This document provides guidance on successfully obtaining grant funding. It outlines several key steps: [1] determining if you are qualified for the funding by meeting the grantor's eligibility criteria; [2] understanding what programs and issues the grantor wants to support to ensure your proposal aligns with their goals; [3] assessing your agency's capacity and resources needed to implement the proposed program. It emphasizes the importance of thorough planning, having clear and measurable goals, demonstrating need through data, following all application instructions, and understanding the grantor's perspective and priorities.

1. How to Successfully Obtain Grant
Funding --
And Be Glad You Did
Keys to successful grant applications

2. Keys to successful grant
applications
• Are you qualified?
• Understanding what the funders wants to
support
• Assessing agency capacity and resources
needed to operate the program
• Planning
• What makes an application strong

3. Are you qualified?
• Grant funds are usually restricted to
applications from certain groups or
jurisdictions, such as a not-for-profit agency or
a unit of state or local government
• Funders specify how you can document that
you are a qualified agency, such as 501(c ) 3
status.

4. Are you qualified?
• Funders may require specific certifications or
licenses necessary to apply for funding
• Grantors may require audit reports to indicate
that your agency finances are in good order

5. Are you qualified?
Federal grants require specific certifications
See the companion training on this site:
Insert link or picture of training here

6. What does the funder want to
support?
• Type of organization
• Issue or need
• Type of program
• Program model
• Target population

7. Consider if the program you want to
build matches the funder’s
objectives

8. Planning
START WITH A REALISTIC
ASSESSMENT OF BOTH CAPABILITY
AND COMMITMENT

9. Planning
• Assessing grant requirements
• Assessing you agency capacity to meet them
• Assessing the investment necessary to
implement the program

10. PLANNING:
• What will it take within my
organization to apply?
• What will it take within my
organization to make the
program happen?

11. Can you make the necessary
investments?
• Time and effort
• Matching funds
• Political capital within your jurisdiction
or community

12. Staff time and effort for:
• Research
• Writing
• Program planning
• Program implementation
• Reporting

13. Partnerships
• Does the grant require formal partnerships or
Memoranda of Understanding (MOU)?
• What agencies will I need to cooperate in this
project?
• How can I get their cooperation?

14. Getting to your goal
• Define your goale: what do you want to
change?
• What evidence or data will you need to collect
from the beginning of the project to
demonstrate program performance?
• How will you know when you’re successful?

15. Will commitment be there in the
future?
• How can I build long-term support for the
program before it starts?
• How can I demonstrate the value of this
program to my stakeholders?

16. Soft and hard match
Soft or in-kind match is the
dedication of an existing resource to
the new program, such as office
space or a supervisor's time

17. Soft and hard match
Hard or cash match is a new resource
spent on a new expense, such as
additional office space for the
program or overtime for the
supervisor

18. Don’t supplant
•Cardinal rule of federal grant
making
•Supplanting is the replacement of
an existing resource with grant
funding

19. Procurement guidelines
Procurements must be competitive:
•Public posting of job openings
•IFBs, RFPs
•At least three quotes
•Sole source procurements

20. Subcontracting
•Not all grants allow subcontracting
•Check the grant guidelines for the rules
before you write your grant
•Build the time it take to procure the
vendor services into your plan to build the
program

21. Cash flow:
•How are funds disbursed?
•How often are they disbursed?
•Do you have the cash flow to run
the program if disbursals are
delayed?

22. Define your problem before you
seek funding
•How do you know you have a
problem?
•What does the data say?

23. Find a solution to a problem, not
a program in search of a problem

24. Planning questions
• Continuing salaries without continuing
funding?
• How long will it take to achieve your
objective?

25. Application development
DO THE JOB RIGHT

26. Here are the Rules

27. Read and follow instructions --
ALL OF THEM

28. Take advantage of any and all
technical assistance
--
Find out what the grantor is looking
for before you invest your time

29. Follow the rules the Funder
specifies

30. Follow the timelines
Read the materials before
the deadline is looming

31. Be thorough, but concise
•Complete all the
information
•Answer all the questions,
don’t just fill space

32. Focus: No kitchen sink
applications

33. Scoring competitive
applications
Pay attention to the scoring
criteria and meet them

34. Ask for feedback…
-- both good and bad
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35. Learn from your mistakes, even
when you get funded

36. Build local cooperation/networks
now, not just when you need the
grant

37. Some common errors

38. Lack of goals and measurable
objectives
See related training on this site
(insert link or picture)

39. If you ask for equipment,
make sure you have
demonstrated in the proposal
why it will be necessary

40. Do your research

41. Document your problem by
citing numbers

42. Check your math --
Does the data make sense?
Does your budget add up?
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43. Document your ability to get
the job done

44. Try to understand the
Grantor's perspective:

45. What does the grantor need
to achieve with these funds
when we look at the big
picture?

46. Remember…
funding is not an end in itself,
but a means to an end.