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Pennsylvania Service-Learning Alliance Grantwriting Tips

The Seven Grant Questions

1. What do you want to buy?
2. What will you do with it?
3. Why do you want to do that?
4. What good will it do?
5. What makes you think that you’re the one to do it?
6. How will you know whether you really did it?
7. How will you keep doing it?

Submitted by Jeff Singleton, a PSLA peer consultant.

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Grant Writing

Develop a Needs Statement-Vision Statement

The Needs Statement and the Vision Statement are very important components of the grant proposal. The Needs Statement is very important because it discusses the need or needs that the project or program will address with the funds received through the grant. A Vision Statement is basically one or two sentences that highlight an organization's vision for meeting the needs addressed in the Needs Statement.

Answering several key questions creates the Needs Statement

1. What is the problem that requires a solution?
2. What will happen if this need is not addressed?
3. What evidence is available to document this need?
4. What is the desired state of things?
5. Why must this problem be addressed now?
6. What unique qualities does your organization possess that will enable you to address this need?

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Needs Statement Questions

1. What is the problem that requires a solution?

What issue have the students determined as most important in their community? Whether the students wish to address gang violence, hunger, safety, or smog/air quality through service-learning, the needs statement needs to highlight one significant problem that service-learning will address. Narrowing all the needs in the community down to one need or issue can be challenging for students, but it can also be a great lesson in teamwork and communication.

Here are a few sample problems addressed through service-learning mini-grants during previous school years:

• Community Safety - students don't feel safe in their community
• School Safety - students don't feel safe in school
• Hunger- students are upset about the number of families without enough food and the large number of children that go to bed hungry
• Homelessness - students recognize that there are homeless people in their community that need help
• Literacy - students recognize that there are children and adults in their community that cannot read or do not have access to literature

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2 .What will happen if this need is not addressed?

After the students determine one significant problem that they would like to address through service-learning, they need to take a look at what would happen in the community if this problem continues to fester.

Consider the following:

• Community Safety - students don't feel safe in their community so they stop participating in community events and have a negative attitude about where they live. After graduation, students leave the community and relocate to attend college or work in a community that is considered safer.
• School Safety - students don't feel safe in school so they stop coming to school. Some families decide to move to another school district where the schools are safer and their children will not be afraid to attend school.
• Hunger - students are upset about the number of families without enough food and the large number of children that go to bed hungry. Since there is no community food bank or soup kitchen in the local community, the students assist a food bank in a neighboring community where the issue of hunger is being actively addressed.
• Homelessness - students recognize that there are homeless people in the community that need help but since there are no homeless shelters in the community, students lack community partners that will help them address the issue of homelessness. The students form a partnership with a national organization that helps the homeless in other cities.
• Literacy - students recognize that there are children and adults in their community that cannot read or do not have access to literature but when they try and get a literacy project going in the community, the community is not supportive. The literacy rate in the community continues to climb and the community has no resource for bringing people together with books. The students help another community near by that wants to address the issue of reading in the community.

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3. What evidence is available to document this need?

In order to determine that the need to be addressed through service-learning is authentic, students need to gather evidence about the need. Students should get involved in a needs assessment that will lead them to finding out the needs in the community. After the students determine the need, they should document the need using relevant sources. Sources of evidence can be found in relevant research, statistics from census data or government reports, quotes from experts, or views of key individuals in the community.

Consider the following:

• Community Safety - students document this need with local crime statistics, newspaper articles and interviews with police officers.
• School Safety - students survey the student body to determine the percentage of students that do not feel safe in school. Students also refer to national school safety and school violence statistics to document this need.
• Hunger - students do a "walk-about" their community to ascertain the social service programs that address hunger in the community. Finding none, they turn to the local chapter of the United Way and get a listing of all the programs that address hunger in the region.
• Homelessness - students document this need by surveying local social service programs to ascertain the number of programs in the community that serve the homeless. Students also gather data from a regional chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
• Literacy - students meet with organizations in the community and interview residents. The information gathered during these interviews is documented by the students and it is determined that the community lacks literacy programs and there is little or no access to reading material for those who cannot purchase it.

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4. What is the desired state of things?

Students need to think about what their community would be like if issues such as school violence, hunger, homelessness and a low literacy rate weren't a problem.

Consider the following:

• Community Safety - the streets are safe and the community has a very low crime rate.
• School Safety - the schools are safe and children and parents are comfortable with the safety of the school district.
• Hunger - there is a food bank and several soup kitchens in the community to help those that are hungry and without money to buy food.
• Homelessness - there is a homeless shelter and social service programs that help the homeless in the community with job training and housing issues.
• Literacy - there is a library where people have free access to reading materials, computers and reading/literacy programs for people of all ages.

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5. Why must this problem be addressed now?

Students should determine the reason why they have chosen to focus a certain need at this time. What led them to this problem at this time? Why is this an important issue to them right now?

Consider the following:

• Community Safety - there has been a recent rise in robberies and acts of violence against senior citizens.
• School Safety - there was a student who recently brought a gun to school and threatened teachers and students.
• Hunger - there is an increase in the number of students needing free or reduced lunches. The school had to start a free breakfast program.
• Homelessness - the students have seen an increase in the number of homeless people in the community and they are frightened.
• Literacy - standardized testing results from last school year indicate that reading scores have dropped throughout the school district. Students do not have anywhere to go within the community for help with reading or to access literature. The school library cannot afford to buy new books.

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6. What unique qualities does your organization possess that will enable you to address this need?

Think about the key players in the project: the teacher, the students, the school and school district, and the community partners. Through collaboration, what do all the key players bring to the table that are unique in terms of addressing the need at hand? Take a look at the collaboration being formed for the project and find those qualities that most need to be bragged about.

Consider the following:

• Community Safety - Recently, the community organized a Neighborhood Watch Program and students form a School Watch Program.
• School Safety - Students were so concerned with school violence, that recently they implemented a fundraiser to raise money to purchase a metal detector.
• Hunger - Students took the initiative to start a canned food collection at school sporting events so that they could start a food pantry in each school that is open once a month to the public.
• Homelessness - Students are so concerned about the rising rate of homelessness in their community that they started writing letters to state and federal representatives asking that more services be provided in their community for the homeless.
• Literacy - Students collected used books and started a lending library for children in the school district.

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