Quiz — Chapter 14: Sustainability and Dissemination
Question 1. State the threshold concept and why it reframes these sections.
Answer
Funders buy impact that outlasts their dollars — they invest in lasting change, not a burst of activity. This reframes sustainability and dissemination from afterthoughts into part of the value proposition: a credible plan for after the grant is part of what makes funding you worthwhile, an argument about the *return* on the funder's investment.Question 2. Name five sustainability strategies, and say which is often strongest.
Answer
Diversified funding, earned revenue, institutional absorption, community ownership, systems/policy integration (and scalability/replication). **Institutional absorption** is often strongest because the work continues automatically, funded by an organization that decided to keep it — removing the recurring uncertainty that worries funders.Question 3. What makes a sustainability plan credible vs. "magical"?
Answer
Credible: specific (named strategies/sources), realistic (no claiming success auto-produces funding), begun during the grant (present-tense, scheduled), and evidence-backed (a letter of intent, started conversations). Magical: "we're confident success will attract ample funding" — vague, assumes success produces funding (false), and reads as not having thought about life after the grant.Question 4. Why is "begun during the grant" so powerful?
Answer
Reviewers trust present-tense, already-underway work over future-tense promises. "We have begun conversations with the district" beats "we will explore adoption." It shows sustainability is a *process* already happening, not a deferred wish — and it's honest, since real sustainability genuinely requires starting early.Question 5. Distinguish project, organizational, and impact sustainability.
Answer
Project: will *this project* continue? Organizational: will the *organization* survive and thrive? Impact: will the *change* endure even if the project ends (a policy, a capacity, knowledge)? Funders weight these differently; emphasize the kind your project offers and your funder values.Question 6. Why is impact sustainability sometimes the most honest answer?
Answer
For research and demonstration projects, the project isn't meant to run forever — its real value is the knowledge or change it produces and enables (a larger study, an adopted model, a policy). Claiming a pilot "runs indefinitely" rings false; framing sustainability around the enduring impact is honest and stronger.Question 7. What is the difference between passive publication and active knowledge translation?
Answer
Passive: publish a paper and hope (reaches few). Active translation: get results to the people who can *act* on them, in usable forms — a toolkit for replicators, a brief for policymakers, open data others build on, trainings that spread the practice. Ask "how will we get this into the hands of people who can use it?"Question 8. Why are open access and open data increasingly a compliance matter, not just good practice?
Answer
Many funders now *require* free availability of publications (open access) and sharing of underlying data (open data) — e.g., NIH DMS requirements, NSF data-management plans. A dissemination plan ignoring a required data-sharing component is incomplete and risks non-compliance. Read your funder's data-sharing policy early.Question 9. What is the "pilot-to-adoption" pathway, and why do funders love it?
Answer
A small grant demonstrates a model that a larger, permanent budget (a district, agency) then adopts and sustains. Funders love it because it offers outsized leverage — their modest catalytic grant produces impact far beyond its size. They look for a named would-be adopter, evidence of interest, and a clear demonstration-to-adoption plan.Question 10. Why must dissemination and sustainability costs appear in the budget?
Answer
Coherence (Ch 11): a plan the budget doesn't fund is an activity with no budget line. Open-access fees, conference travel, toolkit/report production, repository fees, and staff time for funder cultivation are real costs; a reviewer who sees a rich plan with no corresponding budget notices the gap. Fund every promise.Question 11. How do sustainability and dissemination connect to the funder's mission?
Answer
Sustainability = the mission benefit will *continue*; dissemination = it will *spread*. Both argue that funding you produces more mission impact than the grant period alone — the return extends past the investment period. Frame them in the funder's mission terms, and emphasize the kind of lasting impact that funder most values.Question 12. How does dissemination serve the applicant, not just the field?