One thing I wanted to focus on from this chapter was the definitions and differences between an organizations goals and objectives. First off, I appreciated the chapter making note that everyone, at some point, struggles at first when writing their goals and objectives while making sure they don’t overlap in any way. The table they provided was helpful to me in being able to visually see how it should look and then read examples. I think it’s important to note too that what an organizations goals and outcomes look like always (like in many other facets of grant writing) depends on the funders guidelines. Having everything relate back to one hard set of guidelines is grounding for me because it allows me to check myself on where I may be overworking or losing focus. This idea goes hand and hand with another point the chapter makes about triangulating the goals and objectives with the problem statement. Seeing that in most cases the problem statement will already be written, it can act as a home base for what needs to be answered or made into a quantifiable statement.
This chapter was a little confusing at first, but it was able to define and distinguish goals, objectives, and activities very well by the end. I am glad that we are going over this chapter now because I have started to worry about how to properly write our goals. Initially I assumed that objective and goal were synonymous, but the text distinguishes them by size and measurability. I still believe the wording is pretty arbitrary, however the two concepts and their differences are important to the creation of the overall proposal.
One of the biggest takeaways from the chapter besides establishing objectives vs goals was the use of proper language to create them. This chapter emphasized the importance of SMART writing and active voice over a more passive one. These small changes, especially the use of “-ing” words, can determine how an objective is read and interpreted. Through unclear and passive language objectives and slip into activities or more process focused writing. Process objectives have their place as the book reveals, but only when asked for by specific grant funders. The examples in the text where the most helpful as it gives a concrete benchmark for how grant writing can be phrased successfully or ineffectively.
I found this chapter to be unbearably confusing at first when trying to differentiate the difference between goals and objectives. But everything was made much clearer with the implementation of the graph. The objectives are what you make to meet the goals is what I mainly grasped it as. I definitely feel better prepared to write them now that I can differentiate the two. I really liked the reality check about advocacy and how in the real world this whole process is much harder and drawn out than we may think, which is why the objectives are in place to be measurable and achievable (following the SMART goal model) in order to show progress on larger projects. At this point in the semester, I feel as though I have a decent grasp on problem statements and how to use them, thus making the area of this chapter where it relates both goals and objectives back to the original point of the problem statement to be very helpful. Seeing how everything really works together and connects with one another makes it so that the entire process of grant writing seems less daunting.
My biggest takeaway from this step is the importance of having concise and measurable goals and objectives. This provides the granting foundation an effective way to determine whether they want to fund the organization and whether they were successful in fulfilling their goals and objectives, lessening the room for regret and insecurity. SMART goals are a well-known guideline that can be applied to various types of projects, especially for grant-seeking organizations with the intent to persuade granting foundations as best as they can that they are focused and have adequate planning to effectively utilize funding to fulfill their mission. Once again, knowing each foundation’s expectations of short- and long-term objectives emphasizes how crucial research is when it comes to writing grant proposals. Otherwise, the ability to secure such funding is relatively low when the funder can’t share the vision due to the inability to effectively communicate the organization’s plan. Not knowing a foundation’s definitions of such can lead to great skepticism about whether funding will be used properly by an organization. Having specific program goals is also an idea to strongly consider as it strengthens the conciseness that foundations value when deciding who to grant funding to. Big promises sometimes come with a lack of logistics that are thoroughly thought out, which foundations don’t feel good about regarding granting those organizations. Including program goals and objectives shows careful organization and a clear vision that both the organization and foundation can work towards and look forward to.
After reading step four, one thing that really stuck with me was the difference between goals and objectives. Objectives, which is what a grant writer should be focused on, are measurable, time-bound, and achievable. On the other hand, goals are visionary and aren’t measurable. This reminds me of the old a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn’t a square thing. An objective is a piece of a broken down and thus measurable goal. However, a full goal cannot be transformed into an objective. I think a good example of a goal would be an organization’s mission statement, and an objective would be the program they intend to fund. One question this brought to mind was whether or not the goal should even be mentioned in the grant. I imagine including the overall, long-term goal would be important to give context to the objective. However, that leads to the question of how in-depth the explanation of the goal should be or if just including the mission statement for an organization is enough.
One piece of this chapter that I found interesting was the distinction between outcomes and outputs. While an output is generally a physical result of a project, an outcome is the effect that the project has on people. While writing a grant proposal, it is important to distinguish these two products, and make it clear to the funder why both the output and the outcome are important.
Another piece of this reading I found important was another distinction that the book enforces, and that was the difference between a goal and an objective. The book describes a goal as the thing that is going to be accomplished, while an objective is an actual plan as to how that goal is achieved. Goals and objectives exist together, and feed each other. While a goal is something that is more vague, an objective is specific, and has an exact plan as to how it will be reached.
One important thing that I found important during this reading was the idea of how important the objectives are. Objectives come in threes; activities, outcomes, outputs, and measures of success. However, to me, the Measures of Success seem to be very crucial. I think that is very important as it will show the grant giver and yourself how success can be measured. It will keep you on track as well as motivated to get to that end goal. Being clear is super important as well when stating one’s objectives. DO NOT be vague when stating those objectives/outcomes. This will make things easier to understand further down the road. Another part of this reading that I would like to point out is the idea of making sure everything relates to the problem statement as being consistent and true to your cause is crucial. The dos and don’ts are also just as important as they can guide you in writing a coherent plan.
I think the biggest takeaway I have from Step 4 is the intentionality. This is something we’ve talked about all year – and it reveals itself once again in this chapter. When I think of a piece of writing that has an economy to it, that is clear and deliberate, I think of one that centers around clearly defined goals and objectives. Moreover, this chapter alludes to other terms such as activities, outcomes, outputs, and measures of success, which all serve the purpose of creating clearly recognizable outputs. In other words, when the writing focuses around a few premises it becomes very clear and purposed. Another thing I find interesting is the idea that some of these definitions can seem repetitive, or perhaps redundant. But I think this has a benefit: to be very clear, and even overdo the point to the place where the reader can’t help but be very familiar with the objectives and goals of the proposal. Lastly, I thought it was interesting to have the reality check outline a difference in process objectives versus outcome objectives. I like the idea that outcomes and results can be hard to quantify, or perhaps hard to define, so instead of having outcome objective, there are process objectives that can be used to measure progress towards a goal.
So this section is about establishing goals/objectives two different things I’ve learned during this course. I’m reminded how important it is to try to goal for a high objective and set noticeable benchmarks. Within reason, looking into the future of this sections it’s important to know your capabilities and especially limits. Flying too close to the sun and overpromising on your goals is something and end up disappointing your funders, is just as bad if not worse than underperforming. But to help with that and make sure you can make progress obtainable this chapter helps set a guide on measuring progress, and establishing outcomes, with an emphasis on it being clear, involves all factors in your organization, and is unquestionably important to the larger goal of your organization. So going into the finer details like looking measuring an estimated objective from an activity, and not mistaking the activity for the goal in it of itself, could, like many aspects, mean life or death to your project.
I thought the table on page 42 was really helpful in clearly defining what kind of objectives you should be writing in regard to your grant’s goal. It can’t just be a broad statement but has to show specifically how you will achieve your goal. Advocacy work and “small wins” are important in building up progress and support towards your goal. If you can show that you’re already making progress towards your goal and that people are interested in it, they might be more inclined to fund your grant as opposed to someone who hasn’t done any preliminary work. I thought the worksheets on pages 47 and 48 were a good tool, I think the book does a good job of laying out all the “questions” you need to answer to formulate the parts of your grant.
Our project is to help Arundel come together as a community in order to have more opportunities for the youth. We are focusing on kids 14-18 years of age. In most rural areas, the youth of Arundel is lacking entertainment. So our program aims to help the youth of Arundel interact with one another using the power of art. It’s a six-week program that involves different forms of art mediums like acrylic paint, murals, chapbooks, etc. Furthermore, once the program has concluded, a celebration of sorts will be held to celebrate the kid’s work in order to give them a sense of accomplishment. This is super important as art has been known to help the mental state of the community as well as improve student morale, civic engagement, etc.
11 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 11”
One thing I wanted to focus on from this chapter was the definitions and differences between an organizations goals and objectives. First off, I appreciated the chapter making note that everyone, at some point, struggles at first when writing their goals and objectives while making sure they don’t overlap in any way. The table they provided was helpful to me in being able to visually see how it should look and then read examples. I think it’s important to note too that what an organizations goals and outcomes look like always (like in many other facets of grant writing) depends on the funders guidelines. Having everything relate back to one hard set of guidelines is grounding for me because it allows me to check myself on where I may be overworking or losing focus. This idea goes hand and hand with another point the chapter makes about triangulating the goals and objectives with the problem statement. Seeing that in most cases the problem statement will already be written, it can act as a home base for what needs to be answered or made into a quantifiable statement.
This chapter was a little confusing at first, but it was able to define and distinguish goals, objectives, and activities very well by the end. I am glad that we are going over this chapter now because I have started to worry about how to properly write our goals. Initially I assumed that objective and goal were synonymous, but the text distinguishes them by size and measurability. I still believe the wording is pretty arbitrary, however the two concepts and their differences are important to the creation of the overall proposal.
One of the biggest takeaways from the chapter besides establishing objectives vs goals was the use of proper language to create them. This chapter emphasized the importance of SMART writing and active voice over a more passive one. These small changes, especially the use of “-ing” words, can determine how an objective is read and interpreted. Through unclear and passive language objectives and slip into activities or more process focused writing. Process objectives have their place as the book reveals, but only when asked for by specific grant funders. The examples in the text where the most helpful as it gives a concrete benchmark for how grant writing can be phrased successfully or ineffectively.
I found this chapter to be unbearably confusing at first when trying to differentiate the difference between goals and objectives. But everything was made much clearer with the implementation of the graph. The objectives are what you make to meet the goals is what I mainly grasped it as. I definitely feel better prepared to write them now that I can differentiate the two. I really liked the reality check about advocacy and how in the real world this whole process is much harder and drawn out than we may think, which is why the objectives are in place to be measurable and achievable (following the SMART goal model) in order to show progress on larger projects. At this point in the semester, I feel as though I have a decent grasp on problem statements and how to use them, thus making the area of this chapter where it relates both goals and objectives back to the original point of the problem statement to be very helpful. Seeing how everything really works together and connects with one another makes it so that the entire process of grant writing seems less daunting.
My biggest takeaway from this step is the importance of having concise and measurable goals and objectives. This provides the granting foundation an effective way to determine whether they want to fund the organization and whether they were successful in fulfilling their goals and objectives, lessening the room for regret and insecurity. SMART goals are a well-known guideline that can be applied to various types of projects, especially for grant-seeking organizations with the intent to persuade granting foundations as best as they can that they are focused and have adequate planning to effectively utilize funding to fulfill their mission. Once again, knowing each foundation’s expectations of short- and long-term objectives emphasizes how crucial research is when it comes to writing grant proposals. Otherwise, the ability to secure such funding is relatively low when the funder can’t share the vision due to the inability to effectively communicate the organization’s plan. Not knowing a foundation’s definitions of such can lead to great skepticism about whether funding will be used properly by an organization. Having specific program goals is also an idea to strongly consider as it strengthens the conciseness that foundations value when deciding who to grant funding to. Big promises sometimes come with a lack of logistics that are thoroughly thought out, which foundations don’t feel good about regarding granting those organizations. Including program goals and objectives shows careful organization and a clear vision that both the organization and foundation can work towards and look forward to.
After reading step four, one thing that really stuck with me was the difference between goals and objectives. Objectives, which is what a grant writer should be focused on, are measurable, time-bound, and achievable. On the other hand, goals are visionary and aren’t measurable. This reminds me of the old a square is a rectangle, but a rectangle isn’t a square thing. An objective is a piece of a broken down and thus measurable goal. However, a full goal cannot be transformed into an objective. I think a good example of a goal would be an organization’s mission statement, and an objective would be the program they intend to fund. One question this brought to mind was whether or not the goal should even be mentioned in the grant. I imagine including the overall, long-term goal would be important to give context to the objective. However, that leads to the question of how in-depth the explanation of the goal should be or if just including the mission statement for an organization is enough.
One piece of this chapter that I found interesting was the distinction between outcomes and outputs. While an output is generally a physical result of a project, an outcome is the effect that the project has on people. While writing a grant proposal, it is important to distinguish these two products, and make it clear to the funder why both the output and the outcome are important.
Another piece of this reading I found important was another distinction that the book enforces, and that was the difference between a goal and an objective. The book describes a goal as the thing that is going to be accomplished, while an objective is an actual plan as to how that goal is achieved. Goals and objectives exist together, and feed each other. While a goal is something that is more vague, an objective is specific, and has an exact plan as to how it will be reached.
One important thing that I found important during this reading was the idea of how important the objectives are. Objectives come in threes; activities, outcomes, outputs, and measures of success. However, to me, the Measures of Success seem to be very crucial. I think that is very important as it will show the grant giver and yourself how success can be measured. It will keep you on track as well as motivated to get to that end goal. Being clear is super important as well when stating one’s objectives. DO NOT be vague when stating those objectives/outcomes. This will make things easier to understand further down the road. Another part of this reading that I would like to point out is the idea of making sure everything relates to the problem statement as being consistent and true to your cause is crucial. The dos and don’ts are also just as important as they can guide you in writing a coherent plan.
I think the biggest takeaway I have from Step 4 is the intentionality. This is something we’ve talked about all year – and it reveals itself once again in this chapter. When I think of a piece of writing that has an economy to it, that is clear and deliberate, I think of one that centers around clearly defined goals and objectives. Moreover, this chapter alludes to other terms such as activities, outcomes, outputs, and measures of success, which all serve the purpose of creating clearly recognizable outputs. In other words, when the writing focuses around a few premises it becomes very clear and purposed. Another thing I find interesting is the idea that some of these definitions can seem repetitive, or perhaps redundant. But I think this has a benefit: to be very clear, and even overdo the point to the place where the reader can’t help but be very familiar with the objectives and goals of the proposal. Lastly, I thought it was interesting to have the reality check outline a difference in process objectives versus outcome objectives. I like the idea that outcomes and results can be hard to quantify, or perhaps hard to define, so instead of having outcome objective, there are process objectives that can be used to measure progress towards a goal.
So this section is about establishing goals/objectives two different things I’ve learned during this course. I’m reminded how important it is to try to goal for a high objective and set noticeable benchmarks. Within reason, looking into the future of this sections it’s important to know your capabilities and especially limits. Flying too close to the sun and overpromising on your goals is something and end up disappointing your funders, is just as bad if not worse than underperforming. But to help with that and make sure you can make progress obtainable this chapter helps set a guide on measuring progress, and establishing outcomes, with an emphasis on it being clear, involves all factors in your organization, and is unquestionably important to the larger goal of your organization. So going into the finer details like looking measuring an estimated objective from an activity, and not mistaking the activity for the goal in it of itself, could, like many aspects, mean life or death to your project.
I thought the table on page 42 was really helpful in clearly defining what kind of objectives you should be writing in regard to your grant’s goal. It can’t just be a broad statement but has to show specifically how you will achieve your goal. Advocacy work and “small wins” are important in building up progress and support towards your goal. If you can show that you’re already making progress towards your goal and that people are interested in it, they might be more inclined to fund your grant as opposed to someone who hasn’t done any preliminary work. I thought the worksheets on pages 47 and 48 were a good tool, I think the book does a good job of laying out all the “questions” you need to answer to formulate the parts of your grant.
Our project is to help Arundel come together as a community in order to have more opportunities for the youth. We are focusing on kids 14-18 years of age. In most rural areas, the youth of Arundel is lacking entertainment. So our program aims to help the youth of Arundel interact with one another using the power of art. It’s a six-week program that involves different forms of art mediums like acrylic paint, murals, chapbooks, etc. Furthermore, once the program has concluded, a celebration of sorts will be held to celebrate the kid’s work in order to give them a sense of accomplishment. This is super important as art has been known to help the mental state of the community as well as improve student morale, civic engagement, etc.