Documenting everything is the key to a good grant application as we have heard many times before. Grant reviewers are reading hundreds of applications and the point is facts speak volumes. Get credit for past acts to credibly make promises for the future. Translate those facts into credible and persuasive arguments in favor of your application, i.e., find out the average cost of an ambulance transport, an ER visit and two days in the hospital. If your illness and injury prevention efforts or standby care prevented even .5-1 percent of an actual ambulance transport, ED/and/or hospital stay, how many dollars might that represent? Be ready to list how many fire departments you regularly respond with. Document how many healthcare agencies you trained with over a year. How many interagency drills have you participated in? Do you collaborate with local colleges or universities? Do you meet with hospital and/or nursing home staff to discuss quality assurance? Do you conduct firefighter rehabilitation at MCIs?
Do you know how many medical standby assignments your crew staffed this past year? How many people participate in the health fairs, blood pressure checks and flu shot events where your EMS personnel offer their services? How many patients did you care for on-scene during large-scale events? Solicit and collect "thank you" letters from these events. A nice quote from an actual event organizer or charitable organization might be what distinguishes your service from your competition.
By documenting the answers to these questions, you can better quantify your investment in developing these relationships and the value of your offered services. Break down your past acts of in-kind service into man-hours and then into dollars. Calculate your investment of goodwill and your sincere desire to work within the true EMS system. Those arguments are likely to stand out for grant application reviewers who have hundreds of them to consider.
For more information and grant writing assistance contact Lakesha Jones, CREATE Grant Manger at the Colorado Rural Health Center 720.248.2742 or by email at lj@coruralhealth.org.
