There is always more to learn about how to research and find the best grant opportunities and funders for your organization. But what happens when it’s time to talk to that potential funder? What do you say? How do you get their attention and fuel their curiosity? How can you talk about your nonprofit without overwhelming them with details?

With the passage of the CARES Act and other COVID-19 response funding packages there has been a surge in stimulus-sourced grant opportunities, the likes of which have not been seen since 2008-2009 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Out of the nearly $2 trillion CARES Act package came a number of direct allocations or entitlements, as well as competitive grant opportunities totaling approximately $234 billion and acting as a means for local and state governments, healthcare and education providers, and other organizations to prepare for- respond to- and maintain continued operations during the global coronavirus pandemic. Of this amount, the US Department of Education alone was granted $30.75 billion in funding to support continued K-12 and higher education efforts. 

While not a new notion, the desire to avoid hasty generalizations within one’s grant proposal is ever present. We are all guilty of it. Facing character or page limits, we often try to distill complex ideas down to as few of words as possible while still making our message clear. We make broad-based statements such as, “surveillance cameras can help our police department reduce crime”, “video conferencing equipment will empower our hospital fight the opioid epidemic”, or “1:1 classroom technology is necessary for successful education in this digital age”. However, there is a huge problem with these kinds of statements. They are weak arguments that do not tell the funder anything of actual substance.

The 2020 grant landscape contains dozens of education, workforce development, and public safety programs offering priority consideration for projects deployed inside a Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ). This classification originates with the US Department of Treasury and - at its core - has absolutely nothing to do with grants. Zones are selected by individual State Governors as a way to bring private financial investment into distressed communities. So you might find yourself wondering, “why does language about QOZ tax breaks and capital gains continue to pop up in our grants world?”

The federal government has passed four phases of stimulus packages to address the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The four laws appropriate over $2.7 trillion in federal funds, with the CARES Act doing most of the heavy lifting at $2.2 million. The stimulus programs are pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into existing grant programs and new funding streams to compensate for the incredible financial losses providers are experiencing with the cancellation of non-elective procedures and lower patient volume as people steer clear of health facilities during the pandemic. The following is a brief summary of the grants and funding currently available and coming down the pipeline for health care entities.

The “sustainability question” in a grant application is a challenging section to write for many grant professionals and nonprofit staff. The question appears in almost all federal, state, foundation and corporate grant applications. Even when the funder doesn’t ask the question directly, they still want to know your plans for the program when the grant funding runs out.

Back by popular demand – another answer to a recent Grantscast question! This Grantscast was focused on the funding landscape for K-12 education in the year ahead. One attendee asked:
When it comes to competitive grant funding for districts to apply for, why do some states have more opportunities than others?

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was created over 35 years ago to “open up the workings of government to public scrutiny” (Fielding v. CIA, 1983). This system allows any US citizen to request information about the daily activities and spending of their government agencies. And while many folks are aware of news organizations leveraging FOIA for investigative journalism, the media makes up less than 8% of all FOIA petitions annually (Schouten 2017). More often, individuals, law firms, and private businesses leverage this system to gain valuable information for their own daily operations at little to no-cost.

The 2020 budget includes almost $185 billion in domestic discretionary spending. Over half of these discretionary dollars ($94.9 billion) have been appropriated to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), making it the largest federal grantmaker. This represents a $4.4 billion increase over 2019 funding levels for HHS and a staggering $16.8 billion more than requested in the President’s Budget. The following is a brief primer on the appropriations included in the 2020 HHS budget and its impact on grant programming.

The 2020 federal fiscal year started on October 1 and once again we are operating under a continuing resolution instead of a budget. Fortunately, federal agencies (as well as experienced grant professionals) can look to the recent past to navigate the situation. Take a deep breath and relax because the grants landscape is much more predictable than it seems, even in the absence of a federal budget. The following Q&A is intended to help grant-seekers “read the tea leaves” when it comes to grant programming in 2020.

Sadly, many unwitting citizens as well as organizations are not as fortunate and end up losing their hard-earned funds as a result. It’s for this reason, that we want to dedicate a few pages out of this issue to offer a few simple reminders and tips related to grants and grant scammers.

As more and more school districts and institutions of higher education gain interest in the possibilities of Esports, many wonder how they will be able to finance the often expensive equipment needed for start-up and eventual tournament success in these new arenas.  Following we’ll look at some of the biggest challenges to finding external funding for your Esports initiative, as well as offer guidance on potential solutions

n reality, nearly 95% of all law enforcement agencies in the US have less than 100 full-time officers on staff (Reaves 2015). Three quarters serve communities of less than 10,000 residents. These small, usually rural, jurisdictions face the same crime problems as their counterparts in urban locations, but they must do so with lower budgets, less staff, and insufficient equipment 

Not surprisingly, demand for the pilot round of SVPP funding in Summer 2018 far exceeded the available supply of grant dollars. Only 45% of the 200+ submitted applications were funded, and competition for the 2019 grant cycle (applications due May 31st) is anticipated to be even more fierce. These steep odds have districts across the US asking – What is the Department of Justice looking for? How can we stand out from the pack? In searching for answers to these questions, it is beneficial to review previous awards.

Traditionally, government grantmaking agencies have only focused supporting projects directly within their strictly defined functional area. The ever-expanding field of healthcare, however, has forced many of these agencies to go beyond the confines of such thinking. Thus, the biggest mistake that novice grantseekers can make is limiting their funder prospecting research to only those federal or state authorities primarily responsible for healthcare regulations. To help you make sure that no stone is left unturned the next time you go grant-seeking, following the three primary sources for healthcare grants (federal, state and foundation funders) are explored.

Interested agencies can anticipate seeing two full years’ worth of funding (2018 and 2019 allocations) combined into the same solicitation – potentially offering upwards of $200M for US law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire officers. It is unclear at this point if the COPS Office plans to include similar priority considerations for this new funding cycle as they had in 2017. As it currently stands, however, the courts have determined that any repeat attempt to give preference for applicants that address illegal immigration will be permitted.

Curious to know how “grant-seeker friendly” your state is and how your SEA stacks up compared to others? We’ve grouped each of the 50 SEAs into one of four categories based on the characteristics find most helpful when setting out to uncover grant funding opportunities. Most important is whether the SEA offers competitive grant opportunities in the first place.

Curious to know how “grant-seeker friendly” your state is and how your SEA stacks up compared to others? We’ve grouped each of the 50 SEAs into one of four categories based on the characteristics find most helpful when setting out to uncover grant funding opportunities. Most important is whether the SEA offers competitive grant opportunities in the first place.

It is true that a vast majority of private foundations skip over government agencies when creating their criteria for giving. This decision is not necessarily because the board disagrees with a Mayor’s politics, or because they don’t appreciate the local fire department. More often than not, the choice to not distribute to government groups is due to some complex tax argument offered by the foundation’s accountant. But there are numerous exceptions to this rule – and finding that needle in a haystack funder can be worthwhile for a small government initiative, particularly if there are no viable state or federal funding sources available.

It is true that a vast majority of private foundations skip over government agencies when creating their criteria for giving. This decision is not necessarily because the board disagrees with a Mayor’s politics, or because they don’t appreciate the local fire department. More often than not, the choice to not distribute to government groups is due to some complex tax argument offered by the foundation’s accountant. But there are numerous exceptions to this rule – and finding that needle in a haystack funder can be worthwhile for a small government initiative, particularly if there are no viable state or federal funding sources available.

Being deliberate and selective in the grant programs and funders that your organization pursues allows you to maximize your most precious commodity: your time. It also decreases the odds of rejection and risk of “giving up on grants completely” after multiple failed attempts.  With that in mind, we encourage you to consider the following before you decided to take the plunge on a given grant opportunity.

Any seasoned grant professional will tell you that rejection is part of life. And while the data for predicting proposal acceptance rates is spotty, at best, many grant seeking organizations set an arbitrary acceptance rate goal for their measure of grant seeking success.

The truth is that your proposal is just a plan. Plans are blueprints to a successful implementation, but they are not meant to be static. As such, you might wish to keep the following tips and suggestions in mind when your next grant-funded project requires modification!

There are three areas of pre-award impact from a shutdown. The first two pertain to the application process itself, when funding opportunities are announced, and the application process. The final item is related to what happens to those who have already submitted grant proposals.

HHS appropriations were packaged together in a minibus with three other primary federal agencies: the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Education (Ed). Following, is a breakdown of key HHS funding lines that specifically target addressing the opioid epidemic, as well as implications for potential grant programs. Information was gathered directly from the minibus agreement (H.R. 6157), the accompanying conference report (115-952), and historical information about the funding sources and the grant programs that they fund.

Recognizing the potential implications of large scale data breaches at the federal government, Congress began allocating funds to improve the antiquated systems of its 76 agencies in 2016. The most recent budget included more than $14 billion for these cybersecurity-related investments

It’s only human nature to feel demoralized after you put all your time and energy into a proposal only to receive a negative response from the grantmaker. The easiest thing to do is throw in the towel, protecting both your time and ego. However, if you are willing to be patient and persevere, the rewards can be plentiful.

Congress ultimately decided to bump the department’s budget by a full $100 million more than they had appropriated in 2018! Following, we break down ED’s budget for FY19 with a specific eye towards grant funding; we’ll tell you what programs received funding increases, as well as which ones are funded at the same level as last year.

Congress ultimately decided to bump the department’s budget by a full $100 million more than they had appropriated in 2018! Following, we break down ED’s budget for FY19 with a specific eye towards grant funding; we’ll tell you what programs received funding increases, as well as which ones are funded at the same level as last year.

Congress ultimately decided to bump the department’s budget by a full $100 million more than they had appropriated in 2018! Following, we break down ED’s budget for FY19 with a specific eye towards grant funding; we’ll tell you what programs received funding increases, as well as which ones are funded at the same level as last year.

On July 31st President Trump signed into law the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. This bill effectively reauthorizes the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. Perkins funds are commonly known for being the federal government’s primary vehicle for supporting Career and Technical Education (CTE) at high schools and community/technical colleges across the country. This is a win for career education advocates who have spent the last 6 years arguing for updates to Perkins law in effort to make it more consistent with previous changes to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (made in 2013).

In response to overwhelming positive feedback given by you – our readers – to this previous article, we’ve compiled a companion list of (new or pending) grant funding for an additional 15 states below. Don’t see your State on this list or its companion piece from our last issue? Don’t fret! We expect even more states follow suit in the coming years. While you wait, check out the Department of Education or Department of Justice websites for other federal program offerings that may arise. You may even consider contacting your State Administering Agency (SAA) for information on school safety funding coming down the pike for your area.

For many grant funders, requiring that their applicants leverage personal funds towards a proposed project is an effective way to guarantee that their grantmaking dollars have a greater impact. Doing so increases the total amount of monies spent on the propose initiative, effectively making their investment go further. This tactic also ensures that the applicant entity “has some skin in the game”. After all, it’s easy to propose a risky venture when you’re spending someone else’s cash! However, if you’ve also had to pay out of pocket for the initiative, its much more likely that you’re going to want to guarantee the proposed project’s success.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 includes modest to significant increases across the board, increasing defense allocations by $26 billion and non-defense domestic appropriations by $33 billion. In total, Congress passed a budget that essentially rolls back the draconian cuts that were instituted in 2013 - known as sequestration - surpassing the administration’s request by $143 billion.

The current grants landscape features several law enforcement programs with language prioritizing projects that respond to a “precipitous increase in crime.”

When preparing a grant proposal there are several key elements that go into the final product. Often, the narrative – or project description – section is that which receives most of the applicant organization’s time and attention. Indeed, there have been ample articles written here, and elsewhere, providing tips and tricks for developing a proposal narrative. But an equally important piece of the proposal is often over looked: the budget. As such, we wanted to take moment to share three Q &As from...

Applicants are always striving to make their proposals compelling in an increasingly competitive environment. One of the most important tasks that is recommended during the due diligence phase is to familiarize yourself with the funder. A key information source for this activity are the four-year strategic plans that federal agencies are required to make publicly available to comply with the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993. Unfortunately, the current strategic plan for...

It’s no secret that the practice of grant seeking is pretty involved. It consists of countless hours of work: researching state, federal, and foundation funding sources; sorting through various opportunities to choose those that best match your project’s goals, funding needs, and timeline; figuring out what aspects the funder specifically requires for your project; collecting partnership agreements; not to mention actually writing the proposal! Moreover, few organizations are fortunate enough to have the means for keeping a full-time grant professional on staff. So what is an organization to do?...

Imagine this scene: You find yourself sitting at the computer, coffee in hand. The project details your team has spent weeks carefully plotting are printed and neatly stacked in the center of your desk. The plan is ready, the budget set. All that’s left to do is type the grant narrative. You open a fresh Word document and are met with that awful blank page… We’ve all had that moment of dismay – It’s daunting to start a grant proposal from scratch. Well-written narratives contain an overwhelming...

Whether you’re just starting out as a grantseeker or have been working in the field for years, and whether you work in education, government, or healthcare, you should find some useful information and insights in this issue of FUNDED – our biggest issue yet!You can download the issue directly at http://grantsoffice.com/Portals/0/funded/issues/FUNDEDNov2017.pdfHigher education takes the lead with highlights of two NSF grant programs that support research infrastructure-building initiatives across...

Back in April 2017, our Grants Office LLC team members – Elizabeth Evans and Ashley Schultz – were featured in the Campus Safety (CS) Magazine. CS Magazine serves campus police chiefs, security directors, IT personnel, emergency managers and executive administrators involved in the public safety and security of major hospitals, schools and universities in the United States. See the full text of their article below. Check out http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/ to learn more!

Curious to know where we are in this process and how this may impact future education grant funding? Read on!

One thing that plagues the healthcare industry is an overabundance of acronyms and terms that can leave the heads of the uninitiated spinning.

In answering some basic questions through this Q&A, the hope is that universities and research institutes will be better able to leverage such grants to fund much needed infrastructure.

    When most Americans think of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, they probably don’t think of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, nor do they probably think of how the HEA was established to strengthen the resources of public Institutions of Higher Education (IHE).  More likely, what comes to mind is the ability for students to receive financial assistance for post-secondary education.  But what about the funding that goes directly to institutions?     When Title III (“Institutional...

...it’s who.     At least that’s true in the world of public safety.  Most in the public safety realm are well aware of the annually administered, direct, federal grants, such as the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program and the Justice Assistance Grant Local Solicitation.  These grants are a “straight shot” from applicant to funder—that is, the applying entity submits an application directly to the funding agency—no middle person.     However, there are a myriad of programs from the Department...

    Healthcare is a business, yet it typically trails most business-related trends by several decades.  For instance, while most other businesses began the transformation to electronic record-keeping in the late 1980s and 1990s, the movement in healthcare has primarily happened over the past five years.  Considering that healthcare is a life-critical system as opposed to a mission-critical business, any change must be approached with caution.  However, occasionally government regulations and the political arena force rapid change and evolution in the business model.  Taking the example of electronic health records (EHRs), it was the combination of government incentives (to adopt) built into the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that finally provided the impetus for providers to make the jump to EHRs....

    If the rumors hold true, 2016 could be a banner year for federal spending and funding levels for popular grant programs.       Remember the budget sequestration process in 2013 (See May 2013 “A Look at How the 2014 Budget Battle Impacts Grants”)?  Congress and President Obama agreed to institute 5% across-the-board cuts across all government spending, including defense.       The sequestration directly reduced funding levels for almost all federal grant programs.  Furthermore, these spending...

    Hey readers from Higher Education Institutions! Yes, you! November is here and do you know what that means? It’s almost time for your institution to submit its request for designation as an eligible Title III or Title V school.     You may recall that last year the Department of Education deviated from the norm, opting for a November 3rd, 2014 release and December 22nd, 2014 deadline rather than its usual springtime release.  Based on that shift, prudent grant administrators are probably...

 “Last night I started thinking about this, and I woke up. I said my prayers as I always do, and I decided, you know, today’s the day I’m going to do this. As simple as that,” John Boehner, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives     On September 25, 2015, Congressman John Boehner announced he would be vacating the Speakership and retiring from Congress.  With those thirty-six mostly innocuous words, John Boehner set in motion a chain of events that shocked political pundits and the...

    In March, President Obama announced plans for a new, multi-sector workforce development program known as the “TechHire Initiative.”     According to the President the Department of Labor planned to dedicate $100 million (collected from H-1B visa fees) towards a new competitive grant competition.       Its aim? Promoting the comeback of an ever shrinking middle class through training and education programs that would enable Americans to earn higher wages.     At the time of the President’s...

     Throughout my near decade of grants consulting, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with thousands of organizations, many of which were having their first conversation about grants.   In most cases, the people I spoke with were either new to their position, their organization didn’t typically apply to grants, or they knew that their organization received grants, but they weren’t historically part of the process.  For whatever reason, there are some strategies and tips I’d like to offer those folks...

    The Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) should be released any day now and it’s time to start thinking about your application for this year.       In a previous issue of FUNDED I covered the basics of AFG, so if you’re unfamiliar with this funding opportunity, you may want to refer back to the aforementioned article before proceeding.       In this issue we will focus on best practices and tactics for making your department’s application more competitive.     First, you’ll want to ready...

Rarely are there grants expressly for the purpose of purchasing technology equipment. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is host to one of these exceptions, the Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant, wherein the USDA funds the acquisition of video conferencing equipment for rural end-users proposing either distance learning or telemedicine projects.



Opportunities such as DLT are few and far between and often come with strict eligibility requirements that knock...

On Monday, September 21st 2015 the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the awardees of the Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Body-Worn Pilot Implementation Program that was first publicized in May of this year.    

For those unaware, the Body-Worn Pilot Implementation Program supports the implementation of body-worn camera (BWC) programs in law enforcement agencies across the country. The intent of the program is to help develop, implement, and evaluate a BWC program...

1. Can I use grant funding to fund the movement of data from physical to cloud infrastructure?2. Can I use grant funding to convert from physical to cloud infrastructure?3. Can I use grant funding to support cloud compute and storage infrastructure?There is a growing trend within universities and research entities towards utilizing cloud compute and storage infrastructure. There are numerous advantages to moving data into the cloud, particularly when it comes to the collaborative nature of research...

...it's who.At least that’s true in the world of public safety. Most folks in the public safety realm are well aware of the annually administered, direct federal grants, such as the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program and the Justice Assistance Grant Local Solicitation. These grants are a “straight shot” from applicant to funder—that is, the applying entity submits an application directly to the funding agency—no middleperson.However, there are a myriad of programs from the Department of Homeland...

It’s no secret that the National Science Foundation (NSF) concerns itself with awarding grant opportunities related to STEM endeavors. However, often times we only consider cutting-edge, high-level research, or sub-field specific grants. Yet, there also exists a plethora of fellowship opportunities that are available to individual researchers. Often forgotten are those grants which can be utilized as a vehicle to support the effectiveness of STEM learning for people of all ages in all settings -...

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.

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."

The May 2014 issue of FUNDED is now available for download.

 

 

Every grant manager I know earnestly wants to ensure that everyone who applies to their program is clear on the requirements and has all the tools to present their project for consideration. More compliant applications means more projects in the pool and potentially better projects receiving awards at the end of the process.

Many folks believe that once they’ve logged in with their SAM username and password per the instructions in step 6 they are all set, but they’ve only created the account, they haven’t fully registered with SAM.  Failure to see SAM registration through in its entirety will result in your organization not being able to submit federal grants.

So what else do you need to do?

Today, most grantseekers are familiar with the Federal Electronic Grants Clearinghouse, better known by its URL, Grants.gov. You may not know that when it was launched, the portal represented nearly ten years of work by federal officials, often volunteers working with no budget and extremely limited support.

Traditionally, the key function of museums and libraries has been the management and preservation of the collections they maintain, as well as the access of those collections to the public. Not much has changed in the important classical role of these enduring institutions, but innovations providing a much greater emphasis on public engagement and accessibility are now being embraced. This pivotal shift goes back to the 1980s when a new trend of perceived pork barrel cleansing brought on by the recession in the United States had stemmed previously generous funding. Museums and libraries were forced to reevaluate themselves and their role in communities. In redefining themselves as learning hubs, museums and libraries have been rewarded not only by reinvigorated government allocations, but by the resounding support of the public with ever increasing demand for their facilities. In the context of the information age, now more than ever museums and libraries are competing for people’s time and attention and seek to engage and broaden their prospective audience by adopting an education model over a strict conservation/repository model. This change in focus toward public engagement has continued to give rise to approaches toward administration, education, technology integration, community outreach, and new ways for these unique institutions to develop a professional staff.

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.

Due to their nature, foundations are always changing who and what they fund. They are independent from the legislature that governs federal and state grant programs and, to some extent, have the liberty to do what they please. According to the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), foundation grants to empower poor and needy communities have increased recently. Giving has steadily increased to populations such as disadvantaged people, the elderly, women, girls and other groups since 2004. The executive director of NRCP, Aaron Dorfman, stated, “We’re seeing slow but steady progress in a positive direction. The data suggests that our nation’s grant-making foundations may be realizing that they can achieve their missions more effectively and also serve the common good by prioritizing and empowering those with the least wealth, opportunity and power.”

Are you having a difficult time trying to find active grants for which you can apply? Depending on the time of the year, there may not be any current deadlines for grants programs in which you are interested.  Don't let this discourage you. By taking a proactive approach, it can mean you have plenty of time to prepare for deadlines that may be coming down the road.

In the recent presidential debates, there was a lot of mention of small businesses and how they make America tick. Also, in recent years, there has been a push for people to shop small and shop local and from this push came Small Business Saturday. People have defined owning your own business and working hard to achieve success in entrepreneurship as part of the American Dream.

With the U.S. Government's increasing focus on streamlining resources and engaging in whole-community and regional approaches to education, law enforcement, and healthcare, collaboration is a critical component of several federal grant programs.  Many organizations are already engaged in valuable and mutually beneficial collaborative projects that fit seamlessly within the guidelines of the grant to which they're applying for funding.  However, sometimes a grant's requirements might lead you down a new path of collaboration.  While there are obvious benefits to working with other organizations to accomplish a project—additional personnel and support, additional resources, broader project impact—there can also be pitfalls that result from miscommunication, different organizational objectives, and the failure of one or more partners to fulfill their responsibilities, all of which can threaten the success of the project.  There are several steps you can take in the beginning to ensure that your collaborative efforts will be more likely to result in a successful project period, increasing your likelihood of building on a successful partnership and receiving future grant awards for continued impact in your community.

Many people submit their grant application and anticipate the end of the process: notification from the funder on whether funding is approved. Of course, those who win awards understand that the notice is not the end, but a transition to a new phase in post award administration and project deployment. Unfortunately, many who are denied funding simply accept the fate of their application as the end of the road. Being notified that an application has been denied funding may be a depressing setback, but is should never be viewed as the end of the grantseeking process. Some of the most successful organizations at pulling down grants don’t win every time they submit an application. Successful organizations are denied funding and ask themselves: How do we pick up the pieces and move forward?

At least once a day someone will ask me to provide them some tips and strategies to improve their grantseeking efforts. As simple as the request sounds, it actually is a very difficult one to address. Volume is not the issue, as there are reams of information that can be provided to organizations seeking to maximize the potential of grant funding. Unfortunately, this may be an instance where the right answers are being provided but the wrong question has been asked. In other words, the problem is that when folks are seeking information at such a high and unspecified level, they usually don' t know where to start. When organizations are just getting their feet wet with grants, information overload may have the reverse effect of intimidating involved staff members to the point where they become discouraged with grant funding mechanisms and throw in the towel. This article is intended for those organizations that may be asking the wrong question and really want some feedback on where to begin.

The start of the new year means big business for gyms and fitness clubs as overstuffed holiday revelers seek to atone for their overindulgence by resolving to get in shape and lose those extra pounds. Whether or not this year's flock will stick with their goals remains to be seen, but the beginning of the year is also a great time to think about getting your grant-seeking program in shape. Whether you have yet to embark on a quest for grant funding or are a weather-beaten veteran of the process, take this opportunity to rethink your strategies, or develop an entirely new one, and make 2012 your most successful grants year yet.

By Christopher Haight
December 2011

Corporate philanthropy has long been a staple of the more socially-inclined aspects to running a company. Cash or in-kind donations to schools and nonprofits brings multiple benefits to the donor, including helping to make a positive contribution to the communities in which they do business, improving brand image and loyalty, and helping provide a small tax write-off.

With what seems like a never-ending saga of budget cuts, organizations across the country continue to seek out alternative sources of funding such as grants from different government sources or private foundations. Many of these requests, perhaps unsurprisingly, tend to be for basic operating expenses, salaries, or equipment such as new computers or technology. Even as more organizations line up to compete for grants for basic purposes, funders are actually seeking much more comprehensive projects beyond these kinds of requests.

September can be an important marker for a lot of yearly transitions - students from kindergarten to graduate school return to the classroom, Fall begins, Monday night Football returns. However, for public agencies and nonprofit organizations, it should also herald the start to a new season of grantseeking.

The United States currently faces twin economic challenges - growing the national economy (more specifically, lowering the unemployment rate) and shrinking the national debt. However, if you were to listen solely to the rhetoric and heated exchanges taking place in Washington, you could be forgiven for thinking our only problem is debt, debt, and more debt. The over 14 million individuals who remain without a job have become a tangential issue to the ongoing debate over debt.

The education funding landscape continues to evolve, especially at the Federal level where the final 2011 budget deal resulted in the elimination of many highly-anticipated grant programs. Popular programs such as Smaller Learning Communities, Enhancing Education Through Technology, Improving Literacy Through School Libraries, and Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools will not be offered this year. Other programs, such as the Teaching American History Grant, will only be available for continuation awards (meaning no new grant applications will be funded).

At the heart of the debates in Washington and in state capitals across the country is the ongoing crisis in public finance as politicians, unions, lobbyists, policy wonks, and others debate just what it will take to align revenues to outlays. With the 111^th Congress having left Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 appropriations unfinished, it remains up to the 112^th Congress not only to finish the FY2011 spending bills but also begin work on the budget for FY2012.

By Vince Siragusa
February 2011
 

In building a comprehensive grantseeking strategy, the educated grantseeker will work to diversify potential funding options. Considerations should be afforded to the usual suspects, including federal, state and foundation/corporate funding. However, depending on the structure of the would-be applicant and the nature and cost of the project(s) being considered, a number of other funding opportunities may also be at your finger tips.

A big federal agency just released a new grant that is accompanied by a guidance document filled with 150 pages of content. The guidance document contains all the granular details on the grant program, including instructions for development of the proposal and submission. The guidance document may be referred to by several names, including request for proposals (RFP), request for applications (RFA), and Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA). Based on a quick review of the information, you are considering developing a proposal under this recently released grant program. Considering the size of the guidance document, one would assume that the items and services eligible for purchase with the grant funding are clearly delineated.

The application has been submitted, the award has been drawn down, and all seems quiet on the grant front. Can you relax, now that the project planning and actual writing has been drawn to a close?

As many of us know, the release of a grant program’s guidance document usually occurs roughly six weeks before the grant’s application deadline date. In the event that a current deadline is missed, common practice indicates that a would-be applicant should be targeting a submission to the next available offering.
Don’t approach this “down time” with idle hands–understand that there is always important work to be done with the next submission in mind.

The progression of the Information Age has fundamentally altered the ways in which people interact, affecting all areas of our lives. From communicating with friends and colleagues on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to keeping up with global news (and our favorite celebrities) via feeds such as Twitter and Digg, the world in which we live has become increasingly digital, connected, and immediate.

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.

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.

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.

In the grants world, "matching funds" means bringing two different funding sources together for one project. Match or cost-share requirements are minimum amounts of funding that must be derived from a source other grant funder. The purpose of match requirements is usually to promote collaborative efforts, as discussed in the July issue of GO Know, and/or demonstrate the ability of your organization to sustain a project beyond the life of a specific grant.

The grants world is full of any number of variables that must be defined. To which grant program should I apply? How much time do I have for proposal development? Is there a need for collaboration? Will my project fit into the eligible expenses of the grant program?

These are a few of the many grant questions for which grant answers are necessary. By developing a familiarity with the funding opportunities and an understanding of how the system works, you will quickly begin to address some of these gaps.