May/June 2010
Planning Effective Projects
by Sharon C. Gherman,
adapted from
The Art of Grantwriting: Communicating Your Vision to Funders
There’s a lot of thinking and planning that must go into a successful project before you can begin to write a proposal for funding. Your organizational and writing style will affect the order in which you complete these activities, but here are some points to consider:
Plan Early for Sustainability
The grantmaker will want to know your plans for continuing the program they’ve funded after their organization’s contribution is spent.
Have a clear idea from the outset what the plan is for continuing the project or program when the funding ends. It may be that when the funds are gone, your project will be over. If so, clearly explain that to the grantmaker and to the staff and clients who will be involved with the project. For instance, perhaps you’ll use grant funds to assist community members to recover from a natural disaster, so funds won’t be needed after that work is completed.
But if the program or project is intended to continue after the grant funding ends, you’ll need to begin securing the replacement funding as soon as you know your grant proposal has been successful.
Together with the key personnel who will work on this project, ask yourselves these questions:
- How will we sustain the project after the end of grant funds? Not all proposals are written for programs that will live beyond grant funding -- maybe you simply need a new copier, for instance – but many projects will.
- Will we continue grant-funded positions or continued training from our operating budget after the grant period?
- Could someone else pick up the cost at the end of grant funding?
- Are there any possibilities for creating earned income through this project?
- Will the internal capacity of our organization permanently increased as a result of this grant? If so, you may be able to leverage this funding with other grant funds to strengthen your organization even more.
- Are our beneficiaries permanently benefitted in some way? Again, this may provide an opportunity to leverage funding.
Simple Project Planning
As you begin to plan your project, you’ll be collecting information and facts that may eventually be included in your proposal, so keep good notes and records of meetings, phone calls, and research.
At the very beginning -- as soon as you know for sure you’re committed to raising funds to accomplish or create your project -- hold a meeting of all the people who will be ‘stakeholders’ in this project and discuss the project. Stakeholders are people or organizations that affect, or can be affected by, your project.
If there is anyone who could cause great harm or even kill your project by taking a public or private stand against it, that person needs to be at the table from the beginning of your planning process.
This is the time where your project goals and objectives will be created, refined and committed to paper. You’ll also be talking about your project budget, including how much money it will take to accomplish your goals and where that money might come from, as well as your projected timeline.
Stakeholders can help you create realistic goals and plan well. Listen to what they have to say, especially the dissenters. Resist the temptation to ignore or discount those who are not completely in support of your ideas, and carefully consider whether their objections or concerns are logical and hold significance. Solving these issues prior to seeking funding will help ensure a successful project and will also help you write a more convincing proposal.
Complex Project Planning
When planning a project with several parts or pieces, the process can get more complicated. You may need two or three budgets (one for each part) in addition to a total project budget. You will need to describe each part of the project in addition to the project as a whole – and each part may have different objectives.
I developed a spreadsheet-based tool specifically for this purpose a number of years ago. Called a Funding Matrix, it allows you to create up to five different budgets and combine them easily within one project. It also allows you create a plan for funding your project from multiple sources – from several grants, for instance, or from a combination of operating and grant funds. You can read more about the Funding Matrix here, in the Exchange archives.
Plan Early for Program Evaluation
Create a plan for evaluating the success of your project as you define the project’s goals and objectives. Every objective should be measurable – and the way you measure the success of each objective is the evaluation plan for that objective. Putting all the objectives’ success measurements together will form the outline of your evaluation plan. This method is far simpler than planning to evaluate the project part-way into the program, and results in more accurate documentation.
Program planning isn’t hard – in fact, it can be a lot of fun! This is where you put foundations under your dreams, pull your team together, and work toward a common goal. Enjoy the journey!
You can purchase a copy of the funding matrix for $49 here, or combine the matrix purchase with up to an hour’s consultation with Funding Exchange staff on adapting the tool to your organization’s use for $150. Every funding matrix purchase comes with detailed instructions for completing and using it.
