Using Maps in Grant Proposals
Maps can visually delineate target areas and provide a location reference for a jurisdiction that is submitting a proposal for
funding. These uses are often the extent to which maps are employed in a grant proposal.
However, maps can also depict a variety of data that occur geographically, much of which is often displayed in tabular form.
The advantage of including maps in a grant proposal is that they can have a more emotional impact to the reviewer than do tables.
Additionally, data that may take numerous rows to display in a table, forcing the reviewer to read down the rows and refer back
and forth between rows for comparison, may be depicted on a single map and viewed simultaneously by the reviewer.
An example of a map that has a more emotional impact than does a table of the same data is a map of the concentration of poverty
in the Richmond-Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) by Census Block group.
Below is a link to the poverty data in map form. The table is 17 pages long and cumbersome, and the reviewer must spend significant
time understanding its implications. However, the map is easy to read and its implications are clearly understood immediately
by the reviewer. The map clearly shows where poverty is concentrated in the MSA and to what extent it is concentrated.
GIS Mapping Resources
Map Documents Relevant to Richmond
2000 Census Data
Police Data
