If you can’t quantify your impact, how will you prove the grant was successful?
There’s a story to tell about the difference – the improvement – you’ll make in people’s lives with the grant you’re seeking. Grantmakers want to feel this passion in your submission, and we’ll help you accomplish this. But there’s another assurance funders are looking for. They want to see that you’re capable of proving you can measure the difference you plan to make.
In many respects, funders are just like investment bankers or venture capitalists. They have a responsibility to ensure that there is a high probability of a return in exchange for their funding. In many cases, a foundation’s charter requires that grants be awarded only when the grantseeker is able to articulate this.
What do they mean by measureable outcomes?
Grantseekers are often stymied by this challenge. How is it possible to measure an improvement in quality of life? The answer is that few things are totally immeasurable; it’s simply a matter of choosing outcomes that can be quantified.
Can you banish hunger in the underprivileged children your foundation serves? You can’t measure full bellies, but you can calculate the number of nutritious meals the grant will fund. You can also determine the population of children. Now you have quantifiable information that can be tied to the narrative of your grant:
“Over the length of the program, more than 350 underprivileged children will be assured of having at least one balanced meal each weekday.”
That’s a measureable outcome.
You’re already doing this for your organization. You know what your expenses are, and you can produce reports showing salaries and the costs of employee benefits. You can also track operating expenses by category and compare them against the foundation’s overall budget.
Funders want to see this same due diligence applied toward the funding you seek. How will you measure its effectiveness?
Focus on impact
You’ll have to make some assumptions about addressing the problem that the grant you seek is intended to resolve. Apply these basic budgeting elements to those assumptions:
- What is the measurable deficit and what will balance it?
- What are the resources needed to apply a solution and their cost?
- As a cause/effect equation, what are the outcomes that should be expected?
It may seem somewhat cold and impersonal to convert the people associated with your cause into numbers on a spreadsheet, but that is the stark reality of fundraising. You’re asking a foundation to make an investment in your ability to be responsible stewards with resources that they, in turn, must show they granted in a responsible manner.
Validation
It’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel with every grant request – look to your network for assistance. Have other organizations been successful at achieving what your grant proposes? Ask them to share their results. If there’s a successful history of measurable outcomes by similar organizations, you can use this information to augment your own.
That’s a win-win situation for everyone. You’ll be able to share your own results with the foundations who provided you with theirs, and the grantmaker obtains a higher level of confidence in their decision to fund your request. It helps them justify and validate their investment.
The spreadsheet factor
Philanthropic history was built on a foundation of compassion and good intentions. Unfortunately, neither can be deposited into your organization’s checking account. Grantmakers are under increasing scrutiny by their supporters and the public at large. And the calls for efficiency and proof of impact are growing louder.
Funders have responded by asking for more details about how and what you will measure to show your impact. Their philanthropic intentions haven’t decreased. If anything, a deeper focus on measuring outcomes shows more care—are we all accomplishing what we set out to do?
It also means that now more than ever, you have to show there’s no guessing involved. You’ve identified how to measure the social change you plan to make with a grant. The outcome will be good and you’re ready to measure it.
Identifying which measurable outcomes will show the most value is one of the key elements in writing a grant that gets funded. Every story has to have an ending. Your grant is the story of an outcome you want to make happen. Bring us all the unfinished chapters of your story and we’ll polish it into a future tale worth telling – and funding.
