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Federal Grants

Federal Grants for New or Small Nonprofit Organizations

With the amount of federal money available through grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements ever shrinking, nonprofits are finding it hard to compete for this level of funding. We have considerable experience with federal grants and want to share our knowledge with you so that you understand the process and what it will take for you to be successful.

  • Federal grants fund programs or projects, not general operating support. Federal departments publishing funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) or other funding instruments want to fund new ideas to fix old problems. Your program or project must address the problem of the target population based on the purpose of the RFP. If you want to pursue a federal grant, let us review the FOA for you before you begin the application process.
  • The application can take 40 to 100 or more hours to complete. Government guidelines and application packages are quite lengthy and require extensive responses. The turnaround time for preparing the application package is usually 45 days after the release of the FOA.  Organizations best suited to pursue federal grants should have experience seeking and securing larger foundation or corporate grants.
  • Unlike foundation or corporate grants, you will not receive cash if you win a federal grant. All federal grants reimburse your organization for the costs associated with the program or project you are proposing. Your organization must have at least three months of cash reserves that will cover the expenditures associated with the program or project before submitting your application.
  • Federal grants are very competitive. For every published FOA, there can be potentially 1,000 or more proposals submitted from across the country. If there are only 10 awards available through the grant and 1,000 applications received, then the chances of winning are 1:100. If there are 100 awards, the ratio decreases to 1:10. Still, if your proposal scores 90 out of a possible 100 points and recommended for funding by the peer reviewers, there is no guarantee that you will receive the amount you requested.

We work with organizations to seek federal funding if they have the following:

  • Strategic plan to ensure that your five-year goals align with the purpose of the FOA.
  • Fundraising plan to answer the question of sustainability found in every federal FOA.
  • Financial audit from the previous fiscal year or two years prior.
  • Annual diversified funding sources with at least 60% or more from sources other than grants or state contracts.
  • Personnel that have the time and expertise to file the required progress reports.
  • Technology such as a specialized management information system to track participant data.

All nonprofits seeking federal funding must have a working knowledge of the following:

  • Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)
  • Logic models and outcome benchmarking
  • Evaluation methodology including performance measures or indicators

We highly recommend your organization learn all it can about federal grants. One of the best places to start is the federal grants website grants.gov.

We also offer half-, full– and two-day workshop on federal grants. Learn more about the content on our Workshop Description page. Then visit our Workshop Schedule page to check the dates of our upcoming workshops and locations.

Upcoming Workshops & Webinars

Mar
11
Thu
2:00 pm 21st Century Grant Applications:... @ Webinar
21st Century Grant Applications:... @ Webinar
Mar 11 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
21st Century Grant Applications: Brief and to the Point! @ Webinar | Brookline | Massachusetts | United States
Online grant applications are here to stay! They are frustrating, exasperating, and daunting. Still, how do you convey your case for support when your need statement and project description sections can only be 2,000 characters[...]
Apr
21
Wed
10:00 am Introduction to Grant Writing @ Webinar
Introduction to Grant Writing @ Webinar
Apr 21 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Learn the basics of preparing successful grant proposals from the comfort of your office! Securing grants for your nonprofit organization requires a sound proposal. This workshop is for those who are new to seeking grants[...]
May
12
Wed
10:00 am Advanced Grant Proposal Writing @ Webinar
Advanced Grant Proposal Writing @ Webinar
May 12 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Advanced Grant Proposal Writing @ Webinar | Boston | Massachusetts | United States
Join us for this Zoom Webinar hosted by Philanthropy Massachusetts. Click on the link below to register. Nonprofit organizations often seek grant support but fall short in receiving an award. Competition for grants continues to[...]
View Calendar

Recent Grant Successes

mHUB Chicago (IL) received a $1.3 million, three-year Venture Capital grant from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce to scale their Product Development (PD) program. It was one of 52 to receive an award of more than 600 applications submitted for the 2020 Build to Scale grant program.

The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless received a $115,889, one-year grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to scale its technology and create policies to serve 100 patients at three, high-need federally qualified health centers operated by the Community Care Cooperative.

The United Way of Connecticut received the only $1.83 million, three-year contract from the State of Connecticut, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) to develop the Statewide Adult Recovery Call Center for Crises.

Aspire of Chicago (IL) received a $233,000 grant from the Coleman Foundation to integrate and migrate information technology systems from its recent merger with NorthPointe Resources.

Be sure to visit our Grant Award News page for more information about these and other awards our clients received.

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Want to Learn All About Grants?
We just updated our 2021 training calendar with a number of webinars to help you learn the basics or advanced grant-seeking techniques through hosts such as Philanthropy Massachusetts, Grant Professionals Association, and more. Visit our Workshops and Webinars page to register!

 

Warm Welcome to Our Newest Clients
TERC (MA), Ronald McDonald House of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, and the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires

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