Wow! The federal Recovery Act has created a whole bunch of grant opportunities. Take a look at the FY 09 Recovery Act page of grants.gov to see the new grants that have become available.
Don’t just search by agency; look at all of the opportunities.
And don’t wait! I know you’re busy right now. We are all busy these days, but these deadlines are approaching quickly, and if you wait, you’ll miss out.
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:
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:
Today at 3:00 p.m. PST, Tips from the Grant Goddess on BlogTalkRadio will focus on Current Federal Grant Opportunities.
In this episode, the Grant Goddess will review several current federal grant opportunities for schools, school districts, and social service non-profit agencies. She will discuss the key features and requirements of each opportunity, her tips for success, and some things to consider in making the decision if each opportunity is right for you. You won’t want to miss this one!
Today at 3:00 p.m. PST, Tips from the Grant Goddess on BlogTalkRadio will focus on Current Federal Grant Opportunities.
In this episode, the Grant Goddess will review several current federal grant opportunities for schools, school districts, and social service non-profit agencies. She will discuss the key features and requirements of each opportunity, her tips for success, and some things to consider in making the decision if each opportunity is right for you. You won’t want to miss this one!
Grant writing really is a process. Well, to be more specific, I should say that good grant writing is a process. Sometimes we have to condense the process a bit because of time limitations, but the process is still there….and it’s still important.
Sometimes I’ll work with people – usually new clients – who want to skip the process and have us just take a few ideas from them and make up the rest. The problem is that not only is that not very ethical, but we’ve been doing this a long time, and we know what works.
We talk about need first, and how we can document that need. Then we talk about research, and how best to meet those identified needs. We talk about input from constituents, and demonstration of collaborative support, and personnel, and management, and budget…..and we discuss it in a particular order because we know how the grant development conversation flows best.
I hate it when people tell me to “trust the process.” It usually means that they don’t want me to think, or question, and I always have to think and question. It’s my nature. But when it comes to grant writing, and working with a professional grant writing, my best advice for you is….trust the process.
Grant writing really is a process. Well, to be more specific, I should say that good grant writing is a process. Sometimes we have to condense the process a bit because of time limitations, but the process is still there….and it’s still important.
Sometimes I’ll work with people – usually new clients – who want to skip the process and have us just take a few ideas from them and make up the rest. The problem is that not only is that not very ethical, but we’ve been doing this a long time, and we know what works.
We talk about need first, and how we can document that need. Then we talk about research, and how best to meet those identified needs. We talk about input from constituents, and demonstration of collaborative support, and personnel, and management, and budget…..and we discuss it in a particular order because we know how the grant development conversation flows best.
I hate it when people tell me to “trust the process.” It usually means that they don’t want me to think, or question, and I always have to think and question. It’s my nature. But when it comes to grant writing, and working with a professional grant writing, my best advice for you is….trust the process.
If you missed today’s BlogTalkRadio show about The Top Five Mistakes Made by Novice Grant Writers, you can click here to access the archived version of the show, as well as other archived episodes of Tips from the Grant Goddess.
If you would like to read about some of the issues we highlighted in the radio show, go to our Hubpage on the same topic.
If you missed today’s BlogTalkRadio show about The Top Five Mistakes Made by Novice Grant Writers, you can click here to access the archived version of the show, as well as other archived episodes of Tips from the Grant Goddess.
If you would like to read about some of the issues we highlighted in the radio show, go to our Hubpage on the same topic.
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:
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.