Determine Your Goals

Before deciding to apply for a grant, create a list of your school food program’s short- and long-term goals. Work with your school food department team and other relevant stakeholders to answer questions such as:

• What does your school food program need funding for? 

• Does your school food team have the capacity (time, skills) to successfully enact these changes if you are awarded grant funding? 

• How will your team monitor progress toward your project’s goals? 

• How will your team accurately manage the grant budget and track associated expenses? 

• How will you report progress toward your goals to the grant funder? (Note: All grant funders will have their own reporting requirements). 

Taking the time to determine your program’s goals and thoughtfully answering these types of questions is the first step to take to ensure that you and your department are prepared for the grant writing and management process, and that you are focusing your time and resources on grants that can help you achieve your goals.

Remember: It’s usually best to avoid applying for grant funding simply because it’s available. If you are awarded a grant that doesn’t align with your priorities or if you don’t have the staff or relevant experience to successfully implement a grant project, grant funding can be more of a burden that diverts your time and attention from other priorities that are more important to your team.  

Use this Grant Process Checklist throughout the grant process to stay organized and on track. 

Write & Apply for a Grant

Budget

Budgeting at the beginning will help ensure that you are not overspending, and help with tracking expenses for reporting purposes.

Be sure to track all expenses. Budget categories can vary depending on the application or Request for Applications (RFA); here are some common categories:

1. Personnel expenses of those involved in the grant process including salary, benefits, and taxes.
2. Operating costs such as supplies, equipment, travel, and contracts.
3. Indirect costs, which are often administered as a percent of direct costs, that may include staff time for marketing, development finance, etc.; rent/ utilities; legal services; and office supplies.

Here is an example Grant Budget Tracking Spreadsheet using common categories. This is a template and will need to be edited to match your specific grant budget categories. 

Work Plan

Use this to define the objectives, activities, timeline, and person responsible for each task. This work plan will help you define measurable goals and the activities needed to achieve those goals. This can be helpful when writing your narrative and during the grant management process. Here is a Grant Project Work Plan Template to organize the project objectives.

Narrative

Next, write out the grant narrative. The narrative is the part of the grant application that tells your story, paints your vision, and explains to grant reviewers how funding will help achieve project goals. Narrative requirements will also be specific to the grant you are applying for. Here are a few tips for writing an effective narrative:

1. Don’t assume the grant reviewer knows anything about your school or district, or your project goals
2. Follow the narrative questions and prompts closely
3. Define your project goals using the SMART goals format (SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound).
4. Connect your plan to your budget: Explain your budget in a narrative
5. Share your passion and excitement
6. Revise, revise, revise

Here is a general Grant Management Narrative Outline to use as a template. 

Review

Proofread, revise, and verify your entire application before you submit it. Watch out for common pitfalls and review your work for things such as: make sure to clearly explain how your project aligns with the grant-maker’s values or priorities; only include expenses in your budget that are eligible for being funded by the grant; make sure to include all required attachments; provide context and background on your school or district (assume the grant reviewer has no background knowledge); keep a sharp eye on grammar, spelling, and formatting mistakes; and make sure you note all deadlines, including time zones.

Once everything is reviewed, revised, and reviewed again, it is time to submit your application!