Lesson 5: Project activities with timelines
Grant writing tips
A. Aligning the Activities.
Once you have established your project’s intended outcome and objective, you are ready to design the project activities. You should think of activities as the means and methods to reach your desired outcomes and objectives. Determine the specific activities, in chronological order, that you will use to accomplish your objectives. You should plan detailed steps to accomplish each objective and a timeline for each activity. Be careful to plan activities within the scope of what you can accomplish with available resources (time, money, staff, space). You should consider only allowable activities with allowable expenditures. For more information about this go to summaries of approved grants and read the summaries. This will help you determine which types of activities can be funded. Here are other online resources for exploring grant writing proposals and grant writing tips .
B. To get started:
- Be sure to start out with an objective or a series of objectives to be met.
- Choose an activity that will accomplish the objective.
- Think about why this method or activity is the best solution to solve the problem. Citing data will enhance your proposal. If your approach is completely new, can you give reasons for selecting this activity.
- Think about timelines. Does your project have multiple objectives with varied timelines?
- Who will participate in the activity? How will/should they benefit?
- Where will the activity take place?
- Who will help carry out this activity?
To help start you thinking, take a look at an actual submission of an approved classroom grant. The “need” in this project was for student MCA and NEEA reading and math scores to improve. The “objective” in this project was to involve parents in the learning process.
Sample Project Activities with Timeline:
Example of actual activity: Students will be given a recording log (returned monthly) to document reading done at home. To get to that activity, the following will occur:
| Event |
When? |
Who is responsible?
|
For whom? |
| Informing staff |
August workshop |
Coordinator |
Elementary school |
| Primary Reading Night* |
Sept. 2007-third week |
Identified primary teachers and coordinators |
Parents, students and teachers |
| Intermediate Reading Night* |
Sept. 2007-third week |
Identified intermediate teachers and coordinators |
Parents, students
and teachers |
| Primary Math Night* |
January 2008 |
Identified primary teachers and coordinators |
Parents, students and teachers |
| Intermediate Math Night* |
January 2008 |
Identified intermediate teachers and coordinators |
Parents, students and teachers |
| Data collection and evaluation |
April 2008 early release staff development day |
Participating primary and intermediate teachers and coordinators |
Participating primary and intermediate teachers and coordinators |
| Ice Cream Celebration |
May 15, 2008 |
All staff and students |
All staff and students |
*Purpose of event is to introduce parents to strategies designed to help children improve in reading and math.