Let’s talk about SMART objectives.

Face it, putting your best foot forward in a grant proposal can make, or break, your chances of receiving an award. Using SMART objectives not only helps the reader define exactly what you are planning to do with the funding, it is also a very helpful tool when evaluating your successes, failures, and what, in your plan, might need some adjustment.

Current literature cites the incorporation of SMARTIE objectives; but as it seems, so many people have trouble completing the first 5 letters, we are going to start with the basics.

So, what does SMART stand for? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound.

This does not mean that you write a huge paragraph with lots of words relating to these five words. Instead, an objective should be no more than a couple of sentences that describe in detail what you are going to do, or as some in the quality improvement field would say, “what is your aim?”

Here is an example of what not to write: “More women have access to information on family planning in the city.”

Here is a possible correction (mind you that there are various ways this vague objective could be corrected): Increase by 10% (from 25% to 27.5%), the number of women ages 19 to 44 in the City of _________ that receive information about birth spacing best practices by August 1, 2025.

Couple of things to notice in the correction: 1) The reference to family planning is now more specific – telling the reader exactly what kind of information is going to be delivered. 2) The sentence refers to the benchmark – the percentage of women that already know about birth spacing best practices (yes, this will require some research) and a reasonable number of people you think you can reach within the scope of time. 3) The sentence specifically points out your target audience, which in this case is the CDC definition of women of childbearing age.

There are tons of resources on the internet about creating SMART objectives. When you feel like you have the basics down, you should explore adding “IE” to your SMART objectives. Adding, Inclusive and Equitable will assure funders that you are thinking about social determinant of health factors as you develop your project.