FREE How to Write a Needs Statement for Your Grant Proposal [ With Samples ]

Seeking to get funding proposal from various institutions like a government agency, foundation, corporation, and other entities are essential for many nonprofit organizations. These organizations mostly rely on the grants that they receive from these institutions in order to operate and support their cause or the different activities of the organization.

One of the most important documents that individuals or nonprofit organizations should have when requesting for a grant is a grant proposal. A grant proposal is a written document that contains all the important information regarding the grant proposal, from the purpose of the grant proposal to the budget, and so on. When you start writing your grant proposal, one important part of a grant proposal that you should first create is a needs statement. A needs statement is used to outline the purpose of the grant proposal or the needs that your nonprofit organization will address to in the project or activity.

Grant Proposal Template

Writing the Grant Proposal

Developing a Grant Proposal Template

Grant Budget Proposal Template

This is essential to be able to convince the funding party that your project or activity is critical to the needs of the society, as well as how the society will benefit from it. In this article, we will be discussing the steps that you need to follow when writing a needs statement for your grant proposal, the things that you need to include in one, and the essential elements needed in order to write an effective needs statement that will help you get the right funding from the various institutions who are interested in your cause or project.

What to Include in Your Needs Statement

When creating and writing your needs statement, it is important to include all the necessary information in order to convince the funding institution why your cause or project is needed. Providing both quantitative analysis data and qualitative data is essential to be present in your document. To help you in creating one, here are some of the things that you need to include in your needs statement.

A needs statement should include the following:

• Your nonprofit organization’s mission, as well its purpose, should align with the needs that you will be addressing in the statement. This will allow the funder to understand the type of nonprofit organization you are operating and the causes that you support.
• A needs statement template should focus more on the people that will benefit from the project or activity instead of focusing on the needs of your nonprofit organization.
• When writing your needs statement, it is important to provide accurate data and information, including the trends, statistics, and the views of various experts.
• The needs statement should show your organization’s ability to respond to these needs. It should connect as well as support them to ensure that you will be able to show that your organization is capable of providing the needs of the society for whatever project proposal or cause that you have.
• All the information that you include in your needs statement should be concise and easy to understand. Keeping it short but informative is the best way to create your needs statement.
• Circular reasoning is one of the things that you should avoid when creating your needs proposal. How do you define circular reasoning? Circular reasoning is defined as the act of stating that the lack or unavailability of the solution is considered the problem. For example, the problem statement stated is that a particular community does not have a park, the solution will indicate that building one will solve the problem. This type of reasoning should be avoided in a needs statement.

Writing a Needs Statement for Your Grant Proposal

Being able to write a good and effective grant proposal is an important skills assessment. The document that you will be sending out to various institutions to fund your project or cause determines whether you will be given the financial assistance or funding that your nonprofit organization needs. This is one of the many reasons why it is important to ensure that your grant proposal, or in this case, a needs statement, should be accurate and complete. You may also use a grant proposal template to help guide you on how to write one.

Refer to the information listed below when writing your needs statement.

• Provide statistical data and information by presenting quantitative data to help you support your argument regarding the cause or project that you will be addressing.
• Gather all the important information that you will need through research. Document the data in your needs statement and provide the references or sources of these information.
• Include comparative statistics by writing another community that has done something similar to the grant proposal sample you are creating. List down the benefits, as well as the results that it has given to the community in order to support your grant proposal or your organization’s proposed actions.
• Your needs statement should be based on both facts and stories. This will help you easily convince the funding institution that your cause is important.
• Indicate the problem that your organization will be addressing, as well as the solutions that you will do to solve them.
• Ensure that the funder or institution’s smart goals are aligned with the needs of your organization.

How to Structure Your Grant Proposal

Understanding how to structure or grant proposal example is important when creating one. To help you format your grant proposal, including your needs statement, we have listed below the important parts of an effective grant proposal.

Abstract

The abstract section of a grant proposal contains a short summary of the project or cause that your organization will be doing. It is where a brief overview or description of the proposed project is written.

Needs Statement

As mentioned above, the needs statement is where the problem that will be addressed by the nonprofit organization is described. Indicate how the organization is going to solve the problem using the grant money.

Project Description

This is the part of the grant proposal where the project description is elaborated. This is where it is clearly explained how the proposed project or activity will solve the problem.

Goals

The goals section of a grant proposal is where the goals of the nonprofit organization are outlined. These are the goals that the organization expects to achieve at the end of the project. It is always important to ensure that these goals are measurable, realistic, and reasonable.

Action Plan

This section provides the steps or the action plan on how the organization will achieve its goals and objectives. It should clearly specify when it should be done, how it is done, as well as the person who will do each task.

Evaluation

The evaluation section specifies how the project will be evaluated. It includes the criteria that will be used to measure the progress of the project report format.

Budget

Specify the budget that will be used to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. Creating a detailed list of the expenses is important especially since you are asking for funding from these institutions. An accurately outlined budget timeline will help convince these institutions that your organization’s intentions and purpose are for a good cause.

Now that you have read about the things that you need to include in your needs statement, the steps on how to create one, as well as the steps on how to structure your grant proposal, you can now create your own document to ensure that you get the right funding that you need for your project or activity. Additionally, you can browse through our selection of templates and samples that we have available on our website like a grant proposal letter template and so on. This is will help you format and create your document depending on the type you are creating.