Evaluating proposals:
How do you choose between so
many good programs ?
DVG presentation October 6, 2011
Laura Kind McKenna
Managing Trustee
The Patricia Kind Family Foundation
With thanks to Louis J. Beccaria, Ph.D. President / CEO
Phoenixville Community Health Foundation
for sharing his presentation and cartoons
“It is more difficult to give away money
intelligently than to earn it in the first place.”
- Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919
“Your grant proposal was so good I’m having my book club read it.”
“What follows is an overview of the project.
Attachments are being shipped UPS.”
“It’s not all bad. They want to publish my grant proposal as a
work of fiction.”
We have read your proposal and are giving it serious consideration.
Why Guidelines Help
• Improve the foundation’s stewardship
• Enable more efficient proposal evaluation
• Promote fairness in proposal evaluation
• Allows for exceptions, when required
• Promotes grantmaking impact and effectiveness
• Protect trustee/directors and staff from inappropriate requests
• Project an image of professionalism and organization
Developing Guidelines
Start with your Mission Statement… hopefully you have one by now
Then consider:
 Geography
 Specific funding areas
 Grantee’s budget size
 Fields of interest of the foundation
 Types of grants awarded/not entertained
• multi-year
• matching/challenges
• Capital
• program specific
• general operations
• capacity building
• other
The next thing is to determine your
grantmaking process
 frequency of distribution meetings; determines deadlines
 by invitation or open-access
 letter of intent or full proposal
 common application form or not / on-line application
 phone calls / office visits / site visits
 frequency of grant request submissions
 turndowns
 decision making process
 grant agreements
On-line Grant Application
 Began using Foundant’s Grant Management
System at the end of 2009 for applications
beginning in January 2010.
 All information is online – application, grant letters,
end of year reports.
www.PKFFoundation.net
Patricia Kind Family Foundation Guidelines

The mission of the Foundation is to financially support non-profit organizations that help
children, adults, and seniors obtain basic human needs, including food, shelter, clothing,
education, and physical and mental health care. We are especially committed to helping
individuals and families who struggle daily with the effects of poverty. The Foundation is
family managed and believes strongly in the importance of supporting families.

The Foundation is interested in encouraging practical, caring solutions to community problems
by supporting preventive and direct service efforts. The Patricia Kind Family Foundation
operates no programs of its own, but performs its mission by funding proven approaches from
non-profit organizations. Foundation grants are made only to organizations operating in
Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware or Chester counties that are tax exempt
under Section 501c(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Priority will be given to smaller organizations with budgets under $1 million who have the
potential to make a difference. These organizations are encouraged to apply for general
operating money.

Excluded from the Foundation’s funding priorities are grants in direct support of individuals, i.e.,
scholarships or fellowships; endowments; and capital projects.
Evaluating proposals
Clear, concise and to the point!
• Organization’s mission statement
• Brief history of the organization
• Information about activities, accomplishments and
people associated with the organization
• Highlight the organization’s niche or specialty, But watch
out for claims that “We are the only…”
• Describe how clients/community benefit from the
organization’s work
Goals and Objectives
What are you going to do?
• What are you doing to address the problems you have
identified?
• How will we know if you have addressed the problem
(objective)?
• Goals may be broad (e.g., promote physical, emotional,
social, and spiritual wholeness for homeless families)
• Objectives must be specific, measurable and time-limited (by
June 30, 2008 provide services to 12 homeless mothers with
3 to 6 children…including case management, rental
assistance and a parenting program for 12 to 18 months)
• Both goals and objectives should be realistic and attainable
Evaluation Section
Outputs vs. Outcomes
• Assessment measures should be built into the program at the
program design stage. Track what you can actually measure – don’t
generalize or hope to accomplish.
• Keep it simple but tell us what you are actually going to do and
measure
• Evaluation measures should be directly related to each objective
noted in the proposal
• Ideally, evaluation should address qualitative as well as quantitative
aspects of the program
• Should demonstrate some prospect for meaningful practical impact
on the problem(s) being addressed
Budget Section
Look at two major sections:
• Revenue (money in)
 are they diverse, on-going, and likely to continue
• Expenses (money out)
 Salaries / benefits
 Operating expenses
• Should be as specific as possible – organizational and project
budget, if applicable
• Should include any in-kind contributions involved in the
program
• Include a budget narrative as an attachment to explain
difficult-to-understand (everything?) or “red-flag” items
• Should reflect reasonable costs in your market area
• Should contain a reasonable amount (e.g., 10-15%) for
administrative overhead expense
Additional Information
• List of major current funders and pending requests
• Should demonstrate planning for the program’s future
financial sustainability
• Should include, if possible, mention of self-generated
income; e.g., fees, special event income, annual fund
allocation
• List of Board members and their community functions
Red Flags
• Decrease in annual revenue
• Rising expenses
• Operating deficit
• Cash flow problems on a regular basis
• Lack of diversity in revenue – large and dependent on one funder
• Late audits – no more than 6 months after the close of the fiscal
year
• Recent changes in management – no ED for a period of time
• Decrease client demand for services
• Gaps in financial reporting
• Delays in providing requested information
Site Visits
If a picture is worth a thousand words
a site visit is worth a million
The Patricia Kind Family Foundation
believes that a site visit is the most
important part of any proposal review
Components for
Conducting a Good Site Visit
• Be prepared
 Don’t waste your time or the grantee’s (respect). Read the proposal in
advance. If you have questions or want further information, ask for it
beforehand. Know who you want to meet with. The person who wrote
the proposal may not be the “hands on” program person.
• See the program in action
 View relationships between the staff as well as staff/client interaction.
• Time
 60 to 90 minutes. No grand tours or a fancy luncheon, although a cup
of coffee is always appreciated.
• Clear expectations
 Let grantees know site visits are done on all proposals, does not
guarantee funding, but on the other hand don’t waste their time and
yours if request is really outside of guidelines.
Components for
Conducting a Good Site Visit
• Come prepared with questions
• Move around after you talk, see beyond the director’s office
• Check out seemingly unrelated physical aspects:
 is the place clean, well lit, graffiti free? (this indicates, attention to
detail, pride in work)
 does there seem to be an underlying organization to the physical
plant?
 does the space function appropriately?
Components for
Conducting a Good Site Visit (cont.)
• Check out relationships between and among staff and clients:
 does the boss pass the ball and encourage staff to speak? (this
indicates appropriate delegation of duties as well as trust)
 do the staff know each other and clients? (this indicates good morale
and, probably, good working relations)
 look for body language messages
• Check out connections between what people wrote to you in the proposal
and what they say:
 are the staff who will carry out the work described in the proposal
familiar with it?
 does the written description match what you are seeing and hearing?
Components for
Conducting a Good Site Visit (cont.)
• Do you detect the presence of “plants,” i.e. people placed in your path
specifically to say wonderful things?
• Is your visit overly scripted or under planned?
• Be prepared to give credit to the FEELING you get on the visit. Such
feelings are often more reliable than the statistics or words in the written
materials.
• At the end of the visit, after leaving, immediately take notes. Come to a
conclusion: did the visit inspire more confidence or did it diminish confidence
and raise more questions?
How proposal review happens at
The Patricia Kind Family Foundation
• Approx. 60 requests arrive on-line by deadline (3x/year)
• Read on line, almost half are screened by Grant
manager and Managing trustee and denied (out of
geographic area, budget too large, not close to
mission….)
• 25-35 get site visits scheduled by at least two trustees.
• When all visits are completed we independently rank
them 1,2,3 with recommendations for funding. #1 is best
• Recommendations for funding and amount shared with
full Board at meeting, who generally accept
recommendations
www.pkffoundation.net
Thanks to Patricia Kind , my mother, who taught me how
to be a thoughtful grantmaker and has given me the
opportunity to do this wonderful work