Tips for Writing an ALO Grant Application

Follow the Request for Application (RFA) format! Make sure you include each and every one of the required elements specified in the RFA (i.e., title page, narrative, evaluation plan, activity schedule, budget charts, budget narrative, USAID Mission response). Applications missing any of these basic elements are judged unfavorably.
Study the "Application Evaluation Guidelines" in the RFA. Write your application keeping in mind the various criteria and sub-criteria the peer reviewers will be using to grade your application. Effectively addressing each and every one of these criteria and sub-criteria will ensure a stronger application.
Link partnership goals with USAID goals and the strategic objectives specific to the USAID Mission in the host country. Become familiar with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its goals: (1) encourage broad-based economic growth and agricultural development; (2) strengthen democracy and good government; (3) build human capacity through education and training; (4) stabilize world population and protect human health; (5) protect the world's environment for long-term sustainability; and (6) reduce suffering associated with natural or man-made disasters and re-establish conditions necessary for political and/or economic development. USAID is not the appropriate source for funding cultural activities or study abroad. Become familiar with the "strategic objectives" (SOs) of the particular USAID Mission (office) in the country of your partner institution (e.g., Rwanda's SO3: "increased ability of rural families in targeted communities to improve household security"). USAID's website is: www.usaid.gov. Then make a clear and concise link between what your partnership proposes to do and the development results that the USAID Mission wants to achieve.
Think about what will constitute "success" of the partnership grant in concrete development terms. Reporting numbers of workshops or training programs - or how participants feel about them - does not go far enough. Indicate what development-related skills or conditions will result and how these will be measured or known.
Clearly demonstrate mutuality and reciprocity. Make a convincing case that the partnership will indeed be mutually beneficial. That is, clearly state how the proposed project will benefit not only the host country's institution and local community but also your institution and its local community. Clearly state both parties' objectives and needs. How does the U.S. benefit if your institution, for example, helps improve water quality monitoring in country X? Reviewers respond better to applications that indicate the proposed collaboration is of keen interest to both institutions and that the ideas have been developed jointly. Letters of support that all read the same, or that say it is fine for College USA to conduct their program activities at their campus, are less convincing.
Give evidence that the application concerns an institutional partnership rather than an activity mainly between one principal U.S. investigator and one principal investigator overseas. An application that appears dependent on one or two people will not be judged as having enough organizational strength and sustainability.
Address sustainability in concrete terms. Explain how you and your partners intend to sustain your collaboration beyond the grant period aside from saying "We plan to look for additional funding." (E.g., will you leave behind a "legacy" of a trained cadre of local technicians? Will you have made ties with host country industry to ensure employment for recent graduates and/or trainees? Will you have developed distance-learning capacity at your partner institution?)
Include the USAID Mission's response form. Peer reviewers place tremendous importance on the Mission's response as validation (or non-validation) of the proposed project's relevance to USAID's development objectives for the host country. Absence of this response usually spells immediate doom for the application. Therefore, communicate early and often with the relevant USAID Mission. Remember that USAID staff are not pleased when they receive a Mission response form a few days before the application deadline.
Do your homework before contacting the USAID Mission. Find out from the USAID website what are the priorities and strategic objectives for the host country. When querying the Mission, provide a concise paragraph or two that indicates what institutions comprise the partnership, what development objectives the partnership plans to address, what the partners intend to do and how, what will be the specific development results, and what resources the partners will bring to the collaboration. Then invite USAID staff to suggest any ways in which the partnership could better address the Agency's interests.
Use grammatically correct, clear, and concise English. Peer reviewers are quick to notice and be turned off by spelling errors and unnecessarily long, convoluted sentences. They also do not like sentence fragments and poor punctuation. Consider using an editor or a successful grants writer to go over your application before submitting it.
Be creative. Be innovative yet realistic in your approach to international development.
Define your acronyms. Spell out all acronyms the first time they appear in your application. While you and your partners may be familiar with all the abbreviations, do not assume the peer reviewers will be.
Less is more. Do not exceed the 15-page, 12-font, double-spaced limit (excluding the title page, executive summary, and appendices consisting of the activity schedule, budget charts, budget narrative, résumés, letters of support, and the USAID Mission response form). If you can effectively present your partnership project in less than 15 pages, feel free to do so.
Make sure you're applying for an ALO grant. Reviewers look unfavorably on applications that appear to be "recycled" from another funding source. If you rewrite an application prepared for another organization, at least perform a global search to replace organization "X" with "ALO." It is not uncommon for peer reviewers to see applications which were written for another funding group, where "ALO" suddenly drops out of the picture and becomes organization "X." (Also, remember that we are ALO, not AOL!)
Meet the minimum 25% cost-share. Ensure that the total proposed cost-share of the U.S. institution(s) is at least 25% of the requested grant amount. For example, if the partnership is requesting $100,000, U.S. institution X could contribute $15,000 and U.S. institution Y (if there is more than a single U.S. institution involved) could contribute $10,000, and that would be acceptable. In the vast majority of cases, however, the proposed total cost share significantly exceeds 25%. (Partnering international institutions usually contribute some resources, to the extent they are able. Most U.S. institutions reflect this in the application but choose not to report it in their financial reports of cost-share because of the difficulty of validation.)
Try to convince the peer reviewers that the grant would be a good investment for development. Peer reviewers have an obligation to identify the applications that are most responsive to the stated evaluation criteria; that is, responsive to USAID interests, well conceived, likely to achieve significant development results -- hence, a good use of taxpayers' money.

Budget Tips

Make sure all your calculations are correct, both in the budget charts and in the budget narrative, and consistent with any figures on the title page and project description. Computing your budget on Excel or other electronic spreadsheets will help ensure accuracy.
Do not ask for more than the maximum award amount.
Do not ask for grant funds beyond 9/30/04, as that is the current end date of ALO's cooperative agreement.
Include a composite budget chart along with the budget charts by phase or year.
Provide a detailed budget narrative by line item, which explains the computations. The budget narrative should also detail the calculations of cost share, by line item. In other words, do not use lump sums for line items but, instead, show the basis for each figure.
Base all international travel rates on the use of U.S. carriers and/or international carriers "code-shared" with U.S. carriers.
Consult the U.S. Department of State website for maximum allowable government per diem rates at: http://www.state.gov/m/a/als/prdm (international) and http://policyworks.gov/org/main/mt/homepage/mtt/perdiem/travel.shtml (domestic).
Provide full details on personnel costs, travel (trip origin and destination, number of travelers, airfare on U.S. carrier) and per diem computations in your budget narrative.
Explain the cost share and other contributions of the applicant and the partners in your budget narrative.
Using grant funds for equipment-related costs is discouraged. In-kind equipment contributions are appropriate and encouraged.

For more information, contact:
The Association Liaison Office
for University Cooperation in Development
1307 New York Ave., NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005-4701
Tel: (202)478-4700 * Fax (202)478-4715
Email: alo@aascu.org
Internet: http://www.aascu.org/alo
Joan M. Claffey, Executive Director