Grant professionals (grant writers, grant managers and grant support staff) all focus on creating the most competitive applications, detailed reports and thoughtful relationship-building pieces. Within that focus, errors can be made either in process or in formal documentation. Those errors sometimes impact the funding decision, and other times, thankfully, do not directly impact the decision or future relationship.
While there is no perfect formula to grant-seeking success, there are some key "best practices" to follow that will help you create your own personalized equation for success in grant seeking and to avoid errors throughout.
Here are six tips for error proofing your grant-seeking strategy:
- Always attempt to speak with a potential funder prior to submitting an application. By utilizing phone, email, social media or funder forums, go to where the funder is or where they are most comfortable communicating. Create talking points for yourself articulating why you are a strong potential funding partner, and then ask two or three thoughtful questions about information, about what you learned about the potential funder during your research process.
- Always sign applications in blue ink unless clearly instructed not to. While many applications have moved to an online system, there are still applications requiring a hard copy signature. Unless the application states otherwise, you are best to have the application signed in blue ink.
- Never wait until the last hour before a postmark is due to arrive at the post office, FedEx, or UPS store in order to submit a package. Stories abound of traffic accidents on the way to mail, unexpected store closures, new staff being trained, and other hurdles that prevent your application from being postmarked on time. Build in a false deadline whenever possible of at least 24 hours prior to the formal deadline to accommodate any unforeseen errors.
- Double and triple check the submission address for your application and the name/spelling of whom the application is addressed to. Foundations move or change their P.O. Box addresses. Government offices move under new administration. Ensure that where and who you are submitting the proposal to is accurate and that the funder’s name and the staff person’s name are spelled correctly.
- Ensure your budget columns and rows all add properly and that all figures match the cover sheet and narrative. If the form that is provided by the funder for your application budget does not have built-in formulas and/or formulas are not able to be added to the form, create a separate check sheet that you can confirm your work on to avoid errors.
- Test application systems prior to doing the actual entry of application information for formal submission.
When doing an online application, be sure to create your applicant log-in/register in the system as soon as you begin to consider the application for the funder. Government registration systems, both federal and state, typically take a great deal of time for the administrative approval. Private foundations have glitches within their application systems which often require staff support and are not necessarily immediately resolved.
Additionally, when allowable by a federal agency to submit application packets more than once, as only the last submission will be reviewed, submit a nearly final application packet well in advance of the deadline to ensure your packet meets the technical specifications.
What other tools or tips do you have for how you error proof your grant-seeking strategy? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
