By: Micki Vandeloo, President, Lakeview Consulting
Federal grants have a lot of pros and cons as compared to state grants:
Pros of Federal Grants
- Larger awards
- Longer timeframes to conduct your project
- Helpful Program Managers to help you vet your project for funding “fit”
- Usually more detailed proposal feedback if you are not successful
Cons of Federal Grants
- Extensive partnerships needed
- Much more work to write an application due to complexity
- Normally only 6-8 weeks to write the grant from the time the opportunity is released to the deadline.
- Stricter audit guidelines
Federal grants require a variety of documents to be submitted, due to administrative rules associated with grant opportunities and to convince the funder your project deserves to get money. Let’s explore the documents most commonly required in a federal grant application.
Documents Needed to Satisfy Federal Grant Requirements
- Current Organizational Chart – The existence of an organizational chart clearly shows the funder not only the relationship between members of your company, but also proves you have the organizational capacity to conduct the project.
- Updated Bios/Resumes – These provide reassurance to funders that the key people responsible for executing the project are qualified to do so.
- Detailed Budget and Budget Justification– Grant reviewers primarily look at budgets and the justification for the proposed costs to make sure the budget is consistent with the activities in the narrative. These budgets vary by program, but usually need to include, at a minimum, personnel; travel; supplies; equipment; cost share; and indirect costs. In addition, federal reviewers expect a detailed justification to show how you came up with your numbers.
- Letters of Commitment – These are letters that partners who will be supporting the project with cash or in-kind activities (salaries, facilities, etc) are required to submit to document in detail what they are providing to the project. This assures the funder that the support from these key organizations exists.
- Letters of Support – These are not always required, but, when a funder does, these letters simply state that a partner will support the project and how they will do so (co-marketing, information sessions, etc).
- Federal Forms – These vary by program, but generally include forms outlining basic information about the applicant, budget forms, lobbying certifications, and current and pending support forms. Many of these are available in grants.gov and can be electronically signed by the applicant.
All these documents are in addition to the proposal narrative, which for a federal grant is anywhere from 10 to 70 pages long. When you take all of this into account federal grant applications and very complex and require not only strong writing skills but exceptional project management skills. If you are considering submitting a federal proposal, please keep this complexity in mind and allow yourself enough time to not only write the proposal narrative but to manage the project and collect all the documents noted above.
