Part 1 of the Grant Writing Guide for the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation took you through Section #5: “Objectives and Plan of Action.”  This column picks up with Section #6: “Assessment and takes you through “Endorsements.” 

6. Assessment

DR. BROOKS’ WRITING TIP: Organize your assessments around the goals and phases of your grant. If you have four goals, then have four phases for the timeline and have four stages for the assessment.

How will you assess the results of your efforts? Specifically, what measures will you use to provide evidence of the extent to which the strategies you employed had an impact on student performance? Critical Questions: Does the plan for evaluating the grant adequately assess the quality and impact on student achievement and/or development to meet the objectives of the activities proposed? Has adequate time been allowed for review process and application form accurately completed?

Assessment Criteria:

• Project's goals and objectives are clearly defined and measurable where appropriate
• Proposal includes a specific evaluation plan to assess goals and objectives
• Evaluation plan includes formative and summative assessment

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7. Sustainability: How will you sustain the effective practices after the funding period ends? 

DR. BROOKS’ WRITING TIP: This is the section where you would indicate that the school district would be willing to sustain your prototype and integrate it into the regular school or district budget. A sentence to this effect in a Superintendent’s support letter would help with this section. Say it here. Have the Superintendent reinforce it in their letter of support.

Sustainability Assessment Criteria:

• Project is applicable to other populations
• Proposal includes an explicit discussion of post-grant sustainability and future funding sources

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8. Dissemination

DR. BROOKS’ WRITING TIP: Think about disseminating your results on your district Web site, e-mail communication system or showing what you have achieved at a workshop in the district.  Utilize electronic dissemination techniques. Be imaginative here. 

Critical Questions: How will you share the results of your project with colleagues? Will this grant be used by more than one classroom? 

Dissemination Assessment Criteria:

• Proposal includes appropriate methods to identify what new ideas and effective practices were learned
• Proposal includes a specific plan to disseminate the outcome results, the new ideas, and the effective practices from the project

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DR. BROOKS’ WRITING TIP: Make sure you have aligned your district and building goals with your grant application goals. You can list your district goals and place project goals inside them or list the grant goals once again. Go to Section #5 and copy and paste goals here. Your goals should be used to organize your timeline and budget. Use them to organize your assessment.

9. Alignment: State how this project fits into the total school or district-wide curriculum or improvement plan. 

Alignment Assessment Criteria:

• Proposal shows an alignment among the objectives, activities, evaluation, and dissemination plans
• Proposal identifies alignment to state and district standards based on the particular grant category

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10. Budget

DR. BROOKS’ WRITING TIP: If you still not sure if something will be funded, call the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation and ask. Provide a clear explanation of how budget items relate to specific educational needs. Find someone who is very good with budgets to help you with this section.  Make them part of your team. 

See “Grant-to-Educators” cover sheet guidelines for budget items that are not a priority. Provide a detailed itemized budget needed to implement the project. Specifically:

• Materials not normally supplied by school funds.  List items, including titles of books and costs of materials. Please do not request standard school supplies such as construction paper, scissors, and glue, etc.
• Equipment. Note: Requests for equipment must directly reflect the project purposes for students and/or educators and must not be fundable by district resources.  See “About the Foundation.”
• Total cost of the proposed project, including any other funds supporting the project.

Budget Assessment Criteria:

• Proposal reflects efficient use of existing organization resources in addition to the requested resources
• Total grant request is commensurate with identified program requirements
• Proposal indicates specifically how Jennings funds will be allocated

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11. Endorsement

DR. BROOKS’ WRITING TIP:  You might consider drafting the endorsement letter offering it to your superintendent for review and editing.  Busy superintendents will appreciate a clear letter that they can sign rather than having to craft the entire letter. You know your project best.  List the project goals in the letter.  Make sure the superintendent knows you are applying for the grant, so they will recognize your draft letter when it comes to their desk.  Don’t assume they will be available to sign anything. The bigger the district, the slower the signature process will be.

The Superintendent of Schools MUST complete the endorsement section prior to consideration of the proposal by the Foundation. Evidence of district “in-kind” financial support is a critical factor in assessing proposals. 

Dr. Douglas Brooks  is a Professor in the School of Education, Health and Society at Miami University. He teaches graduate and online courses in grant writing and consults with school districts to build grant writing capacity.

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