Grants 101 Part II: Tracking the Wild Grant

Securing government grants is at the top of many organizations' government relations goals. John McHugh from North Carolina's Office of Economic Recovery and Investment contributed posts to help non-profits understand the basics of government grants.

So you’ve already talked to your group about grants, gone to the Secretary of State’s office and created a corporation to apply, registered with CCR, gotten a DUNS number, and now you’re ready to apply for a grant from a federal, state, or local governmental source. Step 1 is deciding what it is you want to do.

This sounds a good deal simpler than it actually is. “Help the homeless” is a noble wish, but “open a 50-bed shelter with attached soup kitchen” is a goal that might get funded. The trick here is to walk the line between wish and goal.

The most frequent thing I tell to groups looking for ARRA-funded grants is that they will never be a ‘perfect’ grant. So the goal is not to wait for the exactly right grant to come along, but to adjust the program to fit the grant that exists. I call it ‘finding a way to fit into the funding stream.’ That homeless shelter might need to have counseling or an educational component, or partner with a group that does, in order to qualify. Keep an open mind when looking for opportunities.

A word of advice: it is always helpful to partner with other organizations when applying for grants. A partner can increase both the grants you can apply for, and the ability to successfully win those grants. Governmental entities, school, universities, religious institutions, and other local groups are good places to look for partners. So while looking, don’t just think ‘what can I apply for’ but also ‘who can I partner with.’

So where do I find those opportunities? There are numerous online resources available:

Grants.gov is the federal government’s one-stop shop for all grants. This is good, because that means grants.gov has lots of opportunities, but it’s bad because it means there are A LOT of information to sift through. Grants.gov has improved a lot over the last few years, with FAQs and assistance and a search function that actually works, but it can still be a bear to go through.

Recovery.gov is the website of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While the ARRA’s grant making days are over, it may be helpful to take a look at the website, since the openness of Recovery.gov is going to be how public programs are going to be handled from now on.

NCGrants.gov is the State of North Carolina equivalent to Grants.gov. It’s still under construction, so some opportunities will still be available only on various NC state agency websites.

NCOpenBook.gov is the State of North Carolina’s government transparency website. NCOpenBook.gov has a grants page with links to NC grant making agencies, and a searchable data base of North Carolina Funding Opportunities.

Google.com is…well, you know. Google can help finding out about existing grants and more importantly current grant winners. Reaching out to a current or past grant recipient can be very helpful to understand what the grant makers are looking for in a successful applicant.

And that’s it for grant searching tools. Up next: Grant writing and you!