Grants Management: Grant Development Tools

Goals

     Goals are statements of the major steps to accomplish the mission of the project.  Goals should be
      Realistic
–      Goals must be clearly achievable.  This is not the place for
                              goals to improve the quality of life.  These goals are a plan for
                              implementing and managing the project.
      Measurable
– Goals must be measurable.  Answer the questions of “how
                              many” or “how much.”
      Clear
–            Goals must be clear.  The goals allow the reader to know where
                              you are going with the project.

    Goals have five parts and should express the following:

  • What are you going to do
  • What approach you will use
  • When are you going to do it
  • For how many/how much (this is measurement)
  • What result is desired

Objectives – Objectives are the substeps needed to accomplish the goal.  These are the baby steps you take to accomplish the goal.  Do not talk about measurement here.  Talk about who will do this step.  (This is how you justify staff requests.)

Tasks -  For every objective, there are many tasks to be done.  There is no specific format for tasks.  Most grants do not require planning at this level, but it is a good idea to go this deep in the planning process in order to have an action plan when the grant is funded.