Objective Work Plan (OWP) Guidance
The Objective Work Plan (OWP) form is required with all ANA grant applications. The OWP form and its instructions are available in the FOA's Grant Application Package at https://www.grants.gov/ Visit disclaimer page and on the Grants.gov Forms/SF-424 Family page at https://www.grants.gov/en/web/grants/forms/sf-424-%20family.html . Applicants may use the OWP form found on the Grant Application package in the Grants.gov Workspace or the MS Word version from the ANA website. Click here to download the OWP form (DOC)
In the event that an applicant has requested and been granted an exception to apply in paper format, please use MS Word Version from the ANA Website.
The OWP organizes and presents project elements to highlight connections, and support monitoring of project progress and achievement. The alignment of Objectives and Outcomes serves to highlight the relationship between the two elements. Identification of key activities and the alignment to project Outputs (tangibles that must be accomplished in order to achieve objectives), provides a blueprint for implementation and benchmarks to mark progress.
A maximum of three objectives may be proposed throughout the entire project period. In multi-year projects, some objectives may continue for multiple budget periods. A separate OWP form should be completed for each objective for each budget period of the project year.
Each section of the OWP should be completed according to the following instructions:
- Project Title: Identify the project title. The same title appears in box 15 of the SF-424 form and will be used throughout the entire project period.
- Project Year: Identify the project year for the OWP form (e.g., 1, 2, or 3). The Objective Work Plan should be organized by project year not objective. For example, if your project has 3 objectives for 3 years than you should organize your OWP listing all of year 1's objectives then start on year 2, and complete the form with year 3's objectives.
- Project Goal: Identify the goal of the project as stated in the project narrative. The project goal is a statement describing what role the project will play in the enhancing the current community condition.
- Objectives: Include the objective as stated in the project narrative. Each objective must include the following four elements: a timeline by which the objective will be achieved; a target measurement for the intended change; an indicator; and the target population. Each form should have only one objective. Objectives should be consistently stated between project years. For example, a two year project with three objectives will have the following OWPs:
- Year 1: Objective 1, Objective 2, Objective 3
- Year 2: Objective 1, Objective 2, Objective 3
- Outcomes: One outcome must be identified for each objective to describe the most significant change the objective will produce. Include the Outcome for the objective as stated in the project narrative.
- Milestone Activities: Milestone Activities are key project activities needed to successfully achieve each output. It is likely that more than one Milestone Activity will be needed in order to produce an output. A maximum of 25 Milestone Activities should be listed for each year of an objective.
- Outputs: Outputs are the direct, tangible results of activities, including who will be reached and how many. This is often expressed as a target number of activities completed and/or people served. Because multiple Milestone activities may result in a single output, activities should be listed chronologically by output to demonstrate the logical connection between activities and outputs.
- Documents produced, curricula or education materials developed, research, ordinances or laws developed;
- The number of classes taught, meetings held, or materials produced and distributed;
- Program participation rates; or
- Hours of each type of service provided. Please note, no outputs are required to be listed for Administrative Activities.
- Project Staff: List all staff members directly working on an activity.
- Start Date: Identify realistic dates within the budget period when work on each activity will begin. Use absolute dates. September 30, 2020 should be written 9/30/2020.
- End Date: Enter the date within the budget period when work the activity will be completed. If an activity will continue into the next budget period, please indicate the last day of the current budget period for the activity. Use absolute dates. September 30, 2020 should be written 9/30/2020.
- Administrative Activities: The following Administrative activities should be included under only one objective for each year of project implementation. They should be listed after all Milestone Activities, and must include the following:
- Reporting (OPR, ADR, 425, DPM)
- Post Award Training (1st year of project only)
- Grantee Meeting
- Project staff orientation
- Data collection and evaluation
- Establish federal system account access and official grant file
For electronic submission of your application, please review the guidance below on how to fill out the OWP on Grants.gov .
- Fill out the SF-424 with the official title of your project which will then transfer to the Objective Work Plan “title” field. The “title” field is not editable as it pulls directly from the SF-424.
- All open fields are required and an error message will pop up for fields left blank in the form.
- Use complete dates including the month/day/year (for example: 00/00/0000). There is a calendar option as well in which you can choose a date on the pop up option. If the applicant is inputting future years, the manual entry is usually the faster option for entering the start and end dates.
- Please ensure that the start date is before the end date. Please also ensure that the start and end dates are not the same exact date.
- Applicants should add only one activity at a time. If the applicant adds many activity fields without filling in the information, there will be multiple pop ups due to incomplete fields.
- The Objective Work Plan should be organized by project year not objective. For example, if your project has 3 objectives for 3 years than you should organize your OWP listing all of year 1’s objectives then start on year 2, and complete the form with year 3’s objectives.
- When you add a project year to the form, the objectives from the previous year will automatically pre-populate to the new project year added. Applicants will have the ability to edit and subtract these objectives and objective statements if they are not necessary for the final work plan. As a reminder, you can only have 3 objectives for the entire project period.