Realizing Your Dream

“You can start late, look different, be uncertain, and still succeed.”— Misty Copeland

Start Here

Open your preferred note-taking app and answer the following questions, one brief paragraph each:

1. What’s the issue or challenge you’ve seen up close? Tip: Funders want statistics and your lived experience in proximity to the problem.

2. What future are you trying to make possible for the people you serve? Tip: Connect your work to something bigger than yourself.

3. What are the key services, actions, or offerings you want to deliver? Tip: Name what you'll actually do, and why it will help.

4. What does success look like—and for whom? Tip: Numbers, reflection, feedback, and visible shifts are all evidence you can measure.

5. What’s hard to sustain right now that a grant could stabilize? Tip: Be honest; you're not trying to impress, you're demonstrating how you plan with integrity.

Once you've written answers to these prompts, congratulations! You're holding the first, skeletal draft of your grant proposal. You've reflected on what will be the Problem or Need Statement, Goals + Objectives, Methods + Strategies, Metrics, and Budget sections of a more fleshed-out future version of your proposal.

If you’ve made it this far, here’s one fun next step: see if you can find a local grant that aligns with the dream you’re trying to build. Just to see what’s out there. Try Googling: "[your city] community foundation", substituting in the city or region most aligned with your project goals. Most foundation websites will list current or past grant opportunities, or point you to platforms that do.

Read the funder’s goals. Don’t apply yet. Just notice where there’s overlap. This is how alignment begins: your foundation, meeting theirs.