Funders award grants through a highly competitive process based on how well applicants can document the unmet need for services in their community and how much impact the funder’s money will create, often using an estimate of the number of persons to be served by the program.  Grant STEPs Consulting Group, LLC (Grant STEPs), a team of nonprofit professionals, use the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) to help small Kansas nonprofits develop their grant proposals. Grant applications often ask questions about the breakdown of community characteristics, such as household by type, poverty status, and language spoken at home, and how these data reflect disparities with state- or national-level data.  The ACS is often the only source of this information at the local level, and it is the definitive data source recognized by private foundations and government agencies for their grant making.  

Outcome

By using ACS data, Grant STEPs have won more than $240,000 thus far in 2021 for eight nonprofits that serve low-income families, families who live in food deserts, persons with mental illness, women who are survivors of trauma, and producers of personal protective equipment (PPE) as a COVID-19 response.  For nonprofits that have an annual budget of less than $500,000, these grants determine whether a program or organization can continue to operate or be forced to shut down. 

As an example, Grant STEPs secured a $5,000 grant to feed families impacted by the pandemic. This single grant allowed two Wichita nonprofits, Children First and Wichita Women’s Initiative Network, to launch an on-going project to create food boxes to feed families. Their first week in May 2020, they were able to feed 200 families of four. In addition, this grant provided employment for the women who packaged the boxes as part of their vocational training as survivors of domestic violence who are reentering the workforce.

By incorporating ACS data into their grant proposals, Grant STEPs is able to help small Kansas nonprofits write winning grant proposals.  This keeps nonprofits funded while addressing unmet needs in their communities.

Locations

Wichita, Kansas

ACS Topics Used

Total population, race, households by type, school enrollment, citizenship status, language spoken at home, and poverty status