Applying for, being approved for, and accepting funding sets your community organisation on an exciting path.
However, the co m petitive funding process can also be disappointing fo r yo ur group if your project is not funded. Your group needs to be prepared for this possibility and have realistic expectations and alternative plans to move the project idea forward.
Making the pro ject work successfully depends to a large extent on the organisation's readiness to take on a new project and to consider what needs to be in place. So how do you turn your ideas into reality?
Flesh out the ideas
Ideas for new projects have many different origins, including:
- evidence of community need;
- the trial of a prototype, pilot or earlier project;
- experience with a similar project in another location;
- information from other communities about successful projects;
- information about the costs, savings and efficiencies with similar projects;
- realising the opportunity provided by a particular funding body.
Whatever your concept, it will need to be turned into a feasible, workable project with clear goals, outcomes, processes and structures. You will need to go through the following stages to shape your idea in readiness to put together your project application.
Brainstorm
One strategy for fleshing out your idea is to brainstorm. This is a facilitated group process where interested peo pie gettogether and think through as many elaborations on the idea as possible. A facilitator is so meone who has skills in making sure that all people are heard, that different opinions are respected and that the focus remains on the task. The key to successful brainstorming is the exchange and elaboration of ideas. You will need to:
- Nominate a facilitator for this process who
- can design a format for the brainstorming session/s that will deliver an agreed set of outcomes.
- Involve a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds. Everyone in the group is expected to share their knowledge.
When brainstorming ideas for a project, questions may include:
- What do we want to do?
- Why is this issue important?
- How do we go about doing this?
- What are the expected costs and are they reasonable?
- Who wants to be involved and how can they be involved?
- What sort of strategies might work?
- What are our strengths and limitations?
- What sort of outcomes do we want to achieve?
- What steps do we need to take to achieve our goals?
At the end of this process, the facilitator will:
- Try to bring these diverse ideas together into a tentative plan.
- Ask for a volunteer to document areas of agreement and disagreement.
- Distribute a manuscript of the brainstorming session/s promptly to people who attended to maintain their enthusiasm - show them that something is being done to act on the suggestions.
Tune in
Tuning in is an extension of brainstorming and is important for planning the program. It is a process for developing an effective strategy for understanding and reaching participants. It is important that you think about the sort of people who might participate in the program. Participants are people who will be directly involved in, or served by the work. Ideally, participants will contribute to the project's planning and development, but this may not always be possible.
Tuning in is an intellectual and emotional process in which you put yourself in the shoes of others to try and understand more about them. Tuning in enables you to raise your awareness of, and sensitivity to people and social issues. It involves asking a series of questions:
- Who are these people?
- What are their attitudes and values?
- What are their feelings about their family and other close relationships?
- What are their likes and dislikes?
- Where do they live and where do they gather?
- How are they connected to family, neighborhood and organisations?
- What are their lifestyle issues?
- How do they respond to service provision?
- What are their links to the community?
- Can you anticipate their reactions to specific people, events or life crises?
In tuning in, we are suggesting that you close your eyes and use your imagination to gain a better understanding of those people who will be involved most closely with the program. Thinking through reactions in this way helps you make your ideas relevant and targeted to those who can gain the most benefit.
If you want to plan a program for adolescents, for example, it is useful to think about your own and others' observations of young people, who may appear to: dislike teachers and other adult authority figures; have little sense of their own mortality; want to be socially acceptable; not have access to transport; have limited budgets; and be concerned with their physical appearance.
In developing a program for working with adolescents, based on this analysis, it may be necessary to employ young staff who can relate to young people as peers. Programs would need to be located on transpo rt routes 0 rin the centre of town fo reasy access. If adolescents have little sense of their own mortality, the health dimension might include preventive programs that are delivered without preaching.
Anticipate the future
Put yourself some months ahead and imagine that you have been funded to run a project for families or your community. Any new project has ramifications for, and in the community. Some of these can be anticipated and addressed in the planning process, therefore it is important to:
- Think ahead about the project's impact on both the community and the organisation.
- Plan for how you will complete the project.
- Think about what will happen after the project is over.
- Plan now with an end in mind.
Ask yourself:
What are some of the practical and institutional arrangements that we need to consider now as we refine our ideas and apply for funding?
Consideration of these ideas will assist you to write a superior application and will allow the funding body to realise the potential strengths of your ideas and the capacity to achieve outcomes. They may also see that you will be able to manage the project ifit does not go as planned.
Flow-on effect
All projects are likely to have a flow-on effect in their community. Community people and organisations may welcome new services if these address gaps in existing services, but acknowledge that new services increase demand and interagency coordination to ensure continuity:
- Undertake consultation, negotiation and joint planning with the community at an early stage to encompass the impact on the community. This may mean the difference between success and failure later on.
- Talk to local community leaders and agencies about your program and ask the fo llowing questions:
- What are this idea's likely ramifications and flow-on effects for the community?
- Will your project cause an increased demand for services?
- Will this new project expose unmet needs in the community?
- Does this program require more public transport or other public infrastructure in particular areas?
- What is the public expectation of this project? Does the community have realistic expectations about what this new project can achieve?
- Will the project create new demands for services and support that will remain after the project is over?
- What will happen to the community after the project is over?
Think about the cultural context
Programs are introduced into a particular cultural context. Sometimes this context may be the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander com m unity, or people from culturally diverse backgrounds. The question for consideration at the planning phase is:
- What might you need to put in place in the beginning of the project to navigate inter-group tensions, conflict or public criticism?
Think about legal obligations
New community initiatives may mean thinking ahead about new legal obligations and responsibilities:
- What legal requirements might be anticipated?
- Does funding depend on incorporation?
- If the work involves children and families, does this mean that workers and volunteers associated with the project need police checks or training in mandatory reporting?
- Does the program place workers or clients at risk? If so, what legal precautions might need to be considered in costing the establishment of the program? (e.g. occupational health and safety, and insurance)
Think about financial accountability
Securing funding for your project makes the effort worthwhile but it also means increased financial accountability and changes to budgeting and financial practices:
- Do you have experience in managing government funding for projects?
- What financial systems do you need to put in place to manage this project within the designated budget?
- Have you got an auditor?
Think about performance reporting
Securing funding for your project also means increased performance accountability:
- Do you have experience in developing performance indicators and measuring the performance of the project?
- How will you know that your project is working well?
- Will you need to develop performance indicators?
- What performance management systems will you need to put in place?
- Do you have someone who will be responsible for performance monitoring and reporting?
Think about human and ather resource issues
A new project often means new staff. Staff will need orientation, guidance, supervision and support. They may need office space, a desk, phone, computer and access to a car. It is necessary to consider managerial matters when undertaking the planning process:
- What personnel, equipment, space and facilities are needed?
- What procedures and strategies will need to be put in place to manage the process and the work?
- What processes and structures are needed to support the project?
- What are the intended project outcomes and how will these be measured qualitatively and quantitatively?
- What systems are needed for data collection for both the organisation and the funding body/bodies?
Think about governance
Decide how the project will be governed:
- Will you have working groups, a committee and/or a project officer?
- Who will be responsible for what?
- Who will be accountable to whom?
- How will you govern finance, human resources, other resources, time lines etc?
Before going any further it is wise to undertake some research:
- Is there a funding round pending? When does it close? What forms need to be completed?
- Who can help you? Who should you talk to? (Identify local resources, websites and established partnerships or new ones in their infant stages)
- Do you need to undertake a community consultation?
- Is there any history of similar applications for similar projects, or any prototypes you should use?
- Are you sufficiently aware of the kind of infrastructure you need in place to manage people and money?
- Do you have enough funds to get the project off the ground?
Return to the here and now
Once you have considered all of the above issues and feel that you have shaped your ideas as far as you can, you are ready to research the information needed to prepare your funding application.
Resources:
Wadsworth, Y. (1984) Do it yourself social research. Victorian Council of Social Service Melbourne Family Care Organisation/Allen & Unwin, Vic.
Donovan, F. & Jackson, A. (1991) Managing Human Service Organisations. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
Community Wise WA
http://www.communitywise.wa.gov.au/public_html/index.htm
Checklist
Have you:
- Clarified the origin of your ideas?
- Fleshed out the ideas?
- Brainstormed?
- Tuned in?
- Anticipated the future?
- Considered flow-on effects?
- Considered cultural contexts?
- Considered legal obligations?
- Considered financial accountability?
- Considered performance accountability?
- Considered human and other resource issues?
- Considered governance?
- Distributed copies of brainstorming sessions to participants and other interested parties?
If you have done all of these things:
- Are you ready to write your funding application?