Checklist

Are You Ready to Apply for Grants?

The Linkedin Grant Writing Networking Group created this grant readiness checklist.

It is interesting, although I like my list better.

I have not cleaned up the obvious grammatical, structural, and punctuation errors. 

Organizations Grant Readiness
❏ What is the scope of work needing funding?
❏ Do you have nonprofit status at this time?
❏ Do you have a minimum of 3 years of clean tax audits?
❏ Have you implemented any project? If so, did you evaluate the project?

New Non­profit
❏ Where do you see this organization going?
❏ Do you have a strategic plan?
❏ What are the unmet needs or unique problem the organization is being created to meet? (Similarly, how is the organization unique in comparison to others providing similar services?)
❏ Who already funds your requests (some funders, like United Way, may not fund you if you receive awards or support from organizations that they fund.}
❏ Have you done a well­documented market analysis, complete with all the stats that support the unmet need for your mission and vision?
❏ Do you have your organization’s legal paperwork, history, mission and vision statements prepared and accessible?
❏ Is your accounting done in a standard non­profit method? Is your accountant available to provide needed financial data in a timely manner?

Organizational Status and Information
❏ Business Plan for organization
❏ Annual Budget for organization
❏ DUNS number
❏ Employer/Tax Identification Number (EIN)
❏ Registration with SAM; grants.gov and/or other appropriate agencies
❏ (501)c3 Status letter
❏ Bylaws and other governing documents Standard Documents (boilerplate)
❏ Organization mission and goals, population served
❏ Organizational chart and description of management structure
❏ Tax and financial data (i.e. past tax forms, audited statements)
❏ Resumes of key personnel and Board of Directors

Organizational readiness
❏ How do you plan to sustain the project