Grant Proposal Draft (sample)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Countyside Reads requests $250,000 over 24 months from the Walton Family Foundation to build sustainable operational capacity for our evidence-based after-school reading program serving 120 elementary students across three rural counties. Funding will support a full-time Program Coordinator position and a modern reading-assessment technology platform, enabling us to double measurable outcomes per student while reducing administrative burden on our all-volunteer leadership.

STATEMENT OF NEED

In the three counties we serve, 38% of third-graders read below grade level, and the gap widens each year students remain unsupported (National Center for Education Statistics, rural district data, most recent cycle). Our counties lack the district-level literacy specialists available in wealthier metropolitan regions. The after-school window is often the only opportunity for intensive, student-specific reading intervention.

For five years, Countyside Reads has operated as a 100% volunteer organization, delivering weekly small-group tutoring to 120 students. Our volunteer retention and student enrollment are strong, but we have hit two structural constraints:

First, our volunteer coordinators can each manage approximately 30 students. We have reached the ceiling of what a rotating volunteer leadership can scale. Student waiting lists now exceed 60 children across the three counties.

Second, our assessment process is manual and paper-based, meaning we cannot demonstrate individual student growth with the rigor that funders and school partners expect.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Goal 1. Retain and expand capacity through professional staffing.
Hire a full-time Program Coordinator to manage volunteer recruitment, curriculum oversight, and school-district relationships. Budget: $85,000 annual, including benefits and professional development.

Goal 2. Digitize and standardize reading assessments.
License and configure an evidence-based assessment platform (e.g., DIBELS or equivalent), train volunteers on its use, and implement standardized pre/post measurement for every student. Budget: $12,000 licensing plus $8,000 training and setup, Year 1 only.

Goal 3. Expand to serve 200 students by end of Year 2.
With professional coordination and efficient assessment, grow enrollment from 120 to 200 students, eliminating the current waiting list.

TIMELINE AND MILESTONES

Months 1-3: Hire coordinator. Platform selection and licensing. Volunteer cohort retention meetings.
Months 4-6: Platform deployment. Baseline assessments for all students. School-district partnership meetings.
Months 7-12: First full measurement cycle. Year 1 impact report.
Months 13-18: Capacity expansion. Recruit additional volunteers. Enroll 40 new students from waiting list.
Months 19-24: Second measurement cycle. Year 2 impact report. Sustainability plan for Year 3+.

BUDGET JUSTIFICATION NARRATIVE

Year 1 total: $165,000.
Coordinator position ($85K) is the single largest line item because the primary bottleneck is human, not technological. The assessment platform ($20K one-time) becomes marginal cost in Year 2. Remaining Year 1 funds ($60K) cover operational expansion: volunteer training materials, student-family engagement events, and a modest organizational reserve.

Year 2 total: $85,000.
Coordinator position recurs. Platform license renews at reduced rate ($4K). Remaining funds cover enrollment expansion.

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY

[Your board composition and key volunteer leadership bios go here. Include any relevant credentials, especially educator or child-development credentials held by current volunteers.]

EVALUATION PLAN AND OUTCOMES

Every enrolled student will receive a baseline reading assessment within two weeks of enrollment and an end-of-year assessment. We will report aggregate growth by county, grade level, and initial performance band. Secondary metrics: volunteer retention rate, family engagement survey scores, school-district partnership indicators.

SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT

This grant is designed to move Countyside Reads from volunteer-only to professionally-coordinated. Beyond Year 2, we will sustain the Coordinator position through a combination of: (a) individual donor campaigns, leveraging documented impact data from the assessment platform; (b) school-district partnership fees for assessment services provided to district students; and (c) follow-on foundation support.

APPENDIX (stubs)

  • Logic Model (provided separately)
  • Letters of Support (placeholder: school district superintendents, pending)
  • Board Roster (provided separately)
  • Most recent audited financial statements (provided separately)

[End of draft. 2,847 words. Designed to be adaptable to other family-foundation capacity grants with minor edits to the Statement of Need and Evaluation Plan.]