Two Key Areas of Being a Strong Grant Applicant

In writing about being a strong government grant applicant over the past year, I have written numerous columns about the different aspects of grant readiness, as it relates to federal grant applicants including understanding uniform grant guidance , understanding what type of eligible applicant you are, the benefits in applications of designations such as Promise Zones , and what to do before starting a government application .

These numerous factors for being a strong applicant boil down to two key areas: (1) Being Grant Ready and (2) Writing A Competitive Application.

1 – Being Grant Ready: An organization that meets all initial eligibility criteria, and has the necessary policies/processes in place to support being a strong grantee.

How can you tell if you are a grant ready organization? Does the process for determining that differ, depending on the type of grant you are applying for? The answer is that it *does* depend on what type of grant you are applying for. The steps to be grant ready look slightly different for applying to a private foundation versus to a state or local government entity versus to a federal agency.

Assuming that you are seeking a federal grant, your steps to being grant ready include:

• Completing or updating required registrations including DUNS, Sam.gov, and Grants.gov;
• Reviewing grant management requirements and updating policies to meet current OMB standards as outlined in the Uniform Grant Guidance;
• Assessing project feasibility for each possible opportunity;
• Researching the details of each relevant grant opportunity, including the funding priorities and anticipated type/number of awards; and
• Reaching out to a grant maker to begin/continue relationship development efforts in order to understand and assess your organization’s competitiveness in the application process.

2 – Writing A Competitive Grant Application: An application that is well written, clear, concise and customized to the specific grant maker, in order to be well-positioned amongst all submitted applications to score high in the review process.

What does it take to write a competitive application?

• Utilize information learned during the grant maker relationship development to tailor the proposal;
• Engage stakeholders and policy makers in the program planning and outreach;
• Outline project goals and key elements using logic models;
• Customize your application to the specific priorities of the grant maker;
• Include letters of collaboration and memorandums of understanding, not just letters of support; and
• Create a mock review process to put your application through, before finalizing for submission, that mimics the peer review or scoring criteria that will be utilized by the grant maker.

If you are looking for to visualize these steps outlined above, you can see a grant readiness “game board” here to help articulate the steps of grant readiness and submitting a competitive grant application.