As many organizations and agencies can attest, nothing quite compares to the disappointment of an unfunded grant application, particularly one that an organization has put its full weight behind with planning, implementation, and drive. It's tempting to take that application, throw it in the trash, and move on. However, successful, tenacious grantseeking often involves taking those applications that were not successful and learning from them.

Run a grants search on the internet and you'll stumble across many websites claiming to provide access to "Free Money," "Grants for Moms," and "Government Grants - Everyone Approved!" These claims have a common theme—easy, free money. In a perfect world, organizations laboring for a worthy cause would be able to tap into the money they need simply on the basis of their noble aims. Unfortunately, there truly is no such thing as a free lunch.

By Vince Siragusa
October 2010 (GO Know)

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could run a project by the grant maker before spending hours on a grant proposal? Needless to say, you don’t want to waste valuable time and resources positioning an application with limited funding potential. Inasmuch as the applicant’s time can be better spent exploring other funding avenues, the grant maker doesn’t want to be inundated with applications for projects they have no real interest in supporting. Understanding the role of the Letter of Intent or Letter of Interest (LOI) is one of true time savers in the world of foundation grant seeking. This document must be as well developed as the project for which funding is warranted.

Despite growing up in a truly Digital Generation fed by Wi-fi access, smart phones, and iPods, U.S. students are falling alarmingly behind in the same academic and professional fields that created such ubiquitous modern-day necessities. In mid-September, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the National Science Board (NSB) released reports calling for renewed attention to how the United States attracts and educates students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or more popularly referred to as STEM.