Memo to Murray Withrow
November 7, 2016
Date:
November 7, 2016
To:
Murray Withrow, After-school Program Director of CHAT
From:
Christopher Schofield, Kiara Evans, Jesse Hosick,
Subject:
Proposal for Grant research
1
Purpose The purpose of this document is to formally request authorization for our research study of grant initiatives on the behalf of CHAT after-school programs.
Summary On October 20, Murray Withrow of Church Hill Activities and Tutoring, asked us to do research into grant and grant programs that CHAT could apply to. Currently CHAT has any employee that is dedicated to grant initiatives but due to the many programs offered at CHAT: which include a private intervention high-school, a preschool, youth employment program and an afterschool tutoring program, it is difficult for the individual to research and write grants for every single program. And so the task of grant writing is also left for Mr. Withrow and other program directors to do. The CHAT after-school program currently has ten employees and scheduled activities for every school day in the week. This specific program does not have the time necessary to conduct grant research. Mr. Withrow does not require us to do any grant writing, as we do not work for the organization and so he only seeks our help in researching funding opportunities. Our research would require no budget and would be completed in a little over one month’s time. Two weeks after the approval of our request we would send a progress report highlighting a number of grants and funding resources that we, at that time, believe could be a fit for CHAT. Two weeks after our progress report we would send our recommendation report which would detail our findings and give Mr. Withrow recommendations for grants and funding resources. If our request is approved we would be able to start on this project immediately. We would send a progress report on the 21th of November and our recommendation report will be sent on the 10th of December. Our recommendation report would include all of research and would give in detail a number of grants that CHAT could apply to.
Memo to Murray Withrow
November 7, 2016
2
Introduction On October 20, Murray Withrow of Church Hill Activities and Tutoring, asked us to research grants and funding opportunities that CHAT would be eligible for. Currently CHAT has any employee that is dedicated to grant initiatives but due to the many programs offered at CHAT: which include a private intervention high-school, a preschool, youth employment program and an afterschool tutoring program, it is difficult for the individual to research and write grants for every single program. And so the task of grant writing is also left for Murray and other program directors to do. The CHAT after-school program currently has ten employees and has scheduled activities for every school day in the week and does not at the moment have the time necessary to conduct grant research. Therefore Mr. Withrow has asked us to find grants that could help with the following initiatives in the After-school program: ● After School Tutoring ● Life skill Class ● Urban Gardening ● Sport teams or equipment In the following sections we will highlight our proposed tasks and schedule of work.
Proposed Tasks With your approval, we would complete the following tasks to help determine the most appropriate grant options for your organization to apply for in the upcoming 2017 cycle, as well as outline the best resources for optimizing the grant search for your organization in the future. Task 1. Establish familiarity with CHAT and the programs they offer as an organization. We have already started researching your organizations and the different programs it offers. By understanding how CHAT operates by providing tutoring, mentorship, enrichment activities, and unique educational opportunities in a supportive and nurturing community environment, we will be able to research the most applicable grant opportunities that best align with its mission and vision statements. Based on our research of CHAT, we will establish research criteria for the overall grant research that we will do as delineated in task 2. Task 2. Establish a research criteria for all grant and funding research. Based on our preliminary research of CHAT, we will create a detailed set of guidelines for our research to follow. This will help us to better narrow the focus of our research
Memo to Murray Withrow
November 7, 2016
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and help us to find the best matches in funding opportunities for your organization. Without guidelines it would probably be more difficult to discern the grants and funding opportunities that are applicable to your organization. Task 3. Research grants and funding opportunities applicable to your organization. As a team we will use the internet to research different grant and funding opportunities that CHAT is eligible for in the 2017-2018 cycle. We will look for funding opportunities on a local, national, and governmental level, as well as look at possible grant opportunities from public and private sources that align with CHAT’s program offerings and goals. Task 4. Conduct primary research for funding opportunities applicable to your organization. After our secondary research is compiled, we will talk with organizations that fall under the same categories as CHAT and discuss the way they search for funding. Gathering information on what resources are available locally for organizations and programs similar to CHAT may provide new and unaccessed resources for your organization. During this time of gathering information we will also deliver a progress report to you and your organization to keep you informed on what we are finding and where are research is heading. Task 5. Compile grants and funding opportunities research into a recommendation report. After conducting research as detailed in task 2, we will create a recommendation report for your organization that highlights the most appropriate course of action for CHAT to take regarding grants and funding opportunities for the 2017-2018 cycle. In the report we will deliver a master list of all the applicable grant and funding opportunities CHAT can apply for. The list will include links to each opportunity, it’s requirements for applying and its application deadline. This master list will also be accompanied by a list of resources that CHAT can use in the future to research and find more grant and funding opportunities more easily.
Schedule of Work Figure 1 is a schedule of the tasks we would complete for this project.
Memo to Murray Withrow
November 7, 2016
Tasks
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Date of Tasks (by Weeks)
Task 1: Become familiar with organization Task 2: Establish research criteria Task 3: Conduct primary research Task 4: Conduct secondary research Task 5: Compile recommendation report 1
7
14
21
Nov.
28
5
12
Dec.
Figure 1. Schedule of Project Tasks
Qualifications and Experience We are current technical writing students who have participated in several research oriented projects of similar nature at Virginia Commonwealth University. ● Chris Schofield, English Major, has worked at CHAt for the past four years and so has years of experience with fundraising, nonprofit management and childcare. ● Jesse Hosick, Cinema Major with and English and History double minor, has extensive experience with on-set work in television, commercials, and films. ● Kiara Evans, Strategic advertising major with writing minor, has interned for several non-profits and organizations like the Arts & Business Council of NYC, assisting in development and fundraising research.
References CHAT Mission and Vision. (2016, November 3). Retrieved from CHAT: http://www.chatrichmond.org/mission/