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 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.

Along with the changing colors of the leaves, Autumn brings with it the release of several health professional education grants. These grants, offered through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), are meant to overcome health professional shortages in urban, rural and medically underserved areas. These grants are usually led by an appropriate institution of higher education (IHE) in partnership with healthcare facilities that serve as clinical rotation sites for students. The following is a primer on what funding opportunities we are expecting to open soon as well as a few tips for developing a competitive proposal.

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.

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.

Telemedicine enables health care providers the ability to return to their roots. By leveraging video conferencing, these providers can provide primary and specialty therapeutic services to patients and areas of the country that lack medical resources. Fortunately, telemedicine is a prime example of a technology that enables health care access directly, making such initiatives very fundable through grants. 

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.

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...

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

    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....

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....

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...

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.

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

 

 

Since 2000, ESSCP grants have supported a broad range of counseling programs that tackle student achievement and self esteem to mental health and family services. This year’s program includes priorities for school engagement, environment, and safety, as well as for military-connected students.

At this time in 2012, it was pretty clear that CMS was not thrilled with the process of, or response to, the Health Care Innovation Challenge, and it would ultimately be a one-and-done funding opportunity.  However, if you were paying close attention during the first round, the messaging from CMS has been anything but consistent.

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.

On January 7, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission announced a new funding program that will make up to $400 million available annually to support modern telemedicine initiatives by providing a discount on high speed broadband service to providers. The program, entitled the "Healthcare Connect Fund," is designed to build on the FCC's Rural Healthcare pilot program and will transform the Commission's healthcare-related broadband initiative into a permanent support fixture.

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.”

By Chris LaPage

June 2012

The link between grant programs and the legislative and executive branches of government is relatively clear.  Many grant programs are written directly into federal legislation that is passed by members of Congress and signed by the President.  Even if specific grant programs are not created through the legislation, funds may be provided to an executive branch agency with explicit authorization to address a particular purpose area, often times resulting in the creation of grant programs.   Thus, when the TEA Party made strides in 2010 elections and Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, everyone wondered what the impact over the next decade on grant programs funded through the Affordable Care Act (also known as ACA or Health Care Reform Legislation).

You need not look any further than the recently released nursing education grants from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) to know that a major shift has occurred with how the federal government will allocate funds for health professional education.   Despite the fact that the evidence of its effectiveness is only moderate at best, the United States Department of Health & Human Services has gone all-in with its preference to fund health professional education projects that incorporate inter-professional education models.   While scholarly research on the effectiveness of inter-professional education methodologies compared to traditional techniques is not conclusive, it is hard to find fault with the logic behind such strategies.  With the proliferation of medical homes and emphasis on patient-centered care, health professional rarely practice in environments isolated to a single discipline.  It makes sense that if health care is to be delivered with a team-based approach; education settings should mimic such principles.

As would-be applicants to the Health Care Innovation Challenge across the country are learning, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services' monstrous $1 billion program aimed at innovating health care and payment models in an effort to save money is no walk in the park.
By December 19, 2011, CMS had received well over 10,000 letters of intent for the program. While a significant percentage of these LOIs will probably not result in full proposal submissions, interest in the program has been unsurprisingly overwhelming. With the January 27 deadline looming, project developers, writers, and other grants professionals are knee-deep in the murky program requirements, which call for a tightly-knit forty-page narrative and a complex total cost of care savings plan, among other elements.

The health sector grant funding landscape is abuzz with excitement. The new Health Care Innovation Challenge program is providing $1 billion in funding for projects that offer innovations in service delivery and payment modeling. The primary target population for the funding are those individuals enrolled in CMS insurance programs, which includes Medicare, Medicaid, and Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). While applicants can address other populations, the project will not be funded unless one of the three CMS-insured populations are incorporated at some level.

When the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced major changes in their upcoming slate of well-known nursing education programs for Fiscal Year 2012, many people started to panic . One change in particular, inter-professional education, which is being emphasized across all of their programs, has received mixed reviews. While the academic jury is still out on the effectiveness of inter-professional education methodologies compared to traditional nursing programs, HRSA has went all-in on supporting such models. For instance, the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention Program (NEPQR) will fund three-year demonstration projects in inter-professional education in the context of advancing the diverse priorities applicants are able to target historically under the program. In the past, HRSA funding under this program was limited to educating nursing personnel exclusively.

Congratulations! You put together a competitive proposal under BTOP and were fortunate enough to be funded. Now you are in a position to provide broadband to all these previously underserved communities. There's just one problem: The community anchor institutions (CAIs) in your area do not have the financial resources to implement their broadband-intensive projects. Fortunately, grant programs are available for CAIs to fund their initiatives, which can have a direct impact in increasing demand for broadband infrastructure.

With Healthcare, one thing you can count on for certain is that it typically trails other industries by at least a decade in terms of the latest trends. While other sectors started moving away from file cabinets and towards electronic records in the early 1990s, the health industry is just starting to see significant uptake of electronic health records. However, it seems that many healthcare organizations are intent on following the latest trends towards utilization of mobile electronic devices, or mHealth. Indeed, many health care organizations are utilizing custom mobile applications to turn smart phones and other devices into personal health assistants.

For many in the first responder community, the looming January 1, 2013 deadline will inevitably mark a day of reckoning. As many of us know, the Federal Communications Commission’s forthcoming narrowbanding requirements call for each current 25 kHz legacy wideband channel to be divided into two 12.5 kHz narrowband channels, thereby resulting in twice the number of available frequencies for communication and information sharing needs to be met. Failure to comply with this narrowbanding deadline will result in a loss of licensed communication and possible FCC fines.

There are all kinds of disasters that require emergency response. Some of them occur naturally like pandemic influenza and hurricanes. Others are man-made disasters such as exploding bombs and other terrorist attacks. No matter the cause, health care providers play an essential role in the aftermath of these events, caring for the sick and wounded. In addition, health care entities play a major role in preventing certain catastrophes like the spread of infectious diseases. States and other regulatory agencies require hospitals and other health care organizations to be prepared for and able to respond to such emergencies.

In the health sector, money continues to flow from the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF), originally created in the health reform legislation passed in FY 2010 (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). The PPHF was created in the same vein as its predecessor from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Prevention and Wellness Fund (PWF). However, while PWF represented a one-time appropriation with limited impact, the PPHF has real dollars committed to it for the next 10 years. In total, the PPHF represents a $15 billion investment over the next decade in community-wide efforts to prevent disease and manage chronic conditions by detecting and controlling them before they become severe and require costly interventions.

Anyone paying attention to the health sector grant funding landscape is certain to see several opportunities each year specifically designed for rural health networks. Under these programs, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) distributes the majority of federal dollars available to formally organized rural health networks, which usually requires a pre-existing relationship (prior to grant announcement), while some is reserved for entities in the planning stages of network development. In Fiscal Year 2012 alone, HRSA has committed $17.2 million in funding for rural health networks. Since most of the commitments are for multi-year projects, the real funding total over the next three years will exceed $50 million.

So you have checked a few items off your list: (1) You determined you are an eligible health care provider, (2) You have calculated an estimate incentive payment and realize what's at stake in terms of reimbursement, (3) You have begun the registration process with CMS (Medicare) or the agency in your state administering the Medicaid program, and (4) You have reviewed and completely understand the various objectives and measures that your EHR system must meet in order to prove meaningful use and capitalize on the incentives.

The USDA's Distance Learning and Telemedicine (or DLT) program is one of the most popular annual federal grant programs. Highly competitive, the DLT program makes awards ranging from $50,000 to $500,000 for organizations that provide education or healthcare telecommunications services to rural populations. DLT also has one of the more complex application packages, and requires applicants to provide population tables, maps, and poverty rates for each proposed service area (end-users), as well as hub sites from which services will be delivered.

So you have checked a few items off your list: (1) You determined you are an eligible health care provider, (2) You have calculated an estimate incentive payment and realize what's at stake in terms of reimbursement, (3) You have begun the registration process with CMS (Medicare) or the agency in your state administering the Medicaid program, and (4) You purchased an EHR system that is certified by the Office of the National Coordinator Authorized and Testing Certification Body.

Unless you have been hibernating in a cave for the past year, everyone connected to healthcare has been hearing the buzz words - Certified EHR Technology, Incentives, and Meaningful Use. The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentives were included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, but registration just recently opened as payments will be dished out for the first time in 2011. Almost $20 billion is available to encourage the adoption of electronic health care records by health care providers across the United States.

By Chris LaPage
December 2010

The biggest news for the health sector funding landscape came in the form of the election results from November. The fact that the Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives (House) has fueled speculation that the health reform package that was passed earlier this year may be repealed. The health reform legislation, which is known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), included appropriations for several demonstration projects and grant programs that are scheduled to open over the next several fiscal years. While the exact dollar amount is unknown, it is estimated that the total amount available through PPACA grants will reach ten figures. Many of the Republicans that came to office as part of the TEA Party (Taxed Enough Already) movement ran on a platform of repealing PPACA.

HHS recently announced over $390 million in federal funding for the Hospital Preparedness Program. This is federal funding that passes through state health departments to health care providers. Fiscal year 2010 is the first year that the federal government is requiring a 10% match on federal funds. In other words, states and local providers must commit at least $1 for every $10 in federal contributions.

If you are paying close attention to the health care funding landscape, a new phrase and abbreviation has entered the grants lexicon. Many opportunities being released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are being prefaced with "Affordable Care Act" or "ACA". Apparently, this is the consensus designation for grants authorized through the health reform legislation, or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The ACA has authorized several grant programs over the next decade to address workforce development and professional shortages in the health arena, improve health care quality overall, and fund the deployment of comprehensive care management delivery models.

In the health care arena, it would be inaccurate to claim that the funding realm has fully shifted to the "life after the recovery act" phase. After all, ARRA funds continue to flow through grant programs such as Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW). CPPW provides funding to local and state health departments in their efforts to promote prevention and wellness, particularly in the areas of smoking, obesity and physical fitness.