The MAPs Grant Development Team is offering Professional Learning Groups (PLGs) as a follow up to our Beginning Grant Development workshops and classes.  A PLG offers small group learning where the collective wisdom of the group is available to each participant using cooperative relationships as a way to increase personal capacity and creativity improving professional practice.  

Four PLG Sessions are planned: Thursdays, October 19, 26, November 1 and 8, 2012.  Sessions from 5:30 to 7:30 pm each week. Click here for a full description. 
 
THE PLG will offer opportunity for discussion and creative analysis of grant/program development that will build on what was covered in the grant development workshops.  If you are alumni of a MAPs Grant Development Workshop, complete the application to participate in the PLG.  Submit your completed application (link to application) to Aly Evans at alykevans@yahoo.com by October 5, 2012.  A MAPs Team representative will notify you with next steps.  

Government funders and some foundations may request a logic model as the evaluation component cornerstone of your grant application.  The logic model is designed to show a logical or linear path to success for your program or grant proposal. 

The logic model is a tool used to demonstrate how and why your program will work.  It illustrates what will be accomplished and how your grant proposal will reach the goals and objectives designed in your program.  The logic model must communicate specific resources, measurable action oriented outcomes with a realistic timeline.

Logic models may be created in several ways. A template can be downloaded and used as a guide to create the logic model for the evaluation section ofyour proposal.    A Google search of Logic Model Templates provides several models to review.  Beautiful charts of all shapes and forms give a full picture of the wide range of options to design the logic model itself.

Several sites also include detailed guidelines for development of the logic model. Samples are provided in chart form.  If the grant development team includes a professional evaluator or university research staff as part of the evaluation team they will develop the logic model and incorporate all of the elements to show success. The evaluator may take the lead in writing the evaluation/logic model section of the grant.

I am a visual thinker.  When a new idea comes to me, I see in my head as a picture.  And if I take a few moments, I can actually feel it and get sensations from it.  I love having this ability, but where I get caught up is in the details of making the vision happen.  If I jump directly from this powerful vision to thinking ‘how will I ever get this accomplished?’ I usually feel a great sense of overwhelm and may be stopped right in my tracks.

So what’s the missing link?  For me it’s clarity supported by information.  Instead of going directly to the ‘how’, I go back to the vision with the intention of clarifying what it is I want it to do.  In other words, I look at the vision with the question, “what is the outcome I wish to achieve with this?”  This usually provides me with an answer that leads me on the quest for information to support the vision.

Here’s how this works:

1.       Visualize a program; for example a literacy program for adults.  The program could help people learn how to read; have individuals tutored by volunteers in a setting that is bright, supportive, and successful.  Now, how is all of this going to be accomplished?  This is where overwhelm can happen.  Instead of wallowing in it, go to the next step.

2.       Answer the question “what is the outcome I want to achieve?” Is it that more adults will be able to read?  What happens when they can read? Does it help them in job search? Can they read to their children? Are there other opportunities for them? Can they tutor others?  Take the time to define the outcome(s).

3.       Once there is clarity around the outcomes, gather the information needed to support the vision.  Research the need for adult literacy, how it affects lives, what programs work best. Clarify the need.

4.       Next, write it all down.  Begin with the outcomes, plug in the activities and methods to support the outcomes, outline a timeline and benchmarks, and define costs associated with each step.

5.       Voila and congratulations! A program is created and now the basics for a grant proposal are down on paper.

I go through this process several times in order to triumph over the feeling of overwhelm and to develop deliberate steps I can take to power up my vision.  The clarity and information are the amps and watts I need to light the bulb, and once the bulb is lit, my pathway is clear.