There are lots of opportunities to apply for grants.
But grants require applications and applications take time, effort, and money.
Unless you have myriads of free grant writers sitting around, you can only apply for a finite number of grants. For most of us, that number is quite finite.
Resources spent pursing the wrong grant or losing the grant competition are resources wasted. So the most important decision you can make is, “Which grants do I invest in?”
The old bid-no-bid decision. At the most basic level, you must answer three questions to make the decision.
Question One: Is It Real?
This is the easiest of the the three. You must assess if the opportunity really exists. Does the grantor have the resources to follow through? Are we sending an unsolicited application? Are they just looking for applications to put pressure on a preferred grantee? If the opportunity is well-published and from an established source, the answer is probably, “Yes.”
Question Two: Can We Win?
This is the hardest to answer and the most important. First, you must understand the criteria to be used to evaluate your proposal. These can often be determined, at least qualitatively, by a close reading of the guidelines.
Here are the guidelines from one foundation:
A compelling application will exhibit the following characteristics:
- Is responsive to community conditions
- Makes effective use of community resources
- Tests or demonstrates solutions to community issues.
- Measures results and/or meets best practice standards
- Commits to improvement (for ongoing efforts)
- Sustains effort throughout anticipated life of initiative (for ongoing efforts)
Most grantors will have a focus area and will list specific goals within that focus area. Here is a link to the New York State Department of Health focus areas and here is a link to their goals and fundable activities for one of those areas.
You must have a strategy to address one or more of their focus areas and help them advance toward their goals. You must have a plan of action that sets you apart from other applicants. In marketing terms, you must have a unique selling proposition. In proposal writing terms, your strategy must address their most important evaluation criteria, and your strategy must be better than the other applicants. Go back and take a look at the article on 6 Basic Questions to Answer Before You Write Your Grant Applications. If you cannot answer these, you should no-bid early and save the grant writing resources.
Question Three: Is It Worth It?
Surprisingly, this question is often ignored. You hear of an exciting new, well-funded grant opportunity. You determine that it is real and that you have a strategy that could win. You kick off the application effort, but forget to ask why. Will the grant actually advance your organization towards your goals? Or will it just get in the way?
I have seen organizations win a grant only to find that they now have to actually do what they said they will do. This takes time and effort. Time and effort that might better be spent advancing their current efforts.
Grants are not just about getting money. You must do something with that money. You must actually perform.
And some grantors require frequent detailed reports and elaborate end-of-project reports. You might be better off just pursing unrestricted funding. Just being able to win is not enough.
Here is an example from the commercial world:
The one company that was not awarded the development contract stated that they would develop the equipment using their own funds and would still compete for the the production contract.
The three winners protested the award. They knew that they would probably spend more than the $1 million dollars meeting the government requirements for project management and financial reporting. The “loser” would have a significant advantage.
The protest was denied and the solo company won the production contract.