Grant Development and Approval || Contact Us | GSS Home | HCPSS

Grant Project Idea Development Questions

Generally speaking, grants will not fund maintaining the status quo, staff positions not connected to a fully-developed initiative, or non-specific projects geared toward the improvement of teaching or student learning.  Grants may be available to fund specific projects with measurable goals and objectives – and appropriate strategies and activities – that will result in a particular, measurable, improvement in student learning.  The best way to begin the grants research process is to develop your idea into a project that will be of interest to a funding source. 

The first step is to identify the problem and begin to define an idea. The following questions will help you develop the project idea to the point where you may begin to research specific grant opportunities.  Once these questions are answered, Grant Support Services may be able to provide resources for grants research or development.

  1. Target Population (Who will benefit from this project?):

  2. Documentation of Need (Why does the target population need this project? Be specific, with hard data – test scores, attendance rates, etc.):

  3. Project Goal (What benefit will the project have on the target population?):

  4. Objectives (What objectives need to be met in order to achieve the goal?  Objectives should be fairly specific and measurable – and related to your school improvement plan - such as “a 5% increase in reading schools as measured by the MSAs”):

  5. Strategies and Activities (Who will do what to meet the objectives?):

  6. Estimated Budget (Breakdown of costs):

  7. Timeline (Schedule for all major activities related to meeting the objectives/goal):

  8. Staffing (Who will carry out the activities, who will be the project director, who will manage the budget?)

  9. Research and Uniqueness (What makes this project unique?  Why should it succeed over others?  What research supports your project idea?):

  10. Evaluation (How will you measure whether or not you met your goal?)

Contact the Grant Support Services Office at (410) 313-6648 with any questions.
* Links on this page require Adobe Acrobat Reader.  Download a free version from Adobe's website.


HCPSS Office of Grant Support Services:  Contact Us | GSS Home | HCPSS
For website corrections or suggestions, please contact the webmaster.