Why I Created the R.A.T.E.S. Principles

A Story About Readiness, Responsibility, and Real Opportunity

When I relocated to Chicago, Illinois from Denver, Colorado, I didn’t move with the intention of creating a framework. I moved with a willingness to listen.

My mother—a longtime community activist and small-church pastor—encouraged me to attend community meetings with grassroots leaders, local politicians, and neighborhood stakeholders. Her goal was simple and practical: she wanted to expand youth services and feeding programs, and she wanted to understand what resources already existed.

Those meetings changed everything for me.

What I learned early on was surprising. There wasn’t a shortage of funding. There was a shortage of organizations that qualified for it.

Time and again, I saw the same pattern. Funding opportunities existed—sometimes substantial ones—but grassroots organizations were being passed over. Not because their work wasn’t important. Not because the need wasn’t real. But because funders needed proof that organizations could manage funds responsibly, produce measurable results, and collaborate with partners when the work required more than one organization could provide.

Capacity—not passion—was the deciding factor.

My mother encouraged us to identify organizations that were a strong match for our programs. She also challenged us to consider something deeper: teaching organizations how to prepare proposals that actually met qualification standards. That idea stayed with me.

But as I spent more time in the field, another reality became clear. Many organizations were doing essential work, yet they simply weren’t ready to receive the level of funding they needed to grow or sustain that work. They lacked systems, documentation, shared language, or operational consistency—not commitment.

Interestingly, many faith-based organizations were an exception. While they didn’t always have funding, they often had infrastructure others lacked: leadership structures, volunteer networks, consistent meeting spaces, and an established presence in the community. They weren’t perfect, but they were organized.

That contrast revealed the real gap—not a lack of heart, but a lack of organizational development.

To address that gap, create a shared communication system, and establish a clear standard of operation, I developed the R.A.T.E.S. Principles—Response-ability, Account-ability, Technical-ability, Evaluation-ability, and Sustain-ability. My husband worked with me to provide R.A.T.E.S. Principles training, technical assistance and grant proposal writing workshops.

R.A.T.E.S. was never about checking boxes. It was about helping organizations become ready—ready to partner, ready to perform, ready to report, and ready to sustain impact over time.

What happened next surprised me again.

Organizations began holding each other accountable. Participants pushed one another to grow. “R.A.T.E.S.-ready” became a shared goal. Organizations with years of service—but little access to resources—began securing grants and building partnerships that had once felt out of reach.

That’s when I knew R.A.T.E.S. wasn’t just a framework. It was a language of readiness.

And that is why I created it.

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About the Author

Dr. Margaret Jamal is the Founder of New Skills Online and the creator of the R.A.T.E.S. Principles, developed in 2009 to support nonprofit capacity building, grant readiness, and long-term organizational effectiveness. Her work focuses on helping mission-driven organizations translate real community needs into sustainable systems, credible partnerships, and measurable impact.