a Halligan tool is nice to have, it is not required by any standard, compared to PPE or SCBA, which are required by NFPA standards. ISO makes recommendations but they are NOT standards, so ISO “wish lists” are not a high priority.

#2 A high percentage of current organization members already meet the standard.

#2 A high percentage of current organization members already meet the standard.

Since the program is designed to assist those departments with the greatest need, higher ratings are given to those organizations attempting to fulfill basic firefighting requirements or basic training requirements.

For example, a department requesting PPE stating most or all of their members have gear that is very old will score higher than a department requesting new or replacement gear for their members who do not have gear meeting appropriate standards.

# 1 Why Applicants Do Not Make it to Panel Review# 1 Why Applicants Do Not Make it to Panel Review

#1 The AFG program is highly competitive and only 25% of applicants receive funding. In addition failure to follow directions in the grant application lessen your chances of receiving funding.

Top 5 Reasons Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review

Understand…Understand…

A Peer Review Panel composed of at least three members from the fire service reviews the applications receiving the highest electronic scores. The panel members read and score the narrative portion of the applications. There are many reasons why applications receive low scores.

# 5 Reason Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review# 5 Reason Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review

The information provided in the Request Details section of the application is inconsistent with the information provided in the narrative.

For example, an applicant may request an item in the Request Details section and then fail to mention it in the narrative or vice versa.


The applicant’s request for funds is excessive or unreasonable, e.g., requesting an excessively expensive brush truck or asking for what appears to be a “wish list.” The applicant should only request basic, essential firefighting equipment.

The AFG was designed to meet basic needs and evaluators tend to be conservative in their judgment. They believe applicants should request only what they must have and only what they can justify.

Panel members and program staff have a good understanding of what equipment costs and what meets standards and requirements. Applicants make a critical mistake by requesting apparatus or equipment with excessive costs.


The narrative includes boilerplate language provided by a vendor or manufacturer and does not describe the local problem.

Applicants make a serious error and produce a poor quality proposal when they copy and insert a boilerplate narrative written by a vendor or manufacturer or use a narrative another neighboring department has used. This type of document tends to be general in nature and does not describe to the panel members the nature of the local need. If an applicant uses a boilerplate, chances are a lot of other applicants have used it as well. The panelists recognize the language and historically evaluate those applications poorly.

The narrative should concisely explain your community problem, what you propose to solve the problem, how much the solution will cost and why you can't fund the solution locally. It should NOT be a discussion of the nation's fire experience or the benefits of using a specific product.


The narrative fails to make the case for financial need or does not demonstrate a high cost/benefit. The applicant leaves the panelists with unanswered questions about how the department's funds are spent.

DHS believes most applicants need the assistance they are requesting. However, many times they fail to describe why the money to fund the request is not available locally and what efforts have been made to secure funding.

In many applications, insufficient financial detail in the narrative leaves the panelists with unanswered questions about how a department spends its available funding. The result is a poor evaluation.

In addition, you need to convince the evaluators your project is the best possible solution for the lowest possible cost while providing optimal benefit to the community.


The narrative is poorly written or almost nonexistent, with little or no local demographics or fire data to adequately explain the problem, the detailed financial situation, cost-benefit as well as a desired solution and benefits.

A surprisingly large number of applicants submit applications with poorly written narratives that do not adequately define the risks in the community, a proposed solution, the detailed financial situation of the organization, or the cost-benefit of the project. The narrative must contain a clear and concise picture of the department, finances, the community and the need(s) as well as an end result (cost/benefit). Sometimes, applications are received with only a few sentences that do not describe the local community, identify the local problem, resulting risk or solution. Four or five sentences are not sufficient to effectively describe your community problem, need, solution and benefits.

SummarySummaryThis information was intended to assist the applicant with understanding the importance of writing accurate and descriptive “Narrative Statements” for the 2009 US Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant Process. This information was obtained from the USDHS website. For complete tutorial assistance, please log onto the following site:

http://www.firegrantsupport.com/afg/tutorial/2009/

writing an effective narrative statement assistance aid

Documents

entire narrative

problem narrative statementwhy

grant request

firefighters grant

federal grant funds

proposed project

project initiate

organizations daily