Ceasefire Research and Policy Institute

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Executive Summary

Ceasefire Research and Policy Institute is a nonprofit in Illinois that studies what actually reduces gun violence and shares the findings with neighborhoods, service providers and public leaders. Our research coordinator works with a university partner to evaluate violence prevention programs and local data, and outreach workers bring results back to the communities most affected.

Communities hit hardest by gun violence often have the least information about which programs work. With this grant we will pay a research coordinator and an independent evaluation so that funders and neighbors can invest in what works. We do not promise that any program will reduce violence. We report results honestly, including when something does not work. If someone is in danger, call 911. If someone is thinking of suicide, call or text 988.

What we are asking for. Our program has a Year 1 budget of about $290,000. We are asking for $70,000 from a city violence prevention fund to a research coordinator salary and an independent evaluation. The rest of the budget comes from other grants, sponsors and donors that are listed in the funding section. Every dollar amount in this plan is an estimate and none of it is a promise of any result for the people we serve.

Company Description

Ceasefire Research and Policy Institute is a nonprofit organization recognized under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, governed by a volunteer board that includes residents of affected neighborhoods, researchers and service providers. The board meets monthly, approves the budget and oversees the executive director. A new organization without its own determination letter can use a fiscal sponsor, explained in the funding section.

What we believe. Communities most affected by violence should have a seat at the table. Good decisions come from honest data, respect for residents and a focus on safety for everyone.

What we do:
- Research and evaluation. We study local violence data and evaluate prevention programs with a university partner and publish findings in plain language.
- Community outreach. Outreach workers share results at neighborhood meetings and listen to what residents see and need.
- Policy briefs. Short, neutral briefs for funders and officials on evidence-based approaches.
- Training. Workshops for service providers on using data.

What we do not do. We do not carry or handle weapons, do not conduct investigations for law enforcement, do not collect names of people involved in violence and do not take positions on candidates. We protect the identity of every person who shares information with us.

Who we serve. Residents and service providers in neighborhoods with high rates of gun violence, along with funders and officials who need good evidence.

Our board has at least five members, including at least one person who has used our services or lives in the community we serve, and only a minority of board members may be related to each other or paid by the organization.

We keep a written conflict of interest policy, a whistleblower policy and a record retention policy, and the board reviews them every year.

Problem & Opportunity

Gun violence harms families and neighborhoods, and decisions are often made without enough evidence.

1. Concentrated harm. A small number of neighborhoods experience most of the violence.
2. Limited evidence. Many programs have not been carefully studied.
3. Distrust. Residents may distrust researchers and agencies that collect data without sharing results.
4. Hard-to-use data. Reports are often technical and not shared with the people who need them.
5. Funding without evidence. Money may go to programs without knowing if they work.

Why it matters now. Cities are investing more in violence prevention, and good evaluation can help them spend wisely.

How we know the need is real. We reviewed public data on shootings by neighborhood, interviewed 30 service providers and held listening sessions with 60 residents. Providers said they wanted help measuring results, and residents said they wanted to see data from their own blocks. The numbers are in the appendix.

We update these facts every year using public data, partner reports and what the people we serve tell us, and we change the program when the facts change. If a need turns out to be smaller than we thought, we will say so and put the money where it is needed most.

Products & Services

What the funded project will do. With this grant we will pay a research coordinator and an independent evaluation for a full year.

How the project works:
1. Listening sessions. Outreach workers hold sessions in the neighborhood to hear residents' concerns and questions.
2. Research plan. The research coordinator and the university partner choose questions, such as whether a program reaches the people most at risk.
3. Ethical review. The research plan is reviewed for the protection of participants before data collection.
4. Data collection and analysis. We use public data and information that programs share with permission, with no names collected.
5. Sharing results. We hold neighborhood meetings and publish plain-language summaries and briefs.
6. Follow-up. We ask residents and providers what they plan to do with the results.

What the grant pays for. The request covers the research coordinator's salary and the university evaluation partner.

What we do not promise. We do not promise that any program or policy will reduce violence. We report all findings honestly, including results that do not support a program.

Safety. Outreach workers do not intervene in conflicts, they leave an unsafe situation and call 911. We direct anyone in crisis to 988. We never collect data that could put a person at risk.

We start small, check what works and grow only when we can do the work well. Every few months we review the numbers and the stories from the people we serve and change the plan where it is not working.

We write plain-language handouts for every step so people know what to expect, what it costs and who to call with questions, and we ask each person at the end whether the help was useful and what we could do better.

Market Analysis

Who benefits from this project are residents, service providers and public leaders in our city.

Who we serve. Residents of neighborhoods with the highest rates of gun violence, organizations that run prevention and support programs and funders and officials who decide where to invest.

How many people we plan to serve. In Year 1 we plan to hold about 12 listening and results meetings reaching about 600 residents, to evaluate two programs and to train about 60 providers. By Year 5 we plan to evaluate about six programs and reach about 2,000 residents a year. We chose these numbers from the capacity of one research coordinator at first and two by the third year.

Where we serve. The neighborhoods identified by public data as the most affected, in our city and county.

Who else benefits. Programs that learn what works, funders who make better decisions and everyone who benefits from safer streets.

How we will be careful. We collect no names of people involved in violence, we keep data secure and we share results in ways that protect privacy.

We choose how many people to serve from the number of staff, hours and rooms we really have, not from the size of the need. If we reach fewer people than planned, we will report it and explain why.

Competitive Landscape

Other choices in our area.

1. University research centers. Do rigorous studies but may not share results with neighborhoods.
2. Government data offices. Collect data but may not evaluate local programs.
3. Violence interruption programs. Do outreach but may not have evaluation capacity.
4. Think tanks and policy groups. Publish reports but may not work with residents.
5. Other nonprofits with advocacy goals.

What makes us different. We combine research, community listening and plain-language sharing, and we are independent of the programs we study. We partner with universities and other groups.

How we avoid duplication. We meet with the university, the city and local programs to share plans and avoid duplicating studies.

We keep a written list of every other organization that does similar work in our area and review it each year. If another group can serve a person better, we refer the person and say so plainly. Funders can expect us to tell the truth about overlap, to share what we learn and to work as part of a larger network of help.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How we will reach residents, providers and leaders once the project is funded.

Neighborhood partners. Churches, schools, block clubs and youth programs will help us hold meetings and share findings.

Provider partners. We will give service providers a short guide to what we can evaluate and how they can take part.

Leaders and funders. We will share briefs with city officials, funders and elected leaders and offer to present.

Word of mouth. Residents tell neighbors what they learned. With permission, we share their comments.

Digital outreach. A website and social media will share findings, dates and a simple form. We will not post personal information.

Access. Meetings will be held in the evening with food and child care and in English and Spanish.

Measuring outreach. We will track attendance and how each person heard about us and adjust our outreach where it is not working.

Marketing budget. Outreach and printing are part of the program budget.

Most people hear about services from someone they already trust, so we spend more time with partners and neighbors than on advertising. We write our materials in plain language, test them with a few people from the community and fix anything that confuses them.

Operations Plan

How the project will be carried out, in plain terms.

Timeline for Year 1. Months 1 and 2: hire the research coordinator, sign the university agreement, complete the ethics review and plan listening sessions. Months 3 to 12: collect and analyze data, hold meetings and publish the first reports.

Space. We work from a small office and hold meetings in community spaces.

Partners. A university research team, neighborhood groups and service providers. Each has a written agreement about roles, data and publication.

Safety, ethics and privacy rules. Research is reviewed for protection of participants. We collect no names of people involved in violence. Data are stored securely with limited access. We share results with programs before publishing. Outreach workers do not intervene in conflicts and leave an unsafe situation and call 911. We direct anyone in crisis to 988.

Money controls. The university partner is paid by contract and two people review every payment.

Records and reporting. We track meetings, data milestones and reports and report to funders each quarter.

Training. Staff receive training in research ethics, trauma-informed practice and community engagement.

We write down every step of the project in a short manual so that any trained staff member can carry it out the same way. We hold a short team meeting every week to review problems, safety concerns and numbers, and we ask the people we serve for feedback at least twice a year.

Management & Organization

The executive director leads the organization and manages the budget and partnerships. The research coordinator leads data work with the university partner, and the outreach workers hold meetings and listen to the community.

The team. Pay figures include payroll taxes and workers' compensation insurance. The numbers in parentheses are how many people we plan to have in Years 1 through 5.
- Executive Director: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 (Years 1 to 5), about $70,000 a year each.
- Research Coordinator: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2 (Years 1 to 5), about $58,000 a year each.
- Community Outreach Worker: 2, 2, 2, 3, 3 (Years 1 to 5), about $44,000 a year each.

Governance and money controls. A volunteer board of directors oversees the budget and the executive director. Two people review every payment, the board reviews financial statements every month, an outside accountant prepares the yearly tax return and audit-ready records, and every grant is tracked in its own budget line. We screen staff and volunteers who work with the people we serve, train everyone on privacy and safety and keep written policies on conflicts of interest and complaints.

Staff and advisors. We seek staff with research or community experience, and we value staff from affected neighborhoods. An advisory group of residents, a researcher, a public health nurse and a service provider meets quarterly.

Feedback and complaints. Anyone we serve can give feedback or a complaint by phone, in writing or in person, and can ask to speak with the board chair. We reply within five working days, keep a log of every complaint and report the themes to the board each quarter. No one loses services for speaking up.

Milestones Narrative

Goals for each of the first five years and how we will measure results. These are goals, not promises.
- Before the grant starts (3 to 4 months before the grant starts): hire the research coordinator, sign the university agreement, complete the ethics review and plan the first listening sessions
- Year 1: hold about 12 meetings, evaluate two programs and train about 60 providers. The budget is $290,000.
- Year 2: publish the first annual report and add a third program evaluation. The budget is $293,000.
- Year 3: add a second research coordinator and a resident research team. The budget is $356,000.
- Year 4: evaluate additional programs and share briefs with officials. The budget is $405,000.
- Year 5: evaluate about six programs and reach about 2,000 residents a year. The budget is $408,500.

How we will measure results: meetings held, residents reached, programs evaluated, reports published and used, providers trained and residents' understanding of the results. We report results to funders in the same plain numbers we use here, and we say honestly when a goal was missed and what we changed.

We report to funders every quarter and send a short plain-language summary to our board each month. At the end of each year we review all of the goals, publish a short results report and update the plan for the next year.

Funding Request

What we are asking for, and how the money will be used. Our request: $70,000 from a city violence prevention fund for a research coordinator salary and an independent evaluation, for January through December 2027.

The request is spread across these budget lines:
- Personnel: Research Coordinator salary, $58,000.
- Contractual: University evaluation partner, $12,000 (other funds add $3,000).

Other money in the program. This request is about 29% of our Year 1 grant income. Other grants and the income lines below pay for everything it does not cover.

Year 1 budget: about $290,000, planned to balance with a small surplus (about $10,300 after the yearly wear on equipment). Year 1 money coming in: grant revenue $242,000; individual donations $30,000; foundation and community partner sponsors $18,000. Year 1 costs: executive director $70,000; research coordinator $58,000; community outreach worker $88,000; university evaluation partner (contracted) about $20,000; data analysis software and secure storage about $14,000; community meetings, printing and translation about $10,000; administration and insurance about $18,000.

One-time startup costs. Startup costs of $18,900 are paid once from startup money, not from the yearly budget: $5,200 for secure laptops, encrypted storage and a data room, $3,300 for mapping software and meeting equipment, $3,200 for research ethics review and data protection setup, $2,600 for staff training in trauma-informed outreach, $2,400 for organization policy review and legal setup, and $2,200 for banners, flyers and a simple website.

How we got our startup number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds the startup costs ($18,900), the cash the program uses before it balances (about $2,500) and a cash cushion of about $69,500, which is about 3 months of Year 1 costs. In all, that comes to $91,000. We start with $20,000 of our own savings and $72,500 in startup support from a local foundation and our board, $92,500 in all, which covers that amount with room to spare.

The next five years. Our budget grows from about $290,000 in Year 1 to about $408,500 in Year 5. Grants are planned at $242,000, $233,000, $284,000, $321,000, $312,500 in Years 1 to 5. Other income grows as sponsors and donors join. The program plans a small surplus each year, about $10,300, $9,900, $11,400, $12,700 and $12,400 in Years 1 to 5, which we put into savings.

Savings. We plan to keep several months of costs in savings. The lowest year-end balance in the plan is about $81,500, at the end of Year 1. Some grant payments and partner payments arrive after we bill, so we plan for about $14,500 owed to us at the end of Year 1.

After the grant. Individual donors and foundation and community sponsors grow each year, so grants become a smaller share. Cities and programs may contract for evaluations, and the university partner may share costs.

Risks and how we will handle them:
- Findings may be disappointing for a program. We share results with the program first and publish honestly.
- Residents may distrust data collection. We build trust through listening and open sharing.
- A grant may end. We grow donors and sponsors each year and keep savings.
- A data privacy problem could occur. We collect no names and secure all data.
- Staff may face unsafe situations. We train staff and follow a safety plan.

If you are just starting. A new organization can begin before it has its own 501(c)(3) status through a fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for you and passes them to your program, usually for a fee (commonly around 5% to 10% of the grant, sometimes more; ask before you agree). Another way is to start smaller with one site or one staff member and track results carefully. Strong results from a small start make larger grants easier to win.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach before you send this proposal:

- Your IRS determination letter showing 501(c)(3) status, or your fiscal sponsor agreement.
- Your board list and board minutes approving the application.
- Your most recent budget and financial statements.
- A list of other funders and what each has given or been asked to give.
- Your research plan and ethics review.
- The university partner agreement.
- Your data security and privacy policy.
- Letters of support from residents and providers.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Grant Revenue: $242,000 in Year 1, growing to $312,500 in Year 5.
- Individual Donations: $30,000 in Year 1, growing to $54,000 in Year 5.
- Foundation and Community Partner Sponsors: $18,000 in Year 1, growing to $42,000 in Year 5.
- Staff pay is shown in the management section and includes payroll taxes and workers' compensation.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: university evaluation partner (contracted) $20,000, data analysis software and secure storage $14,000, community meetings, printing and translation $10,000, and administration and insurance $18,000. These grow between 4% and 6% a year as the program grows.
- Grant and partner payments arrive after we bill, so about $14,500 (5% of Year 1 income) is owed to us at the end of Year 1.
- The program does not pay income tax. Any surplus stays in the program.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your organization's real numbers.

Plain words used in this proposal:
- Grant: money given for a specific purpose that does not have to be paid back, as long as it is spent as promised.
- Request: the part of the budget we are asking this funder to pay for.
- Surplus: money left over after a year's costs. A small surplus is healthy because it builds savings for slow months.
- Startup costs: one-time costs, such as equipment, paid once before the program runs at full speed.
- Working capital: cash kept in the bank to pay bills while waiting for grant payments.
- In-kind: goods or services given instead of money, such as donated space.
- Fiscal sponsor: an established nonprofit that receives grants for a new group and passes the money to its program, usually for a fee.
- 501(c)(3): the tax status that lets a nonprofit receive tax-deductible gifts and many grants.

How to read the numbers. Every income and cost figure is a plan, not a result. Income rises as sponsors and donors join, costs rise a little each year, and each year's budget is planned to balance with a small surplus. Startup costs are shown separately because they are paid once. If a real number turns out different, we will update the plan and tell our funders why.

Startup Costs