URBS 4/553—Grants Administration

Term: Fall, 2008

Instructor: Tony Filipovitch, 106d Morris Hall, (507) 389-5035, 388-2264 (home)

Office Hours: My office hours are posted here. I am available in my office at those times (or other times by appointment). I also check my e-mail daily (usually several times during the day), and have an answering machine on both my home and office phone. There is no reason to flounder around, unsure of what “he wants” or confused about what you are doing; and even if everything is going fine with the coursework, there is more to learning than completing the assignments. I encourage you to visit me, in person or at a distance by phone or e-mail, many times during the course.

Text:

Soraya M. Coley & Cynthia A. Scheinberg. 2007. Proposal Writing: Effective Grantsmanship. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Course Overview:

This course is designed to teach you how to raise resources for public and nonprofit organizations, from needs assessment through obtaining funding to managing the grant after it is awarded.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course you will be able to:

4. Identify and research potential funding sources

4. Develop an effective problem statement

4. Design a program model to meet the identified needs

4. Create a management plan and a proposed budget, including a system for monitoring and reporting on the grant after it is awarded.

Assignments:

1. Readings:

Students are expected to read and understand the readings assigned for each unit. I have included my notes for each unit, but they are not a substitute for your own reading. There will not be any tests or quizzes over the material in the readings; rather, you will demonstrate how well you have understood the readings through regular discussions and other projects.

2. Class Discussion:

Since we do not meet as a class, the closest thing we have to this is the discussion lists on D2L. I will pose questions to start out the discussion, and I will monitor (but may or may not respond) the discussion. Each student must post at least one detailed reflection for each of the 10 topics for the course, and at least one response to another student’s posting. It is important that you post your responses with enough time for your classmates to reply within the week allotted for each unit; do not get behind in your discussion work. For full credit, you must use examples, details, and credible support for your position, and refer to relevant readings (your text, at a minimum) using standard citation format (you cannot provide credible support without citing what others have written!). You will receive partial credit if you do not provide support for your responses. While I will not track whether or not you read all of the postings, I strongly encourage it. You have as much to learn from each other as from me.

There is an etiquette to online discussion. I want you to engage in open, frank dialogue; but I also expect you to be respectful of each other. Comments that are harmful, abusive, offensive, or vulgar will not be tolerated. If I sense any problems, I will intervene. Should you feel intimidated or not respected, please contact me so we can consider how to proceed. A few hints:

· Re-read your messages before you send them—once it is sent, you are committed.

· Never assume that an e-mail is confidential; they are easily copied and forwarded to others.

· Also, be careful with humor; absent body language and other contextual clues, it can easily be misinterpreted.

3. Projects:

The proof of what you have learned in this course will be your ability to apply what you have been learning in practical situations. Specifically:

· You will complete 8 project assignments, 3 for grant prospecting, 3 for the elements of planning and managing a grant, and 2 journal essays on post-award and grant review. You will post your work to the course site on D2L. I encourage you to read each others’ work for ideas for your own work.

· Besides the 8 projects, the final project for the course will be to write a complete grant for an RFP (which I will provide). You will post your final proposals to the D2L site. The graduate students will constitute a peer-review panel for the grants (they will abstain from reviewing their own proposal, of course), using review criteria which I will provide. The winning proposal will receive an automatic “A” for the course.

4. Graduate Students’ Duties

Graduate students will constitute a peer-review panel for the grants submitted at the end of the course. In addition, they will be expected to demonstrate a deeper understanding of the organizational dynamics and managerial issues involved in program development.

Course Calendar

Due	Unit	Reading	Projects
8/28	1. Intro to course/syllabus Notes from Dubose, Developing Successful Grants	Minnesota Giving; Text, Ch. 1	On D2L, introduce yourself to your classmates; Final Project Assignment
9/4	2. Prospecting for Funds	Text, Ch. 2 & Appendix B Grants Information Collection	Prospecting I : Program Notes
9/11		Text, Ch. 3	Prospecting II : Individual grants
9/18		MCF Principles for Grantmakers	Prospecting III : Prospecting Worksheets
9/25	3. Problem Statement	Text, Ch. 4 & 5	Explaining yourself
10/2	4.The Program Model a. Logic Models & Mission Statement	Text, Ch. 6
10/9	b. Tasks	Text, Appendix A
10/16	c. Evaluation	Text, Ch. 7	Defend yourself!
10/23	5. Project Budget	Text, Ch. 8	Tell me again
10/30	6. Packaging the Grant	Text, Ch. 9 “How to Improve Your Score”	Begin writing final RFP
11/6	7. Managing the Grant	Guide for the Perplexed; MCF Common Report Form	Journal essay: Now what?
11/13		MCF Common Grant Form	Post RFP to classmates for review & revision
11/24	8. Reviewing Grant Proposals		Final RFP response due by 11/24; Journal essay: Due diligence;
12/5	Course Evaluations due		Grant Reviews due by 12/5

Course Expectations:

Are You Ready for an Online Course?

Online learning is different from face-to-face. The mix of skills is different, and sometimes students who do well in face-to-face classes do not do well online. Click here for more information.

Attendance & Class Participation:

It is your responsibility to post your responses in a timely fashion, interact with your mentors, and engage in online class activities. I expect all the work for each week to be posted by 6 PM on Thursday of the week listed. If there is an emergency which requires you to be away from your computer, please contact me immediately. Loss of computer connection or network services are not an excuse for not getting work submitted on time (if you lose your connection, go to another location to do your work—a public library, the campus computer center, a friend’s computer, etc.) You can get help with technical problems from the MSUM computer help desk at help@mnsu.edu or go the 3^rd floor of the Library. You are paying for this class—make sure to get your “money’s worth.” Most importantly, this is an excellent foundation of knowledge for future activities, and it is a chance for you to learn, teach, and grow with others.

Grading:

There are 100 points for the course, divided as follows:

Undergrad Grad

1) Discussion (10 @ 3 pts.) 30 30

2) Projects (8 @ 7 pts.) 56 56

2) Final RFP 14 14

3) Grant Review 15

The final grade may be based on a curve, but students can expect at least an A if they achieve 90%, a B with 80%, etc. (Grad students will be graded on a 115-pt. scale; undergrads on a 100-pt. scale).

Other Matters:

All assignments (including discussion) are due on the assigned date. Partial credit may be given for assignments that are less than one week late, unless other arrangements have been made in advance.

Written reports are expected to be free of grammatical, spelling, and content errors. They should be submitted in typewritten, standard formats (APA, MLA, URSI Style Sheets). You must familiarize yourself with the University’s Academic Honesty Policy. I encourage you to draw on the ideas of others—but you must also identify when you do so (you gain “brownie points” for citing the work of others!). Plagiarism is a serious breach of academic behavior and will result in an F for the course.

I will help you in whatever manner humanly possible. However, once the semester is over, there is not a great deal I can do. If there is something that you don’t understand, are having problems with, or need help on, please get in touch with me as early as possible.

Every attempt will be made to accommodate qualified students with disabilities. If you area student with a documented disability, please contact us as early in the semester as possible to discuss the necessary accommodations, and/or contact the Disability Services Office at 507-389-2825 (V) or 1-800-627-3529 (MRS/TTY).

Finally, before the first class please post a message to the “Introductions” discussion board on D2L. Please introduce yourself in the posting, let us know what your goals are in this course, and any special experiences/skills/interests you will be bringing to the group.

Bibliography

This is a selection of books & articles I will be referring to in the course. It could serve as a starting point for your own further reading & research:

MSU