Assessing a Need
What Is the Need?
Through your grant application, you are proposing a way to address a community or social need. Who are you trying to serve? How does that align with the goal the funder is trying to meet?
Use data and facts to build a case as to how you are in the best position to address the need you have identified. Use your organization's expertise to back up these statements. You know your community best, explain to the funder the entirety of the situation.
- What evidence do you have to support the need?
- What are the consequences of meeting or not meeting the need?
- Where are the people who experience the need?
- When is the need evident?
- Why does the need occur?
- How is the need linked to your organization?
Ways to Assess Need
A variety of options are available to assess need and collect data.
- Key informant interviews
- Focus groups
- Secondary data (public data, Census data, county rankings, economic data, and more)
- Surveys
- Community forums