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?”

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...

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...

    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....

Dear Readers, Historians tell us to learn from our past; our mistakes, triumphs, war, and peace.  A notion echoed in the ubiquotous quote originally attributed to George Santayana, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”  The same can be said of grants.   Most grants come about on an annual cycle, with similar deadlines, award amounts, and eligibility.  This essentially leaves applicants with a never ending cycle of funding opportunities.  To learn from your peers, grant...

    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...

Dear Readers, As fall comes to a close and much of the world prepares itself for the impending months of another undoubtedly (especially here in Upstate New York) brutal winter, there appears a single glimmer of hope, a North Star of funding if you will, that is AFG. The Assistance to Firefighters Grants program is often the staple of funding for fire departments all over the country, hence its competitive nature.  In this issue of FUNDED our resident AFG expert, Dan Casion takes us through...

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...

It’s the beginning of autumn and the leaves are starting to turn colors.   Election-season is in full gear, accompanied by harsh rhetoric across the political spectrum and intrusive television ads interrupting your local news broadcast.     

September 30th marks the end of another federal fiscal year and a government shutdown looms unless both chambers of Congress and the President can come to a budget agreement.

Stop me if this sounds familiar… because it could be any year in the last half-decade that this was written.  February 2nd is still months away, but we have reached Groundhog Day (or would season be more appropriate?) once again in America when it comes to funding the federal government....

Dear Readers, The coming of autumn often brings with it beautiful colors, the smell of burning leaves, a distinct chill in the air, and, in recent years, a drawn out battle to pass a federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year. A delayed federal budget does not only have repercussions for public, government owned entities such as zoos and libraries, it also effects Federal Agencies responsible for grant making.  Thus, delays in releasing grant programs caused by an incomplete federal budget...

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 -...

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...

The October/November 2014 issue of FUNDED is now available for download. 

Download the October/November 2014 issue of FUNDED here.

The November 2013 issue of FUNDED is now available for download.

 

 

The August 2013 Issue of Funded is now available for download.