Increasing the Capacity of Individuals, Families and Communities

Acquiring Public Grants

Assessing Your Readiness to Apply for Funding | Planning Your Proposal

Grant Acquisition Process

Finding the Right Grant Sources
Once you’ve identified which agencies describe serve your client population and share an interest in the problem you want to address, then you are ready to begin searching for specific funding opportunities.

All Federal grant opportunities must be announced to the public through the Federal Register. In addition to the RFPs and RFAs we have mentioned, these announcements may also be called Program Announcements, Notices of Fund Availability (NOFAs) or Solicitations for Grant Applications (SGAs). The grant announcements will contain information about who is eligible, how to apply, how to get the grant applications package, the grant requirements, the proposal content requirements, due dates and how to contact the agency for additional information.

Examining the Grant Announcement
Though different agencies and programs have different grant announcement and solicitation formats, many typically include at least the following elements:

• Agency Name: identifies the department, agency and program putting out the notice and the purpose of the notice
• CFDA Number: the identifying number in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, the Federal government’s primary grant program listing
• Summary: gives an overview of the program and services being sought by the solicitation.
• Dates: identifies the deadline for submitting an application (response to the notice) and describes the methods of submitting the application
• Mailing and Delivery Instructions: gives the address to deliver the application
• "For further information" Paragraph: provides information on how to obtain forms/applications and who to contact with any questions
• Supplementary Information: the most substantial portion of the announcements and generally contains the following sections:
  • Background: includes the authority for the grant funding, the purpose of program, the size of the grants to be awarded and any definitions specific to the program
  • Eligibility: defines who can apply for the grants
  • Application Requirements: lists the elements required for the application to be reviewed. There are two parts: the technical proposal (program) and the cost proposal (budget)
  • Evaluation Criteria and Selection Process: describes the information that must be contained in the technical and cost proposals and the maximum points that may be awarded for each criterion during the rating process
  • Deliverables: requirements for grant recipients to fulfill this specific grant, such as formal reports, studies, or progress reports (NOTE: not all SGAs or RFPs have this element)
  • Assurances and Certifications: lists the agency regulations and government-wide requirements that are applicable to the different categories of grant recipients, as well as any additional grant specific requirements

A good example of all the various components of the grant announcement is the 2003 Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) announcement that can be accessed at the HHS Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI) website, www.hhs.gov/fbci/. After you have found the program and funding source that meets your needs, read the program announcement or RFP carefully and become thoroughly familiar with all of the requirements. (Once you decide to apply, you may even want to create a comprehensive checklist to ensure your application is complete.) Also, review any associated rules and regulations that are referenced in the RFP or announcement. You will need to review the applicable sections of the Code of Federal of Federal Regulations (CFR) as published in the Federal Register. This is where the government-wide and agency grant requirements are published. A partial list of these regulations is included in the Resources section of the Appendix.

Know the Program’s History
It may also be helpful to research the funding agency’s grant history to help you understand the agency’s interests and what kinds of programs and which organizations have been funded in the past. This kind of information may be listed in "Announcements of Grants Awarded" available on Federal agency websites. While it may take some time to work through the process, you may be able to request copies of successful proposals from the program officer under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). All Federal agencies are required under the (FOIA) to disclose records, with some exceptions, that are requested in writing by any person. (More information on the FOIA is available at www.usdoj.gov/04foia/.) Each agency has a point of contact responsible for responding to such requests. The FOIA points of contact can be found at their respective agency’s website.

Making the Decision to Apply
Once you have identified the community needs (as described above) and have determined your eligibility for funds that are applicable to address the needs, you should secure the commitment of your key stakeholders (e.g., board members, contributors, volunteers, advisors, clients and staff), potential partners and community supporters. Note the following key issues that organizations in the process of making the commitment to proceed must explore:

1. Staff Capacity to Complete the Application
Successful grant writing is a time and labor-intensive job. It requires full-time attention and the ability to access, review, organize and translate a lot of information into a concise and coherent document. You will need strong writing skills, financial planning and budgeting skills, program design expertise and research and evaluation skills to fully respond to the application requirements and to increase the possibilities of writing a successful application.

If you are new to grant writing, consider attending a technical assistance workshop or taking a grant writing class, often offered through local community colleges and other organizations. The Grantsmanship Center offers online grant writing assistance to organizations and conducts classes in communities across the country. Online resources are available at www.tgci.com/.

You can also visit the CFDA website and review its guide, Developing and Writing Grant Proposals, at www.cfda.gov/public/cat-writing.htm for step-by-step instructions about writing grant proposals. State, county and city governments may also have resources available to assist organizations in seeking grants. If you do not have the necessary skills on your staff, you may need to seek the help of a professional grant writer or other consultants in order to write a successful grant application.

2. Hiring a Consultant
Hiring someone outside your organization may be a good choice if you or your staff lacks the time, experience or expertise to produce a well-researched and well-written proposal. Contracting with a consultant may be a better, less expensive option than trying to hire a new staff person to prepare the application. The right consultant can enable your organization to seek more funding from a wider variety of sources and free your staff to carry out their regular duties.

Here are some tips on hiring consultants:¹

• Local funders and other agencies can provide information about consultants in your community who have done similar work. One such example is your local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), an organization of professional fundraisers and grant writers that operate according to a set of ethical principals and rules.
• Be clear about what you want the consultant to do. Will he or she primarily work with one person or a team of people? Will the consultant write the entire document, or will others have writing responsibilities? Do not enter into an agreement until all parties are clear about expectations.
• Interview several consultants to find the right "fit" for your organization and one with whom you are comfortable. The consultation process will be much more fruitful if you have a good relationship with the consultant.
• Make sure your board of directors and senior staff support hiring a consultant and are willing to make the financial investment in the service.
• Be clear about deadlines and other specifics. It is important to have staff input throughout the process and to have a periodic internal review process. Make sure that this is clear upfront and incorporate it into the consulting agreement.
• Understand the consultant’s fees and payment requirements, as consultants have a variety of ways of charging for their services (e.g., an hourly fee, by project or a retainer). Regardless, be sure that you understand the basis of the fee and when and how it must be paid.
• Contingency fees are generally not a good idea and are usually unallowable costs. The Association of Fundraising Professionals ethics statement notes its members should not be compensated based on a percentage of funds raised. Most funders will not fund this cost as part of the grant.
• Consultants are not responsible for determining your program concept, program design or objectives. They can help with researching the program, determining best practices, defining the approach and presentation, finding statistics to support your case and perhaps help with designing your evaluation, but they cannot determine your target population, staff requirements or budget. You must develop this information.
• You are responsible for the relationship with the funding agency. The consultant cannot represent your interests to the funding agency.
• Provide complete information to the consultant in a timely fashion so the consultant can meet your deadlines.
• You are responsible for reviewing and approving the proposal and implementing it. Work with your consultant in the writing process to make sure that what is written is what you can deliver.

3. A Team Approach
If you do not hire a consultant, it is generally not advised to have one person "do" the whole process, from planning to final proposal. Having one person do everything—planning, writing, reviewing and editing—may result in a one-dimensional proposal. There may be gaps in the proposal that a single planner/writer/reviewer may not see.²

More Helpful Resources About Grant Writing   Visit the HUD’s Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Toolkit Match webpage at www.hud.gov/offices/fbci/tkmatch.cfm. This page has links to a variety of grant writing and organization capacity-building resources. Assistance may also be available from one of the 21 organizations funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) in 2002. These organizations provide technical assistance for small faith-based and community organizations and can help with the grant writing process at no cost. You can learn more about the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) and the technical assistance organizations it funds at www.hhs.gov/fbci.		The one-person approach can also lead to implementation difficulties. Typically, the person who writes the grant is not the person solely responsible for implementing the program. Conflict can arise if those responsible for implementing have not been involved in writing the proposal. Therefore, it is generally best to have a team work with a writer/editor on the proposal. The approach takes many skills, ideas and perspectives into account and results in a well-rounded proposal. A single writer/editor working with a team can ensure a consistent writing style while also covering all of the important aspects of the program. Your team should include your organization’s top-level staff, those responsible for implementation, the organizations who will be partners in delivering the program, the person responsible for evaluation and the financial person responsible for developing the budget. The team can provide information, ideas and perspective that will support the grant writer’s effort and review the proposal as it is developed to help ensure that it is concise, logical, accurate, complete and realistic.
If you have identified the funding source that is consistent with your mission, secured the support of your stakeholders, and have identified the team members who will put the application together, you are now ready to move forward with making a proposal for public funding.

Assessing Your Readiness to Apply for Funding | Planning Your Proposal