Years ago, when I was trying to grow my consulting business with clients looking to hire someone to help with grant prospect research and proposal development, I was worried about bringing in enough money each month. In response to those fears, I said yes to just about every client that came knocking.
In hindsight, I don’t recommend that approach.
One night I got a call from a CEO of a hospital who had gotten my phone number from a board member who knew I was a grant consultant. While standing over my kitchen stove and cooking dinner (because it was after 6pm), I listened to her funding woes and agreed to put together a draft proposal so we could talk about next steps.
Before I even had a signed contract, she called again with a 911 emergency. She learned about a US Representative’s Federal Appropriations application that was due in less than 10 days. She begged me to jump on it, promising to pay my going rate. (And to be fair, she did.) Afraid to upset a potential client who could bring a lot of work my way, I said yes.
I talked to a variety of staff members from the hospital to get details needed to complete the application. I found data that supported the need – and I was happy to help because I was familiar with the community and knew they needed the additional staff and resources to support their patients.
I did my best to collect support letters, but with such a short turnaround we could not reach the masses. Not surprisingly, the application was not selected for funding. And after completing a short contract with the hospital, I decided not to continue because it was one fire after another, and that is no way to create and build successful grant proposals and funding sustainability at any organization. I suggested they would be better suited hiring an internal employee who could put boots on the ground, as well as get what they needed from coworkers (as so many of my requests for info went unanswered from a variety of staff).
My first lesson in this situation was when a client starts from a point a stress, thinking you’ll jump in and write grants for them is probably not a good idea.
My second lesson is that the Federal Appropriations process is not a 10-day process. Heck, it’s more like a 10-month process. On the latest episode of the Fundraising HayDay podcast, Kimberly and I chat with Tonia Brown-Kinzel, GPC, CGMS. As Grant Compliance Manager at The Grant Plant, Tonia spends quite a bit of time working on these processes with clients and she was a treasure trove of information! You can listen to the episode HERE.
I’ll cover the highlights here:
• Don’t refer to this funding opportunity as Earmarks or Pork (both previously used terms), and even Federal Appropriations is not quite accurate these days. This funding source has been rebranded as Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) for Senators and Community Projects Funding (CPF) for Representatives.
• If you’re waiting until the application becomes available to share information about your need, you’re too late. You should begin talking to your elected officials and their staff about your project need around 10 months before application deadlines.
• Sure, a letter of support from your state’s governor or community leader might seem helpful, but what’s more impressive are a ton of letters from a wide sampling of the community. Elected officials care about the next election, and the thing that gets them re-elected are votes. Knowing they helped fund a project, and will get credit for it, will go a long way when a ton of community members are invested in the project.
• This is an intensive process, and federal grant management rules apply, so you want a project that is large enough (think $100,000 as a minimum) to make the process worth the time, effort, and headache.
My advice? Whether taking on a new client or working on a Federal Appropriations request (yes, I still call it that because I haven’t gotten used to the new lingo yet), do your homework. Think about the work involved and the return on investment. Not every paycheck is worth it.
Amanda Day, GPC, is a national trainer and speaker. With 20 years of grant prospect research, writing, and management experience, she has the knowledge, know-how, and stories to keep every workshop participant and conference attendee engaged and better prepared to succeed in the grant profession. She is well versed in federal and private grant funding, as well as educating up and using your professional network to best build career path. Her passion lies in preparing grant professionals to successfully fund their organizational and community needs, along with meeting their personal career and leadership goals.
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