5377 - Week Three Already?

Think about the problem you're going to try to solve with a successful grant proposal, and the organization you want to write for. What are types of restrictions on RFPs that you want to steer away from? Also, what are some key strategies to avoiding getting your app tossed into the "not a chance" file right off the top? Here's a list of reasons why apps are rejected from the NEC Foundation of America.


For my organization, I think that one of the biggest problems I'll face is that I'm writing for a church. While churches do indeed have many sources of funding, as well as tax breaks and other benefits, many companies that choose to give will not give to a religious institution. This, of course, includes the federal government in many cases. I just looked into Adobe Software, for instance, and they will not give to a religiously-affiliated institution of any kind. If you look at that link, you'll see it's hosted by Gifts in Kind. Which leads me to my next consideration.

Gifts in Kind is an organization I hadn't heard of until today. Their purpose is to serve as a clearinghouse for discount-priced products for deserving organizations. Generally, this means non-profit and educational organizations. They list clothing, software, toys, and some other stuff in their winder catalog (a 480 kb Adobe file, which is a delightful little treat compared to some of the cumbersome academic files I've been accessing lately. Just goes to show that scanners and webservers aren't for amateurs.). Unfortunately, Gifts in Kind doesn't have any of the kinds of products I'm looking for to be used at my church's CPR training.

Other problems: I'm learning that some granting institutions give only to children in the K - 12 age range. Seems odd, but that may be part of their criteria that they only give to public institutions like schools. You know, this grant class could easily be combined with Sam Dragga's class on ethics in order to generate a meta-discussion on how granting puts our values on display. So many companies shy away from giving to private organizations because they don't want to be viewed as anything but uber-democratic.

Scope: my church's childcare program serves our community, but doesn't garner any nation-wide, state-wide, or even county-wide attention. So granting organizations interested in combining philanthropy with PR aren't likely to want to give.

Demographic: I don't yet know if this will be a problem, but our church's childcare program (while quite large--I think it serves just over one hundred children) is populated almost entirely by children from white, middle-class families. I'm not at all suggesting that folks out there only want to donate to minorities, but our church does not have the appearance of needing aid. However, there are other things to consider, such as the fact that almost all churches run in the red. More later.

Key strategies for not failing: Well, there's always the tried-and-true method of audience analysis and proper paperwork. This comes up time and again with regard to writing, whether for literary publications, self-help books, grants, classwork, memos, or even love letters. Think about your audience, read the instructions, and submit on time. There you have it. The secret to published writing. Maybe not fine writing. . .but published.

5377 - Week Two

For what organization will you be writing with your first grant for the course? What are some of the problems, difficulties, and or obstacles that this organization has? What are some plausible activities that would help overcome these weaknesses?

I think I'll be trying to find, and apply for, a small grant for my church. It's a non-denominational church (Grace Bible Church), and technically I guess it's on the small side. We only have about 400 members. On the other hand, we have something like 3,500 regular attendees, so it's also a large church. One the most impressive things is our education program, which includes twice-a-week schooling for children 12 months through 4 years. For five hours per day, twice a week, parents can drop their kids off for "school." While the church curriculum is heavily Christian, it is also quite good in other respects.

The children have music, movement, reading, memorization, and various other activities. Really good stuff, and people from all over town, many of whom are not members of the church, use it. In fact, the program fills up rapidly each year.

Here's the skinny: each of the workers, of whom there are roughly 20, needs to have Infant CPR certification. The church keeps it own certification personnel and equipment, and the equipment needs to be replaced due to age, wear, and tear. I've been thinking that this will be an interesting project for finding a grant. Surely there's some agency out there willing to donate money to update CPR learning tools so that nursery workers can continue to be certified. Surely. The training also includes some information and training on infection control, which is always a BIG issue with little ones running around.

Our two kids are, near as I can tell, generally covered with filth from about 30 seconds after exiting the bath.

The need for CPR training materials includes: videos, training material, supplies, Purell for each room, Clorox wipes, etc.

There are one or two other things the church needs: nursery-wide curriculum plan and materials, TV/VCR/DVD setups, organization stuff like bins, shelving units, and a new storage shed. Of these, I think money to help with curriculum development or multi-media equipment is probably the most likely. Bear in mind that I don't have enough experience to know this for sure--I'm just fakin' it.

5377 - Week One

Questions: What are the six stages of grant seeking? What, exactly, is a needs statement? And which online resource linked through the syllabus have I found to be most useful and why?

The six stages, as listed on our course website, are as follows:

1. Identify a problem;
2. Generate an idea to solve it;
3. Figure out if the solution furthers the mission of the organization;
4. Research sponsors that match missions;
5. Write proposal;
6. Get funded.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do to identify a problem. It's true that I've wanted to visit the Faber pencil factory in Germany for a while now. I understand they have quite the archive on pencil-related history. Perhaps what I need is a grant to fund a brief visit. Say, two or three months.

The link which was the most interesting, though I'm not sure whether it was the most useful, was the one for the National Science Foundation. The link itself actually wasn't right, but I got to the right one from there. I'm always interested in what qualifies as "science" and what doesn't. C.P. Snow's book, The Two Cultures, comes to mind. I haven't read it, but I've read quite a bit about it, and of course almost anyone in academia has spent time wondering why (for instance) the folks in Chemical Engineering don't hang out with the specialists in Medieval French Teacups.

One of the grant opportunities I looked at was called CyberTrust. Most of the funded projects were pretty heavily engineering oriented, but some had to do with studying social trends in communication. I find that intriguing.

Motorcycles and Emissions

For years I've said, and heard it said, that one of the ways in which we gas-thirsty Americans can help the environment is to start using motorcycles instead of cars. Let's face it: many of us drive a car that can hold (at least) four people, but most of the time it's just you and your briefcase, laptop, or groceries. Or DVDs. Why not use a two-wheeled version of the same thing? Easier parking, better gas mileage, and the wind in your hair, dudes and ladies. What could be better? Oh, yeah--most motorcycles cost WAY less than cars.

No, I don't own a motorcycle. Anymore. I had a Honda Rebel 250 in college, and it was great for all of the above reasons. No kidding. In fact, you'd think that motorcycles would be all over the air waves (and cable, and billboards, and text messages, etc.) in terms of advertising their fuel efficiency. Compared to the rest of the country, gas prices are pretty low in our area. They're hovering around $2.25 per gallon of super, if I'm not mistaken. That's still pretty steep compared to just a few years ago, so why aren't we drowning in motorcycle advertising?

But I noticed the other day that there's a discrepancy in the way motorcycles and cars are advertised. Gas mileage and emissions information is inevitably included in car advertising, but it virtually never appears for motorcycles. Hmmm. Is it that "everybody knows" motorcycles are more efficient and better for the environment? I understand that fuel efficiency and emissions are two different things, but bear with me.

It was just a hunch, so I used Honda (www.honda.com and powersports.honda.com) and BMW (www.bmwusa.com and www.bmwmotorcycles.com) as a test. They were the two manufacturers of both cars and motorcycles I could think of off the top of my head. Here's what I found: both manufacturers provide clear and easy-to-find information about auto gas mileage and emissions information. NEITHER provides anything of the sort regarding motorcycles. I have to admit that I didn't check every single car and motorcycle model offered by both Honda and BMW--I just skipped around. But it quickly became clear that both BMW and Honda do NOT provide this information for motorcycles. At least not online.

Honda at least gives us this much: for each bike listed, they provide the statement "California version differs slightly due to emissions equipment" under the "specifications" link. Oh, okay. I'll just call Schwartzenegger and get some rough figures on his hog. That'll clear things up.

I'm surprised at what my research turned up, and wonder if anyone else has any thoughts or comments on it. Is it that motorcycle gas mileage is simply an urban myth? Or is it so fantastic that it goes without saying? Are purchasers of motorcycles generally not concerned with the environment?

If I'm not mistaken (and I plan to do some research along these lines), car manufacturers are required by law to provide consumers with environmental information for each auto model produced. Is it not the same for motorcycles? Should it be?

Time of Sense

When I was younger, the Christmas holidays lasted forever and I had day after day of play time and lassitude. Now, though--I just finished a frenetic semester at home, we got Charlotte's (our two year-old) birthday, Christmas, New Years, and a couple of colds out of the way, and now the Spring semester's about to explode onto the scene. Ahh, the holiday season.

But I've been spending all my spare time (practically none, but there have been some moments washing dishes) thinking about writing, writing practice, and possible dissertation topics. I started off my phd program thinking I wanted to write on the effect computers have on writing. No, not spell check and IM lingo and that kind of thing. What I mean is that writing is inherently technological, and therefore every writing situation demands a choice in technology. So how does computer technology, and the choices we have to make regarding that technology when we choose to write, affect our writing. That better? Maybe.

But now I'm thinking that the real contributions that technical communication researchers can make is in the field of information architecture. I've begun to wonder if it's possible to design a graphical system for understanding types and amounts of information. The medieval mystics believed you could improve your memory by visualizing a house (mansion, castle, etc.) wherein certain memories, or types of information, belonged exclusively to certain rooms. Then you would simply visualize going into that house and choosing which room you needed, then locating the information you needed. So far, so good. But my question is can we come up with visual metaphors whereby we can conceptualize great chunks of, say, business, historical, or philosophical data? Something to work on, no doubt. For some reason, "phlogiston" comes to mind.