Lesson 3: Your statement of need
Grant writing tips
A. Your Needs Statement
Once past the Data Sheet, contact information and credentials, most applications open with a question concerning needs. For the Foundation, this means “what actions or activities are needed to improve teaching and learning for your students?” It does not mean “what stuff do you need to make your job easier?” What’s the difference? Consider these two needs statements.
Statement A. Students at ABC Elementary have standardized reading scores that are 15% lower than the reading scores of demographically similar students at XYZ Elementary. We ‘need’ to purchase the new, improved Literati Reading Accompaniments.
Compare to:
Statement B. Students at ABC Elementary have standardized reading scores that are 15% lower than the reading scores of demographically similar students at XYZ Elementary. We ‘need’ to raise these scores at ABC.
Statement A is about buying stuff and statement B is about the action to be taken to make improvements. Remember, in the Do’s and Don’t’s, one of the Do’s is “Submit practical action-oriented proposals”. Statement B gets you off to a good start.
Discovering your underlying need is important—precisely because it is one of the first parts of a grant proposal. When you think you know what you need, keep asking yourselves, Why?
An Example:
For Classroom grants - We need to purchase the Literati Reading Accompaniments (LRA) program.
- Why? We want to improve reading scores.
- Why? Because our scores are lower than…..
Now if you continue to ask “Why?, you’re in the realm of speculation. Stick to the facts and the fact here is that the scores are lower. You need to raise the scores.
The “How” and the “Why” of it are not part of the needs statement; they come later.
This exercise is best done with your team. The more input and viewpoints you can include in a needs discussion, the more likely you are to:
- Identify the underlying need.
- Discover possible causes.
- Reveal possible solutions.
B. Your Needs Assessment
Establishing a credible and compelling reason for your proposal (and ultimately for the funding) requires that you connect your students' need to the proposed project or activity. Let’s assume that both schools, ABC and XYZ Elementary Schools have the Literati program. The two student populations are demographically similar. But the two schools have scored differently in the standardized testing.
What could be the problem? How could you know what to address?
If you investigate and brainstorm with colleagues from both schools (team work!) you may find yourself asking questions about training, time spent on the program, availability and access to materials.
You are, in essence, attempting to uncover the “Why” associated with the known need. Again, this is an exercise that produces the best results when done as collaboration of team members and interested parties.
For example: Scores are higher at XYZ Elementary, where reading support specialists received 6 hours of in-service training with the publisher’s representative before the start of the school year. Reading support specialists at ABC Elementary missed out on the training session because of schedule conflicts. You find this out through surveying or simply asking the staff at both schools.
Now, with this information, a request for training at ABC (action) with the publisher’s representative is a logical link between the need to raise scores and the proposed activity.
You’ve established a credible route to pursue that could very well eliminate or alleviate your “need”. This training program would be an eligible request for ESPs.
In the next lesson, we’ll discuss describing the "How" of your project so that reviewers will want to fund it.
Sample: Needs Statements A
Classroom Grant-Elementary School
In some rural Minnesota communities, racial, ethnic and cultural diversity are lacking. Our elementary school is in one of those communities. Our student demographic profile can be described as one predominant race (97%) with the same ethnic background and engaging in the same cultural activities. Students at our school are limited in their perspectives and yet must learn to function in an ever increasingly global marketplace.
Without exposure to other cultures, languages and communities our elementary students are being handicapped. We have surveyed recent graduates from our school district who have left the community to work or study outside this area of the state. When asked what surprised them, a majority reported back that they had never really encountered other races or cultures in any meaningful way. They felt as if they had “missed out” on this important aspect of a well-rounded education.
Partnering with a more diverse school in meaningful activities that are ongoing and may lead to long term relationships is what we want to provide for our K-6 students.
Sample Needs Statement B
Classroom-Middle School
Our middle school media specialist has been tracking reading and book check outs in our library for two years. She began doing this because she observed a shift in reading behavior among middle school boys. When she began working in the district, she was assigned to our partner elementary school. It was because she was in a position to “follow” the same group of children that she became more interested.
Her general observations are as follows: as elementary students, boys are engaged in both fiction and non-fiction reading at about the same rate. As they enter middle school (6th grade) there is a definite shift to non-fiction and especially “action” stories. As 7th graders, their reading checkout rate is 50% lower than girls and limited to a small collection of non-fiction.
She brought this concern to the Schoolwide Literacy Council (teachers from all middle school grades and disciplines). We have determined that to assist our young men, we will need to increase reading time, reading materials and institute a positive reward system that rewards increased reading, improved reading levels and sharing benefits through a student buddy or book club system.
Sample Needs Statement C
Professional Development for ESPs
Our high school has recently had a spike in enrollment of students from Guatemala. Many are enrolled in the district English Language Learner program, but not all. Some of our new students tell us (through the Spanish teacher as interpreter) that they are not feeling welcomed by the staff and some of the student body. The fact of the matter is that none of our staff, except for the Spanish teacher and her 25 students in advanced level Spanish are competent or comfortable with their language ability to speak to these new students.
With three other classroom aides, I would like to attend Spanish for Conversation lessons at our community center and purchase additional language tapes to hold daily practice. We believe that showing an active interest in our new students and opening ourselves up to this new learning experience will demonstrate our sincere hope that the new students will be successful at our high school.
Sample Needs Statement D
Professional Development for ESPs
In our elementary school, high poverty rates have been published through the state’s AYP reporting system. What that “looks like” is an increasing number of students with poor nutrition, no access to health care and little emphasis at home on hygiene or fitness.
We are a group of paraprofessionals and food service employees who work directly with students on a daily basis. Our observations have been discussed with the district health care coordinator and she agrees that there we have the beginnings of an “obesity problem” in our school.
We would like to learn more about the use of pedometers with elementary students and with that knowledge, develop and share a school-wide fitness plan that will help students make good health decisions. We have contacted a fitness instructor from the local “Y” and he has responded positively about working with us. Our training with him will be our major expense, but we hope that by working as a dual team, we will have immediate impact on students.