We regularly apply for grants from foundations in order to support our development and activities. Most of these grants are not for general operations, but must be tailored to foundations' specific interests by writing about a sub-set of our activities.  

Strategies for searching for and identifying grants

After communicating with grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org, search our active grants worksheet for grants that are open to writers:

SharedNyaya\Grants, Fundraising & Procurement\Grants Worksheet.xls (see the tab labeled "in preparation"). 

Make sure to examine our history of current and past grant applications on the grants worksheet to prevent any overlap.

To find new grants, search Internet databases such as:

http://www.gih.org/link_no_cat2664/link_no_cat.htm

Always confirm with grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org before sending an inquiry letter or considering a full grant application.

Foundation Center

Our Foundation Center subscription also allows us to search a database of 10,000 foundations. To access it, please contact gregory(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org. 

www.foundationcenter.org

Grants Email Listserve

The grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org listserve is an email address that cc's all our active grantswriters.  This is the email that the grants officer uses to communicate with foundations.  This email is also used by the grants team to discuss any ongoing grants.  All grantswriters receive emails to this address so they can remain up-to-date on all the grants happenings.  Only the grants officer, however, may "send as" grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org and use it for official business with foundations. 

Submission process

(a) inform grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org of the foundation name, grant focus, and of the deadline

(b) we will create a schedule with you for a rough draft and review before submission

(c) 501c3 materials and other documentation will be provided by grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org

(d) provide the actual submission guidelines and procedures in the email when submitting a rough draft to the grants email address

(e) be familiar with our budget and use the wiki and annual/quarterly reports on our website to obtain all information for a full rough draft

(f) make sure to confer with the grants officer to communicate with members in Achham or others familiar with the current status of the clinic prior to drafting/submitting to ensure feasibility and appropriateness of the grant

(g) for revisions and feedback, if/when you use track changes, make sure to review once with track changes hidden by clicking show markup >> "insertions and deletions".  This will help avoid careless errors that come from the business of the track changes.

(h) email the team(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org list at least two weeks prior to submission with the sub-heading [grant submission] so that any team members can review if it is their particular area of expertise. This will help engage other members, get good feedback, and ensure that the grant is accurate and acceptable. 

(i) the grants officer will submit all final materials unless otherwise indicated, and will manage all correspondence with the foundation.

(j) always submit grant materials using the grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org email account.  This is an email account that forwards to all the current grants team members.

Overall strategies in writing and presentation

The most important rule is to give the foundation exactly what they're looking for. Make a list of keywords that the foundation has listed on their guidelines and mission website. Include these keywords throughout the purpose of the grant. Foundations are not easily fooled--they will not believe you if you try to disguise one type of program for another, and are good at rooting that out; so make sure you apply to grants that genuinely are interested in our work and in whatever proposal that you are generating for them.

Always repeat the foundation's language back to them in the proposal, and have concrete examples for: (1) our past accomplishments in the area; (2) how we will measure our outcomes from the proposal with specific indicators; and (3) why our personnel are particularly well suited to conduct this proposal.

Some key strategic points:

• Foundations want to give money to people who are qualified and share the same values as their foundation's mission statement.
• Bulleted lists, to break up long text and provide grant reviewers with a succinct look at the major aspects of the proposal, are often very helpful.
• Avoid the use of jargon and avoid all acronyms. The grant should be written in the style and language of a NYTimes article ("reverse triangle" format: "here's a big problem, here's our smaller piece of it, and here's our targeted intervention that will work for reasons X, and we will monitor our solution through outcome indicators Y with these qualified people Z").
• When including a budget, be as specific as possible, and try to match the foundation's guidelines for items. They will not be fooled by trying to disguise one type of expenditure for another, so be honest and be clear. Detailed budgets work better than general ones, and referenced budgets to show where the expenditure is being estimated from (e.g., Company X quote, 2008) are best.
• Although we must write appropriately to the audience, we also aim to be honest and realistic. Our grants should be based on as up-to-date data that are coming out of our clinical services; they should be feasible; they should be written with team input from people on the ground; and they should be consistent with what is written on our wiki and blog.    

Note on copying and pasting from previous documents

Nyaya strongly recommends that when writing proposals and/or other documents text from previous documents is utilized as possible. However, in the process of copying and pasting it is critical that the author edit, line-by-line and word for word, everything that is copied and pasted. This is to accomplish three important aims:
1) ensure that there were no typographical errors in the original document (you should expect that in fact there are as is commonly the case when documents are prepared in a rush)
2) ensure that the way previous text was posited, both in tone as well as factual information, is still accurate, up to date, and relevant. Frequently our previous documents become outdated by the time we prepare a new report and it is critical that all information be reviewed very closely for this reason.
3) ensure that the text within the document you are preparing is internally consistent. It regularly happens that numbers or details about our programs change (e.g. the number of CHWs we have) and in copying and pasting from previous documents you may include text that contradicts other information within your own document (as it is no longer accurate).

On Ideas and Implementation

A fundamental challenge faced by a diverse and geographically spread out team of fundraisers, ideas-generators, and implementors is to translate ideas into action.  A core principle here is to have mutual respect for where the different team members are coming from.  For example, an outside-Achham member writing a grant may have to write up a protocol written in such a way to meet the expectations of the donor and create a competitive proposal.  This proposal is, by the very nature of the process and by expectations of donors, often VERY far from the on-the-ground realities of implementation, typically by being too bold, too ambitious, too rapid for the real world.  The grant-writer/idea-generator needs to be cognizant that what they write in the proposal is just to provide some ideas/guidance to the on-the-ground team, who will then adapt and make happen locally. For their part, the on-the-ground implementers should have the understanding that it takes a certain style and content to get ideas funded, and should not feel that the grant-writer is "out-of-touch" or naive for having written such a proposal.  Ideas-to-implementation-to-ideas is an iterative process, and one that is effective only if all have mutual respect and proper expectations.   To help standardize the process, new projects should typically follow some standard format for project implementation, with the caveat that most projects will be quite unique/distinct and as such will necesitate an idiosyncratic/flexible approach.  The form is here: 

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AdZQBHyI2oBYZGY4cmdwbmJfMzhndm5ubjljMw&hl=en

(this is editable by nyaya health google apps members, and viewable by the public at large)

Given the challenges of implementation, we oftentimes find ourselves revising significantly our expectations and plans after we have received a successful grant.  Two examples are provided here, from 2008, where the details of these successful grants were way off, but we did carry through the core vision of what we were describing: 

ANMF_2008.pdf

YaleY50KPlanFINAL.pdf

Location on live sync of good templates

If you would like templates for what makes a good grant application, see the following files in our live sync database (ask grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org if you do not yet have access):

Research grants: Live Sync > Clinic > Grants > SSRC Media

Service grants: Live Sync > Clinic > Grants > ANMF

Program-specific grants: Live Sync > Clinic > Grants > CHF

Equipment requests: Live Sync > Clinic > Grants > Equipment (also see http://wiki.nyayahealth.org/InKindDonations )

Personal proposals for personal research grants from college/university: Live Sync > Clinic > Grants > personal research >CB summer

If you need a letter of recommendation for a personal grant, you should adapt one of these:

Live Sync> Clinic > Grants > personal > personal_research > newAID > newaid_bijay.doc

Live Sync> Clinic > Grants > personal > personal_research > CB summer 

and have it approved through grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org 

Personal research grants

If you are applying for a personal grant rather than an organizational grant:

(a) applicants should submit a complete draft to the grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org list at least 2 weeks prior to submission

(b) grants team can typically only offer minimal text edits and not extensive improvements to writing style, methodology, or budget, but expect that substantial revisions will have to be made to ensure that the grant is in line with organizational requirements on-the-ground

(c) the fellowship applicant should request a letter of recommendation someone s/he knows

(d) the fellowship applicant is responsible for submission of all materials, and can only submit them after approval from both grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org and team(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org

(e) when materials are submitted, they must be loaded into live sync under Grants > personal research > applicant name, and added to the grants spreadsheet

(f) when a grant is received, it must be immediately communicated to grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org, as must any subsequent paperwork

(g) any follow-up or reporting is the responsibility of the applicant, and must be coordinated with grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org, including approval before submission of reports to the foundation about the use of the grant

(h) any contacts of the fellowship should be placed on the donor spreadsheet web listserve as category "3"

(i) any violation of these practices will result in immediate revocation of the grant

Publicizing Awards

For both Nyaya and for the grantor, publicizing the award is often a good idea.  Upon receiving a grant, a blog post should be written on the subject and the grantor's name should be placed on the "about us" portion of the webpage.  However, prior to posting, a representative of the granting agency MUST explicitly agree to this, since some grantors prefer to remain anonymous.  

Follow-up Process

All received grants should be indicated as such on the grants worksheet and on the reports tab on the donors worksheet:

(1) 

SharedNyaya\Grants, Fundraising & Procurement\Grants Worksheet.xls

(2)

http://spreadsheets.google.com/a/nyayahealth.org/ccc?key=pWMfEM1cjNv18GuSXCoSyNw&hl=en (add to the tab labeled "reports") 

Always communicate with grants(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org to ensure that all reporting deadlines and requirements are clearly stated, that the responsible parties for drafting and submitting the report are identified, and that the deadlines are met and followed through for actual implementation of the grant.

We try to provide more than the minimum reporting requirements in reports. All grantors must be written on our web listserve tab on the donors sheet, as level "3", i.e., they do not receive the blog updates. You should communicate with the grants officer to call and talk on the phone with donors and to meet them in person.  This is an important aspect of the renewal/continued engagement process. 

Follow-up update/reports: budgetary reporting

To ensure internal accuracy and professionalism, submission of all budgetary information in follow-up reports should follow the below protocols. Close attention should be paid to expense categorization in both utilization of funds and subsequent reporting; many funders have rigid guidelines  (e.g. many governmental funders will not provide staff salary support).

This process will be overseen by the Director of the Grants Team, Director of Data Management, and Director of Operations and all communications should occur with grantsATnyayahealth.org cc'ed.

Protocol:

1) Dir of Grants should notify Dir of Data Mgmt 6 weeeks prior to due date of grant update

2) Dir of Data Mgmt will extract budgetary data for given program for all but the month prior to submission (from line by line budget at Budget) and forward to members of the Grants team handling the update. These numbers are strictly for internal purposes and will be used to inform the rough draft of the update.

3) 1-2 weeks before grant report is due, Dir of Data Mgmt will revise expenses sheet as per most current data for final draft of grant report.

4) The team writing the update will ensure that all expenditures are condensed into a professional table format for inclusion in the update; the spreadsheet from Dir of Data Mgmt is still only for internal purposes.

5) All budget spreadsheets should be saved in live sync along with final versions of grant updates for future reference.