WRA 453 Grant & Proposal Writing Fall 2005 Bill Hart-Davidson Session 5: P3 guidelines; analyzing RFP’s

Field Trip! Tuesday, 9/16 Meet in the library basement instruction room with Jon Harrison. Topic: “locating funding sources”

Propose a Major Project Your goal in this assignment is to identify and seek support for a major project. You will be responsible for defining the project, locating sources of support, and creating all the necessary materials to secure support from those sources. You may seek support for a project of your own, or you may do so on behalf of an organization you have a relationship with.

What you’ll do… 1.A “need statement” 2.RFP’s, program announcements, or other information published by potential funding sources 3.Documents required by funding agency 4.A presentation 5.Process documents: contact log correspondence working bibliography “worksheets” from WWBP Final proposal + related documents due on 12/8 When?

Analyzing RFP’s: Buyer Roles Economic User Technical Coach Ratifier WWBP, p. 85 Overall improvement? ROI? Effects on my job? On those I manage? Is approach suitable? How can we pull this off? Does this fit my political/personal objectives

Examine an RFP… What evidence of the various buyer role concerns do you see? What concerns are missing? Is there an obvious channel of information for this info?

RFP questions 1. What type of support is offered? For how long? 2. What group or groups is the organization targeting? Is this the same group you are interested in seeking support for? 3. What problem/issues does the RFP sponsor want to see addressed? 4. What kinds of projects are supported? Does this description match your project? 5. Who is eligible to apply? Does your group meet these requirements? 6. What restrictions are listed for the funding? 7. What materials does the RFP ask you to submit? When? 8. What is the review process like? By what criteria will proposals be evaluated? 9. List keywords, methods, or approaches that seem important to this sponsor…do they match yours?

Collect Promising RFPs Get in the habit of gathering RFPs and analyzing them. Post link and a summary of your analysis on your project page

For next time: P1 updates Give us a 5-10 minute update on your project. Tell us Who you are studying Who you are studying What proposal activity they are engaged in What proposal activity they are engaged in Why you chose this person Why you chose this person The genres you’ve seen in use so far The genres you’ve seen in use so far Things that have and haven’t surprised you Things that have and haven’t surprised you Next steps Next steps