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Use this form to determine whether your initiative or project is a good fit for grant funding or whether you may need to plan more. This is not a test: you can return to the form and re-score new answers as you make progress. And all honest answers are correct ones. If your score is lower than you’d hoped, reach out to your SCORE Mentor to discuss next steps and strategies that fit your business plan.
For each of the questions below, give yourself a "score" if your answer is:
- "Yes" - 2
- "Some" - 1
- "No" - 0
- Does this project help your organization fulfill its mission?
- Can you use specific phrases from your mission statement to explain the relevance of this project to your work?
- Is this project “mission-critical?” Is this project central to why you exist?
- Have you identified how your organization’s budget will support this project?
- Have you identified what kind of grant funding you’ll need? (e.g. direct costs, operating/indirect costs, capital costs, capacity)
- Do you have the capacity to execute this project?
- Has the project been discussed with all essential staff to confirm capacity?
- Has the project been approved by all stakeholders? (e.g, board, staff)
- Have you developed a project budget?
- Have you identified the intended beneficiaries of the project?
- Do have evidence of the need for this project?
- Have you identified the project’s in-house team?
- Have you identified who will evaluate/report performance and manage funder-relations for the project?
- Have you identified which forms of evidence your organization will collect as proof of your project’s success?
- Does at least one staff member assigned have the expertise to monitor and evaluate this project? Or do you have resources to hire and outside evaluator?
- Has a marketing plan been established for this project?
SCORING
If you scored 25-32: You are well-prepared to begin a grant application process.
If you scored 16-24: Work to close gaps in your planning and preparation. Talk to your SCORE Mentor about strategies that best fit your organization or business
If you scored below 16: Work with your SCORE Mentor to consider the potential return-on-investment on closing gaps in grant readiness. Continue the work if the benefits are worth the investment of your time. If not, another funding source or strategy might also be a better fit to secure adequate funding.
