Category Archives: budgets

Sweeping Grant Funds Into General Fund Budgets

Something unusual is happening this year as a result of the fiscal situation being faced by organizations across the county. I have experienced it directly as it has affected school districts in California. I suspect it has also affected folks in other states.

Here’s what happened here in the Golden State….

School districts received permission to “sweep” funds from a whole bunch of categorical programs into their general budgets to allow for maximum flexibility in the use of those funds during this period of fiscal hardship. It sounds OK so far, huh? The concept sold to school districts, school boards, and their communities around the state is that the former system of categorical funding was inefficient and based on state and federal priorities, rather than local priorities (which, for the most part, is true).

The new rule would allow local districts to establish their own priorities and lump all that money together to be spent in a way that supports local needs. Sounds great.

Except for one thing.

Some state competitive grant programs were lumped in with that list of categorical funds that could be swept.

Schools that had worked hard to pull community partners together, plan programs, write successful grant proposals, and implement successful programs came to work one day this spring only to learn that their school district administrators had chosen to sweep those funds out from under them mid-year so the money could be used to help back fill the overall district budget deficit.

Even worse, in some school districts, district administrators have begun sweeping grant funds for programs that are not allowed to be swept, conveniently assuming that it will all be forgiven later because of the hardships that most public agencies are facing now.

Originally, this new “sweeping” rule required that districts hold public hearings to get input from the public on whether these funds should be swept or not and, if so, how the money should best be spent…..but that all was changed at some point, allowing district administrators to make these decisions behind closed doors. The decisions get approved at school board meetings without clear public notice (hasn’t the generic term “budget modifications” (or something like it) been on every school board agenda for months now?).

So, what’s wrong with this?

I won’t even talk about how crazy it is to sweep money saying that the district has other priorities when the district said in the grant applications themselves that the plans in the grants were district priorities.

Aside from the whole issue of making major decisions about changing how public money is spent without a meaningful opportunity for the public to comment, this practice damages relationships with community partners and discourages innovation in education. Here’s how…..

One of these programs that is being swept is the School Community Violence Prevention (SCVP) program (and this is only one example, there are others). When a district applied for these funds on behalf of a school, it was required to pull together a community partnership. That partnership had to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and design a plan to leverage community resources to address a particular school-related violence issue. Local police departments, probation departments, mental health agencies, non-profit organizations, educators, and parents all came to the table in good faith to help the schools develop a plan for the school community that could address the problem.

Now the funds are being swept without any consultation with the community partners who made it possible for the district to get the money in the first place.

It’s disrespectful. It represents an animal-like dog-eat-dog approach to dealing with tough problems. It’s just wrong.

But there’s more.

One of the problems we have in education is that people who need money to implement creative solutions to tough problems in the schools have to apply for competitive grants to do so. It’s hard work, taken on by busy and dedicated professionals who simply don’t have the time to do it….but they do it anyway. Most others in the field don’t make the time. They lament the problems, and try to keep sticking their fingers in the holes in the dam hoping that their temporary solutions may work. They shake their heads at those who go the extra mile and pursue additional funding.

Now they – the ones who were not innovative, the ones who didn’t take the extra time or make the effort – lose very little in the budget debacle , while the innovators are essentially punished for their innovation.

The chilling effect on the whole system is that this single “sweeping” action will discourage innovation in the future at a time when our youth most need people who are willing to do things differently, to step out of “business as usual” and implement evidence-based programs that really work. The system is rewarding “falling in line and letting the folks at the district office handle it” (by the way, how scary is THAT????), while those who were actually doing it, and making a difference for kids, are punished.

And yes, it’s happening in my own community, too, and I’m just sick about it.

The worst part about this is that it’s happening under the radar and whenever educators speak up about it, they are told to sit down and be quiet – that it’s all justified because of the budget crisis.

I strongly disagree. I completely understand that times are tough and school boards have very tough decisions to make. Programs and services have to be cut. As a small business owner, I have felt the shake of the economic earthquake. I know how hard it is to lay people off. As an individual and a parent, I know what it feels like to have to cut back and to not be able to give my kids as much as I could last year. It’s hard. It hurts. But we teach children that it’s not OK do wrong things just because you are desperate. Stealing is wrong, even if you don’t have enough money to pay the mortgage.

The freedom to sweep these fund also means that school boards have the right to choose NOT to sweep them.

At minimum, our school boards need to ask harder questions, demand that the community be heard on the topic (in a meaningful way, with reasonable publicized notice). Then, if our elected and trusted officials choose to make the decision to do this, at least it has been made properly – not in a back room by people who were never elected by the public and who did not participate in the community process that brought the funds to the district to begin with.

Our elected officials should expect and demand more from those who work for us. We all should.

Sweeping Grant Funds Into General Fund Budgets

Something unusual is happening this year as a result of the fiscal situation being faced by organizations across the county. I have experienced it directly as it has affected school districts in California. I suspect it has also affected folks in other states.

Here’s what happened here in the Golden State….

School districts received permission to “sweep” funds from a whole bunch of categorical programs into their general budgets to allow for maximum flexibility in the use of those funds during this period of fiscal hardship. It sounds OK so far, huh? The concept sold to school districts, school boards, and their communities around the state is that the former system of categorical funding was inefficient and based on state and federal priorities, rather than local priorities (which, for the most part, is true).

The new rule would allow local districts to establish their own priorities and lump all that money together to be spent in a way that supports local needs. Sounds great.

Except for one thing.

Some state competitive grant programs were lumped in with that list of categorical funds that could be swept.

Schools that had worked hard to pull community partners together, plan programs, write successful grant proposals, and implement successful programs came to work one day this spring only to learn that their school district administrators had chosen to sweep those funds out from under them mid-year so the money could be used to help back fill the overall district budget deficit.

Even worse, in some school districts, district administrators have begun sweeping grant funds for programs that are not allowed to be swept, conveniently assuming that it will all be forgiven later because of the hardships that most public agencies are facing now.

Originally, this new “sweeping” rule required that districts hold public hearings to get input from the public on whether these funds should be swept or not and, if so, how the money should best be spent…..but that all was changed at some point, allowing district administrators to make these decisions behind closed doors. The decisions get approved at school board meetings without clear public notice (hasn’t the generic term “budget modifications” (or something like it) been on every school board agenda for months now?).

So, what’s wrong with this?

I won’t even talk about how crazy it is to sweep money saying that the district has other priorities when the district said in the grant applications themselves that the plans in the grants were district priorities.

Aside from the whole issue of making major decisions about changing how public money is spent without a meaningful opportunity for the public to comment, this practice damages relationships with community partners and discourages innovation in education. Here’s how…..

One of these programs that is being swept is the School Community Violence Prevention (SCVP) program (and this is only one example, there are others). When a district applied for these funds on behalf of a school, it was required to pull together a community partnership. That partnership had to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and design a plan to leverage community resources to address a particular school-related violence issue. Local police departments, probation departments, mental health agencies, non-profit organizations, educators, and parents all came to the table in good faith to help the schools develop a plan for the school community that could address the problem.

Now the funds are being swept without any consultation with the community partners who made it possible for the district to get the money in the first place.

It’s disrespectful. It represents an animal-like dog-eat-dog approach to dealing with tough problems. It’s just wrong.

But there’s more.

One of the problems we have in education is that people who need money to implement creative solutions to tough problems in the schools have to apply for competitive grants to do so. It’s hard work, taken on by busy and dedicated professionals who simply don’t have the time to do it….but they do it anyway. Most others in the field don’t make the time. They lament the problems, and try to keep sticking their fingers in the holes in the dam hoping that their temporary solutions may work. They shake their heads at those who go the extra mile and pursue additional funding.

Now they – the ones who were not innovative, the ones who didn’t take the extra time or make the effort – lose very little in the budget debacle , while the innovators are essentially punished for their innovation.

The chilling effect on the whole system is that this single “sweeping” action will discourage innovation in the future at a time when our youth most need people who are willing to do things differently, to step out of “business as usual” and implement evidence-based programs that really work. The system is rewarding “falling in line and letting the folks at the district office handle it” (by the way, how scary is THAT????), while those who were actually doing it, and making a difference for kids, are punished.

And yes, it’s happening in my own community, too, and I’m just sick about it.

The worst part about this is that it’s happening under the radar and whenever educators speak up about it, they are told to sit down and be quiet – that it’s all justified because of the budget crisis.

I strongly disagree. I completely understand that times are tough and school boards have very tough decisions to make. Programs and services have to be cut. As a small business owner, I have felt the shake of the economic earthquake. I know how hard it is to lay people off. As an individual and a parent, I know what it feels like to have to cut back and to not be able to give my kids as much as I could last year. It’s hard. It hurts. But we teach children that it’s not OK do wrong things just because you are desperate. Stealing is wrong, even if you don’t have enough money to pay the mortgage.

The freedom to sweep these fund also means that school boards have the right to choose NOT to sweep them.

At minimum, our school boards need to ask harder questions, demand that the community be heard on the topic (in a meaningful way, with reasonable publicized notice). Then, if our elected and trusted officials choose to make the decision to do this, at least it has been made properly – not in a back room by people who were never elected by the public and who did not participate in the community process that brought the funds to the district to begin with.

Our elected officials should expect and demand more from those who work for us. We all should.

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

The Importance of Budget in Grant Development

I know – I usually go on and on about how the money should not drive your vision, and how you should develop you vision and your plan first, and then work on finding funding. All of that is still true (and I will probably go on and on about it even more in the future!). However, there is a time when the budget is a critical part of the grant development process.

On the grant I am working on right now – the one that is due in less than 48 hours – that time would be NOW.

I have worked with my client on the vision and the plan development. We have talked about all the different components of the program and what they want to do, but what they actually can do, and how many individuals they can serve, depends on how much money they will have and how they will choose to use it. Until those decisions are made, my writing project is dead in the water.

So I wait.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could implement a million dollar program with $200,000? Yeah, that would be great. But we can’t, so we are forced to make the hard decisions.

Here’s the opportunity cost of waiting until the last minute (i.e., the day before the grant is due) to finalize those difficult budget decisions:

1) The final program design in the narrative cannot be written (or it will have to undergo major revisions) until the budget is finalized. This means that –

2) There will be a last minute rush to double-check all the facts and figures to make sure the budget matches the narrative. This means that –

3) There will likely be more errors than usual in the final proposal because rushing through something at the last minute is not the way to do your best work.

AND

4) Our proofing and editing time is now cut down by every hour that we are delayed at this point. I have lost the chance to put it down and come back for a review 24 hours later. We’ll probably be doing final proofing and editing on the due date, which is never the best case scenario.

How can this scenario be prevented? Move budget development up in the prioritization process. Ideally, the budget should be completed after the vision and program development process and before the narrative is written.

O.K., there are usually glitches in the grant development process and it’s not unusual for all the pieces to come together at the last minute (or close to it). I just feel better when the budget is done a bit sooner.

The Importance of Budget in Grant Development

I know – I usually go on and on about how the money should not drive your vision, and how you should develop you vision and your plan first, and then work on finding funding. All of that is still true (and I will probably go on and on about it even more in the future!). However, there is a time when the budget is a critical part of the grant development process.

On the grant I am working on right now – the one that is due in less than 48 hours – that time would be NOW.

I have worked with my client on the vision and the plan development. We have talked about all the different components of the program and what they want to do, but what they actually can do, and how many individuals they can serve, depends on how much money they will have and how they will choose to use it. Until those decisions are made, my writing project is dead in the water.

So I wait.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could implement a million dollar program with $200,000? Yeah, that would be great. But we can’t, so we are forced to make the hard decisions.

Here’s the opportunity cost of waiting until the last minute (i.e., the day before the grant is due) to finalize those difficult budget decisions:

1) The final program design in the narrative cannot be written (or it will have to undergo major revisions) until the budget is finalized. This means that –

2) There will be a last minute rush to double-check all the facts and figures to make sure the budget matches the narrative. This means that –

3) There will likely be more errors than usual in the final proposal because rushing through something at the last minute is not the way to do your best work.

AND

4) Our proofing and editing time is now cut down by every hour that we are delayed at this point. I have lost the chance to put it down and come back for a review 24 hours later. We’ll probably be doing final proofing and editing on the due date, which is never the best case scenario.

How can this scenario be prevented? Move budget development up in the prioritization process. Ideally, the budget should be completed after the vision and program development process and before the narrative is written.

O.K., there are usually glitches in the grant development process and it’s not unusual for all the pieces to come together at the last minute (or close to it). I just feel better when the budget is done a bit sooner.

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

Opportunity All Around

This is a really interesting and different year for us.

On the one hand, we keep hearing terrible news of doom and gloom about the economy. Organizational budgets are being cut like crazy and people are nervous. Some are downright scared. In California, schools are looking at budget cuts amounting to over $500 million. That’s a lot of books, pencils, and teachers. I heard on the news yesterday that there may be 100,000 Californian teachers laid off over the next couple of years. Wow! I know a lot of teachers, and that number staggers me.

On the other hand, it spite of this, we are having one of our busiest grant writing seasons in years. There are so many opportunities with deadlines coming so close together that we can’t take advantage of them all. It’s a real shame. In addition, we’re seeing clients turn down opportunities that are perfect for them because they are either a) overwhelmed and busy, or b) so focused on budget cuts and scarcity that they can’t see the opportunity clearly. I actually heard someone say to me, “We can’t apply for a grant right now. We have to cut $2,000,000 from our budget!”

Huh?

It’s really frustrating when people are so overwhelmed and afraid that they just can’t see the possibilities. They call it “trying to focus,” but it’s just another way of saying that they just can’t handle one more thing. They just can’t take the chance that they might get more bad news (competing for grants is a risk, I know).

I really wish I could help them see that there is opportunity all around. You just have to adjust your vision so you can see it. You have to look at opportunities with an entrepreneurial mindset, not from a position of fear and lack. I’ll be talking more about this in future posts.

Opportunity presents itself in your life (and to your organization) in lots of ways. Sometimes, it’s in the form of a grant or some other new source of funds. Sometimes it’s in the form of a partnership. I had a great conversation today with the owner of http://www.4point0schools.com/. We’re developing a partnership to work together on some data analysis and evaluation projects. It’s a win-win proposition and who knows what it could lead to in the future for both of us. If I were only looking for cash, I would have missed it.

Is your vision so narrowly focused that you are missing many opportunities that might make a huge difference for you? Or are you open enough to see and hear opportunity when it knocks?

Opportunity All Around

This is a really interesting and different year for us.

On the one hand, we keep hearing terrible news of doom and gloom about the economy. Organizational budgets are being cut like crazy and people are nervous. Some are downright scared. In California, schools are looking at budget cuts amounting to over $500 million. That’s a lot of books, pencils, and teachers. I heard on the news yesterday that there may be 100,000 Californian teachers laid off over the next couple of years. Wow! I know a lot of teachers, and that number staggers me.

On the other hand, it spite of this, we are having one of our busiest grant writing seasons in years. There are so many opportunities with deadlines coming so close together that we can’t take advantage of them all. It’s a real shame. In addition, we’re seeing clients turn down opportunities that are perfect for them because they are either a) overwhelmed and busy, or b) so focused on budget cuts and scarcity that they can’t see the opportunity clearly. I actually heard someone say to me, “We can’t apply for a grant right now. We have to cut $2,000,000 from our budget!”

Huh?

It’s really frustrating when people are so overwhelmed and afraid that they just can’t see the possibilities. They call it “trying to focus,” but it’s just another way of saying that they just can’t handle one more thing. They just can’t take the chance that they might get more bad news (competing for grants is a risk, I know).

I really wish I could help them see that there is opportunity all around. You just have to adjust your vision so you can see it. You have to look at opportunities with an entrepreneurial mindset, not from a position of fear and lack. I’ll be talking more about this in future posts.

Opportunity presents itself in your life (and to your organization) in lots of ways. Sometimes, it’s in the form of a grant or some other new source of funds. Sometimes it’s in the form of a partnership. I had a great conversation today with the owner of http://www.4point0schools.com/. We’re developing a partnership to work together on some data analysis and evaluation projects. It’s a win-win proposition and who knows what it could lead to in the future for both of us. If I were only looking for cash, I would have missed it.

Is your vision so narrowly focused that you are missing many opportunities that might make a huge difference for you? Or are you open enough to see and hear opportunity when it knocks?

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