Granted

Today I met with a guy who had a $100,000 check in his pocket.  He is the DIA's new grant writer.

We met to discuss what kind of program information grant writers find useful when applying for grants.  As it turns out, the kind of information that would actually be useful is information that I will be unable to provide in my (now) 6 weeks at the DIA.  Awesome.

While it was somewhat frustrating to learn that my project will be less than helpful in the grant application process, it was still a very interesting meeting with David.  He gave me a great outline of the kind of information needed when writing grants.  Even if I am unable to gather that information during my internship, I think it is still valuable to know about.

One of the biggest things we talked about was "impact".  David cited this as being the most important thing to potential funders.  It is also the most difficult thing for museums to measure.  The kind of impact he is referring to are the long-term results of the program.

David described three kinds of results: short term, mid term and long term. 

Short term results involve things like customer service, visitor experience, and meaningful interpretations and tours.  The short term result of those things is a positive museum experience, or the visitor just having a positive feeling about the museum.
(Measurable with visitor surveys, etc.)

Mid term results spawn from short term results and involve things like visitors buying museum membership packages or any change in the visitors actions as a result of their feelings about the museum.
(Measurable by counting the # of memberships sold, etc.)

Long term results involve a social, environmental, or economic change in the community.
(Measurable... not at all.)

Grant writers want to be able to tell funders that "This program has improved children's critical thinking skills" or "This program has made the community more environmentally conscious".  But it is still difficult for museums to measure those kinds of things.  It seems that kind of long-term evaluation has yet to be perfected and implemented.

Either way, I really enjoyed meeting with David, as he had a lot of excellent insights.  However, while I did win Dixie's grant-writing contest last fall, and I would love to walk around with $100,000 checks in my pocket... I don't think grant writing is for me.