Step 1 - Getting Started

Step 1 Resources Goal Statement and Resource Sheet, Template   Goal Statement and Resource Sheet, Example

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Confucius

In "Getting Started" you will learn how to create the most important parts of your proposal, whether it be to your administration or a government funding agency. Complete this step first and keep the information handy as you'll likely refer back to it many times.

As you begin, remember that you want your goal statement to clearly define your goal. You want reviewers of your donation requests and grants to know exactly what your plan is and how you intend to carry it out. To have a greater success securing funds, you’ll need to tie project objectives to your strategies, activities, budget, and your school improvement plan.

1. Identify Your Needs
2. Goal Statement
3. Develop a Team
4. Goals
5. Objectives
6. Strategies
7. Activities
8. Budget

Identify Your Needs
If you are looking for funds, you have already identified a need.  What you may not realize is how important it is for you to articulate that need to potential supporters.

A good needs statement will:

• Be factual, but moving
• Convince the reviewer to continue reading your proposal

It may read something like:

Goal Statement
A goal statement identifies the reason you are seeking to develop a project and gain the support of your peers, administrators, the community, and a funding source.

For example:

• "The book collection in our library is seriously deficient. The average age of the books is over 25 years, 50% of our collection is water damaged due to a tornado eight years ago, and students are unable to identify which books are at their reading level. The result of having a deficient library collection is students who have no interest in reading, students reading books beyond their ability to comprehend, and a selection that is unappealing and possibly unhealthy."

Develop a Team
Armed with your Need and Goal Statements, you should first get your administration’s support to put together a team to help you develop the project and seek funding. Look for community stakeholders, teachers, parents, someone number-oriented who can develop the budget, someone with good writing skills, and someone to gather up data to support your eventual request for money. In addition, identify who will be the project leader. The project leader will be in charge of coordinating your project and creating a plan for evaluating its effectiveness.

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Goals
Goals are broad, general statements. They describe what your school would look like if the needs described in your Goal Statement would be met through the implementation of your program.

The following are examples of goals:

• "Students in grades five through eight improve their reading skills."
• "More students will successfully graduate from high school."
• "Crime in our community will decrease."

Objectives
Objectives are specific outcomes of what one's efforts or actions are intended to attain or accomplish; a target. REMEMBER, objectives must be S.M.A.R.T.: Specific, Measurable, Attainable (or achievable), Realistic, and Time-measured. Here are examples of objectives tied to the reading goal above:

• "Students in grades five through eight will increase their reading scores by 10% by the end of the school year."
• "The number of XYZ High School students that graduate will increase from 75% to 80% by the end of the school year."
• "Crimes committed by our youth, resulting in incarceration, will decrease three percent by the end of the school year."

Every objective you write should answer the following four questions:

1. Who will be directly affected by in the change?
2. What is the key area we are seeking to change?
3. How much change do we expect?
4. When do we expect this change to be made?

Strategies
Strategies are the methods used to meet the goal. When you are coming up with your strategies, you will want to take into consideration both short-range and long-range planning and development. It's a good idea to include a research-based strategy.

An example of a strategy used to succeed in the goal of improving reading skills may include:

• "Purchase and implement Accelerated Reader and STAR Reading as a technology-based program to help teachers assess student’s reading skills, make data-driven instructional decisions, and personalize reading practice."

Activities
Activities are your specific plans to put the strategies into practice, meet your objectives, and ultimately accomplish your goal.

Example activities for the preceding strategy are:

• "Teachers will screen all students in grades 5 – 8 at the beginning of the school year."
• "Students identified as reading below grade level will be enrolled in our Reading for Success program using the reading intervention program, Successful Reader."
• "Remaining students will begin using Accelerated Reader to monitor the effectiveness of their daily independent reading practice."
• "Teachers will monitor progress of all students using STAR Reading each month; weekly for those students in the Reading for Success Program (RECESS Program)."

Budget
Now that you know what you want to do and how you plan to do it, make a list of all supplies and tools you will need and whether they will be donated, borrowed, or purchased. Your budget should be thorough, but be careful not to "pad" it with unnecessary costs or you risk being rejected for funding. Later, when you must justify your need for money, you should be prepared to explain why each item on your budget is necessary to the success of your project.

Please click here to continue to Step 2.