Tu Luong Foundation

22409 16th Ave

Seattle, WA 98198

tan@tlfoundation.org

 
 

Sample Proposal for The XYZ Chronicles

Grant Cover Sheet

 

The XYZ Foundation

425 XYZ Street, Suite 510

XYZ, WA 98101-2334

 

Organization Name:  The XYZ Chronicles_________________________

            

Mailing Address:       UVW XYZ House, 1634 Eleventh Avenue_____

 

City:  XYZ                                                            State:  XX                                         Zip:  98122-2419

 

Telephone:  XYZ.323.WXYZ                                                         Fax:  XYZ.323.WXYZ

 

E-mail:   XYZchr@xyzeasy.org

 

Web Site:     http://www.xyzeasy.org/XYZchronicles

 

Executive Director:  (Managing Director) UVW XYZ

 

Contact Person:  UVW XYZ

 

Telephone:         XYZ.323.WXYZ 

 

E-mail:               XYZchr@xyzeasy.org

 

Amount requested:           $6,500.00.

 

Purpose of request: We request single year support for salaries in our FY2001 operating budget. Specifically, 50% support for Managing Director’s full time salary for six months (UVW XYZ, July 1-December 30, 2001, 1/2 of $24,000/yr salary = $6,000); support for Asst. Managing Director-Intern’s full time salary (Jessica Smith-Rohrberg, graduate student at Antioch College, Ohio, 3 months, summer 2001 = 1/2 of $1,000 = $500. 75% of her salary will be paid for by the federal work study program administered by Antioch College). (We are applying for matching funds for this proposal from the Jaech Family Foundation.)

 

Operating budget for current fiscal yearRevenues/Expenditures: $37,972; In-Kind contributions: $31,438; FY2001 Budget Total: $69,410.

 

Sources of income for current fiscal year:

                Government                                                                23%

 

                Fees and earned income                                             15%

               

                Contributions from individuals                                        02%

 

                United Way                                                                  0%

 

                Other workplace campaigns                                           0%

 

                Corporations                                                                 0%

 

                Foundations                                                                  40%

 

                Special Events                                                              08%

 

                Memberships                                                                12%

 

                Other                                                                             0%

 

Total full time equivalent employees: 2.5 (staff/volunteers)

 

 

Number of individuals served in past fiscal yearDirectly, 5,201. Indirectly, 10,000.

 

Narrative

 

I.             Organizational Background

 

·         Briefly describe the mission, activities and history of your organization.

 

The XYZ Chronicles publishes and promotes artistic work that reflect(s) the cultural diversity of the Pacific Northwest, and other regions of North America. Established in 1991, and now in our eleventh year of publication, XYZ is dedicated to publishing and disseminating the artistic work of underexposed writers and artists–work that documents the profound contribution of art and literature created at a community level. We publish art, literature and the spoken word in a variety of formats: magazines, chapbooks, broadsides, and on the Internet. We promote helping writers and artists reach a broader, more diverse audience, in UVW XYZ, XX State, and outside our geographic boundaries.  We have initiated a Northwest Writers’ Index on our Web Site to promote local writers.

 

Our audience is hip, literate, funny, informed, and lives in a society that is already multicultural. Our readers/subscribers/audience are approximately 47% male; 53% female; 30% Anglo-American; 14% Native American; 12% Latino; 6% African American; 3% Asian/Pacific; and 35% unknown ethnicity. We sponsor writing workshops for young adults (XYZ Center’s Summer Youth Academy), and publish the work of emerging/young writers in our magazine. XYZ works with like-minded groups to reach out to young and diverse audiences, including community colleges, North Puget Sound Native American Reservations (where we distribute free issues), and homeless youths advocates (Real Change).  

 

We distribute free publications (250 copies of each issue) to UVW XYZ Libraries. Between 1991 and 2000, we published the work of 930 writers and artists, 75% of whom live in XX State, primarily in UVW XYZ. Recently, the libraries at Brown University, Rhode Island, and U.C. Berkeley, California, purchased all back issues (1991-2000, 26 issues) of our publications, thus increasing audience for Northwest writers. We will develop a marketing campaign to other university libraries.

 

·         What are the three most important goals your organization hopes to accomplish over the next 12 months?

 

1.             Provide salaries for full time staff and increase stipends/fees for writers and artists.

2.             Increase our publication(s)’ distribution base to better serve the needs of writers and readers in XYZ

3.             Widen/increase our funding base.

 

·         Please list past support from The XYZ Foundation.

 

We received a grant of $1,112.00 in March, 1997, for the purchase of office equipment and office furnishings from The XYZ Foundation (the Hortense W. Lewis Fund).

 

II.            Grant Description

                C.            Operating Support

 

·         Please describe how this grant will strengthen your organization and build its capacity for serving residents of UVW XYZ.

 

Because XYZ Chronicles has always relied on the services of a volunteer staff, we have not been able to reach our full potential. A paid, full time staff will enable us to double the work that we already do, and help us better reach our intended audience of writers, readers, and community organizations.

  A salaried staff will give us the renewed time and energy to develop a database of UVW XYZ community organizations who are doing vital artistic and cultural work in their respective communities. We have long wanted to make (and publish) oral histories of elders and community (cultural) leaders, like Vi Hilbert. This grant will enable us to do just that.

·         Please state how this grant will help your organization accomplish the 12-month goals described in Section I.

 

Naturally, this grant will enable us to provide operationally support for a salaried staff, which will, in turn, enable us to accomplish all of the other 12-month goals. Our summer intern has worked for the Antioch Review and other university publications, and community-centered, grassroots organizations, and she will conduct a subscription drive, organize a subscriber/UVW XYZ database for us. We will be able to conduct an additional literacy workshop for young/and or elders if we have this funding.

 

·         Please describe your organization’s future funding strategies.

 

1.             Sponsor a reading series at UVW XYZ House to help fund month-to-month cash flow, and increase our audience base.

2.             Develop an advertising database. This area is already soaked when it comes to advertising dollars, but we will develop an advertising program for restaurants and small businesses.

3.             We are applying (2001) for a Foundation Grant from CLMP (The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, New York): “New Readers for New Writers.” Sponsored by the NEA, this grant would subsidize national distribution for our publications ... enabling broader audiences for local-based writers and artists. (The grant amount is small, but the impact would be large.)

4.             We are planning a year-end’s benefit, “XYZ’s Feast.” Food and literature. Developing links with local restaurants to collaborate.

5.             An Anthology, 2002, of past XYZ contributors, focussing on the Pacific Northwest region.

6.             Writing workshops for elders and youth by ethnic writers/teachers.

7.             A summer alliance with SCRIBES (Hugo House’s young writers program) to help them produce their own literary publication.

8.             A subscription drive and auction (with donated artworks).

9.             Develop funding alliances with other community organizations (11th Hour productions; Jack Straw; Hugo House; Real Change) to strengthen our funding sources.

 

·         Please list other potential operating fund sources for the current year.

 

Most of our support is project oriented, that is funding is received for specific publications or projects, funding which does not support organizational staff salaries. Overall support for our operating budget in 2001 will come primarily from:

                Jaech Family Foundation ($6,500, not confirmed)

                Advertising Revenue ($1,000, projected)

                UVW XYZ Sustained Support Funding ($3,000)

                Magazine/Publication Sales ($3,660, projected; we receive 50% of sales receipts from vendors)

                Teaching/Workshops ($1,050 confirmed)

                Subscription/membership sales ($4,500, $561 confirmed)

                Events/Readings/Benefits ($2,900, $650 confirmed)

 

We have another $8,750 in government grants, most of which is confirmed, but which is targeted to support specific projects, not our operating budget, per se.

 

·         What are your contingency plans if you do not raise all the funds necessary to support your current budget?

 

The FY2001 budget is a dramatic increase over the FY2000 budget (an increase of  $26,000), an increase which reflects our desire to expand and strengthen what we do, and how we do it. However, if we do not receive all funding noted, we will still continue to operate, as we have done for the past ten plus years, to provide opportunities for audiences and community artists to showcase what they do. Our main focus will be to increase our subscription base and distribution base. We will need to scale back on the number of projects we would have done, to keep within our budget. We will still be able to produce 2-3 magazines, produce the summer workshop and initiate a reading series. The scale of activities will change, but not the commitment nor enthusiasm of our staff/volunteers.

 

III.          Evaluation

                One year after receipt of this grant, how will you evaluate and measure how the Foundation’s support helped your organization accomplish the 12-month goals described in Section 1?

 

                Our board will evaluate funding support from the Foundation by measuring the efforts of the staff/intern in the following areas:

1.             What was the change/increase in sales and distribution of publications; and what new funding sources were created. (Specific numbers/compute % of change before funding and after funding. Create graph/visual chart of change.)

2.             What new community groups and individuals were contacted ... what were the results of outreach to those communities? (Concrete results: oral histories taken; workshops established; published work by emerging voices.)

3.             Plot the increase in the number of submissions from writers and artists, with specific details on who/what/when: we compile information on ethnicity/place/origin to make sure we are representing the diversity of the region.

4.             Last, but not least, determine what the impact on productivity is when we are able to support a paid staff: which will be evaluated by all of the above, and more importantly by any resulting community alliances made during the 12-month period.

 

IV.          Attachments

·         Copy of IRS 501(c)(3) document.

·         Current board list.

·         XYZ’s operating budgets for FY2000 (actual), FY2001 (estimated) and FY2002 (projected).

·         Board Minutes of April 10, 2001, approving operating budgets. (This is in lieu of an audited financial statement.)

·         IRS Form 990: because XYZ’s annual revenues were less than $25,000, prior to 2001, we did not need to file an IRS Form 990.

·         Current balance  sheet.

·         XYZ brochure/report, April, 2001