Time constraints may prevent our completing the project 100%, but we have almost three weeks (nineteen days) to address this assignment with virtually all of our PFWR 4660 attention—the one exception being final polishing of the Backpack Buddies brochure once we hear back from their director, Brenda Lambert. We will do what we can with our time to lay the foundation and hopefully complete most or all of the grant-writing process that will be pursued "for real" by our Forest Hills Backpack Buddies Ministry partners. Ideally we will have the proposal ready for Brenda's signature by the second week of May. If we don't get all the way there, we'll come as close as we can and Brenda and I will add what finishing touches are needed shortly after.

It's purely up to you who leads the team and what roles team members play throughout the process. Our target length is something in the 10-12 page range, and visuals in the form of tables, charts, or other images may be useful, so long as they all serve meaningful purposes and are used sparingly.

This assignment is a scaled-back version of the four-week final project Dr. Monica Miller developed for her graduate ENGL 6200 Grant Writing course. For more specifics on the steps outlined below, see the "Brief Overview of the Grant-Writing Process" PDF from Unit 9 and Dr. Miller's "Grant Writing Basics" video from Unit 11.

Here's the project:

Step 1: Identify a grant that might support all or part of our project of funding a new storage outbuilding for the FHBBM as they have outgrown their current storage capacity. You can find extensive lists of all kinds of grants online, including Georgia-based grants targeting nonprofits such as Forest Hills Backpack Buddies Ministry. With the full group's involvement in the decision, choose and rank four or five grant opportunities that seem like good potential matches for our needs, including most notably:

• awards amounts up to $25,000-$30,000
• has a deadline in the next 6-8 months (ideally in fall, but through the end of 2026 is okay)
• awards grants to church-related nonprofits (some grants exclude organizations connected with churches).

Submit your short list of finalists in the Grant Project "Step 1" dropbox, noting who played what role(s) in the process. Brenda will review the options and let us know her top choice as quickly as possible.

Step 2: Draft a letter of intent/interest/cover letter for your highest-ranked grant identified in Step 1 (if you start the letter before hearing Brenda's top choice, you can make adjustments as needed if her choice differs from the team's). Have the full team review the letter and make appropriate revisions.
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Step 3: Create and then polish a planning document for the grant, to include the following:

• program title (i.e., the Backpack Buddies' expansion of storage).
• executive summary (one full page)
• description and background of the organization (Backpack Buddies Ministry)
• problem statement or need for the program or project, or more general narrative of the project. Items to include, if applicable:
  
  
  • goals and objectives
  • program activities or steps
  • projected timeline
    
    
• budget and budget narrative
• evaluation plan
• sustainability plan, if applicable

Requests for information: at an early point in developing this planning document, let me know via email what information you need from the Backpack Buddies Ministry. While some items you'll need will be obvious (an estimate or breakdown of costs for the outbuilding and its installation, e.g.), you are likely to find that more information on several fronts will help you create the most effective proposal you can. You should of course do all the research you can via the Internet and other means, but in this sort of collaboration between a writing team and the organization "hiring" that team, it's absolutely typical that you would have questions or requests for information throughout the writing process.

Feel free to email me not just once early on, but any time you could use more info that I might have or track down for you. If any of you are in the Macon area, I would be happy to set up an in-person visit to the BBM facility, and we can also arrange video or telephone conversations with Brenda as needed. She is 100% grateful that you guys are putting in this work that can have a huge impact on the organization she has built from the ground up over many years.

Submitting the cover letter and planning document: The timetable and planning of your work on this project is wholly up to you (though when you are finished I would like to see a summary or timetable of when you did what throughout the process). It's also wholly up to you how you submit the work in steps 2 and 3. If you would like my input along the way or if you have specific questions, feel free to submit specific sections of the project as you complete them, or just submit the whole thing by the "draft deadline" for feedback all at once (Wednesday, May 6th by midnight)..

The final product is due in D2L by Saturday, May 9th by 10:00 p.m.

Here, too, have the entire team review the full document in draft, then submit it in a single PDF or Word document for my review. Ultimately, following my input and one last revision, this planning document will provide the basis for the Forest Hills Backpack Buddies Ministry's actual grant proposal.