Once you’ve clearly established the need for a specific Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) or grant application, it’s time to set a goal and develop measurable objectives. For example, your needs section has established that your target population is a small rural village with 500 people and neighboring vampires are eliminating villagers at a rate of one per week (2010 United States Department of Vampires report) . Its goals are: 1. to decrease the loss of villagers in; 2. increase the number of vampire hunters to; 3. Decrease the number of vampires. (At this point I need you to review your FOA and make sure the funding is really for vampire elimination and not werewolf grooming and while this is a topic for another blog, it is also important here.) the goals are general and do not indicate how many villagers you plan to save; how many vampire hunters you plan to train; or how many vampires each assassin will kill. Measurable goals will now snap into place and make or break your proposal (and ultimately your village because they can’t last too long at that rate).

It is impossible to develop a solid operating plan or even a proper evaluation without measurable objectives. Let’s write an objective for your first objective, which is to decrease the loss of villagers due to neighboring vampires. We want this goal to be measurable and ambitious, but not overly ambitious.

The following is an example of a goal that is not measurable:

The Missing Vampires Project will significantly decrease the number of villagers captured by neighboring bloodsuckers at the end of the funding period. (How many is a “significant increase”? If you choose to go this route, grant reviewers will award you 1 or possibly 2 points out of a possible 10 for attending.)

The following is an example of a goal that is measurable but not ambitious:

The Missing Vampires Project will significantly decrease the number of villagers captured by neighboring bloodsuckers by 2% at the end of the funding period. (Hm, bloodsuckers – 98, villagers – 2. Not an impressive score. I could give you 2 or 3 points with the reviewers).

The following is an example of a goal that is measurable but probably too ambitious:

The Missing Vampires Project will significantly decrease the number of villagers captured by neighboring bloodsuckers by 100% at the end of the funding period. (To sell this to the reviewer, you’d better have a very detailed operating plan packed with research-based activities.)

The following is an ambitious and measurable example:

The Missing Vampires Project will significantly decrease the number of villagers captured by neighboring bloodsuckers by 75% at the end of the first year of the funding period and by 85% at the end of the funded project.

gold

The Missing Vampires Project will significantly decrease the number of villagers captured by neighboring bloodsuckers by 100 people the first year and 250 by the end of the funded project (it only saved half the village and that should impress even the harshest critic, especially if you stick with a action plan researched, but that’s another topic!).