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Tool 13: Where to Find Your Numbers

Supports Habit 3 of Ten Habits of Great Grant Writers.

Prefer to fill it in?

A fillable version of this tool works right in your browser: open the interactive version. It pairs this directory with a tracker for every number your proposal has to defend, so the citation never goes missing. Nothing leaves your device.

A starter directory of reliable, citable sources, organized by what you are hunting for. The living, linked version is maintained on the companion site. Whatever the source, apply Habit 3's resolution rule: get the numbers at the geographic level your proposal covers, and keep the citation with the number.

Your community and service area (demographics, income, housing)

  • United States Census Bureau (census.gov): the foundation for community needs assessments, at national, state, county, and finer levels.
  • Data USA (datausa.io): public data from many federal sources, presented as accessible profiles of places, industries, and populations. Often the fastest way to see your service area at a glance.
  • Data.gov: the repository of United States government open data across nearly every topic, useful when the number you need is not in the usual places.

Work and the economy

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov): employment, unemployment, wages, and industry data, essential for workforce development proposals.

Health

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov): United States public health statistics, disease surveillance, and prevention data.
  • National Institutes of Health (nih.gov): research and data across health topics, and the literature your Habit 4 gap analysis will draw on.
  • World Health Organization (who.int): global health statistics, for proposals with an international scope.

Education

  • National Center for Education Statistics (nces.ed.gov): the primary federal source for United States education data, from early childhood through postsecondary.
  • UNESCO Institute for Statistics (uis.unesco.org): comparable education, science, and culture statistics across more than 200 countries.

Society, opinion, and international development

  • Pew Research Center (pewresearch.org): nonpartisan data on social trends and public opinion, useful for establishing the salience of a problem.
  • World Bank Open Data (data.worldbank.org): development indicators worldwide, for international or economic development work.

Your own community (the numbers only you hold)

  • Your annual community survey (Tool 7), event attendance, membership counts, engagement history. These are often the most persuasive numbers in an entire application, because no one else can produce them.