Strong grant proposals use data to convincingly illustrate the potential impact and effectiveness of proposed programs. Yet, for many grant writers—whether applying for federal, state, or local funding—the evaluation section poses a significant challenge.

In the third installment of the Evaluation series, Drew discusses how to write about conducting data analysis when drafting successful grant proposals. He discusses:

• How to align your proposed data analysis with grant requirements and your own goals and objectives

• How to write about quantitative data analysis as a non-data expert

• How to write about using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches in grant writing.

• What grant makers are looking for you to demonstrate with respect to your proposed approach to data analysis

This episode is for those writing the evaluation section of grant proposals but aren’t necessarily experts when it comes to data and evaluation. Check out our recent blog post related to this podcast topic, The Evaluation Section Part #3: Data Analysis for Grant Proposals.

This podcast episode focuses on planning for successful grant writing in prevention, with an emphasis on factors outside the proposal narrative that are critical to success. This podcast was generated following a workshop given by Drew in collaboration with the Southeast PTTC. Though the examples focus specifically on substance use prevention, many elements of this presentation are relevant for grant writing in any field.

Download the Prevention Grant Writing Toolkit which provides a step-by-step guide to winning your next 6- or 7- figure federal, state, or local grant.

In this episode, listeners will learn how to:

1. Identify and select grant opportunities that are a strong fit for their organization. Participants will know where to go to find grants and opportunities for their organization.

2. Develop a year-long timeline for grant writing and reports to funders.

3. Describe standard components of a grant proposal.

4. Prepare pre-written materials that can be modified to meet grant requirements.

5. Build a team to write the grant.

6. Identify common frameworks, including SAMHSA’s Strategic Prevention Framework, to reference when writing prevention grants.

7. Organize their work to meet grant requirements.

8. Identify community engagement strategies to demonstrate your commitment to the problem and your relationships with existing partners engaging in similar work.

9. Build effective partnership agreements to accomplish grant goals and document these through letters of support or memoranda of understanding.

On March 28, 2024, the US Census Bureau published a news release that they have issued updated standards for maintaining, collecting and presenting race and ethnicity data.

Because so many nonprofit and public sector organizations base their collection of race and ethnicity data on US Census standards, these changes will likely have far-reaching effects, particularly for those organizations who receive federal funding to provide programs and services.

In this episode, Drew provides a quick summary of the new US Census updates and how you might implement changes in your data collection processes to be consistent with the new standards.

Writing federal grant proposals can be tough - especially when it comes to writing goals, defining outcomes, and showing how you will demonstrate your impact. In this episode, Drew dives into tips and strategies for how to talk about data collection in your federal grant proposals. He talks about performance measures, building a plan for data collection, identifying useful data collection tools, and how to align your data collection procedures across your proposal with a performance measures table. Use tips from this episode to help separate yourself from the field and win that next six- or seven-figure federal grant.