Are You Grant Ready?: Laying the Foundation forSuccessful Grant Seeking

Are You Grant Ready?: Laying the Foundation for
Successful Grant Seeking
October 2014
Facilitated by Rachel Werner, MPA, GPC, PMP

Agenda
2
 Introductions
 Overview of grants
 Grants lifecycle
 Additional grants considerations
 Common pitfalls and challenges
 Hands-on: Completing Grant Readiness Scan
 Summary Q&A

Introductions
3
 Name
 Organization
 Position
 Current grants program
 Challenges concerning pursuit of grant funding
 What do you hope to gain from this class?

Facilitator Introduction
 Rachel Werner, Founder of RBW Strategy, LLC
 Based in Washington, DC metro area
 11 years of grant seeking, grants management and
project management experience with government,
non-profit and corporate entities
 Grants Management Certificate, Certified Grants
Professional, and Project Management Professional
 Provides grants and project management support
to clients with issues related to grants lifecycle
issues from pre-award to post-award, as well as
strategic planning, project management and
operations improvement activities
4

Overview of Grants
5
Discussion Questions 1:
Why do you seek grants for your organization? Is
this part of a larger organizational strategy or
fundraising strategy, a board member/executive
leader’s focus, or is this what you have always
done?

Overview of Grants
6
Grant = a sum of money given by a governmental agency,
or private funding source, for a particular purpose.
What do grant funds typically support?
 General operating budget
 A specific project or program
 Capital improvements
 Capacity building
 Special event
 Meeting or conference
 Sponsorships or scholarships

Overview of Grants
7
What types of entities award grants?
 Government agencies (Federal, State, Local)
 Private foundations (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
 Corporate foundations (AT&T Foundation)
 Family foundations (Bezos Family Foundation)
 Community foundations (Northern VA Community
Foundation)
 Corporations (through the corporation itself not the
foundation arm of the business)

Overview of Grants
8
Funding Instruments
 Discretionary Grant = Competition-based to secure an
award through a specific funding stream. Typically
applications requested through a Request for Proposals
(RFP) or Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA)
 Formula Grant = Government funding directed towards
a specific group based on a formula for how funding
should be distributed (i.e. Food Stamps)
 Cooperative Agreements = Typically awarded through
the Federal government and request substantial
involvement of grantor, as this is a partnership
between grantee and grantor

Grants Lifecycle
9
Do you understand the requirements to manage
a grant throughout its lifecycle? Do you spend
most of your time on a particular phase? Do you
know why it is important to be a strong grants
manager, and how this relates to grant seeking?

Grants Lifecycle
10
Funding
Research
Application
Development
Award and
Project Start-
up
Award
Management
and Monitoring
Project
Closeout

Grants Lifecycle
11
Prospect Research
 Review grantors’ requirements and create list of prospects
 Determine potential fit with grantors’ priorities
 Alignment of potential grantors (government, private) to
organization’s fundraising strategy, and grantors’
deadlines
Proposal Development
 Compile financial, programmatic, and organizational data
required to complete proposal
 Prepare proposal(s) in advance of deadlines and review for
accuracy

Grants Lifecycle
12
Award and Project Start-up
 Grantor notifies grantee of grant through written
communication (typically notice of award)
 Grantee begins to expend funds and implement grant as
indicated in the proposal
 Establish internal controls to manage and track
programmatic and financial components of grant
Award Management and Monitoring
 Provide grantor with financial and programmatic reports,
meeting attendance and/or other requirements specified
in the notice of award
 Gather data to effectively evaluate success in how grant
funds are expended, and ensure quality control

Grants Lifecycle
13
Project Closeout
 Expend all grant funds provided by the grantor
 Provide final reports as requested
 Ensure alignment of actual and budgeted expenditures
 Maintain files on all grants for 5 years

Additional Grants Considerations
14
Discussion Question 3:
Besides the common activities required
throughout the grants lifecycle, what other
external factors and internal (organizational)
factors influence the grants process?

Additional Grant Considerations
15
External
 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently
updated its cost circulars/administrative guidelines to
establish the “Super Circular.” This greatly impacts how
organizations who receive federal funds track and
manage their grants and financial information, including:
o Allowable costs
o Administrative requirements
o Financials for Transparency.gov website (tracks each
grant dollar)
 Funding landscape to determine areas of interest,
industry focus, and external factors impacting grants

16
External
 Relationship building with potential grantors and
determining best fit – is there a plan for outreach and
communication?
 Collaboration with other similar organizations to work
jointly on grants (typically multi-year and large award).
Collaborative grants are looked at favorably by grantors,
since funds can be expended to multiple organizations
through one funding source

17
Internal
 Strategic plan that maps organizational goals with
fundraising goals (both short and long term), and
includes defined tasks and deadlines
 Methods and systems to evaluate financial and
programmatic data to ensure that the funds will be
judiciously spent and tracked. This also include quality
control measures
 Qualitative and quantitative data that can provide
evidence of programmatic and/or organizational success

18
Internal
 Prospect research calendar with details on each potential
grantor, and when opportunities are sought
 Standard operating procedures and policies that outline
how grants activities are carried out within the
organization
 Assigned individuals tasked with managing aspects of the
grants lifecycle and related activities

Common Pitfalls and Challenges
19
How do you prepare for a grant submission? Do
you have a standard process you follow or does
this vary depending on the opportunity? Do you
have the capacity to fully prepare for grant
opportunities?

Common Pitfalls and Challenges
20
What are some factors that can make or break an
organization’s grant readiness
 Resource capacity (personnel, funding, materials, etc.)
 Strategic planning/fundraising planning
 Alignment of goals to activities to outputs/outcomes (i.e.
logic model)
 Financial controls/internal controls
 Continuous quality improvement/evaluation
measurement
 Adherence to grant award requirement
 Others?

Completing Grant Readiness Scan
21
Grant ready organizations should be prepared with
the following:
 All information required in the application
 Organizational information
 Financial information
 Project/Program information
 Internal controls and capacity to manage grant once
funded

Summary Q&A
22
 Review implementation of grant readiness
 Have all topics been addressed?
 Additional questions?

Resources
23
 Foundation Center: http://foundationcenter.org/
 Grant Space: http://grantspace.org/
 Annual Report of Philanthropy in America:
http://www.givingusareports.org/
 OMB – Federal grant forms:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants_forms
 The Grantsmanship Center:
http://www.tgci.com/resources

Contact Information
24
Rachel Werner, Owner and Founder
RBW Strategy, LLC
Ph: (301) 325-8552
Email: rachel@rbwstrategy.com
www.rbwstrategy.com

Are You Grant Ready?: Laying the Foundation for Successful Grant Seeking

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