Writing Successful Grants KnowledgeBase

This KnowledgeBase archive includes content and external links that were accurate and relevant as of September 30, 2019.

The Writing Successful Grants KnowledgeBase is an online resource aiding education professionals in their pursuit of public and private grants to support local programs. Its five elements contain information and resources that assist the grant seeker with developing their project, writing the grant proposal and managing the grant upon its award.

Task 3: Report Results to Constituent Groups

Guideline: Communicating with constituent groups is an ongoing activity. Sharing the organization's progress in achieving the grant's goals is important. Recognizing different audiences have varying information needs, tell the story in a way to meet each audiences' needs. When sharing quantitative information be sure it is in an easy to understand format and a language suitable for each audience.

Resources

Checklists

Different Formats for Different Audiences

This document lists a number of different types of reports and suggests appropriate audiences for each report.

Guidelines

Guidelines for Effective Public Engagement

This Education Leadership Toolkit document offers five guidelines for effective public engagement. The Education Leadership Toolkit was a project of the National School Boards Foundation under a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Legal

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

FERPA is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools receiving funds under any applicable U.S. Department of Education program. School districts should ensure all staff members and outside contractors, such as counselors and interpreters, are familiar with the applicable policies on the privacy of student records.

Practical Tips

Presenting to Difficult Audiences

Not everyone may be receptive to the message being conveyed. This document provides five recommendations for presenting difficult messages to audiences.

Statistics Every Writer Should Know

This resource describes in "plain English, some basic concepts in statistics that every writer should know."

The Fog Index

The Fog index was developed by Robert Gunning to measure how hard something is to read. His Fog Index in The Technique of Clear Writing (McGraw-Hill) is considered the most reliable formula for testing your writing. It is not an index of how good your writing is, but of how easy it is to understand. Using the index, grant administrators can test the communications they send to constituent groups.