COM455 Crtical Thinking 3

CHOOSE ONLY 1 OPTION

OPTION #1: MATCHMAKING: RESEARCHING FUNDING OPTIONS FOR NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

Non-profit organizations expend a great amount of time and effort to understand their potential funders so they can appropriately craft their proposals. Research a non-profit organization and identify a potential funding need for a particular project they want to implement. (Note: You may interview someone from the organization to gather this information, or you may infer this information from the organization’s web materials. If it is easier to create a hypothetical need, you may do so.)

Using foundation resources from the web, research potential funders for this project by looking at the priorities of these funding agencies. Evaluate these potential funders by asking questions such as the following:

• What types of needs are they interested in addressing? For example, are they specifically interested in serving particular populations?
• What geographical priorities might they have?
• What solutions are they interested in funding? For example, some funders do not want to fund capital improvements. Others may not want to fund staffing.

Based on your research, which three funders should the non-profit organization pursue? Why? What, if any, alterations might the organization need to make to its initial project idea to appeal to these funders?

Write a proposal containing this information, addressed to the executive director of the organization you have identified.

Assignment requirements:

• Your proposal should be 3-4 pages in length, not counting the required title and reference pages.
• Cite the three funders you recommend in your proposal in the Reference page(s).
• Your paper must be formatted according to the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements (Links to an external site.).

OPTION #2: FINDING FUNDING: ONLINE GRANT PROPOSALS

Increasingly, grantors are requiring online proposals, either in addition to or instead of paper proposals. Use the web to research at least three different foundations offering grants that require such proposals. Considering the “Strategies for Proposals” presented in Chapter 17 of the textbook, keep the following questions in mind:

• What items are required in the online grant proposal? Are there common requirements across each foundation?
• What, if any, additional items or changes in strategy might you need to apply for online grant proposals?
• What challenges might you see in using an online proposal process versus a paper-based process?

Assignment requirements:

• Your report should be 3-4 pages in length, not counting the required title and reference pages.
• Support your response with research from at least three scholarly sources. (You may use the course readings, in addition to other sources found through your research efforts, but citing course readings will not fulfill this requirement.)
• Your paper must be formatted according to the CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APA Requirements (Links to an external site.).

Please use the following readings to support paper:

Required

• Chapter 17 in Strategies for Technical Communication in the Workplace (must be referenced)
• Flavin, R. (2014). Tips for writing a winning grant proposal. (Cover story). Tech Directions, 74(1), 18-19.
• Snyder, L. & LePoire, B.A. (2002). Writing your first successful grant application to conduct communication research. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 30(4), 321. Retrieved from https://csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-ebscohost-com.csuglobal.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=8613563&site=ehost-live