Pay Attention to the Points: Simple Tips for Winning Federal Grants

Writing a successful federal grant demands the exact same skills, resources, and product positioning skills discussed in A Really Great Booklet on Grant Writing.  The only real difference is that you need to apply these skills with even greater depth and discipline.  As you may know, I created my best, early successes writing federal grants.  

I have found them to be an arena that verifies everything I have said earlier on the sudden appearance of money, and the need to move quickly when money arrives.  The necessity of quick action in this field makes perfect sense to me because of the process surrounding federal grant applications.  After these grant appropriations are approved by Congress, the money slowly trickles down, and then the government agency that is giving away the money needs to scramble to let everyone know that the money is now available.  Often, it is not really their fault that they could not move faster, simply because they are not sure what is going to be available.  (I imagine this was done on purpose in the past to give an advantage to existing interest groups over insurgent interest groups.)

For whatever reason, the same process is still taking place today.  Accordingly, to win one of these federal grants, you need to have everything set up ahead of time.  The main season for federal grants runs from January to May.  So, ideally, if you get yourself set-up with grants.gov in the Fall, you will be able to apply for funding in the Spring.

There are some things about applying for federal grants that are remarkably different from applying for corporate or foundation grants.  It pays to know, for example, what some of these differences are if you want to get ahead.  For example, federal applications list their guidelines so that you can find out what criteria are used to screen your application, and you can even find the score attached to each separate criteria. 

It is best to request this on behalf of your agency, not as a consultant to an agency.  (I tried this as a consultant and federal staff frightened the nonprofits into backing down and not insisting on their rights.)  I have found it extremely profitable to pay great attention to the weighting of the different sections of a federal grant application.  There are also great advantages in answering questions exactly according to what the federal request for proposal demands from you: word for word.  This operating strategy can, at times, create an almost idiotic question and response style of writing useful to nobody in the real world.  As crazy as this sounds, perfect and consistent compliance will win you funding in the long-run.

In my experience, it seems to help to have a good friendship with your member of Congress, Senator, or other political official.  They and their staffs can be very helpful in assisting you in finding available pots of money.  Surprisingly, you can even include letters of support from local political figures in your applications for funding - a fact that first struck me as almost like cheating.

Finally, one good idea for winning money from the federal government is to focus on those programs which have the largest amount of money and the largest sheer number of potential grants.  I like looking for programs like Drug-Free Communities which offer up to 300 grants every year in the $100,000 to $200,000 range.  As a taxpayer, you may be very disappointed by how easy it is to receive funding from the federal government for your pet project.  As a recipient, however, I think you will be very happy.