Federal Grants
You will find that federal-government grants are where the money is and where the work is! Federal-government grants are meant to launch big programs; that's why awards can range from grants of less than $10,000 to grants of several million dollars.
Federal-government requests for proposals are published in the Federal Register (or Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance), announced at various department sites on the Internet, and available at
Some federal grant programs have been offered yearly for decades, and are provided to designated agencies based on their progress reports and annual reapplications.
What's a DUNS number?
Required on all federal grant applications, a DUNS number is the nonprofit organization's Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) number. You can apply by telephone or Internet for a DUNS number. D&B provides financial information about your organization to the federal government, eliminating the need for you to attach lengthy audit reports.
For instance, health-care clinics for the indigent may apply for a “330” designation by the federal government. Once they have that designation, they qualify to apply for ongoing funding through the aptly titled 330-program grants, which come up every year. While the 330 grants don't entirely support these clinics, they do provide a relatively stable source of ongoing funding. Head Start has also been funded for a number of years, with differing deadlines for resubmission based on geographic location.
Other grant programs are relatively new. Think about the new funding that became available once Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002. This program increased funding already available to qualifying law-enforcement agencies through grants made by the Department of Justice. For the first time ever, firefighting units were also eligible to receive federal funding so that they could build up their capacity, purchase equipment, or receive additional training.
When the federal government opens up a new grant program, such as the Homeland Security Act, it often means that fewer dollars are available for other grant programs. Often, particularly after an administrative change, some grant programs are phased out and funding available for grants is redistributed to new programs.
Unless you are applying for designation and annual funding that is relatively stable, you should watch trends and allocations to the federal departments. When there is a large allocation made to one federal-government department, it's likely that large grant opportunities will be coming up within the year.
There are many one-time grant opportunities available from the federal government. These are usually multiyear awards — often of more than $1 million — given to demonstration projects throughout the nation.
A good example is the multimillion-dollar, three-year grant projects known as “Safe Schools — Healthy Students,” created in response to the shootings at Columbine, as well as other school violence. The grant called for the school-district applicant to work in tandem with a mental-health agency and the local police or sheriff's department to address the entire life cycle (from birth to seniors) in its programs. They also had to develop a coherent program for using these tools to reduce school violence and improve the mental health of students and families.
Many of the districts funded under this three-year grant used the onetime money to purchase equipment or to develop materials they could use repeatedly, and to develop new programs and partnerships. At the end of three years, the school districts were ineligible to reapply for new grants under the program.
The success of a new program funded by a large-grant award can be short-lived if you don't plan for the continued funding you'll need to keep the project going after the grant funds are spent. Planning for sustainability — for funding and outcomes — should be a part of every grant writer's expertise.
Multidepartment grant applications are very difficult to write. Not only must the writer respond to all the requirements in the joint RFP, but she must also meet the individual requirements for each federal department.
