Effective Grant Writing and Program Evaluation for Human Service Professionals

Francis K. O. Yuen, Kenneth L. Terao, Anna Marie Schmidt

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780470469989
• eBook ISBN: 9780470564431
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Organismes sans but lucratif et organismes de bienfaisance

A state-of-the-art guide for developing grants witha strong emphasis on using program outcome measurement to underscore need and accountability

Based on the authors' many years of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, Effective Grant Writing and Program Evaluation for Human Service Professionals integrates the topics of grant proposal writing and program evaluation, offering grant seekers the practical guidance they need to develop quality proposals, obtain funding, and demonstrate service results and accountability.

The authors clearly and succinctly illustrate and describe each stage of the grant writing and evaluation process. Problems or issues that arise frequently are highlighted and followed by specific advice. In addition, numerous real-world examples and exercises are included throughout the book to give readers the opportunity for reflection and practice.

This timely reference incorporates a strengths perspective, providing:

• An inside look at the grant writing and evaluation processes, with insights from experienced grant writers, agency administrators, foundation program managers, and grant reviewers
  
  

• Specific examples of successful grant proposals and evaluation plans and instruments serving as models for learning and practice
  
  

• Field-tested individual and group exercises that facilitate the development of grant writing and evaluation skills
  
  

• Discussion of electronic technology in grant writing and evaluation, including writing and submitting grant proposals online, and identifying funding sources
  
  

This grant writing and program evaluation guide follows a needs-driven, evidence-based, result-oriented, and client-centered perspective. Its authoritative discussion equips human service professionals to effectively develop grants with a strong emphasis on measuring program outcomes.

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

• Purpose of This Book
• The Organization and Approaches Used for This Book
• Grant Writing and Program Evaluation: Outcomes and Evidence
• Grant Proposal and Performance Measures
• Evidence-Based Practice
• Defining Program and Program Planning
• What Is a Program?
• What Is Program Planning?
• The Ethics and Secret Handshake of Grant Writing and Program Evaluation
• List of Figures
• Figure 1.1: Scheme for Effective Grant Writing and Program Evaluation for Human Service Professionals

Purpose of This Book

Human service professionals are dedicated people who want to serve the community and assist their clients in addressing various life challenges. They have been trained as social workers, public health educators, counselors, psychologists, nurses, teachers, community organizers, lawyers, and many other allied health and service workers. Alongside these professionals are the volunteers and grassroots individuals who understand and are concerned about their community and neighbors. These individuals are diverse in many aspects but are the same in that they engage themselves in services to improve the conditions that concern them. They understand that it takes resources to support the much-needed services they plan to deliver.

There are many needs in the community but very few resources. Jean, a youth counselor, is interested in bringing more resources to meet these needs and decides to take on the challenge of writing a grant proposal. Jean is confident she will do a good job. After all, she has many great program ideas, and she enjoys writing. Her agency director is very impressed and decides to send her to a well-known, one-day grant-writing training program from the local nonprofit development center. The director shows her some previous grant proposals and Internet resources. A coworker also agrees to work with Jean and edits her draft proposal.

Jeff, a program coordinator, is busy managing several service programs, experiencing many successes as well as challenges. He wants to spend more time in one great program increasing his clinical work with his clients. However, there is the program report he needs to complete. To prepare for that, he needs to collect and organize all of the program data to tell his story. He has so much to tell but does not know where to start or what to tell. His old social research methods and statistics books provide some hints, but he is still not sure how best to proceed.

Many human service practitioners begin their involvement in grant writing and program evaluation, voluntarily or involuntarily, through their assignments in a service agency. Some of them learn how to complete the tasks by diving in with both feet and hoping for a safe landing. Some attend specific workshops and training to get a head start. A few of the lucky ones are mentored by experienced colleagues. No matter how one learns the crafts of grant writing and program evaluation, there is no replacement for hands-on learning, mentoring, and a few useful reference guides.

The purpose of this book is to provide human service professionals and students with the knowledge and skills they could use to advance quality and accountable services to serve their clients and the communities in need. This is both a user-friendly and practical book, as well as an academic text backed by current literature. Specifically, it aims to help readers acquire the advanced knowledge and skills of grant writing and program evaluation. In turn, this will enhance their ability to obtain the proper and much-needed funding to deliver quality services and to demonstrate service results and accountability.

The Organization and Approaches Used for This Book

This grant-writing and program evaluation book follows a needs-driven, evidence-based, results-oriented, and client-centered perspective. “Beginning with the end in mind,” “Keep it simple and sweet,” and “Tell the stories” are some of the main aphorisms that drove the writing of this book. The general scheme for the structure, logic, and development for this book is presented in the Scheme for Effective Grant Writing and Program Evaluation for Human Service Professionals (Figure 1.1). This book is organized into three main logically connected sections.

The first section is the Four Key Components: (1) community and target population, (2) service providers, (3) funding sources, and (4) the craft of research and management evaluation. This section lays out the foundation knowledge essential to the grant-writing and program evaluation activities. The second section is the Grant Writing and Program Evaluation section. This section provides the skills and knowledge on why and how to write grant proposals and conduct program evaluation. The final section is the Show and Tell: Learning by Doing and Real-Life Samples sections. Exercises and examples are included to facilitate more effective learning of grant proposal writing and program evaluation execution.

Figure 1.1 Scheme for Effective Grant Writing and Program Evaluation for Human Service Professionals

The authors view grant writing as a capacity-building macro practice in human services. It is not a stand-alone fund-seeking activity. The grant-writing effort should be driven by the needs of the community, guided by the mission of the service organization, and directed by the current research and literature. As to the program evaluation, it is an activity-driven and empowerment-oriented process. Grant writing and program evaluation are macro practice approaches for social change. This book targets practitioners who are program developers, program managers, program evaluators, and agency administrators. Graduate and undergraduate students in human services would also find this a very useful book for grant writing, program evaluation, data analysis, and social research methods.

Several special features are included to aid readers in getting hands-on experience and gaining insiders’ insight into grant writing and program evaluation.

1. Strength perspective and holistic orientation. This book joins together grant writing and program evaluation. It integrates both professional practice and academic rigor. Readers will learn more than knowledge and skills in grant writing and program evaluation. They will learn the application of holistic and strength perspectives in the understanding, designing, implementing, and evaluating of human services. Service programs are client-centered and needs-driven, not agency-centered and funding-driven.
2. Professional insights. These are notes from practitioners who are grant writers, agency administrators, program managers from government agencies and foundations, as well as grant reviewers. These experienced practitioners offer their professional insights, insiders’ look, and tips to the grant-writing and evaluation processes in short segments throughout the book. These straightforward practice wisdoms are survival guides for new and experienced practitioners alike.
3. Samples, grant proposal, evaluation plan, and instruments. These concrete examples give readers a sense of what the end products would be or should not be like. They serve as models for learning and practice. Guidelines and examples of instruments for data collection and analysis provide readers with a head start in setting their proposal and evaluation in place.
4. Individual and group learning exercises. Different learning exercises for developing and practicing grant-writing and evaluation skills are included in the appropriate sections of the book for hands-on learning. Most of these exercises have been developed and field-tested in training workshops conducted by the authors. Some of these exercises are organized to become a training module for a particular topic (e.g., writing effective objectives, identifying results, and developing appropriate data collection tools).
5. Technology and other resources. Internet and printed resources for grant writing and program evaluation are included throughout the book for quick reference and access to further studies.

Grant Writing and Program Evaluation: Outcomes and Evidence

How are grant proposal writing and program evaluation—two different functions—related? Simply speaking, many grant proposals are not considered to be complete unless they have included a strong program evaluation component. Many federal grant proposals, such as those for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), would not be reviewed unless they had a clear program evaluation plan. For major funding sources, a grant proposal without a program evaluation piece is similar to a budget without the accounting.

Grant Proposal and Performance Measures

Since the early 1990s, many federal service grant applications have been “demonstration projects” that are quality service project proposals with a strong evaluation component. They are expected to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness, successes, and challenges of the projects. This emphasis on outcome-oriented programming and assessment put program evaluation and program planning together as two sides of a coin. Program evaluation is such an important element that some funding sources would set aside a certain percentage of the funded budget for program evaluation expenses.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) was established as an independent federal agency when President Clinton signed the Natio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• About the Contributors
• CHAPTER 1: Introduction
• CHAPTER 2: Community and Target Population, Service Providers, and Funding Sources
• CHAPTER 3: Basic Research Methods and Program Evaluation
• CHAPTER 4: Program Planning and Evaluation
• CHAPTER 5: Grant Proposal Writing: Beginning with the End in Mind
• CHAPTER 6: Program Evaluation
• CHAPTER 7: Learning by Doing: Exercises, Templates, Samples, Checklists, and Training Ideas
• CHAPTER 8: Real-Life Samples
• CHAPTER 9: Application of Information Technology
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• End User License Agreement