By Dr. Marc Smithers, Grants Development Associate
One of the most disappointing moments in the life of a grant researcher is reading about grant awards for an opportunity that you never heard about but would have been a perfect fit for an organization's needs and the funding cycle is now closed. Even though it is impossible to stay on top of all of the opportunities available to organizations due to the sheer number of grantmaking organizations at the federal, state, and foundation levels, it is difficult for grant writers and researchers to ignore the sense that perhaps there is a better way to stay informed on these issues so that future opportunities do not slip through the cracks. To ease some of that frustration, here are three steps that those who work with grants can take to work smarter and not only stay updated on grant opportunities but also help build long-term funding pipelines by staying current on funding trends.
Beginner Level: Sign-Up for Listservs
The most direct and easiest way to keep up with grants that your organization may be interested in is to go directly to the departments and foundations that you are pursuing funding through and sign up for any email newsletters or listservs that they publish. Most grants professionals already sign up for Grants.gov alerts but fewer have identified specific sites or departments from which they also receive daily or weekly alerts. While alerts like Grants.gov give you a sense of current opportunities, signing up for news from the Department of Justice or your state's Department of Education not only alerts you to potential funding opportunities and their awards but can also give you a broader sense of funding trends and future investments that they may make. These sites will often publish press releases about the approval of bills that will eventually result in grant opportunities or stories of funded projects which can give your organization a sense of the kinds of programs that are being funded by the grantmaker, setting you up well for preparing a future proposal that aligns with the previous awards made by that funding organization. Identify a handful of state agencies or foundations that you may pursue funding through in the future and do a quick web search to see how you can receive regular updates from them directly to your email.
Advanced Level: Using Google Alerts to Track Web Traffic
Once you are comfortable with basic listservs, a more advanced but still relatively easy way to automate some grant research tasks is by utilizing Google alerts. Instead of constantly going back and forth to Google to see if grant cycles have opened or if awards have been announced, a grant researcher can set up a Google Alert for a set of keywords that notifies you when a piece of news you are tracking makes its way onto the web. At google.com/alerts, users can set up an alert for almost anything that they want to keep tabs on. If, for instance, you are waiting for the awards to be announced from the National Science Foundation, you can create an alert for the "National Science Foundation award" and have it emailed to you as soon as something is posted or as a daily digest. Users can get even more technical and create Boolean phrases that return results that fit even more specific criteria, like "National Science Foundation" AND "cybersecurity" OR "artificial intelligence." Only results that include both the NSF and cybersecurity or artificial intelligence will be emailed to the user. You can even do site-specific updates by putting in the alert, "site:" and then the website you want to track. Whatever you choose to track, however, be sure to be as specific as possible so that you are only alerted to the most pertinent information. Your overall goal is to filter out as much noise as possible so that you are attuned to the opportunities that are most applicable to your organization's needs.
Genius Level: Use Browser Extensions for Site Monitoring
For professionals seeking even more precision and control, web browser extensions provide next-level monitoring for grant opportunities. Whether you use Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or any of the other myriad browsers available, you likely have various extensions installed to enhance your web browsing experience like ad-blockers or privacy screens. Web monitors like Distill or PageProbe are examples of site monitoring extensions that allow users to follow real-time changes to entire websites or just parts of a single web page without the need to visit the site. Some state departments, for instance, publish all of their grant opportunities on a single website but do not offer listservs or daily digests or these opportunities. Using a web monitoring browser extension can allow a user to identify parts of this website and get real-time updates via a desktop alert or email when parts of this site are changed, such as a deadline extension or a change to notice of funding opportunity guidance. Monitoring these sites eliminates some of the guesswork around these opportunities, particularly from smaller foundations or local government agencies.
Super Genius Level: Grants Office’s New Platform
Coming in January 2025, Grants Office will be launching a completely new grants research and proposal management platform. There will be multiple levels of access, including a free version with a robust suite of useful features, and paid options that will be indispensable for everyone involved in grantseeking. Stay tuned for more on this as we approach Launch Day in January.