Registration

Several important steps, outlined below, must be undertaken before an organizaton can obtain most forms of grant funding. These steps take time to complete. Do not wait until the last minute to begin them. 

To recieve funding, most entities will need to be registered as 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code explains which organizations are eligible for nonprofit status.

• Tax exempt status is granted by the IRS. Their application guidelines can be found here. 
• Nonprofit corporations must be registered with the State of Alaska. Guidelines for registering a corporation in Alaska can be found here. 

Never submit a grant application on behalf of an organization without its consent. 

To recieve federal funding, organizations will need to obtain a SAM number. According to Grants.gov, "The System for Award Management (SAM) is a government-wide registry for vendors doing business with the Federal government, and SAM registration requires annual renewal. SAM centralizes information about grant recipients and also provides a central location for grant recipients to change organizational information. Grants.gov uses SAM to establish roles and IDs for electronic grant applicants." 

• SAM.gov provides an overview of the process for obtaining a number and guides users to initiate a request for a new number or the renewal of an existing one. 
• The US General Services Administration provides additional background on the SAM number. 

Strategies for Crafting Foundation Proposals 

Proposals for community, family, and corporate foundations vary in their length and complexity, ranging from short project outlines to documents that are every bit as complex as large federal proposals. What determines the complexity of such proposals is generally the funding amount requested. Proposals requesting modest sums from community foundations are usually short, accessible documents; whereas, proposals requesting large awards from national family or corporate foundations can be dense and lengthy.

Some foundations accept proposals on a rolling basis, without a fixed deadline, though there are always fixed dates when proposals are reviewed. Other foundations only accept proposals within certain windows, and still others do not accept unsolicited proposals at all. Often, foundation websites clearly explain their required proposal format, but they seldom detail their specific review criteria: private foundations can often fund whichever projects they desire.

In order to craft effective proposals for private and corporate foundations:

• • Carefully read the eligibility guidelines listed on the foundation website to determine whether your partner organization qualifies for funding. Look for website tabs like “What We Fund,” “What We Support,” or “Grantmaking Guidelines.” Also review any Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages; these often contain vital information.
  • Once you’ve determined that your organization qualifies, review the application guidelines. Look for tabs like “Apply for a Grant,” “Receive,” or “How We Fund.” Note any application deadlines as well as award types (Tier I, Tier II; Discovery, Healthy Impact, Target Wellness, etc.) and the project categories and funding maximums connected to those awards.
  • Before drafting a proposal, try to determine if the funder is open to giving you input on the viability of your project. Traditionally, such requests are accomplished through letters of inquiry (LOIs), which function as project outlines in letter form, but many foundations seeking to engage underserved communities are open to conversations with prospective applicants. To initiate such a conversation, look for tabs like “Who We Are" or  “Contact Us.” If you can’t find a contact portal, look for the program officer/s connected to the funding area that interests you and send them an email asking about the possibility of a meeting to discuss whether your project would be a good fit for the organization.
  • Foundations are often less rigid in their proposal formatting requirements than government entities: they may not specify font type or size or even proposal headings or sections. Still, it is very important to identify any formatting requirements up front, compile them, and refer to them throughout the drafting process. Take care not to exceed the page count, if it is listed; ignoring page count requirements shows disregard for your reviewers and may lead to proposal disqualification.
  • Often, funders will want to see project budgets and general operating support budgets for an organization, to get a sense of how it is spending its money. Make sure that the math in your project budget adds up and that you aren’t allocating too much funding to questionable areas like travel or incidentals, or even salaries, if they seem inflated -- some funders will balk at funding these items, especially when they don't seem critical to the goals of the project. Having said that, in Alaska,  travel is often a vital expense and can add up quickly, and salaries are often neccessarily high.  When you need to make big asks in these areas, use the budget narratives to justify your costs. 
  • Some funders require matches (sometimes called cost shares) – financial contributions from the applicant organization equal to the amount provided by the funder, without which the project will not be funded. In-kind contributions (donations, volunteered time) can often count toward a match. In other cases, funders just ask for leverage, contributions from the applicant or their partners that augment (but do not neccessarily match) the amount provided by the funder. In Alaska, land can be a valuable form of leverage. 
  • If your funder does not specify the requirements for your proposal narrative, consider providing the following information:
    • The need for your project.
    • Background on your organization, including its mission statement, theory of change (if applicable), and notable accomplishments.
    • Your goals (visionary / big picture), objectives and expected outcomes. Objectives (focused interventions)  and outcomes (the project's verifiable results) should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound, and, in many cases, inclusive and equitable.  
    • Major project activities (these should be even more specific than your objectives).
    • How you will evaluate your project to determine if its expected outcomes have been achieved. Many proposals to foundations do not require "scientific" evaluation measures, though attention to how outcomes will be evaluated is always welcome.  
    • How you will sustain the project once funding is expended;
    • A budget and budget narrative.
  • Once you’ve compiled your narrative, share it with trusted readers. Never submit a proposal that has not been read by multiple people.
  • Draw on the knowledge base of your organization and network. You likely know experts about the problem you’re trying to solve; talk to them, get their input on your proposal, and revise the document based on their feedback.

Strategies for Crafting Government Proposals 

Proposals to municipalities, states, and federal agencies are often large and complicated. The Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) that outline government funding opportunities are also complicated documents, and their complexity can seem overwhelming. Here are some strategies to help you navigate government NOFOs and craft stronger government proposals:

• Allow yourself time to fully study the NOFO, obtain any required documents, such as LOIS or resolutions, get price quotes for the budget justification, and write the narrative for the application.
• Once you’ve read the NOFO, create a project management document (see example below) that includes key information such as the proposal date due, the total page limit (including attachments), the page limit for the project narrative, the page limit for the budget and budget narrative, and any formatting requirements.
• Carefully document the rules concerning font, font size, and spacing, and check your final draft against them. Sections of a given proposal can have different formatting requirements (e.g. project summaries are often single spaced, while project narratives are often double-spaced, and the font size allowed in tables and logic models is usually smaller than the font size allowed in the rest of the narrative). Proposals that do not meet a NOFO’s requirements for page length, line spacing, and/or font size may be discarded, or offending sections excluded from evaluation, lowering the proposal's score.
• Make an outline of the required narrative sections listed in the NOFO. Prepare a similar outline of the NOFO’s review criteria. As you draft your proposal, be sure to include each required section heading while also clearly addressing the NOFO’s review criteria. Bolded text, underlined text, headings, and/or sub-headings that reflect the review criteria language can draw your reviewers’ attention to your inclusion of required elements, making it easy for them to give you credit when they evaluate your application.
• Note the point values of each section of the government proposal. Generally, sections that have comparatively low point values should be shorter; sections that are worth a lot should be longer and more detailed. Some grant writers include point values in their NOFO breakdowns + outlines, so that they can decide how to direct their efforts as they craft the proposal.
• If your proposal includes your organizational mission statement, list it exactly. Nonprofit mission statements have legal force and can only be changed by following procedures outlined in the organization's bylaws. 
• If you are requesting letters of support or committment from project partners, request them early, so that your partner organizations have ample time to review the requests. Letters from federal agency partners often need to go through a lengthy legal review process, so budget months for these letters, not weeks. 
• [Repeated from above, since it's also very relevant to federal funders.] Some funders require matches (sometimes called cost shares) – financial contributions from the applicant organization equal to the amount provided by the funder, without which the project will not be funded. In-kind contributions (donations, volunteered time) can often count toward a match. In other cases, funders just ask for leverage, contributions from the applicant or their partners that augment (but do not neccessarily match) the amount provided by the funder. In Alaska, land can be a valuable form of leverage.
• Allow yourself plenty of time to navigate the submission portal. Grants.gov has a notoriously complex interface; don’t wait until the last minute to start submitting or you may miss the proposal submission deadline.
• To obtain federal funds, your organization needs to obtain a SAM (System for Award Management) number with the federal government. Information on obtaining a SAM number can be found here. 

Project Management Checklist Template

Writing successful grant proposals requires careful project management and coordination. 

Below is a project management checklist, shared with permission from an Alaska-based grant writer. Such checklists are filled out after the carefully reading of funder guidelines, whether presented in a NOFO/RFP or on a foundation webpage. Note that the checklist includes a list of actions and artifacts that may be required to complete a given proposal, beginning with Grants.gov requirements (see below) and moving into proposal components: a letter of intent, an abstract/summary, a narrative, a budget worksheet and budget narrative, letters of support from relevant stakeholders (which often require their own internal reviews). The checklist includes a delegate column: when working on large proposals, it is often neccessary to delegate aspects of the project to different team members. It is also essential that those team members know what they need to do and the date their task is due, hence the next column, which lists the deadline by which the artifact is due.  

Here is a brief introduction to some elements in the checklist that may be unfamiliar. 

• SF-424: Standard Form 424 is a form that applicants use as a cover sheet for pre-applications and applications for federal assistance. 
• SF-424A: Standard Form 424A is the budget information form for non-construction programs. Many grant writers seeking government funding have a spreadsheet that corresponds to this form, to expedite the budget development process. 
• SF-424B-Assurances: Standard Form 424B-Assurances is used to testify to a project's compliance with federal requirements. 
• Lobbying Form (SF-LLL): This form is used to disclose any lobbying activities related to a project.

LearnGrantWriting.org

LearnGrantWriting.org is a global, Alaska-based grant writing training and collaboration initiative. The founder, Meredith Noble, is offering users of the Network website the first chapter of her book, How to Write a Grant: Become a Grant Writing Unicorn. That  chapter can be found here. 

The Global Grant Writing Collective, a component of LearnGrantWriting.org, is not free, but scholarships are available. Email info@senworks.org for scholarship information.