Try This Archives - Page 3 of 11 - Nicole Clark Consulting

19 Feb, 2025

Try This: Making Your Case to Secure Grant Funding

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2025-03-17T15:00:26-04:00February 19th, 2025|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Funding, Grantwriting, Try This|0 Comments

*Try this out and let me know how it goes for you (or if you need support.)*

You know how to make your grant application stand out to funders, and how to avoid common data pitfalls in demonstrating your impact.

Yet data alone isn’t enough to convince funders—your application needs a strong, compelling case backed by real insights. Funders want to know that your program is not only needed but also effective, and that you truly understand the communities you serve.

This activity will help your staff connect the dots between data, community feedback, and a persuasive grant narrative that funders can’t ignore.

Ready to sharpen your funding appeal? Let’s get started.

Objective:

Help staff practice integrating research and community insights into a compelling grant application by identifying relevant data, crafting a strong case for funding, and refining their storytelling approach.

This activity is ideal for:

Funding and grant making staff
Staff responsible for leading data collection and sense making processes
Anyone interested in applying evaluative thinking

What you’ll need:

Recent community needs assessment, program evaluation reports, or external research relevant to your program
Sample grant application questions (or a real application your organization is working on)
Highlighters, sticky notes, or digital collaboration tools
Around 80 minutes for time management

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19 Jul, 2024

Try This: Narrow Your Partnership Focus

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-07-19T11:48:18-04:00July 19th, 2024|Categories: Strategic Planning & Sustainability|Tags: Community Partnerships, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Try this activity and let me know how it goes for you.

Inviting organizations to join a partnership requires strategizing on who to invite, articulating the partnership’s value add, each partner knowing their role, and being open to shifts in how partners participate over time.

While a partnership works in service of addressing an emerging community need, how and what gets addressed requires its own strategy. After establishing how to work together, you need something to work on.

This activity is ideal for:

Partnership members with experience in facilitating meetings
Partnership members with experience in engaging communities
Partnership members with experience in data collection and analysis

What you’ll need:

A method for taking notes

The steps:

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29 Feb, 2024

Try This: Get Your Ideal Community Partners On Board

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2024-02-28T21:57:39-05:00February 29th, 2024|Categories: Speaking & Facilitation|Tags: Community Partnerships, Facilitation, Stakeholders, Try This|0 Comments

Engaging the right community partners to join your partnership is crucial to facilitating a process that’s mutually beneficial.

As you plan your introductory partnership meeting, you need to figure out who to invite, and why.

You see the value in working with these organizations, and you want them there to advance your mission.

The WHY behind your ask is important as these potential partners will ask:

What’s in it for me?

If they can’t see their value add to this partnership, they won’t join you. So, be prepared to show them.

This activity is ideal for:

Staff responsible for facilitating workshops, meetings, or trainings
Staff with experience in engaging community organizations

What you’ll need:

Your community organization partner invitation list
A method for taking notes

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20 Sep, 2023

Try This: In Person vs Online Workshop Prep

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2023-09-20T15:21:17-04:00September 20th, 2023|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Facilitation, Try This, Workshops|0 Comments

*Try this out and let me know how it goes for you.*

As an introverted workshop facilitator, I used to believe that online workshops were easier to facilitate than in person ones.

Now I see that online workshops aren’t easier or harder; they just have their own set of quirks.

There’s benefits and drawbacks to choosing a workshop format, especially if your workshop is being facilitated for the first time.

These considerations are just as important for previously facilitated workshops. The ability to pivot a workshop from and to either format requires an understanding of your workshop’s logistical needs, participant experiences, and workshop objectives.

This activity is ideal for:

Program staff responsible for facilitating workshops, meetings, or trainings

What you’ll need:

Your workshop’s agenda and activity breakdown
A method to take notes (laptop, whiteboard, Google Docs, pen/paper, etc.)

The steps:

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17 Aug, 2023

Try This: Update Your Logic Model

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2023-08-16T22:18:56-04:00August 17th, 2023|Categories: Program, Service, & Campaign Design|Tags: Data Driven, Evaluative Thinking, Logic Models, Try This|0 Comments

When logic models are viewed as a valuable planning and learning tool and used with other programmatic tools, it increases the likelihood that your organization will use them.

So, let’s update your program’s logic model!

This activity is ideal for:

Anyone responsible for designing and/or implementing programs and services

What you’ll need:

A program or service logic model

The steps:

This activity assumes that your program has a logic model, as you won’t be able to update it if you don’t have one.

Visually, your logic model could look like this:

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