Different Eligible Applicant Means Different Approach

Do you know what type of eligible application your grant-seeking organization is? Are you a municipality, perhaps a small village government? Are you a large tri-state nonprofit organization focusing on education advocacy and reform? Or are you an individual school district/Local Education Agency (LEA) or regional school association (i.e. – BOCES or CESA)?

When searching through grants.gov, there is often a long list of eligible applicant types listed within each funding announcement. The categories of eligible applicants for grants through the federal government are:

• City or township governments
• County governments
• For-profit organizations, other than small businesses
• Individuals
• Native American tribal governments (federally recognized)
• Native American tribal organizations (other than federally-recognized tribal governments)
• Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
• Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
• Others (see text field titled “Additional Information on Eligibility” for clarification)
• Private institutions of higher education
• Public and state-controlled institutions of higher education
• Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
• Small businesses
• Special district governments
• State governments
• Unrestricted (i.e. open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field titled “Additional Information on Eligibility”

Why is it important that you, as a grant seeking organization, understand the federal government’s eligibility criteria? There are two key reasons:

1 – When doing research to determine which opportunities to consider applying for in the upcoming year, restricting the research results, to only those funding opportunities for organization types such as your own, will help you maintain a stronger focus in your proactive grant seeking approach. You can read more about proactive grant seeking here: (http://govgrantshelp.com/Columnists/diane-leonard/articles/2019662-What-to-Do-BEFORE-You-Start-a-Government-Grant-Application/)

2 – While your organization may not be the appropriate (or lead) eligible applicant, a local or regional collaborative partner may be eligible, and competitive in the process. You can read about why the strength of partnerships is so crucial to federal grant applications here: (http://govgrantshelp.com/Columnists/diane-leonard/articles/2078129-Four-Lessons-About-the-Strength-of-Partnership/)

In addition, understanding what types of organizations eligible for a specific funding application will help your grant seeking organization make critical decisions early on in the grant seeking research and program design phase. You might consider new partners based on the list of eligible applicant types. You might talk with the federal agency staff about which of the partners, of different eligible applicant types, would likely be most competitive in the process as the lead applicant.

Furthermore, understanding what type of applicants are eligible for federal funding for your mission area is also helpful when considering other types of funding available for your grant-seeking organization. For example, a city or township government will typically not be an eligible applicant for most private foundation funding opportunities, nor will for-profit businesses. If you look at IRS 501(c)(3) organizations, on the other hand, they are the most common eligible applicant type for private foundations. Understanding your organization’s applicant type, as well as what types of funders are available, will help you realize the full scope of potential grant-funding that can be considered to create your diversified and sustainable project.

While the type of eligible applicant your grant-seeking organization is looks like a basic building block of information, it is also a key question and point to consider as you begin to research and pursue new grant funding in the private, state and federal funding arenas.