Category Archives: federal grants

Grants.gov Trouble

If you have been trying to upload a grant to grants.gov within the last several days, you have been frustrated. As many of us predicted, the grants.gov servers went down when over 27,000 agencies tried to upload applications at the same time.

Overall, grants.gov activity of all kinds has doubled in the past several months, straining the already glitchy system to a breaking point.

The grants.gov blog says that everything is fixed now, but please be aware that the warnings to start early with your uploads (not waiting until the last day) are more important than ever.

Also, you should know that several federal agencies have reverted to their old electronic grants submittal formats, stepping away from grants.gov for now, until they can be sure the glitches are all worked out.

What does this mean for YOU? You may need to register all over again on a new system that you haven’t used recently. Here are our tips for success in this interesting period of many opportunities and much competition:

  • Read the directions very carefully on any grant you are considering. Pay attention to submittal instructions.
  • If a new or different electronic submittal process is included in the RFP, register early.
  • Set your own deadline of about 3 days before the actual grant deadline so you can be sure you resolve any submittal issues with plenty of time to spare.
  • Most importantly, don’t let this unprecedented windfall of special grant opportunities pass you by! Don’t just search grants.gov my agency for opportunities. Look at all of the available FY 09 Recovery Act grants. You will probably find one or more that is a perfect fit for your community in an unexpected category.
Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

How Competitive is TOO Competitive?

There is a Request for Proposals (RFP) out right now for a Partnerships in Character Education Program (PCEP) grant. It’s a research grant that funds implementation of a character education program and research documenting the success of the program in meeting established goals.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education expects to fund only two new programs this year. The question I am often asked is this:

Given how much time and effort goes into planning and developing a high quality federal grant proposal, is it really worth it to throw your hat in the ring when only two grants will be awarded nationally?

I’ll admit, the availability of funds for only two awards is extremely competitive. However, I encourage folks not to shy away from an opportunity that is right for you just because of the competitiveness. But how competitive is too competitive?

Here are some thoughts to help you decide if a competitive situation is worth your time to apply:

  • Don’t go for it unless the grant is really a good fit for you. If you would have to pull your collaborative partners (and maybe even people in your own organization) along to convince them to implement a new program, you may want to let this opportunity go. So, how do you know if it’s the right fit? If it’s something that you and your partners have already talked about doing, it may be a good fit for you. If every condition in the RFP is acceptable to your organization, and you already have a plan, it may be a good fit for you.
  • Make sure you have plenty of time. While you can be successful with federal grants when you put them together on a very short timeline, that’s not the best situation for those that are highly competitive. If you expect to have a real chance at being funded, you’ll need to submit a very high quality proposal. That can usually not be done in one or two weeks. If you have over 30 days to put it together, you may have a chance.
  • Check out the funding priorities and be sure you can address them. If the grant has an absolute priority, you must address it in order to be eligible for funding. If the grant has any competitive priorities, you should definitely be able to address them in a competitive situation. Let’s take PCEP as an example. There is a competitive priority to implement an experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation design. You can get up to 20 extra points for an experimental design and up to 10 extra points for a quasi-experimental evaluation design. If you were not planning to implement an evaluation design that is at least quasi-experimental, don’t bother applying. Should you apply if you can’t get those extra points for the difference between a quasi-experimental and experimental design? It depends. I would recommend it only if you think you could put together a very high quality proposal that has the potential of getting all the available points. Everything must be completely in order and very well planned because you’re starting with a disadvantage.

What about an invitational priority (a program priority with no explicit competitive advantage)? If you want to be competitive, address it. Period.

So, don’t be afraid of highly competitive RFPs, but tread carefully.

How Competitive is TOO Competitive?

There is a Request for Proposals (RFP) out right now for a Partnerships in Character Education Program (PCEP) grant. It’s a research grant that funds implementation of a character education program and research documenting the success of the program in meeting established goals.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education expects to fund only two new programs this year. The question I am often asked is this:

Given how much time and effort goes into planning and developing a high quality federal grant proposal, is it really worth it to throw your hat in the ring when only two grants will be awarded nationally?

I’ll admit, the availability of funds for only two awards is extremely competitive. However, I encourage folks not to shy away from an opportunity that is right for you just because of the competitiveness. But how competitive is too competitive?

Here are some thoughts to help you decide if a competitive situation is worth your time to apply:

  • Don’t go for it unless the grant is really a good fit for you. If you would have to pull your collaborative partners (and maybe even people in your own organization) along to convince them to implement a new program, you may want to let this opportunity go. So, how do you know if it’s the right fit? If it’s something that you and your partners have already talked about doing, it may be a good fit for you. If every condition in the RFP is acceptable to your organization, and you already have a plan, it may be a good fit for you.
  • Make sure you have plenty of time. While you can be successful with federal grants when you put them together on a very short timeline, that’s not the best situation for those that are highly competitive. If you expect to have a real chance at being funded, you’ll need to submit a very high quality proposal. That can usually not be done in one or two weeks. If you have over 30 days to put it together, you may have a chance.
  • Check out the funding priorities and be sure you can address them. If the grant has an absolute priority, you must address it in order to be eligible for funding. If the grant has any competitive priorities, you should definitely be able to address them in a competitive situation. Let’s take PCEP as an example. There is a competitive priority to implement an experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation design. You can get up to 20 extra points for an experimental design and up to 10 extra points for a quasi-experimental evaluation design. If you were not planning to implement an evaluation design that is at least quasi-experimental, don’t bother applying. Should you apply if you can’t get those extra points for the difference between a quasi-experimental and experimental design? It depends. I would recommend it only if you think you could put together a very high quality proposal that has the potential of getting all the available points. Everything must be completely in order and very well planned because you’re starting with a disadvantage.

What about an invitational priority (a program priority with no explicit competitive advantage)? If you want to be competitive, address it. Period.

So, don’t be afraid of highly competitive RFPs, but tread carefully.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

What You Need To Know About Grants.Gov

O.k., I’ll admit it. I was not very fond of http://www.grants.gov/ when it first came out. It was glitchy. It was cumbersome. It cramped my creative style.

Things have changed. Not only have major improvements been made to the whole grants.gov system, but I have adjusted to change…and now I embrace it. It helps that I have no choice.

What is grants.gov? It is the online source for finding and applying for federal grants. Most, although not quite all, federal grants must now be submitted through the grants.gov website.

Here are some important things for you to know about grants.gov:

  • Your organization must be registered on grants.gov prior to submitting a federal grant through the system. Registration is not too difficult, but it is a multi-step process that can take up to a week to complete. If you think you might want to consider submitting a federal grant this year, I highly recommend that you register now. Waiting until the wee before your grant is due is a bad idea.
  • If you were registered in the past, you may need to update your registration. Log on to the system and make sure that your registration is still valid. Update any authorized users and email addresses that need to be updated.
  • Grants.gov has a new blog now with some nifty information. It is definitely worth checking out. For example, today I learned that there are 165 different grants closing on September 30/October 1 (63 for HHS and 101 for EPA). The system is going to be really busy (translation = expect long upload times and glitches), so we should all plan on submitting our applications early.
  • You can sign up on the website to have notifications of all new grant announcements sent to you via email. You have to wade through announcements for pesticide grants and loads of medical research grants, but it also gives you access to the announcements you want as soon as they come out.
  • The website now has an RSS feed so you can subscribe to find out about any updates to the website as they happen.

If you are even remotely thinking about applying for federal grants, you should check out grants.gov. Accept it. You’ll be happier.

What You Need To Know About Grants.Gov

O.k., I’ll admit it. I was not very fond of http://www.grants.gov/ when it first came out. It was glitchy. It was cumbersome. It cramped my creative style.

Things have changed. Not only have major improvements been made to the whole grants.gov system, but I have adjusted to change…and now I embrace it. It helps that I have no choice.

What is grants.gov? It is the online source for finding and applying for federal grants. Most, although not quite all, federal grants must now be submitted through the grants.gov website.

Here are some important things for you to know about grants.gov:

  • Your organization must be registered on grants.gov prior to submitting a federal grant through the system. Registration is not too difficult, but it is a multi-step process that can take up to a week to complete. If you think you might want to consider submitting a federal grant this year, I highly recommend that you register now. Waiting until the wee before your grant is due is a bad idea.
  • If you were registered in the past, you may need to update your registration. Log on to the system and make sure that your registration is still valid. Update any authorized users and email addresses that need to be updated.
  • Grants.gov has a new blog now with some nifty information. It is definitely worth checking out. For example, today I learned that there are 165 different grants closing on September 30/October 1 (63 for HHS and 101 for EPA). The system is going to be really busy (translation = expect long upload times and glitches), so we should all plan on submitting our applications early.
  • You can sign up on the website to have notifications of all new grant announcements sent to you via email. You have to wade through announcements for pesticide grants and loads of medical research grants, but it also gives you access to the announcements you want as soon as they come out.
  • The website now has an RSS feed so you can subscribe to find out about any updates to the website as they happen.

If you are even remotely thinking about applying for federal grants, you should check out grants.gov. Accept it. You’ll be happier.

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com