The Maze of the Federal Grant Process

Getting that large federal grant sounds like the answer to all of your agencies problems doesn't it? That evaluation is not always accurate. Government funding, especially at the federal level, can be difficult to obtain, and just as difficult to keep due to arduous reporting requirements, program restrictions, and non-allowable expenditures.

First and foremost your program has to be properly planned for several reasons:

1. Typically Government Request For Proposals (RFP's) are issued and the deadline to submit the proposal is typically within 1-2 months after the RFP is made public.

2. The proposal itself is very detailed and time consuming. An agency can expect to work an average of 100 hours on each proposal, and that is if it is well planned out prior to the RFP release.

3. Generally Federal programs require that you work with one or more other agency to help serve a larger number of people. Cooperative agreements will need to be drawn up declaring which agency will be responsible for each part of the program.

Usually RFP's are issued at the same time each year depending on the agency. For example if HUD issues its SUPERNOFA in the spring of each year, you can usually count on it being released each spring. Of course you don't want to miss an RFP because of the short turn around time, so you can subscribe to the Federal Register, which is published each weekday and contains all rules, executive orders and grant information by agency. Another must see site is the Grants.gov website that allows you to review federal grant opportunities, and in many cases submit your proposal online. Online submissions are now required for many proposals, so if you plan on submitting a federal proposal, familiarizing yourself with this site will be essential. The Grants.gov site is much more user friendly than the Federal Register site.

Check out those sites and next time I will discuss the actual application process included the dreaded attachments in more detail.