Big Sky Senior Services, Inc.
Big Sky Senior Services, Inc. (Big Sky) is a human service nonprofit organization in Billings, Montana. Big Sky’s mission statement is that senior citizens deserve the right to live in their homes, safe and free from abuse, regardless of their income. Big Sky provides services promoting the elderly’s independence, enhancing the quality of life, and preventing elder abuse. I am the Senior Program Officer. I have been tasked with formulating a program supporting the organization’s mission statement and use it to draft a grant proposal. This paper presents a grant proposal outline to be implemented in Montana to mitigate elder abuse.
Elder abuse is a social issue that affects approximately one out of every ten citizens aged above sixty in the United States. It is estimated that about five million elders are subjected to abuse every year. However, only one from fourteen abuse cases are reported (National Council on Aging, 2020). Elder abuse is evident in the form of physical assault, neglect, mistreatment, emotional distress, and financial exploitation. The consequences of elder abuse include physical injuries, psychological problems such as depression, and financial losses. To help reduce elder abuse, I propose a Report This program. Report This is an education program that aims to emancipate the public on the signs and effects of elder abuse.
The grant proposal will be structured into eight sections: introduction, organization background, needs statement, program goals and objectives, methods, an evaluation component, sustainability strategies, and summary. The grant proposal’s introduction will introduce the organization and the social issue that it sets out to control.
The organization’s background will be an assessment of the grant seeking organization, Big Sky Senior Services. The organization’s background component outlines to the reviewer that the grant-seeking organization is well managed, fiscally secure, understands the community, the board and staff reflect the community, and provides essential community services (O’Neal-McElrath, Kanter, & English, 2019). This section will begin with a description of the organization, its mission, vision, and history. The organization component will also describe the demographics served by the organization. It will also illustrate the organization’s position in the community and list the partners that help the organization implement its programs. The organization’s background will also provide information on how the organization is different from others and describe some innovative programs implemented by the institution. The section will conclude by giving a brief funding history that Big Sky has received from other sources.
The needs statement component establishes the proposal’s framework by describing the critical conditions affecting a specific population at a particular time (O’Neal-McElrath, Kanter, & English, 2019). The need statement helps the funder recognize that the Report This program meets a critical need of the Montana society. This section will be bolstered with quantitative statistics illustrating elder abuse prevalence in the United States and Montana State. A well-supported needs statement will motivate the funder to recognize the request. This section will also outline the grant amount that the organization is seeking from the funder.
The fourth section of the proposal will list the program goals and objectives. The program goals define what the organization is trying to accomplish using the program while the objectives will indicate the progress the organization makes towards (O’Neal-McElrath, Kanter, & English, 2019). The goal of Report This is to increase social awareness on the signs and effects of elder abuse. The program’s objectives are to increase reporting rates of elder abuse complaints to authorities and reduce the prevalence of elder abuse in the community. The reduction of elder abuse will improve health, financial, and social welfare among the elderly.
The methods component articulates the activities that the organization proposes to undertake to meet the proposed program objectives. Report This program will require collaboration between individuals, public institutions such as schools and religious centers, and volunteers. This section will also list the activities, estimated budgets, and timeline. It will also illustrate who will be responsible for each activity and how participants will be selected. Report This program will require Big Sky to design public emancipation publications to educate the public. This may involve printing short graphic comics with anti-elder abuse sentiments to inform the youthful generation and billboards to target the adults. The budget for each initiative will be presented to the funder, along with the participants.
The evaluation component presents how the organization will assess its proposed activities by determining the impact, effectiveness, and efficiency. It reveals what is working and what is not being achieved, which helps the organization plan for the future (O’Neal-McElrath, Kanter, & English, 2019). Report This program will employ internal evaluation as it is cheaper and faster.
The seventh section of the grant proposal will articulate sustainability strategies. The sustainability component will describe techniques to ensure that the program stays afloat beyond the initial grant funding period. Sustainability strategies that can support Report This program include annual fundraising campaigns.
The last section of the proposal will be the summary, which will summarize the proposal. The summary will identify the grant seeking organization, the purpose of the grant, the organization’s qualification to implement the proposed program, anticipated results, and the total program budget (O’Neal-McElrath, Kanter, & English, 2019).