All of the routine 2010 GSB meetings will be held at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica.
The exceptions are the vote counting meeting which is usually at someone’s house, and the site
visits which occur throughout the Los Angeles area. Most meetings and site visits start at 10AM.
A few site visits occur in the afternoon so that we can see children in an after school program.
Hours in red indicate additional time required if the applicant agency assigned to the member for
review becomes a finalist.
At our first meeting we teach our grant making process to our new members and
review with our experienced members. We distribute the year’s schedule, go over our eligibility
criteria, conduct a few practice analyses of hypothetical proposals, and talk about our upcoming
meetings to review the Letters of Inquiry we have received. We also set our calendar and are
generally able to work around school holidays and other commitments.
Estimated
Commitment: 4 hours
Letters of Inquiry submitted by our applicants (usually between 20 and 25) are
mailed to GSB members in early February; members review them before our 2 meetings in late
February. At these meetings we eliminate proposals or agencies that do not meet our eligibility criteria and analyze which proposals seem to address the most critical unmet needs of local
children.
Estimated Commitment: 12 hours
Our Grant Consultant, Lisa Cleri Reale will use documents from previous agency
submittals to teach GSB members how to conduct document review. Documents reviewed include: agency history, financial and tax data, strategic plans, donor bases, grant history, and
other information we need to evaluate them as a candidate. We hold a meeting at which we
review how to analyze these documents. The women on the GSB are then assigned to a team of two or three. Each team is generally assigned one project to review, and they receive their agency
documents at the end of the meeting.
Estimated Commitment: 3 hours
Each team skims their documents, then has a conference call with our Grant
Consultant, during which she helps them identify the “big picture” issues and answers general questions. After reviewing the documents, each team formulates in-depth questions for the agencies. We meet in April to hear each team’s recommendation about whether to go forward with the agency and prepare for our site visits at the continuing agencies.
Estimated
Commitment: 15 hours
GSB members, led by reviewing teams, visit each agency under
consideration for our grant and interview the agency executives, board members, and staff to get a sense of the agency and the project. Our members then generally share their views by email (we call this our “e- forum”)after each visit.
Estimated Commitment: 30 hours
– GSB members review e-forum comments about site visits in preparation for vote on
finalists. Then we meet to discuss the site visits and to vote on the two agencies we will invite to submit final proposals. Teams assigned to finalist agencies work on final proposal questions for
agencies.
Estimated Commitment: 4 hours/+5
In mid August, the reviewing teams whose agencies have become finalists, along
with Lisa, review the draft of their agency’s final proposal and provide comments to agencies.
This document will form the basis for our Grant Agreement for the agency that succeeds in
winning our grant.
Estimated Commitment: 0 hours/+8
We meet to prepare for the October Grant Hearing and to review our policies for the year and vote on any changes that are proposed. GSB Members are given a list of members to call to encourage attendance at the Grant Hearing. The reviewing teams responsible
for our two finalists assist their agencies in their preparations for their presentation at the Grant
Hearing.
Estimated Commitment: 4 hours/ +8
Our members attend the annual Everychild Grant Hearing. Our members vote on the year’s grant recipient by mail.
Estimated Commitment: 4 hours/ +4
GSB members meet to count the Everychild members’ votes and notify the winning agency and the members.
Estimated Commitment: 4 hours