The Obvio Group Grants

Readiness Checklist

A custom-curated list of the basic things individuals or organizations need to have in order to apply for grants. Our rule of thumb is that an organization needs to have 85-90% of the items on this list in order to produce competitive grant proposals.

General Organization Information

 

  • Mission, vision, and values statements (preferably recent)

  • Case statement for the organization

    • History and background

    • Program descriptions

    • Service statistics (population demographics)

      • Total people served

      • Age

      • Racial/Ethnic background

      • Gender (including options for people to self-identify and categories beyond just male and female)

      • GLTBQIA+

      • Income/Socio-economic level

      • Geographic Area

  • Track record of organization’s successes and community impact

  • Personnel information

    • Org chart of reporting structure

    • Number of full- and part-time employees

    • Number of volunteers

    • Non-discrimination policies

    • Brief bios of key staff/leaders

  • Communications collateral

    • Website

    • Social media accounts

    • Brochures or other marketing materials

Governance and Finance Information

 

  • Total number of board members

  • Copy of board bylaws

  • Demographic information for board members

  • List of board members, contact information, and professional affiliations

  • Percentage of board members who have contributed to the organization in the past year

  • Operating budgets for the current and past fiscal years

  • Audited financial statements for the past fiscal year

  • 990 Tax Form

  • IRS Determination Letter (Proof of 501(c)3 status)

  • Federal EIN

  • Annual report

  • Strategic plan

Program(s) and Evaluation Information

 

  • Program description

  • Program budget

  • Logic model

  • Space/infrastructure requirements

  • Technology requirements

  • Administrative requirements (including overhead/indirect cost estimates)

  • Clear objectives and deliverables defined

  • SMART Metrics

    • Strategic

    • Measurable

    • Ambitious

    • Reasonable

    • Timely

  • Qualitative Approaches

    • Case studies

    • Open-ended feedback surveys

    • Focus groups

  • Quantitative Approaches

    • Clear goals—number of people served per year, etc.

    • Likert-scale or similar surveys

    • Web/Social Metrics

    • Statistical predictive models and survey analysis

For Federal Grants

 

  • Grants.gov account created

  • SAM.gov account created

  • Login.gov account created

  • Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) received from federal government

  • For any NEA grants, organization must have completed three years of programming before being eligible to apply

  • Indirect cost rate negotiated agreement (optional)

  • Read the entire agency brief for all federal grant opportunities to determine eligibility and matching fund requirements