All About Funding

Two grant writers share tips and tools for funding videoconferencing technologies.

1. From the Desk of Andrew Knox

Sr. Area Grant Manager
Polycom Grant Assistance Program

“How Logic Models Strengthen your Grant Proposals”

All grants require your organization to both plan for the successful implementation of your grant and to show how the grant fits into the long-term mission of your organization. This requires that you analyze and write down your project's goals, objectives, activities, and results, and develop a plan for evaluating your progress.

To help you think through all of these details, many granting agencies and private funders either require or strongly recommend that you use a logic model. Logic models are frameworks into which you can visually or verbally link your grant project's pieces together in a systematic work plan that makes sense.  Since it is critical that the readers of your grant easily understand how you will accomplish your project, we highly recommend that you find and use one.

There are a number of free logic models available from various granting agencies. One of the best and most widely adopted comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This logic model is free and can be downloaded at:
http://www.wkkf.org/knowledge-center/resources/2010/Logic-Model-Development-Guide.aspx.

The University of Wisconsin Extension office also provides an online logic model development tool and logic model templates that can be found at
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/progdev/index.html.

If you need help implementing a planning process or one of these logic models for video or VOIP technology any number of private consultants are available. Even some technology companies have created free and for-fee services to help with grants.

One free service is the Polycom Grant Assistance Program, which recently trademarked a process for assisting public, private and nonprofit organizations in finding, securing and administering grant funding for voice and video solutions. 

Polycom Area Grant Managers, with proven experience in writing and administering grants, work with organizations to track funding from 26 federal grant making agencies, state grant making agencies, private and public foundations, and special funding from initiatives like the Recovery Act.  Organizations receive a free grant assessment using Polycom’s Grant Ready Assessment and Navigational Tool (GRANT) that helps determine grant readiness based on 17 common grant evaluative criteria.  Organizations that enroll in the program have access to a network of grant writers with proven success rates and telecommunications experts.  Find more information about the 7-Step Grant Assistance Process, the GRANT tool, and how to enroll in the program, at www.polycom.com/grants.

For more information, contact:
Elizabeth G. Holden
Director, Polycom Grant Assistance Program
859.299.9976 | c: 605.838.7265
www.polycom.com/grants

Get a Plan.  Get a Grant.  Get Connected!

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2.  From the Desk of the TANDBERG Grant Services Team
“Grant Writing Tips”

Our new feature “Grant Writing Tips” is courtesy of the TANDBERG Grant Services Team – We work with many teams of experienced external writers, providing expert advice and guidance throughout the grant application process. Innovative Ink is one of these writers and provides the following tips to keep in mind as you apply for grants of all types:

Avoid making general statements
Grant seekers often find themselves disoriented after trudging through trilobytes worth of research in preparation for a grant proposal.  The Internet makes it incredibly easy to access information, yet many grant proposals that are submitted lack specificity, proof of research, and numerical support. 

Tip #1 -- Quantify the Issues: Grant narratives that make sweeping statements about target communities fall flat with readers.  There is an abundance of information and data resources on the World Wide Web that grant seekers can use to provide numerical support and lend credibility to grant narratives. 

For example, rather than simply stating that students in your community come from mostly low-income families, grant seekers should cite the fact that 75% of students enrolled at their school qualify for the Free and Reduced School Lunch Program (a standard barometer for measuring poverty).  Alternatively, the percentage of families living below the poverty line or the community-specific median household income from the United States census could be used to lend numerical support to the grant narrative.  

Tip #2 -- Cite Research: It is an all-too-common assumption that the grant reviewer will understand that your project design has been thoroughly researched and is based upon proven practices.  Grant seekers often submit proposals that lack any mention of a developmental or planning phase at all and the reader is left to assume that the project design is ill-conceived or scientifically baseless.  

Grant seekers can easily avoid this assumption by discussing the steps that were taken to incorporate relevant research into the design of the proposed program.  For example, it is not effective to state simply that computers raise student achievement.  There have been countless studies linking the use of computers to increased academic achievement.  You can even find specific studies by grade, ethnicity, income level, state, and more.  Remember that the more specific the research is to your particular project, the more it will resonate with grant reviewers.   
 
For more information contact:
Cheryl Henshaw
Senior Director, Grant Services Team
TANDBERG, now a part of Cisco
(845) 821-6379, mobile