How to Pursue Grant Funding When There is "No Funding".pdf
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The federal government is undergoing a major reset, with mass layoffs and the pullback of grant funding at mass scale. One agency just lost 80% of its prior programming. Whole agencies are being dismantled, with occasional residual parts and pieces moved elsewhere. Institutions of higher education (IHEs) are highly reliant on federal funding, for student loans, for partial financial supports for programs, for advancing work, and for research funding. In this time of mass cutting of federal funding, including for grants, what is the way forward for grant writing?
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How to Pursue Grant Funding When There is "No Funding".pdf
- 1. How to Pursue Grant Funding…When There Is“No Funding” March 2025
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- 3. Overview • The federal government is undergoing a major reset, with mass layoffs and the pullback of grant funding at mass scale. One agency just lost 80% of its prior programming. Whole agencies are being dismantled, with occasional residual parts and pieces moved elsewhere. • Institutions of higher education (IHEs) are highly reliant on federal funding, for student loans, for partial financial supports for programs, for advancing work, and for research funding. • In this time of mass cutting of federal funding, including for grants, what is the way forward for grant writing? 3
- 4. The Work of Grant Writing 4
- 5. Basic Tasks of a Grant Writer • A grant writer… • Scours the Internet and WWW, grant databases, and other sources for grant funding opportunities—public, private, corporate, and others…to share with the college community and individuals on campus • Collaborates with an on-campus team (and sometimes off-campus team) to create a grant application (for a grant-funded work opportunity) • Conducts research for the necessary data for respective grant applications • Writes the grant application (or co-writes) 5
- 6. Basic Tasks of a Grant Writer(cont.) • A grant writer… (cont.) • Collects the necessary documents for attestations, letters of support, memorandums of agreement (MOUs), and others • Double checks the grant budgets (and the consistency of representation of expenditures) • Trains the college community in aspects of grant pursuit • Co-edits / edits a newsletter about grant seeking to make a culture that is pro grant-pursuit 6
- 7. Guessing at the Future 7
- 8. Near-Term, Mid-Term, Long-Term • There is not a clear “level set” understanding of the current realities. • Near-term, there is a lot of dynamism in the government space, with mass layoffs and de-funding and bureaucratic change. • Mid-term, there may be some slimmed-down form of government and repercussions from the near-term changes. Recovery is not a given. • Long-term, the U.S. will likely have smaller government. • Rose-colored glasses will not solve any real problems. 8
- 9. A Great Reset, A Paradigm Shift • These are linear assumptions, and the world changes in ways that are nonlinear, discontinuous, and unpredictable. • The current changes read to be part of a great reset, a large paradigm shift, a new agreement between how government interacts with the citizenry. • Some problems are solved with the changes, and others are introduced. The prior status quo was not seen as tenable with the masses of government debt and so much going to debt service. 9
- 10. Near-Term Grant-Seeking Context • The forecasted funds in grant notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) have a low probability of being partially or fully funded. • Private foundations do not have the resources to replace federal funds…because of scale…and because of resourcing…and because of differing objectives… • Are the changes temporary? Are they for good? 10
- 12. Going to Ground • Remove the grant writing capability from the college. Wait things out. Rehire for the capability some years later when the dust settles. • Avoid anything that looks like politics. • Fall in line with the ruling ideology. • Understand that there are real consequences for all actions. 12
- 13. Keeping On • Continue with grant-seeking capabilities. • Broaden the scope of grant pursuits in other realms, in addition to competing for whatever federal funds are available. • Monitoring the space closely. • Keep learning deeply. Document what is learned. Share. • Support administrators. Support colleagues. • Position the college to be more competitive. • The moment is a stress test with very real implications for funding / non-funding. 13
- 14. Keeping On(cont.) • The know-how is important to maintain. It is important to be ready for changes into the future. • As the rules for grant-seeking change, and new standards are raised, the college has to be ready for those. • It may be several years of hardship…the thin years that arrive after fat years (of over-spending). • In this “justify your value” period, grant writers have to justify their value…which goes beyond the amount of funds they help to bring in from external sources. In a time of “austerity,” this argument may not hold. 14
- 16. The Lifeblood of Organizations • An organization’s lifeblood involves the following: cash. Its cashflow has to work for it to survive. • An organization’s peoples are also part of its energy and capabilities. But these cannot exist without the first. People do not work for free. • For many, grant writers included, they will come to a fork in the road. They can choose to add FTEs of other work to their positions to keep their jobs (a typical bargain in higher education)…or move on…to what is available in the world. It is a big world out there. 16
- 17. Fork in the Road, Horns of a Dilemma 17
- 18. If Financial Exigency • IHEs are putting into place hiring freezes. Programs are being cut. The headwinds have become even harsher than in prior years. • The enrollment cliff is also nigh, with demographic factors limiting the numbers of traditional-age college students. • Depending on funding, if the government pulls back on funding higher education, a tranche of IHEs will go under. (Some 100 or so IHEs have closed in the U.S. or merged with other educational entities in the past few years.) • In a financial exigency, all bets are off. 18
- 19. Conclusion and Contact • Dr. Shalin Hai-Jew • Grant Writer • Hutchinson Community College • [email protected] • 620-694-2453 19