How Fundable is my Program?  
 
Grants are a great way to get funding for your non-profit, but one of the most basic questions you must ask yourself is: How fundable is my program? James Aaron Quick and Cheryl Carter New, authors of the book Grant Winner's Toolkit: Project Management and Evaluation, offer the follow ten tips, adapted from their book:

1.The program must solve a problem: Doing a program for the sake of doing a program is great, but funders want their money to go toward solving a social problem. To qualify, the following caveats apply:
  I. It must truly be a problem: Sure, we all care about the lack of poodles in high office, but is it a problem?
II. It must be solvable: Need I say more?
III. It must be worthy of being solved: This is a biggie. Sure poodles aren't currently holding high office, but do we really want to contribute money to do anything about it?
 
  2. Problem must be shared by other localities: Grant makers are usually not interested in solving problems that are only shared by one place. Homelessness, hunger, teen pregnancy, these are shared, universal problems that grant makers are interested in.

3. Project will be run, coordinated or overseen by a lead agency. Let' s face it: someone has got to be responsible for a project. Having a lead agency gives the project a spearhead that will keep things moving even when there s a hitch in the works.

4. Project must have partners: No man is an island and neither is your program. Funders want programs to work together to become more than the sum of their parts. After all, why pay for two separate programs when one united program is cost efficient?

5. Project must need less money to continue than to start: obviously, if your program takes a large sum of money to start-up and a large sum of money each year to continue, something must be wrong financially.

6. Project must have a set of actions to be performed: your project must have a way to solve the problem it was created to solve.

7. Project must have a broad purpose: narrow purpose problems are usually easily solved. Then what are you going to do? Thus your project must have a broad purpose: to end teen pregnancy, to end hunger, to promote world peace.

8. Project must be realistic: obviously funders are looking for projects that can actually solve the problem they were created to solve. Unrealistic expectations only inhibit good intentions. Make sure your program is grounded and realistic.

9. Project must be innovative: there are solutions that are time tested and honored; usually they're already funded and working. Funders are always interested in new ways to solve old problems, especially new ways that can be replicated elsewhere.

10. Project must be able to be evaluated: your program must be able to prove that it works. Stories and goodwill are all well and good, but funders are making an investment in your project and want to see a return. That return need not be financial, but it must be provable.

If your project stands up to these 10 steps, then you've got a good chance at being funded. Now all you've got to do is write a really good proposal and convince a funder to give you a grant & Good luck!