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The Journey of Grantwriting - Part II

Featured Author:

Bonnie Zachowski

Bonnie Zachowski is CEO of Golden Rule Grant Consultants, L.L.C. She has over thirty years of executive and administrative experience, with diverse skills in grant writing for Foundations and Governmental Grants in multiple areas. She has been a grant reviewer for local area grants. She has a degree in Business Management from Sawyer Technical College, and training from The Grantsmanship Center (TGCI), Cuyahoga Community College, and Lakeland Community College. She continues to teach grant writing classes at Kent State University, Ashtabula, Ohio. She participated in a one million dollar capital campaign for a new emergency department located in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Bonnie serves as Vice President on the Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) for the City of Geneva, Ohio, along with participating on funding allocations board for the local area Ashtabula United Way agency. Click here to email Bonnie directly with any grantwriting questions.

More articles from this author:

• The Journey of Grantwriting: Part 1

With a strategic plan you should draft two, a short term strategic plan and a long term strategic plan. The short term strategic plan is drafted for one to two years and will directly feed into your long term strategic plan. Typically the long range plan is drafted for five to ten years.

My recommendation with these vital plans are to pull them out often as they will guide you and make sure you are on moving forward and they will allow you to pat your self on the back as you are meeting your goals and objectives. Make sure when you accomplish a task you add another to keep your strategic plan current and alive.

Once this process has been completed you can move onto goals followed by objectives.

GOAL – The end toward which effort is directed. Outcomes and measurable benchmarks.

Goals can apply to where you picture your organization or your target population at the end of the grant period. Your goals should be action oriented and full of verbs.

However: Do not include measurements or timelines in your goal statement, as you will present these in your objectives.

• Process Objectives
• Outcome Objectives
• Impact Objectives

Always provide objectives for each goal & for each year for which you’re requesting funds for an activity.