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Sample Grant Application No. 1
This sample grant form pertains to private grantseeking by a community-based non-profit organization with 30 years experience. This sample does not apply to public, or Government, grantseeking. This sample grant form is designed for an established, experienced organization, and will not assist, individuals or start-up organizations.
Many grantmakers now use a common grant application form for consistency. Our sample grant application below uses a common application form.
In addition, all grant applications must include:
1. one or more budgets. A program budget, and, if applicable, a specific grant project budget. We have included a sample grant budgetin this grants-writing guide.
2. a cover letter, and, if required, a cover sheet. We have included a completed cover sheet with our sample grant application below. In addition, a sample cover sheet and cover letteris included in this grants-writing guide.
Always follow the exact guidelines specified by grantmakers in their grant application and guidelines.
Sample Private Grant Application
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Common Application Form - Cover Sheet
Date of application: May XX 199X
Name of organization to which grant would be paid. Please list exact legal name: Neighborhood Improvement Association, Inc. (NIA)
Purpose of grant (one sentence): General Support for NIA's 199X/X Housing management Program
Address of organization: 100 Main Street, Any-City, Any-State, USA
Telephone number: 888-800-8888
Executive director: Dolly Do-Good
Contact person and title (if not executive director): Grant Find , Director of Fundraising
Is your organization an IRS 501(c)(3) not-for-profit? (yes or no): Yes
If no, please explain:
Grant request: $25,000
Check one:
General support: X
Project support: N/A
Total organizational budget (for current year): $2,100,000
Dates covered by this budget (mo/day/year): January 1, 199X - through December 31, 199X
Total project budget (if requesting project support): N/A
Dates covered by project budget (mo/day/year): N/A
Project name (if applicable): N/A
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Common Application Form - Proposal
I. PROPOSAL SUMMARY — one-half page, maximum
Grant Purpose:
We will use Urban Betterment Foundation funds to structure a management company to forge private and public partnerships to manage a portion of the City-owned or controlled housing units in our community.
The result will double or even triple our residential property management capacity to benefit hundreds of additional low-income tenants in our community.
Grant funds will also be used to help automate our operating systems, upgrade our outdated computer systems, and greatly improve our delivery of competent management services to more than 5,000 NIA residents in 150 scattered-site buildings, about the size of a small town.
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II. NARRATIVE — Five pages maximum
A. Background — Describe the work of your agency, addressing each of the following:
1. A brief description of its history and mission :
History: In 19XX, a few residents, merchants and church leaders banded together in an informal block association to buy abandoned buildings in our neighborhood in an effort to save the neighborhood from decay and destruction. They succeeded, and formed NIA, an organization founded on the basis of self-sufficiency.
Today, nearly 30 years later, NIA is a recognized not-for-profit leader in affordable housing development and management in this city; a company with a $2 million annual operating budget and a management portfolio of 2,500 units in 150 buildings.
Whole sections of our community are revitalized with new and rehabilitated safe, decent, affordable housing developed and managed by our organization.
Mission: NIA's overriding objective is to deliver top-notch and comprehensive housing development and management services to the residents of our neighborhood, while providing leadership and a positive vision to the people of this community.
2. The need or problem that your organization works to address, and the population that your agency serves, including geographic location, socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical ability and language:
Established before the turn of the century, the community area of this city which NIA serves is an impoverished community of more than 150,000 residents with a median household income of $14,000 (CD 100), nearly all of whom are minority (Black (52%) and Hispanic (39%), many are immigrants who arrive poor, with a lack of basic language skills, and minimal social, educational and vocational skills necessary to gain employment and participate in society. (1990 Census Data)
In February, 1997, the City's Department of Housing (CDH) reported that the City's 1996 median monthly gross rent (including utilities), was $630. The 199X City's Housing Vacancy Report reported that those earning less than $20,000 pay about half of their income towards housing costs; and the 199X Housing Vacancy Report indicates little or no change.
The need for safe, decent affordable housing is critical for the community area which NIA serves. NIA currently provides housing and related services for permanent and temporary residents of this community, most with household incomes below 60 percent of the area median household income.
Our community is attractive because of its masonry tenement housing stock, its advantageous location, proximity to downtown, good subway connections, and access to major regional thoroughfares. However, about half of the housing and land in community area which NIA serves is publicly-owned; with approximately 18,500 units of City-owned or controlled housing, much of which is substandard and inadequately maintained. Many of these buildings are small and scattered, making them difficult to manage.
Faced with these statistics, ever-decreasing government funds and shrinking support services and programs for this community, many would view this picture as futile. But, NIA sees this picture as an opportunity to bring together public and private sectors to produce efficient management systems for this large resource of publicly-owned housing, significantly influencing the housing needs of this neighborhood in the next three years.
3. Current programs and accomplishments. Please emphasized the achievements of the recent past:
Year after year, we push and shove and help the residents of this community take their neighborhoods back from drugs, crime and decay. Building by building. Lot by lot. Block by block. We have developed, on an average, nearly 70 affordable housing units for each of our 37 years. Our current management portfolio represents the entire housing ladder, ranging from housing for formerly homeless households to homeownership for middle-income working families. Our tremendous ten year growth record attests to our proficiency.
In 199X alone, NIA completed 25 buildings with 350 apartments, and started another 150 units in 10 more buildings. A total $50 million in construction in one year!
We built housing on a block where residents had to pay a "toll" to the gangs to walk through unharmed. Today, residents live, work and walk on that block, safe and unharmed. Our renovation of vacant tenements to rental apartments has attracted stable low-income working families and new businesses to the area.
We built housing for the elderly and physically handicapped on a lot used as a heroin den, filled with junk cars, garbage, drug dealers and users. Today, there is a park filled with flowering trees and plants and sitting areas and 100 beautiful apartments housing our seniors in peace and dignity.
Complimenting our housing efforts, we build gardens, plant trees, create murals, sponsor festivals and activities for people of all ages. We train, educate, and provide support services to NIA residents in order to preserve, improve and dignify the fabric of our community.
Since it's inception, NIA has published a monthly community newsletter, Neighborhood News, and has held open, public annual board meetings and elections. Every NIA housing resident is a member of our corporation.
We are an organization with a clear vision and a passion for the future. Our goal is to be the best community-based not-for-profit community-based affordable housing developer and manager in the nation.
We draw on existing resources; the neighborhoods where we have built and re-built lots and buildings; the creative potential of our residents; and turn them into assets to banish decay and despair, to build a vibrant, healthy community.
4. Number of paid full-time staff; number of paid part-time staff; number of volunteers:
NIA has a staff of 75; 10 professional, including 5 property managers; 10 clerical support staff, and 50 maintenance staff. 40 are full time, and 35 are part time. Our staff, board members, and many of our 3,500 housing residents provide volunteer work for our projects and community activities.
5. Your organization's relationships — both formal and informal — with other organizations working to meet the same needs or providing similar services. Please explain how you differ from these other agencies:
NIA has fostered, built and maintained strong bonds and relationships with the community-based organizations of our community to deliver a multiplicity of programs and services to the residents of this impoverished area. Our Board of Directors serve on community boards, charities, churches and other community service organizations.
We work closely with a number of grass-roots organizations which provide free and low-cost services to support and assist the community and its residents, such as legal, immigration, health, art, social and educational services.
For example: The area's Mental Health Association provides mental health services to our community and has their offices in one of our buildings. The area's Primary Healthcare Association provides primary care health services for our community in another of NIA's buildings. One of the area block schools provide meals and social services to our elderly and physically handicapped residents at our HUD 202 housing development.
B. Funding Request — Please describe the program for which you seek funding
1. If applying for general operating support, briefly describe how this grant would be used:
We are requesting general operating support funds to assist with the anticipated three-year planning, development, implementation, start-up and expansion period for our new management company.
Our successful joint-venture bid to manage 250 units of multi-family low-income homeownership housing, owned by the City, kicks-off our expanded management program to attract working individuals and families back to an economically revitalizing area, and continue to stabilize and rebuild the economic base of this community.
However, our current organizational structure does not include the requisite separate management company prescribed by the City in order to be qualified to enter into municipal contracts to manage certain City-owned properties.
We will create a subsidiary management company structured to develop public/private partnerships and tailored to meet the City's criteria. We will then be able to contract with the City to manage a portion of the 2,500 occupied City-owned scattered-site substandard and inadequately maintained housing units in the community area we serve. The new management company will also enable us to, independently and more effectively, manage the buildings which we currently own and manage.
Establishing a new management company will permit us to expand and improve our fast-paced three-year housing agenda responsibly, efficiently and effectively. The new company will create a reliable mechanism to quickly respond to changing internal and external market conditions, and coordinate our management action plans through joint-ventures.
Affordable property management is a distinct profession and a difficult task under normal circumstances. Low-income occupancy just increases the challenges. Regardless of our growth, our residents deserve excellence and access. Residents who have complaints or are looking for information must be able to contact the on-site resident manager and receive the assistance and information they need. The importance of good management is critical.
2. If your request is for a specific project, please explain the project including:
The population that you plan to serve and how this population will benefit from the project: N/A
Strategies that you will employ to implement your project: N/A
The proposed staffing pattern for the project, and the names and titles of the individuals who will direct the project: N/A
Anticipated length of the project: N/A
How the project contributes to your organization's overall mission: N/A
C. Evaluation — Please explain how you will measure the effectiveness of your activities. Describe your criteria for a successful program and the results you expect to have achieved by the end of the funding period:
We will measure our 199X/X housing management program by the numerous housing management programs and initiatives which we have developed and implemented over the past 37 years which have already significantly impacted the practice of quality housing management in our community, and stand as a model for the City.
We will submit a program report upon the completion of the 199X/X fiscal year, funded in part by the Urban Betterment Foundation.
We will keep detailed accurate, complete records of expenditures made under the grant, and participate actively in the evaluation of program activities during the course of the 199X/X fiscal year.
Upon request, we will the provide an audited financial statement of income and expenditure in respect of the grant by an independent certified public accountant that the grant money is spent on the purposes for which it was provided.
Further, evaluation of NIA's overall effectiveness as a housing manager is measured by resident satisfaction, and the level of successful tenant services provided. Our board members are our tenants. The board meets monthly, and is closely involved with our programs, management, and oversight.
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Common Application Form - Attachments
III. EXHIBITS and ATTACHMENTS — Please label all attachments to correspond to the bold-faced, capitalized items below.
A. Financial Information — Please provide the dates that each document covers.
1.Your MOST RECENT FINANCIAL STATEMENT, audited if available. This statement should reflect actual expenditures and funds received during your most recent fiscal year:
NIA's most recent audited financial statement for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1996 is attached.
2. Aligned side by side on the same page, your OPERATING EXPENSE BUDGETS for the current and most recent fiscal year:
Exhibit III A 2 is attached
3. Aligned side by side on the same page, A LIST OF foundation and corporate SUPPORTERS and all other sources of income, with amounts, for your current and most recent fiscal year:
Exhibit III A 3 is attached
4. Please list the foundations, corporations, and other SOURCES that you are SOLICITING FOR FUNDING and, to the best of your knowledge, the STATUS OF YOUR PROPOSAL with each:
Exhibit III A 4 is attached
If project funding is requested:
5. A CURRENT EXPENSE BUDGET FOR THE PROJECT. List each staff line separately and include % of time spent on project. Indicate the specific uses of the requested grant, if possible:
N/A
6. A list of all SOURCES OF INCOME toward the project, actual and prospective with amounts:
N/A
B. Other Supporting Materials
1. A list of your Board of Directors, with their affiliations:
The 10 members of our Board of Directors are community residents, most in the field of housing or related fields of work and service. Our Board is elected by open elections held at public annual meetings. All members are actively involved in supporting and growing NIA. The residents of NIA's housing developments are all members of our corporation.
A list of our Board, with their affiliations, is attached.
2. A copy of your most recent IRS letter indicating your agency's tax exempt status, or, if not available, an explanation:
A copy of our 501(c)(3) documentation is attached.
3. Resumes of key staff, including qualifications relevant to the specific request:
Resumes of key staff, including qualifications are attached.
4. Your most recent annual report, if available:
NIA's 1996 Annual Journal is attached.
5. No more than three examples of recent articles about, or evaluations of, your organization, if available:
The most recent issue of Neighborhood News, our community newsletter, and a press overview of NIA, are attached.
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Common Application Form - Supplementary Information
General Information
1. If your organization has received funding from us in the past, please summarize all previous grants, listing the amount and purpose of each:
N/A
2. What is your organization's fiscal year?
January 1 - December 31
3. If your organization is requesting project support, what is the project's fiscal year?
N/A
Financial Information
1. Who prepared your organization's financial statements? Please include the individual's name, position and direct telephone number:
Arnie Accountant, CPA, (888) 997-9999
2. If your organization is requesting project support, where the Common Application Form refers to your most recent and current budgets (Section III A, 2 and 3), please include those budgets for both the organization and the project:
N/A
3. Where there is a change of more than 20% in a single line item of either the organizational or project budget in one year, please include a note explaining the change:
N/A
4. The months and years covered by each financial document should be clearly marked at the top of each page together with the name of your organization:
N/A
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Common Application Form - Case Statement
In not more than one page, please provide the Urban Betterment Foundation with an empirical analysis of the social and/or environmental context within which your organization is operating. this analysis should not be a reiteration of your mission statement or purpose; rather it should provide us with an overview of the issues with which your organization is dealing. It should include precise data, statistics, and concrete examples of problems your organization is facing. Sources should be cited where appropriate.
Neighborhood Improvement Association, Inc. - Case Statement:
The community area of this City is a collection of many sub-communities which include a variety of old and new mixed use residential buildings, an enormous amount of conventional elevator-type public housing, and retail and small manufacturing firms. The area is an ethnic blend with just over 90 percent of the residents Black and Hispanic, most of whom are poor with a median household income of $14,000. (19XX census data)
Culturally, the population features large extended families requiring greater financial resources to sustain themselves. The unemployment rate is overwhelming. Much of this can be traced to the lack of employable skills, or a mismatch between the skills of the residents and those required by regional industries. Most of the members of the local community who are employed work in low wage jobs such as machine operators, clerical support, service work, sales and general labor. (19XX census data)
About half of this area's housing and land is City-owned. There are 18,500 City-owned and controlled housing units, much of it substandard, inadequately maintained. Because many of these City-owned and controlled buildings are small and scattered, they are difficult to manage. Housing is at a premium and affordable housing even more precious.
The need for affordable housing is more dramatic than the census data reveals, with a 10 percent under count verified by the City's Department of Housing and the Census Bureau. this under reporting can be largely attributed to the number of public housing residents, illegal aliens and the language barrier, making official census reporting extraordinarily difficult.
New ways must be found to develop and manage affordable housing. The City is committed to a course of privatizing the management of its buildings. The future of affordable housing in this community will be answered through public-private partnerships, which have the support and backing of the community and the capability of producing and managing affordable housing for the community's residents.
NIA has an opportunity to bring together public and private sectors to produce efficient management systems for a large resource of this publicly-owned stock, by rescuing blocks, improving and managing the housing, and encouraging private development.
NIA, with a solid 37 year track record, is the model for the future of this community. Look, for example, at Main Street and Pleasant Avenues where our rehabilitation of 15 buildings turned the whole block by encouraging private owners to do the same. NIA, in alliance with the Urban Betterment Foundation, will play an essential role in significantly influencing the quality of life of this neighborhood in the next three years, with the implementation of this proposed grant program.
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