Winning library grants a game plan

186 Pages·2011·9.3 MB·English

by  Herbert B. Landau

Winning
Library Grants
A GAme PlAn
aLa Editions purchases fund advocacy, awareness and
accreditation programs for library pro fessionals worldwide.
Winning
Library Grants
A G A m e P l A n
Herbert B. Landau
american Library association
Chicago 2011
Herbert B. Landau is executive director of the Lancaster Public Library and its
Leola and Mountville branches, in Pennsylvania. Prior to this he was director
of the Milanof-Schock Library in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. Under his lead-
ership, the Milanof-Schock Library received AARP’s Award of Excellence for
Library Services for Older Adults in 2005, 2006, and 2009. In 2006 the library
was named the Best Small Library in America by Library Journal and the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. Landau has more than thirty years of experience
in libraries, management, publishing, marketing of scholarly and professional
information, proposal writing, and contract management. He is the author of
The Small Public Library Survival Guide: Thriving on Less (2008).
© 2011 by the American Library Association. Any claim of copyright is subject to applicable
limitations and exceptions, such as rights of fair use and library copying pursuant to Sections
107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. No copyright is claimed in content that is in the
public domain, such as works of the U.S. government.
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
While extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of the information in this book,
the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein.
Note that any URLs referenced in this volume, which were valid at the time of first print
publication, may have changed prior to electronic publication.
ISBN: 978-0-8389-1047-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Landau, Herbert B.
Winning library grants : a game plan / Herbert B. Landau.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8389-1047-4 (alk. paper)
1. Proposal writing in library science —United States. 2. Proposal writing for
grants—United States. 3. Library fund raising--United States. I. Title.
Z683.2.U6L36 2011
025.1'1—dc22 2010013231
Cover design by Chris Keech. Text design in Electra LH and Avenir by Dianne M. Rooney.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
ALA Editions also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. For more
information, visit the ALA Store at www.alastore.ala.org and select eEditions.
F
u
Contents
List of Figures vii
1 you too Can be a successful Grant Winner 1
2 Grantsmanship Fundamentals, Definitions, and rules 4
3 Pre-proposal Market analysis and Planning 10
4 Finding Grants and Granting Organizations relevant
to Libraries 21
5 initiating Contact with Grantors 48
6 Obtaining solicited Competitive Grant application
Packages 62
7 Pre-proposal research and Fact-Finding 67
8 Proposal Management and Project Planning 72
9 Proposal Writing style 88
10 Proposal Writing section by section 94
11 Proposal assembly, Editing, review, and submission 132
12 Post-proposal, Pre-award Marketing 138
13 Contract award and Project Management 143
14 Writing a request for Proposal 148
15 Conclusion: Why become a Grantsman (or Grantswoman)? 152
v
Contents
appendix A 153
Sample Grantor Prospect Worksheets
appendix B 158
Sample Grant Final Report to a Foundation
Resources on Winning Library Grants 163
Index 169
vi
F
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Figures
2.1 Twenty-five steps to grant seeking and winning 8
3.1 Grant decision tree 12
4.1 Application for Federal Assistance, Standard Form 424 40
5.1 Sample state letter of intent form 52
5.2 Sample letter of inquiry 55
6.1 Example of a Bid/No-Bid Decision Matrix 65
8.1 Sample proposal writing schedule and task assignment
table (thirty-day cycle) 75
10.1 Example of a typical proposal cover letter 96
10.2 Example of a typical proposal cover page 97
10.3 Example of a typical proposal table of contents 98
10.4 Example of a proposed logical project task outline and budget 104
10.5 Example of a proposed LSTA project milestone (Gantt) chart 106
10.6 Example of proposed outcome-based evaluation plan
in tabular online submission format 114
10.7 Sample functional project staffing plan’s organization chart 118
10.8 Example of a proposed resource table with optional itemized
cost data 119
10.9 Example of a spreadsheet-format cost proposal with
associated narrative showing matching (in-kind) funding 120
10.10 Resource cost table showing a revised budget to include
matching funds 126
A.1 Foundation Center’s Prospect Worksheet for Institutional
Funders 153
A.2 Foundation Center’s Prospect Worksheet for Individual Donors 155
vii

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1
You Too Can Be a
Successful Grant Winner
A
lways listen to your momma! Mine told me to pay attention in
school and on the job because, she advised, everything I learned
might prove to be of some use in my later life. I found this adage to
be true. As a born-again public librarian, I was called upon to write grant propos-
als employing skills I had acquired twenty years before when I was a “Beltway
bandit” (aka a government contractor). I started my career as a conventional
librarian who was educated at the very traditional and first graduate library
school in the United States, the Columbia University School of Library Service
(founded in 1899 by none other than Melvil Dewey). However, after a stint as a
special librarian in industry, I left the library world to become a systems analyst
and consultant with a computer systems-oriented government-contracting firm.
Early in that job I learned that a requisite to success and survival in the firm
was to become skilled in marketing and, in particular, in the writing of con-
tract and grant proposals. Another important survival skill I developed there was
learning to successfully manage the projects that the winning proposals yielded.
During my eleven years in that job (and in a few related positions thereafter),
I estimate that I wrote several hundred proposals and supervised the writing of
several hundred more. My team and I won and managed scores of contracts and
grants of almost every size and shape for government agencies, not-for-profits,
industrial firms, and academic institutions in the United States and even a few
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