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Money Matters

Working Together on Funding Opportunities

By Jill R. Oppenheim

I often find that when I go out and do workshops in the field, educators and administrators feel that when it comes to grants and proposal/program development, they have to do it all themselves: gather research, draft the grants, find partners, and so on. In addition, many educators and administrators are already wearing several hats and engaging in work that used to be performed by more than one person. How then can that person possibly add grant and proposal development to the mix—much less be successful at it? Well, I certainly understand how people can feel like that, but in reality, it really doesn’t have to be that way.

You can create a team with other educators and administrators in your schools and districts, and together tackle the work involved in the whole funding spectrum (researching, planning, program development, grant writing). In this way, the responsibility and the work does not fall on just one person. And most of the time, the end results are better because when you pull together a team with complementary skills, everyone puts his expertise to good use.

So, how do you do this? First, create a grant writing team whose members have different skills and knowledge bases. You need a team of colleagues with Internet and other research skills, facility with budgets, writing and editing expertise, and the ability to bring community partners to the table. One person might have more than one of these skills, and you may have more than one person who has several talents. The point is that a single individual doesn’t have to have all of these skills and more.

Sometimes the team will help develop and/or research opportunities and do strategic planning. Other times the team may meet just in response to a particular funding opportunity. When the latter happens, the first thing to do is brainstorm about the opportunity and how it relates to possible program development.

First you must identify the leader/facilitator who will be responsible for shepherding the project to completion. Often the person in this role changes, depending on the opportunity and the skills specific people possess. If one educator wants to call the team together and develop a proposal this time, perhaps she will be the facilitator this time and next time another team member will take the lead. Sometimes teams like these find a natural leader and they decide this person should be the lead for every project.

Once the facilitator for the group is identified, the group should create a timeline, including future meeting dates. Also, all of the tasks that need to be tackled should be listed. The team should determine who will complete each task and in what timeframe.

The team may decide together on their approach to the project at hand. This includes doing some research on what best practices exist for the type of programming being proposed. Also, any formal research that proves the effectiveness of the programming should be determined and taken into consideration.

As team members work toward the completion of their tasks, they should meet regularly and support each other. When tasks are assigned, they should be done in a practical manner. For example, a classroom educator might have difficulty being the one to bring outside partners to the table if she is teaching classes all day and can’t take and return phone calls during business hours. An administrator who has a phone on her desk and a more flexible schedule might be a better choice for that task.

As team members develop the program and the proposal, they must build support, involvement, and buy-in by letting colleagues, parents, and the community know about the project and how they can help. The team should be especially careful to include stakeholders in the process. It is much more effective, useful, and polite to ask the opinion of stakeholders before anything becomes a done deal. Often those other stakeholders have something to bring to the table—including great ideas that you might want to incorporate into your proposal. You will not be able to capitalize on this if you show them a proposal you already sent to the funder.

After the proposal is sent in, possibly even after the results are known, the team should meet again to reflect on the experience. By discussing how the process went, you can lay the groundwork for an even more effective effort next time.

—Jill R. Oppenheim is a former resource development specialist for the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory.