2020 OWP Instructions

2020 Objective Work Plan (OWP) Guidance

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:

1. 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.

2. Project Year: Identify the project year for the OWP form (e.g., 1, 2, or 3). The OWP should be organized by project year not objective. For example, if your project has 3 objectives for 3 years, 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

3. 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 enhancing the current community condition.

4. 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 consitently stated between project years. For example, a 2-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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Outputs: Outputs are the direct, tangible results of activities. 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. For example, if the output is a workshop, the key activities needed to implement the worship should be listed in chronological order and the workshop should be listed as the output for each activity. Example outputs include the following:

   • Documents produced, curricula or education materials developed, research, ordinances or laws developed;

   • 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.

8. Project Staff: List all staff members directly working on an activity.

9. Begin 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.

10. 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.

11. 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 (1^st 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 Visit disclaimer page.

1. Fill out the SF-424 with the official title of your project, which will then transfer to the OWP “title” field. The “title” field is not editable as it pulls directly from the SF-424.

2. All open fields are required with the exception of the “other support” field. An error message will pop up for all other blank fields included in the form.

3. Use complete dates, including the month/day/year (for example: 00/00/0000). There is a calendar option as well; you can use the calendar option to choose a date from a pop up window. If inputting future years, the manual entry is usually the faster option for entering the begin and end dates.

4. Please ensure that the begin date is before the end date. Please also ensure that the begin and end dates are not the same date.

5. Add only one activity at a time. If many activity are added without completing all of the fields associated with each activity, there will be multiple pop ups due to incomplete fields.

6. The OWP should be organized by project year, not objective. For example, if your project has 3 objectives for 3 years, 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.

7. 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. You 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.