As my recent grant victories indicate, one of my most important secrets of success is getting a jump on the competition. The sooner I get a rough draft outline distributed to the top staff, the sooner I start getting confident that the project will result in a large check.
This is not as tough to do as it sounds. One of the best ideas for speeding up the opportunity recognition process is to make sure that you are subscribed to the most important grant-related e-newsletters and funding alerts available to you and your non-profit or government institution. Many of the leading funders, for example, are more than happy to include you on their list of upcoming grant deadlines and newly available RFPs.
California Department of Education Grants
One of the most important resources for schools in California, for example, comes from the state's Department of Education.
You can sign up for their free alerts e-newsletter by going to this site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/af/
I think that every school principal, assistant principal and senior administrator ought to be receiving and tracking this sort of free online information. Once you discover a plausible opportunity, then you can simply hire a contract grant writer like me or take one of the many courses available to help you write the grant or, if you prefer, you can learn to write the grant in class as part of my uniquely focused Two Day Grant Writing Retreat. One of the cool things about the resources available through the State of California Department of Education is that they have a lot of programs with multi-million dollar budgets that give away a large number of smaller grants. These are the easiest grants for schools or non-profit organizations to obtain and a great place to start your new grant writing career.
California Department of Alcohol and Drugs
There is also a lot of valuable possibiities available to you at http://www.adp.cahwnet.gov/Funding/adp.shtml regarding the grants offered through the California Department of Alcohol and Drugs. One of the secrets of success I've noticed in winning funding like this is that it pays to travel to Sacramento and visit with the politicians with a special interest in each of these programs and with the top bureaucrats who are making decisions by implementing the rules. They will not give you any special favors, but they will help you make sure you have a realistic view of what the government funder is really looking for in a winner application.
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