It’s that time of year again where folks from fire departments and emergency medical services (EMS) communities need to start thinking about Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program.  For those who aren’t familiar with the program, AFG provides funding for fire departments, EMS, and to a lesser extent State Fire Training Academies to fund projects ranging from training, equipment acquisition, facilities improvements, vehicles, micro grants for small projects, and large-scale regional projects.  It is a very well-administered and well-funded program with over $300,000,000 available in this year’s competition alone!  However, it is a competitive program and not everyone who applies will win.

Some will argue that they would rather err on the side of providing too much information rather than the alternative, but in the context of a grant proposal, the key to success is to find the sweet spot, or the bottom of the pendulum swing.  Since most people understand the perils of providing too little information, the focus of this month’s column is on avoiding the pitfalls of doing the opposite.

The landscape of American K-12 education is in flux. The options available to families for educating their children are now more diverse than ever. But what are the differences between these options and how does that relate to grants funding? In effort to provide some clarification, I have outlined a few basic definitions regarding the various K-12 education providers how these different types of providers can receive grant funding from state, federal, and foundation sources.

Increasingly, state and federal grant programs are requiring partnerships as a prerequisite to applying.  And even if a partnership isn’t expressly required as part of the grant program, demonstrated partnerships are often treated preferentially.  Within the context of this broad emphasis on collaboration, let’s review how to avoid two common pitfalls in forging these partnerships. 

Unlike other funding from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), the ROGP does not limit eligibility to formal rural health networks.  The program does require that at least three separate entities join together to arrange health services in rural areas through formal memorandums of understanding/agreement.  However, it does not mandate a network board, bylaws and other requirements that are necessary to pursue Rural Health Network Development grants.  In order to be competitive, the collaborating organizations should be able to demonstrate some historical evidence of cooperation and joint participation on other projects. Every participating project partner must have a real and meaningful role in the project.

In the current version of the 2015 Federal Budget Proposal, both the Department of Labor and the Department of Education have proposed allocations to fund grants for youth college and career readiness partnership projects. Of particular interest are the Department of Labor's "American Apprenticeship Grant Program," and the Department of Education's "High School Redesign Grant Program" and "College Pathways and Accelerated Learning Grant Program."