Evaluating proposals: How do you choose between so

many good programs ?

DVG presentation October 6, 2011

Laura Kind McKennaManaging Trustee

The Patricia Kind Family Foundation

With thanks to Louis J. Beccaria, Ph.D. President / CEOPhoenixville Community Health Foundation

for sharing his presentation and cartoons

“It is more difficult to give away money intelligently than to earn it in the first place.”

- Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919

“Your grant proposal was so good I’m having my book club read it.”

“What follows is an overview of the project.

Attachments are being shipped UPS.”

“It’s not all bad. They want to publish my grant proposal as a work of fiction.”

We have read your proposal and are giving it serious consideration.

Why Guidelines Help

• Improve the foundation’s stewardship

• Enable more efficient proposal evaluation

• Promote fairness in proposal evaluation

• Allows for exceptions, when required

• Promotes grantmaking impact and effectiveness

• Protect trustee/directors and staff from inappropriate requests

• Project an image of professionalism and organization

Developing Guidelines

Start with your Mission Statement… hopefully you have one by now

Then consider:

Geography

Specific funding areas

Grantee’s budget size

Fields of interest of the foundation

Types of grants awarded/not entertained

• multi-year

• matching/challenges

• Capital

• program specific

• general operations

• capacity building

• other

frequency of distribution meetings; determines deadlines

by invitation or open-access

letter of intent or full proposal

common application form or not / on-line application

phone calls / office visits / site visits

frequency of grant request submissions

turndowns

decision making process

grant agreements

The next thing is to determine your grantmaking process

On-line Grant Application

Began using Foundant’s Grant Management System at the end of 2009 for applications beginning in January 2010.

All information is online – application, grant letters, end of year reports.

www.PKFFoundation.net

Patricia Kind Family Foundation Guidelines

The mission of the Foundation is to financially support non-profit organizations that help children, adults, and seniors obtain basic human needs, including food, shelter, clothing, education, and physical and mental health care. We are especially committed to helping individuals and families who struggle daily with the effects of poverty. The Foundation is family managed and believes strongly in the importance of supporting families.

The Foundation is interested in encouraging practical, caring solutions to community problems by supporting preventive and direct service efforts. The Patricia Kind Family Foundation operates no programs of its own, but performs its mission by funding proven approaches from non-profit organizations. Foundation grants are made only to organizations operating in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware or Chester counties that are tax exempt under Section 501c(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Priority will be given to smaller organizations with budgets under $1 million who have the potential to make a difference. These organizations are encouraged to apply for general operating money.

Excluded from the Foundation’s funding priorities are grants in direct support of individuals, i.e., scholarships or fellowships; endowments; and capital projects.

Evaluating proposalsClear, concise and to the point!

• Organization’s mission statement

• Brief history of the organization

• Information about activities, accomplishments and people associated with the organization

• Highlight the organization’s niche or specialty, But watch out for claims that “We are the only…”

• Describe how clients/community benefit from the organization’s work

Goals and ObjectivesWhat are you going to do?

• What are you doing to address the problems you have identified?

• How will we know if you have addressed the problem (objective)?

• Goals may be broad (e.g., promote physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wholeness for homeless families)

• Objectives must be specific, measurable and time-limited (by June 30, 2008 provide services to 12 homeless mothers with 3 to 6 children…including case management, rental assistance and a parenting program for 12 to 18 months)

• Both goals and objectives should be realistic and attainable

Evaluation SectionOutputs vs. Outcomes

• Assessment measures should be built into the program at the program design stage. Track what you can actually measure – don’t generalize or hope to accomplish.

• Keep it simple but tell us what you are actually going to do and measure

• Evaluation measures should be directly related to each objective noted in the proposal

• Ideally, evaluation should address qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of the program

• Should demonstrate some prospect for meaningful practical impact on the problem(s) being addressed

Budget Section

Look at two major sections:• Revenue (money in)

are they diverse, on-going, and likely to continue• Expenses (money out)

Salaries / benefits Operating expenses

• Should be as specific as possible – organizational and project budget, if applicable

• Should include any in-kind contributions involved in the program

• Include a budget narrative as an attachment to explain difficult-to-understand (everything?) or “red-flag” items

• Should reflect reasonable costs in your market area• Should contain a reasonable amount (e.g., 10-15%) for

administrative overhead expense

Additional Information

• List of major current funders and pending requests

• Should demonstrate planning for the program’s future financial sustainability

• Should include, if possible, mention of self-generated income; e.g., fees, special event income, annual fund allocation

• List of Board members and their community functions

• Decrease in annual revenue

• Rising expenses

• Operating deficit

• Cash flow problems on a regular basis

• Lack of diversity in revenue – large and dependent on one funder

• Late audits – no more than 6 months after the close of the fiscal

year

• Recent changes in management – no ED for a period of time

• Decrease client demand for services

• Gaps in financial reporting

• Delays in providing requested information

Red Flags

Site Visits

If a picture is worth a thousand words

a site visit is worth a million

The Patricia Kind Family Foundation believes that a site visit is the most important part of any proposal review

• Be preparedDon’t waste your time or the grantee’s (respect). Read the proposal in advance. If you have questions or want further information, ask for it beforehand. Know who you want to meet with. The person who wrote the proposal may not be the “hands on” program person.

• See the program in actionView relationships between the staff as well as staff/client interaction.

• Time60 to 90 minutes. No grand tours or a fancy luncheon, although a cup of coffee is always appreciated.

• Clear expectationsLet grantees know site visits are done on all proposals, does not guarantee funding, but on the other hand don’t waste their time and yours if request is really outside of guidelines.

Components for Conducting a Good Site Visit

Components for Conducting a Good Site Visit

• Come prepared with questions

• Move around after you talk, see beyond the director’s office

• Check out seemingly unrelated physical aspects:

is the place clean, well lit, graffiti free? (this indicates, attention to detail, pride in work)

does there seem to be an underlying organization to the physical plant?

does the space function appropriately?

Components for Conducting a Good Site Visit (cont.)

• Check out relationships between and among staff and clients:

does the boss pass the ball and encourage staff to speak? (this indicates appropriate delegation of duties as well as trust)

do the staff know each other and clients? (this indicates good morale and, probably, good working relations)

look for body language messages

• Check out connections between what people wrote to you in the proposal and what they say:

are the staff who will carry out the work described in the proposal familiar with it?

does the written description match what you are seeing and hearing?

Components for Conducting a Good Site Visit (cont.)

• Do you detect the presence of “plants,” i.e. people placed in your path specifically to say wonderful things?

• Is your visit overly scripted or under planned?

• Be prepared to give credit to the FEELING you get on the visit. Such feelings are often more reliable than the statistics or words in the written materials.

• At the end of the visit, after leaving, immediately take notes. Come to a conclusion: did the visit inspire more confidence or did it diminish confidence and raise more questions?

How proposal review happens at The Patricia Kind Family Foundation

• Approx. 60 requests arrive on-line by deadline (3x/year)• Read on line, almost half are screened by Grant

manager and Managing trustee and denied (out of geographic area, budget too large, not close to mission….)

• 25-35 get site visits scheduled by at least two trustees. • When all visits are completed we independently rank

them 1,2,3 with recommendations for funding. #1 is best • Recommendations for funding and amount shared with

full Board at meeting, who generally accept recommendations

www.pkffoundation.net

Thanks to Patricia Kind , my mother, who taught me how to be a thoughtful grantmaker and has given me the

opportunity to do this wonderful work