Being successful in applying for government-funded grants, at the state or federal level, requires a focused approach with pre-planning and a supportive grant team. There are two critical components that you should have in place, ideally, and begin utilizing prior to an RFP (request for proposals) or NOFA (notice of funding availability) being released which you plan to apply for:
1 – Pre-Planning Process
2 – Grant Team
While you can be successful with a state or federal grant application without having one of these components in place, you significantly increase your competitiveness in the process, if you include both practices in your grant seeking approach.
Pre-Planning Process
What exactly is pre-planning for a grant application? Pre-planning for a grant application means you are completing required registrations in advance of an application being released, you are conducting initial program and budget design conversations, and you are bringing collaborative partners to the table. All three of these key tasks take a significant amount of time and effort and are therefore most effective when not forced into a short time frame due to a 30- or 60-day RFP response time for a grant application.
The registration process, whether for the federal government or individual state, is documentation heavy and dependent on online approvals in many cases. Registering with grants.gov has an average time of two weeks. Each state has its own required registration system in order to be eligible for its funding - whether directly from the state or as pass through from the federal government. For example, registering as a nonprofit in New York State through its Grants Gateway has an average time of one to two weeks.
Program and budget design are often a complicated tango with a back and forth between whether program is leading the way or if budget is setting the parameters for program design. Working through these conversations so the proposed model is airtight, prior to the application being released, allows for ample time to then craft the most competitive and compelling application.
Bringing collaborative partners together early in the process, prior to an application being released, allows for more authentic collaboration rather than just cooperation and support of a project. Whether a formal memorandum of understanding or agreement is being created, or rather a simple letter of commitment, providing your partners the opportunity to be involved in program and budget design conversations as appropriate, will result in a more effective program design.
Grant Team
A grant team is often formed during the pre-planning stages, but is then utilized throughout the application and grant implementation phases of the grant life cycle. A grant team may be assembled for only one application, or may be the same core group of individuals for all applications, depending on the organization. A grant team is typically an informal group of individuals that support the creation and submission of a grant application. The team may have an internal grant professional leading the group, or it may have a different internal staff champion, with an external grant professional supporting the group. The rest of the team is brought to the table, based on the information they need to provide for a successful application, or the role that they will play either in program/budget design or grant implementation should the project be funded.
What roles are typically represented on successful grant teams?
- Head grant writer/professional;
- Finance director/staff;
- Program director/vice president/manager that will be responsible managing the implementation of the program;
- Grant manager for funded programs in your organization, if that role is different than the grant writer;
- Architect/engineer for municipal related projects;
- Representatives from your collaborative partners for the project; and
- Your evaluator/data guru (whether they be internal or external).
Addressing both your pre-planning needs and forming your grant team prior to an application that you are interested in will enable you to be more competitive in the process and ensure that all stakeholders have the opportunity to be involved in the grant application development and submission.
