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GRANT NARRATIVE

The grant narrative is available as a printable PDF.
Click here to download.

General Directions
Please use the following sets of questions as a framework to ensure that the grant narrative contains key critical elements that will enable DCF to make an informed funding decision on all grant requests. These questions are not intended to be exclusive. Please feel free to include any other pertinent information; however, it is important to avoid unnecessary repetition.

Critical Elements for all Grant Requests

Organizational Background:
Briefly state the organization’s history, including the founding date, mission statement, and a current description of all of the organization’s programs and services. If a strategic plan was recently completed, include a brief summary.

Organizational Capacity:
What is the capacity of the organization to implement this request? What is the total number of full-time and part-time employees and volunteers? Which key personnel are required for design, implementation and delivery? Does the organization have the required infrastructure, e.g. technology, financial, human resources, etc., to effectively implement the request? What expectations have been established for the Board of Trustees? What percentage of Trustees made a financial contribution to the organization in the past year, and what was the total dollar value of such contributions?

Evaluation:
How will the organization evaluate the success and/or challenges/obstacles? Will an external or internal evaluator complete the evaluation? If so, what are the credentials of this external or internal evaluator and what, if any, technology centered database tools do they have at their disposal to track on-going program achievement? What tangible measurements of past success of the program can you provide, e.g. program service delivery statistics?

Mission Statement Fit:
How is this request a fit to DCF’s mission? All requests must include a clear and comprehensive discussion of your request’s fit to the mission statement of DCF, including at least one specific example.

In addition to the critical elements for all grant requests listed above, DCF suggests the following additional information for specific request types:

Additional Elements for Program Requests

Purpose:
Please describe the program’s target population, goals and fit with your organization’s other programs. How does this program differ from other local nonprofits providing similar programs? If this is an existing program, please describe any significant changes/modifications to the program over the last year.

Goals/Outcomes:
Please describe the concrete goals and outcomes for this program and the tools/infrastructure that exist to track, measure and report such goals and outcomes.

Financial Information:
Please attach a program budget. Please feel free to provide an existing internal program budget, ensuring that it contains detailed line items by category (i.e. revenues – government, corporate, foundations, individuals, special events, etc. and expenses – salaries, benefits, rent, utilities, supplies, professional fees, etc.). Please also provide the status of funding for the program (committed; request submitted – awaiting decision/date decision expected; and not yet requested/date request will be submitted). If this is a program that is less than three years old, please provide a detailed actual program financial statements of revenues and expenses for each year. If this is an existing program more than three years old, please provide a narrative including an indication of the size of the program budgets over the years and significant past funders. Please indicate whether the request is for a percentage of the total program budget or for specific expense line items.

Sustainability:
Please describe your organization’s sustainability plan for this program including an outline of other potential funding sources and entrepreneurial plans for support.

Additional Elements for a General Operating Support Request

Purpose:
A request for general operating support, including but not limited to, capacity building and start-up grant requests, is one that effectively asks for funding to be used for any or all expenses of the organization. As such, an organization requesting general operating support from DCF must exemplify and embody DCF’s mission in its entirety.

Financial information:
Please prepare a revenue and an expense statement with three columns that contains a side-by-side comparison of the current year budget to actual revenues and expenses for the previous two years. DCF does not have a mandatory form with predetermined categories; rather, please feel free to report the information in a format used for internal financial reporting purposes. However, the revenue and expense sections should, at a minimum, include detailed line items by category (i.e. revenues – government, corporate, foundations, individuals, special events, etc. and expenses – salaries, benefits, rent, utilities, supplies, professional fees, etc.). Please explain any fluctuations in total revenue and/or total expenses of more than 15% from the prior year.

Sustainability:
Does your organization foresee a continuing need for general operating support? If so, what percentage of the total budget is that estimated to be?

Additional Elements for a Capital Requests

For construction or renovation of a building:
Please describe the scope of the construction or renovation project. Your description should include information regarding the results of any capital campaign feasibility study and the existence, role and composition of a Capital Campaign Committee. Please describe the role and responsibilities of the organization’s Trustees in the capital campaign process.

Please attach a capital budget with a detail of costs (land acquisition, construction costs, furniture, etc.) and funding sources, including funder name, amount, and the status of the funds requested (committed; request submitted – awaiting decision/date decision expected; and not yet requested/date request will be submitted. What percentage of the overall capital budget is DCF being asked to fund? What, if any, increase in total operating expenses will occur as a result of this construction or renovation, and how does the organization plan to raise and sustain additional operating dollars?

For all other capital requests:
For capital requests that are not for the construction or renovation of a building, please provide answers to the following questions. Which of your programs are affected by the new purchase? How does the affected program embody the mission and core values of DCF? How will this new purchase affect the services offered by that program(s)? What percentage of the overall cost of the new purchase is DCF being asked to fund? How does the organization plan to raise and sustain the additional operating funds necessary to maintain the new purchase?

The grant narrative is available as a printable PDF.
Click here to download.

Grant writing and other resources can be found at
the Foundation Center's Cleveland office web site.