Case Study
How we Helped BCYL Break Through COVID Era Challenges in Grant Writing
About BCYL.
Since their very first baseball game in 2004, Bridgeport Caribe Youth Leaders (BCYL) has maintained its commitment to the students of Bridgeport, having served over 6,500 youth to date. Their mission is simple: to provide youth with sports, educational and civic direction helping them build the character and self-esteem they need to reach their full potential and value in society. Today, the range of programming has expanded to include not only sports teams, but after-school programming, career resources, and standardized testing prep.
Our Solution.
In reviewing feedback from the grantmakers, it was determined that student outcomes and satisfaction constantly served as an application strength, whereas the obscurity in explaining the details of program execution served as a challenge to the approval of grant proposals.
To address this challenge, we first took care to go through each line of the proposal narrative, highlighting and color-coding opportunities for clarification, elaboration, and operationalizing language that may be subjective in nature (i.e. "self-esteem," character," work ethic").'
Next, we implemented a keyword analysis of both the narrative describing BCYL's organization, as well as the narrative describing their proposed initiative. This data afforded a clear, objective understanding of the type of language used to describe their initiative and their organization, while also providing insight as to what keywords, details, and ideas are most notably missing from each
Following the analysis, we did best-practice research on the two greatest opportunities for growth: operationalization, and "mission creep." Taking care to use operationalization in grant proposals, as opposed to the use of subjective language, often renders opaque the specific, real-time application and purposes of grant makers' investments. The perception of "mission creep," a common phenomenon as well, occurs when an organization's range of programming and services appears to broaden significantly beyond the mission's scope.
Lastly, based upon the data gathered from the text analysis, we provided BCYL with insights into the previously overlooked subject matter, specific examples, and recommendations for text revision, as well as a resource guide for further review and consideration of not only best practices but even information on free implementation resources on the initiative itself.
“Vanessa provided clear feedback to us on how we can enhance the "BCYL Story." Her recommendations can be easily implemented. She also provided resources related to the content of the BCYL Story that we will be able to utilize. Working with Vanessa was a positive experience and BCYL is excited to work with her in the future.”
— Amy M., Development Coordinator