Comments from Carol Van Atten, Vice President of Programs, Charles Hayden Foundation, from The Grantseeker’s Guide to Winning Proposals:
We have funded New Settlement Apartments in the past for their after school programming, summer camp, and College Access Center. Our staff works closely with the College Access Center staff, and the proposal was the result of continuing conversations throughout the year. All of the necessary components of the proposal were presented clearly and the flow of the text made the proposal easy to read. The writing style and format were easy to read and allowed the foundation staff and trustees to quickly access the data that was important in the grantmaking decision. Also, the bolded sentences and bullets made it easy to refer to sections of the proposal during the presentation to the board. The budget was also clear and showed exactly where the Hayden funds would be used. It gave us a good description of the overall costs of the program. The strongest feature of this proposal was the format used by the organization to state the goals and strategies to reach those goals. This format will allow us to evaluate their progress throughout the year and at the end of the grant period.