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."

Although funded through the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, YouthBuild projects cover a wide range of functional areas, including education, housing, and crime prevention.

Project Safe Neighborhoods was initiated during the Bush administration and continues to provide funding to reduce gun and gang violence across the country. Technology is frequently a part of these innovative and data-driven approaches to achieving improved situational awareness and suspect identification, as well as expanding access to criminal history records.

Tribal Homeland Security Grants fund a laundry list of security, preparedness, and response capabilities, and it is incumbent on the applicant organization to decide how best to use their funds to achieve their operational objectives.

Mechanical engineering jobs are one of the occupations for which foreign workers can obtain H-1B visas. H-1B-eligible occupations are also a focus of the H-1B Ready to Work Partnership Grants, with the intent of enabling long-term unemployed American workers to fill these positions.

Agencies around the country initiate technology projects in different ways and for different reasons. For some, technology is a way of keeping current and of ensuring that stakeholders have access to the latest and greatest in services. For others, a governing body may mandate a greater focus on technology, in the broad, undefined way governing bodies sometimes have. Still others are won over by a compelling case for return on investment or quality improvement. Or a technology salesperson may have let you know that the current technology has reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced.

May the finger-pointing and intense partisan rhetoric commence!  Shortly after finally passing a continuing resolution to fund the government through the rest of fiscal year 2013 (which ends September 30^th), both chambers of Congress went to work on a budget for 2014.   Recent history suggests that having a federal budget in place by the start of the fiscal year is a long shot.  The truth is that the federal government has not passed an actual budget bill, nevermind an on-time one, since April 2009.  Instead, we have seen a long line of continuing resolutions, or temporary stopgap measures that extend funding in an effort to avoid government shutdowns.  While these resolutions keep funds flowing, they wreak havoc on the ability of federal agencies to effectively plan their grant programming and financial obligations for the year.  That uncertainty amongst federal agencies trickles all the way down to public and non-profit organizations that rely on federal grant funds to fund their programs and initiatives.

Across the U.S., private foundations are experiencing an ever-increasing demand for grant funding.  Unfortunately, for many of these agencies, the supply of funding has diminished in recent years. Among hundreds or even thousands of unsolicited grant proposals, few new applicants are able to close the deal by receiving an award. Despite this bleak reality, there are several steps your organization can take to strengthen your approach to foundation funding and increase your likelihood of being among the elite organizations awarded with grant support.