Oneness Project
2008 Project Grant Application

Preparing Your Application

Strict adherence to the order and content requested in this outline will ensure that the grants committee considers your request. First, we suggest you copy the text on this page and paste it into a blank page in your word processing software. Alternatively you may click here to open this page as a Microsoft Word document. You may choose to print out the Project Grant Guidelines and the Grants Committee Policies or reference as you prepare your application.

Use the bold, numbered headings of the outline below in your proposal, and write your responses below each heading. Prepare your proposal in English using 12 pt Times Roman typeface. Budgets must be presented in US dollars. (If you need help converting your country’s currency to US dollars you can use one of the currency converters available on the World Wide Web, such as www.xe.com/ucc/.) Finally, please be sure that your application is complete and thorough enough to address all the information requested. It does not need to be lengthy, but it does need to be complete with enough detail for us to have a good picture of your project.

Submit your proposal by email to arrive no later than midnight on April 1 or October 1, 2008 to OP Executive Director Peter Reynolds at peter@onenessproject.com. Peter will confirm receipt of your application via email by the end of the next business day. You need not submit a paper copy of the application. However, if you choose to submit your application by regular mail instead of using the internet, send it to arrive no later than the due date to Oneness Project, 465 Weber Heights Road, Corvallis, MT 59828-9411 USA. Also, if you are a dance leader be sure to send a copy of your application to your dance mentor, as we request that the applicant’s Dances of Universal Peace mentor to be fully apprised of the proposed project.

1. Project Title
Give your project a brief name of up to five words.

2. Contact Information
Give the name, mailing address, postal code, country, telephone number and email address of the individual who will be the contact for this project.

3. Fiscal Agent
If an individual, give the contact information of the person who will receive and account for the funds. If a nonprofit organization, dance circle or group will serve as fiscal agent or sponsor for this project, give its name, address, telephone, email address and a brief background. (The fiscal agent is the entity or person that will receive grant funds, maintain financial records of the project, and be held financially accountable for the project.) If different, please give the relationship between the project applicant and the fiscal agent.

4. Project Summary and Overview:
a) What and Who: A one to three sentence summary of your project describing what will happen and who will be involved;
b) When and Where: The date(s) when and location where the project will take place;
c) How much: The amount of the grant you are requesting from Oneness Project;
d) What use: Exactly how you propose to use the grant funds.

5. Project Description
Please write one to four paragraphs describing your project that gives more detail about the summary overview.

6. Need for the Project
Why is this project necessary and how did you establish the need for it? How you arrived at the amount of money you are requesting from OP? To answer these questions you may need to talk with dancers, dance leaders or others affected by your proposal. Include any data that backs up your argument that this project is needed.

7. Goals & Desired Outcomes
Here list the goals of your project and for each goal, list the desired outcomes. Goals are the overall vision you hope to achieve through this project. They may include some of the Oneness funding goals listed above.  Desired outcomes are quantified "benchmarks" which describe how you hope the project participants will be affected, what you hope they will learn, and/or what difference the project will make in your events or Dance circle. The desired outcomes are related to the purpose of your project and the way you go about doing your project.

Please see the appendix to these guidelines for examples of goals and desired outcomes.

8. Evaluation
Specify the methods you will use to evaluate your project. How will you collect feedback from participants? What indicators will you use to show how the project has met the goals and desired outcomes stated in your application?
Example:
If one goal of a training event is "To increase the skills necessary to lead the Dances of Universal Peace", one evaluative method might be: "We will ask all participants 4 weeks after the training to list how something they gained from the training is reflected in their current dance leading or included into an expanded skills base". You can report the results from your evaluation in your final report to OP, which must be filed within 6 weeks following completion of your project. OP is interested in an honest assessment we can all learn from; we understand that the desired outcomes don’t always happen or can’t be immediately known.

9. Personnel
Please give the qualifications of the individuals committed to accomplishing your project, including staff and job descriptions. Also give names and telephone numbers and/or email addresses from members of the dance community and/or Mentor Teachers' Guild willing to serve as references for this project.

10. Budget
Here present a budget of projected income and expenses for your project. Present all sources of income, including registration fees, your requested Oneness Project grant, and any other cash and in-kind contributions for this project (see example below; typical residential weekend event). If you have asked other organizations for funds please include contact information so we can consult with them. Present all expenses for the project. Income, including the Oneness request, must equal expenses! We suggest that you create a table in your proposal and follow this example as closely as possible. (Please note that the figures given here are just an illustration! Your own income and expense items will be unique to your project.) The OP grants committee is familiar with this format and it will increase the likelihood that we will understand your project budget.

 

In the example above the scholarship support for the 5 participants who contributed labor is accounted for in the [40+5] paying + scholarships in the variable food costs.

"Matching" Funds: Cash and In-kind Contributions
As noted in the Grants Policy, Oneness financial participation in any project will nearly always be limited to no more than 50% of the total project cost. Applicants are therefore expected to show other sources of cash and in-kind support for the project totaling at least 50% of the total project cost. These sources "match" Oneness' contribution. Matching funds are of two kinds: 1) Cash income is revenue from such sources as participant registration fees and contributions to your project from individuals or businesses. 2) In-Kind Contributions are labor or materials not billed to the project, such as donated office space, photocopying, telephone expense, shuttle expense, consulting services, and materials. In-kind donations of labor must be at a specified rate and all donations must be justified and reasonable to qualify as match for the Oneness grant. The above budget example illustrates In-Kind Contributions as a portion of the match of the Oneness Project grant amount.

11. Need for continued support
Please tell us whether your project is a one-time event, or will be continued/repeated in future years. If the latter, be very specific on how you intend to continue your project and whether you will apply to the Oneness project again. Future Oneness support will be contingent upon your success in building increased local support, including new or additional contributions to support your activities.

12. Love Poem
Please close your application with a love poem of your choosing. We invite you to have a child create a drawing or painting commemorating the creation of your project. Keep this drawing for your own enjoyment. You may scan and send it with your email version of the application if you choose.

Thank you for your work on this application. Oneness Project wishes you every success! 

APPENDIX 

Goals, Strategies and Desired Outcomes

Below are the goals and desired outcomes from a recent application. The goals describe a wide vision while the desired outcome describe a measure or observation that will tell the applicant whether they have been successful reaching the goal. Strategies are the specific actions being taken in the project description. If your project description is thorough enough you may not need to present strategies again in this section. However, you may choose to do so for clarity, as this applicant did:

Goal 1:  Promote and encourage increased participation in the Dances of Universal Peace by building attendance at our local Dance circle.

Strategy:  Hold a series of three weekend workshops, one per year, with an experienced Dance mentor, including public Dance events.

Desired outcome:   By September 30, 2007 present a three-day public Dance event attended by at least 30 people, including 11 new dancers.  By October 31, 2007 and by October 31, 2008, present a second and a third similar Dance event, each attended by at least 35 people, including 11 more new dancers.

Goal 2:  Encourage excellence in Dance leading, musicianship and Dance meeting facilitation in Alberta.

Strategy:  During each annual weekend workshop, hold a half-day training session for current and prospective Dance leaders, and an additional half-day training and attunement session for current and prospective D.U.P. musicians. 

Desired outcome:  Each training session is to be attended by at least 7 people, from within and without Edmonton, including 4 prospective leaders or musicians.

Desired outcome: We will see an increased confidence, vitality and inspiration in the dance leading of our local leaders.

Goal 3:  Encourage cooperation, sharing of resources and talents among Dance circles and communities in Alberta.

Strategy:  Invite dancers from communities outside of Edmonton to the three weekend workshops; provide overnight accommodation for participants through billets.

Desired outcome:  Each weekend workshop will include 10 participants from outside of Edmonton.

Desired outcome: We will see in the year following the workshop increased communication, coordination and shared planning evidenced by an increase in email communication, leader gatherings and use of the calendar web page of activities.

Goal 4:  Develop a team model of leadership within our local Dance circle.

Strategy:  Members of our core support group will explore with the guest mentor the meaning of team leadership and the group-unit as envisioned by Murshid Samuel Lewis.

Desired outcome:  The emerging team will sustain the vitality of our Edmonton Dance circle, whether or not individual Dance leaders or core members come and go. The model can be shared with other Dance circles at the conclusion of our three-year project.

Computation of Breakeven Point 

In computing the breakeven point on the above project budget example, we will need to consider only the "cash" income and expense, excluding any possible grant from Oneness Project, namely: 

Income
Participant registration fees 40 X $100	$4,000
Total Income	$4,000
Expense
Food & catering (45 X $45)	$2,025
Dance space rental	1,200
Honoraria - guest leader	800
Travel - guest leader	475
Total Expense	$4,500

The more participants we have the greater the income, but also the greater the expense.  The expense item(s) that increase with the number participants are called "variable expenses".  In the above example, food and catering cost is the variable expense since it increases $45 with each new participant. Use the following formula to compute the breakeven point: 

Number of participants  to break even, "n" =	(Total Fixed Expenses - Donations) + (Variable Expenses) x n  Registration fee per Person
Solving for n, we have:	n  = ($2,475 - 0) + $45 x n  $100  n = $24.75 + x  n
Reducing the fraction	n = $24.75 +  n
Subtracting n from both sides of the equation:	n = $24.75
Multiplying both sides of the equation by :	n =  n  = $45

Plugging this number back into the budget above, income = expenses = $4,500 at 45 paying participants.