HayDay Services is bringing you a series of “how-to” articles related to successful grant development.
Part 3: Needs Statement
Whether you are writing a one-page Letter of Intent (LOI) or a 150-page federal proposal, every grant funder wants to know the need/problem they are helping to “fix.” I cannot say this enough: if you have no need, you have no need for grant funding.
Needs statement, problem statement, needs assessment, statement of need – no matter what you call it, this section of a grant proposal is often read first by grant reviewers. It typically carries a heavy percentage of the total scoring process, too. Clearly, it’s an important element of the story you are presenting throughout the entire proposal.
When drafting a needs statement, it is vital to focus on the needs of the people (or animals, environment, or thing) you serve. If you are a police department, your needs statement will not detail a lack of officers, police cars, and other equipment. Instead, you will focus on issues like rising crime, increased DUI-related accidents and injuries, prolonged response times to 911 calls, and the like. Yes, you may need additional staff, vehicles, or equipment to help reduce crime and response times, but those details will be outlined in your program description. Your needs statement is not a lack of people or things. Instead, it is a story of the hurdles or challenges faced by those you serve.
A compelling needs statement will detail the pressing needs of your community and explain to the reviewer the urgency for implementing a solution now. The level of details provided will vary from proposal to proposal, depending on how much space the funder allows (character, word, or page limitations vary).
Consider the following when drafting your needs statement.
Don’t simply state our problem is poor education, food deserts, sub-par air quality, lack of mass transit, or fill in the blank here. You cannot assume that those phrases mean the same thing to every person. Instead define and describe the problem. Use trusted, authoritative sources to define the problem.
Which statement leaves the reader with a better understanding of the need you are trying to solve?
Our community faces an increase in homelessness.
OR
The City of Grantville has seen a rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness, meaning “a person who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
With the second statement, everyone is on the same page of what homelessness means. Quick caveat here: if the funder defines issues like this in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), then there is no need to define it in your grant proposal – it would just be taking up value real estate.
The impact of a need will certainly vary from one community to the next. Whether a community is urban or rural; a small city or a large region; located in an area prone to hurricanes, snowstorms, floods, or other natural disasters; found in a community with immense resources or little to no assistance; full of employment opportunities or not; has access to natural resources or not; and on and on effects the totality of a problem. Paint the whole picture.
Explain all the extenuating circumstances that exacerbate the problem within your service area, whether it is a town, county, zip code, tri-county area, regional geographic area, state, or community defined by some other means.
If you are writing a needs statement about healthcare clinic for adults with diabetes you may share the following insights about your community that make diabetes (and its care) even more difficult:
• The percentage of uninsured households in your community;
• The average price of “out of pocket” health insurance;
• The average self-pay costs for insulin, lances, and other diabetes supplies;
• The square miles of your service area and complete lack of mass transit options;
• The lack of other free clinics (besides your organization) providing similar services; and
• The many side effects of untreated diabetes.
The need for such a program in one community will be greater than in another community based on data such as this. Consider all the ways the issue at hand is affecting the people you serve, rather than people across the state/country/world.
The truth is, anyone can write, “We have a problem with X in our community.” But how do you know that to be true? Chances are, you have data to back that up.
It is more impactful to tell the grant reviewer facts and figures from trusted stories, rather than just making statements.
Here are a few examples:
• Rather than writing, “We have seen an increase in DUI accidents the last five years,” write this instead, “According to the Grantville Police Department, we have seen the number of DUI-related accidents increase from 18 in 2019 to 78 in 2024.”
• Instead of, “The children at Grant Middle School are not meeting expectations in test scores,” write, “During the 2023-2024 school year, 28% of the 452 students did not meet expectations in Math national testing scores; that percentage has grown from 25% in 2022-2023 and 18% in 2021-2022.”
• You could write, “The number of people showing up to our clinic with a chronic disease like diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol has grown substantially this year,” but it’s more impactful to write, “The number of adults 18 years and older who visited our clinic and received a chronic disease diagnosis has increased substantially between 2023 and 2024; specifically, the percent increase includes 18% for diabetes, 22% for hypertension, and 29% for high blood pressure.”
If you have room, stories can be just as impactful as data. Do you have stories about the difficulties faced by an individual your organization serves? Do you have permission to tell their story in a respectful manner? If so, consider adding that as part of your needs statement.
If not, consider creating a composite character that helps the reader understand the type of client you serve. In the case of the clinic that serves patients with diabetes, an example of a composite story might look like this:
A typical patient arriving at the ABC Clinic is an adult (age 18+) who works full-time but cannot afford the employer-sponsored healthcare offered through the benefits program. They have often gone 5 years or more without visiting a primary care doctor. Typically, it is a pressing illness that brings new patients to our clinic, and through our initial panel of tests we often discover underlying and chronic illnesses, like diabetes. It is our hope we have caught the disease early enough and can educate the patient about its care before the disease does any permanent damage.
Research is often the first place to find needed details for your needs statement. Make sure that you are pulling your information from trusted sources and share the source to bolster each statement’s impact.
For example, if you are talking about health information, you might consider data from your local health department, the Centers for Disease Control, or an organization like the American Heart Association.
There are tons of think tanks, universities, foundations, and government entities that collect and share relevant data. Consider sources like the Annie E. Casey Foundation, U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and more.
And don’t forget that local organizations may be your best resource. If you collect data specific to the community you serve, it is probably the most accurate information. Consider information your local police departments, K-12 school systems, and nonprofits have on the community they serve – from accident and crime data to test scores, absenteeism rates, and graduation rates.
Chances are that a grant reviewer knows nothing about the community you serve. The needs statement is your one opportunity to clearly and concisely explain the needs facing those you serve. Make sure you paint a clear picture that includes local information, hard facts, and a compelling narrative that urges the reviewer to keep reading to find out how your organization is going to make lasting improvements.
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