Untapped Resources: Finding and Applying for Grant Funding Presented by Stephanie Lezotte Pre-Award Contracting Officer Rowan University Office of Sponsored Programs Submitting a grant application can be compared to a business where income must be earned via a competitive process. Like a business proposal, your grant proposal is the presentation of your work to the persons (sponsors) who will decide whether they want to invest in your idea (proposal). Therefore, a major goal of a grant application is to convey important points in an efficient, succinct, and interesting manner. There are some less known or less used tactics that can increase your success of funding, and I called these Untapped Resources (highlighted in blue).

Funding Trends and Outlook In 2009, foundations gave 27% of funds to: Education, Health, Human Services, Public Affairs/Society. In 2009, economically disadvantaged populations benefited from the largest share of foundation grant dollars (29%) and grants (25%). In 2010, foundations gave $45.7B, nearly unchanged from 2009 and just 2.1% under 2008’s record high of $46.8B FY12 federal budget requests $148B for R&D overall, with $32B going to the NIH As of this month, only 80% of ARRA funds have been awarded. First I want to give you some general funding trends and outlook. The sources for this data is included in your handouts in case you’d like more details. In 2009, foundations gave 27% of funds to: Education, Health, Human Services, Public Affairs/Society. In 2009, economically disadvantaged populations benefited from the largest share of foundation grant dollars (29%) and grants (25%). In 2010, foundations gave $45.7B, nearly unchanged from 2009 and just 2.1% under 2008’s record high of $46.8B—good news for foundation giving. FY12 federal budget requests $148B for R&D overall, with $32B going to the NIH, so you can see where governmental funding priority lies. As of this month, only 80% of ARRA funds have been awarded. This is important to nonprofits because some of those ARRA funds come to the state, who then award local institutions, so there is still a chance to get some of this money.

Qualify your Project A project should: Prevent or reduce a community problem or research a major issue facing society Help a targeted population Attack problems through creative, innovative programs, or services Result in gaining new knowledge about how to prevent and reduce a problem Disseminate the new knowledge to others Be easily replicated You should start with an idea, do not seek an idea to fund. Know what you seek to fund, how much you are seeking, and the strength/viability of the project. Know your competition and know what’s been done before---and don’t repeat it unless new data have emerged. Not all projects are fundable—need to keep an open mind and be accepting of rejection. (READ) That does not mean that other projects will not be funded. Funds for capital expenditures (those that update your infrastructure or increase your physical assets) are available but are harder to acquire. But the funder is also thinking in their best interest what it is that will make their organization look good.

Seek Funding Finding NOFA’s (Notice of Funding Availability) AKA: RFP, RFA, CFP/CFA, FOA, PA Guidestar.org is a free resource that provides information on Foundations, including recent 990s. Foundation Center is a free online research tool providing basic information about grant-seeking process. Foundation Directory Online: Subscription-based foundation database of funding opportunities. Closest center is at the Free Library in Philadelphia. www.grants.gov. Search and apply for any federal funding opportunity. There is a free notification service that will send you updates on opportunities that fit your criteria. www.nj.gov/nj/gov/grants.html See if a local university or organization is willing to grant access to their funding database. Once you qualified your project, the search for funding begins. Funding announcements have many different names and I listed some of those acronyms here for you: RFP is a common one and the one I will use throughout the presentation (Request for Proposal), as is FOA (Funding Opportunity Announcement), and PA (Program Announcement). Here’s a list of basic sources to get you started. (READ)

Proactively Seek Funding Review past RFP’s and awards: 1) Check sponsor’s webpage. Check 990s for recent awards. 2) Ask the awardee. 3) Utilize the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with federal funders and Open Public Records Act (OPRA) with NJ State funders. Develop a relationship with the Program Officer (PO). You might be directed toward a more relevant program or be discouraged from submitting a proposal. Discover funding opportunities before they’re announced. Use your network to learn about programs that are in the pipeline and begin assembling your proposal early. But you need to do more than just look at a Foundation snapshot on Guidestar. Start by looking at past RFPs and awards. Check the sponsor’s website for abstracts of awards or check their 990s for a list of awards. Once you identify the awards, you can ask if the awardee is willing to share a copy of the awarded proposal. This will give you a good sample of what to do. If not, there might be a reason: the proposal may contain proprietary information or introduce a breakthrough idea. A last resort is to use FOIA to request federal award records and OPRA to request NJ award records, but use them wisely; it likely will not gain you friends if you go over the head of the author that has already denied you a copy. I will stress this over and over: develop a relationship with the Program Officer. The PO will provide guidance on the submission process and give you honest feedback about the likelihood of success. Use the PO and your other contacts to learn about programs that will be announced in the near future and get a headstart on grant writing, especially if you have limited manpower.

What do Grant Reviewers Look for? *Ask the Program Officer* Completeness and thoroughness. Ways to further funder’s own purpose and interest. Organizational capabilities. If you can’t do it all, partner with someone who can help. Sustainability. Presentation. The “Wow!” factor. While review criteria is usually stated in the RFP, another untapped resource is really knowing what grant reviewers do and what they want to see in an application. You can learn more by asking the Program Officer what successful applications contain and what declined applications fail to do. In my experience, grant reviewers generally look for the following: (CLICK) Whether the proposal answers all the questions that the reviewer needs to make an informed and intelligent decision, and does this clearly and concisely. Manually check that you have addressed every section of an RFP. (CLICK) Whether by supporting this request, the funder can further its own purpose and interest as a grant-maker. (CLICK) Whether the organization/group can do the job. Whether/how gaps in expertise are addressed. (CLICK) How will you continue the project effort once the initial funding runs out? (CLICK) Presentation is everything. Follow application instructions EXACTLY. Ask colleagues to proofread. Leave plenty of white space. Use clear headings and subheadings. (CLICK) Remember, funders are reading hundreds of applications-yours needs to stand out. In our heads, every idea we have is a good one—the trick is convincing others of the same.

Common Grant Writing Mistakes Isn’t clear what differentiates the idea from previous projects. Project is too ambitious. Sent to the wrong program/not a priority topic. Collaborations not used wisely. Did not completely respond to the RFP. Quality of writing is poor. Gave up - Finding funding takes time. Ignore fear of rejection and don’t take it personally. Be prepared to revise and resubmit. Complexity will not win you funding nor will use of buzzwords and jargon without substance. The power of your ideas and your organization’s qualifications to carry out the work will win the award.

Typical Proposal Components Project Title Abstract/Summary Background/History/Current Need Project Description/Project Narrative Constituency Served/Outreach Project Goals/Objectives/Aims Method to Accomplish Goals/Methodology/Workplan Anticipated Outcomes/Deliverables Evaluation/Assessment Budget Budget Justification/Budget Narrative These are typical proposal components and the terminology will vary by sponsor, so I included various names for the components so you can identify them in an RFP. There is a separate handout that includes tips for each of these sections.  

Resources Searching: www.guidestar.org www.grants.gov www.cfda.gov www.grantsmart.org www.fedconnect.net www.nj.gov/nj/gov/grants.html Writing: www.grantcenter.org www.proposalwriter.com www.foundationcenter.org Stephanie Lezotte lezotte@rowan.edu or 856-256-4124