PAF 410.4: INTRODUCTION TO GRANTWRITING Spring 2015

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1 PAF 410.4: Introduction to Grant Writing Spring 2015 Wednesdays 5:15 pm 8:00 pm 105 Maxwell Hall Instructor: Christina Leigh Deitz Office: 308 Eggers Hall Phone: Office Hours: Monday 3:30 5:30, or by appointment REQUIRED TEXT Miner, J.T., & Miner, L.E. (2013). Proposal Planning & Writing. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. RECOMMENDED Geever, J. C., & Foundation Center. (2012). The Foundation Center's guide to proposal writing. New York: Foundation Center. Browning, B. A. (2011). Grant writing for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Selections from both of these books will be provided to you in electronic form during the semester, but you are welcome to purchase these as future resources. Additional supplementary articles, videos and online tutorials will be assigned and/or provided as optional reference materials during the semester. GOAL Students in this course will learn the basic elements of grant development, including how to research funding opportunities, how to decipher grant applications and requests for proposals, and how to construct a grant for a nonprofit organization. COURSE DESCRIPTION Introduction to Grant Writing is a Public Affairs Practicum which situates you, the student, as a consultant to a local nonprofit, in order to benefit you by providing the tools for and practical experience in grant writing. This course also benefits the community through the provision of grant writing services. While background material will be provided on grant development as a topic, this course focuses on the manual art of grant writing rather than the philosophy behind this critical skill. The primary focus of this course is on the construction of an actual proposal. Classroom methods include a combination of traditional class instruction, laboratory exercises and the community deliverable in the form of a submissible grant proposal. Most classes will include three distinct sections: a 15 to 30 minutes question and discussion period, 60 minutes of instruction, and 60 to 90 minutes of lab work. Each student should bring a laptop to class, and our lab work will occur in the classroom listed above or other spaces within the Maxwell School. 1

2 Lab work will include live walk-throughs of web resources, practice searches, for-credit miniassignments, individual work time with instructor support, and small-group critiques of writing assignments. Small group critiques will consist of online editing and commenting on written assignments (most often small portions of the proposals to be submitted) and/or discussions of assignments. As the semester progresses and the proposal materials increase in length and complexity, critiques of other student s writing may become take-home assignments. These critiques are a critical component of the course, and should be treated with as much care as your personal assignments. LEARNING OUTCOMES During the course of the semester, students will learn the following: Numerous resources available for grant development in nonprofit organizations; How to translate a need for funding in an organization into usable terms for an online search for funding opportunities; How to manipulate multiple databases for funding opportunities; How to decipher grant applications and requests for proposals; Common elements of proposals; How to construct a proposal; How to review proposal components to strengthen a proposal. You will also learn, in great depth, about the organization for which you will develop the proposal, and to a lesser extent about the organizations with which your classmates are working. Finally, you will learn how to meet a proposal deadline (in your case, the deadline is Monday, May 4 th at 5:00 pm EST (sharp!), including need framing, requirement analysis, lots of writing, and significant information gathering from undependable sources (humans). All this must be accomplished while still managing your day-to-day activities at your nonprofit organization (being a student at SU). In the funding world, if you fail to meet a fixed grant deadline, you are not considered for funding. In this class, it will mean failure to receive a passing grade. NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONAL PARTNERS Each student will be matched with a non-profit agency sponsor with whom you will have a primary point of contact. You will meet with your agency contact to discuss their programs, funding needs, and current sources of revenue; to provide limited guidance on potential funding sources; and to submit a completed funding proposal for review and signature(s) of approval before submitting to the instructor for a final grade. This is not an internship; rather, your role is to serve as a grant writing consultant, touching base with your contact at your partner organization frequently to gather additional information or to submit portions of the grant proposal for review and feedback. You are encouraged to interview additional front-line staff and observe program delivery first-hand, if appropriate and made available by your sponsor, to gain additional understanding about the organization and their activities, and why you will be helping them to seek funding. SCHEDULE The scheduled projects and activities for each class are subject to change, including switching of dates for activities and assignments, based on class progress. A minimum of two weeks notice will be given for any assignment changes. Questions will be invited throughout the class period, but the first 15 to 30 minutes of class will be reserved for follow-up questions on prior topics or assignments, and brief 2

3 presentations and/or reports on interactions with your organizations. Class will normally end at 7:45 each week; however the instructor will remain a minimum of 15 minutes after each class to answer questions or discuss progress with individual students. Additional time outside of class for such discussions can occur during Monday office hours, or by appointment by ing the instructor. EXPECTATIONS Bring a laptop to class for lab work (if you do not own a laptop, notify instructor immediately) Be able to access all of your work and materials for this course during lab periods. This may mean retaining all of your materials on a flash drive, in , on your laptop, Google docs, etc. some form you can access during class. Make sure to back up all your materials in at least one secondary location. Complete your readings for each week before beginning your assignments Unless otherwise noted, all assignments should be submitted via to the instructor as Word documents, to enable editing/commenting in track changes for feedback. Once assigned, you are to interact with your organization on almost a weekly basis, both for ongoing information gathering and progress reporting. Keep a log of these weekly interactions (A spread sheet template with information on when & how you met and notes about what you talked about will be provided) and submit to the instructor with each assignment. Contact with your organization: In-person interactions are best, to help build relationships and improve communication with your organization. However, this may not be possible on a regular basis (or at all, for those with non-local organizations). You are expected to meet with your organizational contact in-person a minimum of 2-3 times during the semester (for the initial interview, elevator speech preparation, and review of final proposal draft, for example). Exceptions to this must be approved by the instructor. All other contact should be manageable by phone and . If you cannot meet in person at all, regular phone and/or Skype conversations must supplement interactions. alone with your organizations will not be accepted as sufficient interaction. You must manage the relationship, set expectations, and develop agreed upon schedules of meetings with your organization. It may be most beneficial set such a schedule for interactions over the semester with your contact (where, when, for how long, and generally concerning what?) at your first meeting. If you have difficulty in securing necessary information and/or feedback from your organization (after repeated, professional attempts at contact) at any point during the semester, please notify the instructor immediately. OVERVIEW OF GRADING POLICY AND ASSIGNMENTS All work will be reviewed and ongoing feedback will be provided. All grades will consider: How well you followed directions both those provided with class assignments and from the funding organization, when applicable (for example, filling out proposal paperwork based on foundation guidelines); Your effort, as indicated by: contact/work logs; organizational feedback; addressing of edits and/or critiques from the instructor and your fellow students; Grammar, spelling, and punctuation; Attendance & class participation (including evidence of completing required reading) 3

4 Assignments and Grade Points There will be no exams. Your final grade is a combination of your effort during class, the quality of your assignments, and your interactions with your organization. Assignments are due 5:00 pm on due date, usually the day before class unless otherwise noted. The point breakdown is as follows: WK Article and Summary Due 1/20/15 2 points WK 2 2.1, 2.2 Contact & Six Draft Funding Opportunities Due 1/27/15 3 points WK 3 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Contact, Org Sheet & Meeting Notes Due 2/03/15 3 points WK Five Funding Opportunity Summaries to Orgs Due 2/10/15 4 points WK Proposal Requirement Outline Due 2/17/15 4 points WK 6 6.1, 6.2 Contact w/speech prep, Questions to funders Due 2/24/15 1 point WK SPEECH (tentative date based on speakers) Due 2/25/15 10 points WK Draft Project Description w/budget Due 3/03/15 5 points* March 11 th No Class SPRING BREAK WK 9 9.1, 9.2 Contact & Critique Due 3/17/15 3 points WK Rough Draft to Instructor Due 3/24/15 5 points WK Rough Draft to Organization Due 4/01/15 3 points WK Contact, Solicit Feedback Due 4/07/15 2 points* 12.2 OPTIONAL Rough draft for review & extra cr. Due 4/10/15 [+up to 5 pts]** WK , 13.2 Proposal w/contact; Exec. Sum, Cover or Other Due 4/14/15 5 points WK Final Presentation (draft due for printing 4/21) Due 4/22/15 10 pts OPTIONAL PROPOSAL COMPLETION LAB CLASS WEDNESDAY APRIL 29 th WK Final Proposal: Due to Instructor & Org Due 5/04/15 30 points Lab Work & Attendance 10 points 100 Points *These classes may be held online. If so, students will be notified at least two weeks in advance. **An extra credit assignment is available to make up lower scores during the semester; however, 100 points is the highest grade attainable. CHEATING/PLAGIARISM Academic honesty is expected of all students. For individual assignments, students must hand in their own work. Similarities in wording between individual papers, including a consistent case of the use of the same sources, may result in a zero for both papers and a letter to the department chair and to the dean. Any evidence of failure to follow University guidelines for academic integrity will result in a zero for that assignment. For additional information, consult When it is determined to be necessary, authenticity of papers may be verified using the plagiarism prevention system, Turnitin. Students may also use Turnitin through Blackboard to confirm that information has been correctly cited. Students must not copy and paste Internet sources without proper attribution. 4

5 DISABILITY STATEMENT Students who require academic accommodations due to a disability are encouraged to discuss their needs with the instructor at the beginning of the semester. To obtain authorized accommodations, students should be registered with the Office of Disability Services, 804 University Ave., Rm. 310; ; odssched@syr.edu. Students must provide the instructor with an updated accommodation letter. Services are not provided retroactively. They must be requested in advance. For more information and the complete policy, see FAITH OBSERVANCES SU religious observances policy recognizes the diversity of faiths represented among the campus community and protects the rights of students, faculty, and staff to observe religious holidays according to their tradition. Under the policy (found at students are provided an opportunity to make up any examination, study, or work requirements that may be missed due to are religious observance provided they notify their instructors before the end of the second week of classes. For fall and spring semesters, an online notification process is available through MySlice/StudentServices/Enrollment/MyReligiousObservances from the first day of class until the end of the second week of class. Attendance grades will not be affected due to classes missed for religious observance if identified to instructor per Syracuse university policy. Work assignments missed due to religious observance must be made up within one week of the original due date to be considered for full credit. 5