Writing an Effective Narrative Statement Assistance Aid

Purpose The purpose of this presentation is to offer tutorial help in writing the “Narrative Statement” for the 2009 US Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant.

Importance of the Narrative Statement The “Narrative Statement” is your opportunity to describe your community's needs, program details and request justification for federal grant funds.

Don't Underestimate the Importance of the "Narrative Statement!" n The Narrative Statement is where you must convince the peer reviewers by defining your risk, describing your need and identifying your viable solution. n Ask several members of your organization to help develop an outline of the requested grant's most significant benefits. n One Person should write the narrative. n Ask several other people to review the narrative in order to make sure the project is clearly defined, and your financial need and cost-benefit are demonstrated. n Explain how your ability to protect life and property in your community will be improved.

Narrative Statement 1. Project description and budget 2. Financial need 3. Cost-Benefit: What are the benefits to your organization? 4. Effect on daily operations: How would receiving the grant affect your organization's daily operations and improve its ability to protect lives and property? To write a detailed and well-organized “Narrative Statement,” the four topic areas shown below should be presented in order:

Key Points ! n Write your narrative offline in a word processing document. n Copy and paste the final version into the application screen once it has been completed. n There is a five-page limit. n Plan to devote one page (or about 300 words) to each of the four topic areas. n Don't be tied to a word count just for the sake of filling a page. n Do not type your entire narrative in capital letters. n Use spell check.

Narrative Statement n What are the service issues? n What are the funding problems? n Use numbers and statistics to illustrate the problem to be addressed. Provide a Detailed Description of the Proposed Project and Budget Note: Describing the problem sets the stage for finding a solution and describing how it will benefit your department or organization. These should be based on a risk assessment.

Key Point! If your grant request includes equipment to be used in mass casualty events, explain the critical infrastructure you protect and how your request is consistent with your State's strategic plan.

Narrative Statement n What will you purchase with the grant? n How will it be used? n How does it address the problem you described? Tie the Solution to the Problem

Narrative Statement n Why do you need the money? n Why has your organization or region been unable to fund the project? n What situations impact your ability to meet the financial need? n What steps have you taken recently to seek alternate funding? n Give details about the cash flow necessary to maintain your organization. n What are your monthly expenses? How much is needed to maintain the organization's normal operations? Demonstrate Your Financial Need

Narrative Statement n What partnerships and collaborative efforts will this project initiate or support? n How will awarding this grant benefit the members of your organization, region or community? n What steps have you taken to keep the cost down while adequately addressing the problem or risk? Describe the Cost-Benefit to prove that you have selected the best possible solution for the lowest possible cost and your proposed solution will have significant impact.

Narrative Statement n Identifying the total population served by the region n How many fire departments/districts or EMS providers will be affected by this grant application n The number and identities of all agencies represented in the application n The negative impact on the region if your application is not awarded If you are applying as a host for a regional application, ensure you address:

Narrative Statement n How will the grant help your organization's daily operations? Give specific examples. n How will the grant help protect lives and property? n Consult your members to identify the most significant benefits. How Will the Grant Activities Help Your Organization or Region?

Key Points ! n Use Standard English writing style with all relevant punctuation and sentence structure. n Do not use all capital letters, bullets, graphics, or attachments. n You are limited to five single- spaced pages or 19,000 characters, including spaces. n Make sure none of your text is cut off at the end of your narrative before submitting.

Key Points ! n Take several days to draft the outline and write and edit the narrative. n Make each step a separate activity and focus on the results. n Have a team review the narrative against the four topic areas. n Include key words to help build a convincing snapshot of your community, need, and the solution.

Top Five Reasons Applications Do Not Make it to Panel Review

Top 5 Reasons Why Applications Do Not Make it to Panel Review n Applications are evaluated in two phases. n The initial phase of the evaluation is computer-based and designed to provide higher ratings for those applications most consistent with grant program priorities. n If your application has scored competitively in the initial phase of the evaluation, it progresses to the second phase, which is the peer panel review. n This is the phase where the information in your application narrative is read, scored and recommended for funding. There are many reasons why applications do not make it to panel review.

#5 Applicant's request does not match program priorities or is ineligible. In order to be considered for panel review, your request MUST match the PRIORITIES of the Program as described in the Program Guidance. Some applicants request items that are not eligible or do not match any of the program's priorities. For example, regional hosts may not request a Wellness and Fitness program. That application would be deemed ineligible.

The more consistent your request is with the highest priority items, as described in the Program Guidance, the better the chance your application will qualify for panel review. The Program Guidance clearly identifies the program's priorities. Considering the level of competition, only those items identified as highest priority can be funded. An applicant may need or want something that is a lower priority item, but requesting such an item lessens their chances of being funded. #4 Applicants request items identified by DHS in the 2009 Program Guidance as low or medium priority items.

#3 Program activity requests do not meet state or national standards or requirements. n The program is designed to help applicants meet state and national standards. However, since many items are not required by any standard, requesting those lower priority items may result in a lower score. Requesting any item that does not result in state or national certification, or comply with recognized standards, may result in a lower score. n ISO requirements are not standards the program recognizes. Therefore, requesting items to meet ISO requirements, or in order to improve the ISO rating, may not be considered a priority for funding unless the ISO standard happens to be consistent with NFPA. n For example, while a Halligan tool is nice to have, it is not required by any standard, compared to PPE or SCBA, which are required by NFPA standards. ISO makes recommendations but they are NOT standards, so ISO “wish lists” are not a high priority.

#2 A high percentage of current organization members already meet the standard. Since the program is designed to assist those departments with the greatest need, higher ratings are given to those organizations attempting to fulfill basic firefighting requirements or basic training requirements. For example, a department requesting PPE stating most or all of their members have gear that is very old will score higher than a department requesting new or replacement gear for their members who do not have gear meeting appropriate standards.

# 1 Why Applicants Do Not Make it to Panel Review #1 The AFG program is highly competitive and only 25% of applicants receive funding. In addition failure to follow directions in the grant application lessen your chances of receiving funding.

Top 5 Reasons Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review

Understand… A Peer Review Panel composed of at least three members from the fire service reviews the applications receiving the highest electronic scores. The panel members read and score the narrative portion of the applications. There are many reasons why applications receive low scores.

# 5 Reason Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review n The information provided in the Request Details section of the application is inconsistent with the information provided in the narrative. n For example, an applicant may request an item in the Request Details section and then fail to mention it in the narrative or vice versa.

# 4 Reason Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review n The applicant’s request for funds is excessive or unreasonable, e.g., requesting an excessively expensive brush truck or asking for what appears to be a “wish list.” The applicant should only request basic, essential firefighting equipment. n The AFG was designed to meet basic needs and evaluators tend to be conservative in their judgment. They believe applicants should request only what they must have and only what they can justify. n Panel members and program staff have a good understanding of what equipment costs and what meets standards and requirements. Applicants make a critical mistake by requesting apparatus or equipment with excessive costs.

# 3 Reason Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review The narrative includes boilerplate language provided by a vendor or manufacturer and does not describe the local problem. Applicants make a serious error and produce a poor quality proposal when they copy and insert a boilerplate narrative written by a vendor or manufacturer or use a narrative another neighboring department has used. This type of document tends to be general in nature and does not describe to the panel members the nature of the local need. If an applicant uses a boilerplate, chances are a lot of other applicants have used it as well. The panelists recognize the language and historically evaluate those applications poorly. The narrative should concisely explain your community problem, what you propose to solve the problem, how much the solution will cost and why you can't fund the solution locally. It should NOT be a discussion of the nation's fire experience or the benefits of using a specific product.

# 2 Reason Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review n The narrative fails to make the case for financial need or does not demonstrate a high cost/benefit. The applicant leaves the panelists with unanswered questions about how the department's funds are spent. n DHS believes most applicants need the assistance they are requesting. However, many times they fail to describe why the money to fund the request is not available locally and what efforts have been made to secure funding. n In many applications, insufficient financial detail in the narrative leaves the panelists with unanswered questions about how a department spends its available funding. The result is a poor evaluation. n In addition, you need to convince the evaluators your project is the best possible solution for the lowest possible cost while providing optimal benefit to the community.

# 1 Reason Applications Do Not Score Well at Panel Review n The narrative is poorly written or almost nonexistent, with little or no local demographics or fire data to adequately explain the problem, the detailed financial situation, cost-benefit as well as a desired solution and benefits. n A surprisingly large number of applicants submit applications with poorly written narratives that do not adequately define the risks in the community, a proposed solution, the detailed financial situation of the organization, or the cost-benefit of the project. The narrative must contain a clear and concise picture of the department, finances, the community and the need(s) as well as an end result (cost/benefit). Sometimes, applications are received with only a few sentences that do not describe the local community, identify the local problem, resulting risk or solution. Four or five sentences are not sufficient to effectively describe your community problem, need, solution and benefits.

Summary This information was intended to assist the applicant with understanding the importance of writing accurate and descriptive “Narrative Statements” for the 2009 US Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant Process. This information was obtained from the USDHS website. For complete tutorial assistance, please log onto the following site: com/afg/tutorial/2009/