By: Micki Vandeloo, President, Lakeview Consulting
When discussing federal grants, my first thought is always “Where do I start?” They are messy, super-competitive and a monster to write. The return for dealing with the downside can be a huge upside – lots of grant money for the lucky recipients.
In this article, I will provide a primer for companies wishing to find and obtain federal grants. However, I would like to provide a couple of cautionary points before providing this information.
First, I implore businesses, big and small, to maximize funding from the state or states their company is in or from regional funding sources before pursuing a federal grant. State funding is a lot less competitive and can provide hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies to support their initiatives. It’s also a great way to prepare for seeking federal grants.
Second, companies applying for federal grants need to make sure the activities they are pursuing funding for are a perfect fit for what the grants are funding. For example, if a company that develops new products for their customers wants to pursue a federal research and development grant for their industry, they need to consult with the program manager to make sure that their new product development efforts align with the research the agency is wanting to fund. Otherwise, the company will spend a lot of time and resources developing an application that will not be successful.
Third, businesses that choose to apply for federal grants need to make sure they can comply with the reporting that will be required if they receive funding. Federal grants require detailed and extensive reporting to ensure the funder is comfortable in how their money is being managed and spent. In addition, federal cost regulations restrict how companies can spend grant money and reporting needs to assure program staff that the recipients are complying with these regulations.
OK, now that we have covered some of the important warnings, let’s move on to the process for finding and getting federal grants.
The Federal Grants Process
Step 1: Find a grant that fits your project
Grants.gov is the repository for all things federal grants. Companies can register on the website to get alerts of new funding opportunities customized to their situation. Grants.gov registration is required to set up a workspace and apply for federal grants. You need to get a login.gov account before registering for grants.gov.
Once you have gotten registered on grants.gov, you can search by agency, category (Recovery Act, commerce, training, etc), eligibility (government, for-profit applicant, etc), application status (open, forecasted, closed, etc), posted date, close date/deadline and whether cost share is required (most grants require some cost share from the applicant).
Once you have set up your filters you can review the grant opportunities to see which appear to be a good fit for your project. Because several new grants are announced every day, I recommend you check grants.gov at least once a week to catch any new grants that are released.
Step 2: Review the opportunity in exhaustive detail
Once you find an opportunity on grants.gov, download the application package and review the opportunity. I suggest reviewing the Request for Proposal (RFP) or Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) at least twice to make sure you fully understand what the grant will fund, the deadline for the application, and details that need to be included in the application. You can use AI to summarize the opportunity but make sure to check the results against the application to make sure it is an accurate summary.
I would also suggest that you review previous awards for a grant, to see if the funded projects have a similarity to yours. This can be a good indication of whether your project is a good fit.
Step 3: Contact the Program Manager
As noted above, I always recommend contacting the program manager to vet your project against the funding opportunity prior to applying. The earlier in the process you can do this, the more time you save if it is not a fit.
The program manager will likely ask for a 1–2-page summary of your project prior to discussing the project with you. This summary will include what you plan to do, the timeframe for doing it, and what the outcome will be.
Step 4: Develop the application
Now, it is time to develop the application. It is important to note that most federal awards have a 3–4-week window once the funding announcement is released to compile an application. That may seem like a long time, but putting together the required forms, letters of support/commitment, the budget, the work plan, and the narrative (which can be 20 or more pages long) takes time. Here is the recommend approach to compiling an application:
- Develop a list of partners and stakeholders for letters of support or commitment, which are often required.
- Request the letter of support/commitment from the partners and stakeholders you identify.
- Create a work plan, which is a timeline showing what activities you will do and when you will do them.
- Draft a budget based on your work plan. Make sure to coordinate with your financial and operational teams when putting together the work plan and budget to make sure they buy in to what you are proposing.
- Create your narrative based on your work plan, budget and anticipated partners. Make sure you follow the structure for the narrative recommended by the funder (down to using their headers for structuring the narrative). You need to make the narrative as easy for reviewers to review as possible.
- Have an independent person from your company or someone with previous federal grant experience review your narrative, work plan and budget to make sure you have thoroughly addressed the requirements in the NOFO/RFP.
- Finalize the applications documents and do one last check to ensure everything that is required is included.
- Upload the narrative and supporting documents to grants.gov. The system will flag you if you are missing something but will not detect if you have not used the correct font or if the narrative is over the page limit. These are traditionally what reviewers look at first to determine if an application should move on to a full review.
Step 5: Wait.
Once you have submitted the application, you will wait for the agency to review the application and issue a notice of funding or decline. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to six months or more. As the grant will not fund anything that happens before an award is made, you cannot do any activities you proposed until the award determination is made. This is very important to remember as it can significantly delay starting a project you need to do.
You Don’t Have to Pursue Federal Grants Alone
As you can see, there are many pitfalls and activities involved with federal application research and development. Our team at Lakeview Consulting handles much of this work for our clients and provides an honest and frank evaluation of whether our clients should pursue a federal opportunity to avoid wasting our clients’ valuable time and resources. Contact me if you wish to know more about our experience and expertise with federal grant applications.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Federal Grants Process
Why are federal grants so complex?
Applications and supporting documents need to assure the funding agency that the applicant will spend their money wisely and responsively. This requires a detailed accounting of what the applicant will do, what partners they will use and specifically what the money will be spent on.
What is the number one tip when it comes to successful federal grants?
Make sure your project is a good fit with what the funder wants to fund. To do this, you need to review the RFP/NOFO carefully; meet with the program manager; and review previously awarded projects.
Why should I not pursue federal grant funding?
Federal funding applications are extremely detailed, which means that companies will use a lot of resources that can be spent doing more value-added activities. They are also competitive. Only about 20-30% of federal applications get funded and those are the ones with the highest scores.
Why do companies pursue federal funding?
It is hard to resist the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars funded through these grants. That is game changing for so many companies.