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Grant Proposals: Take the Confusion Out and Put Logic InJeff Lord and Rebecca Scholer - Monday, May 01, 2006
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t's a lonely, thankless job sometimes. Good results are hard to see, and long in coming. No, I'm not referring to the plight of the law enforcement professional, I'm actually talking about being a grant preparer for your department! But like any job, someone has to do it - to receive any money at all you have to ask for it and follow the rules to get your share.
The key in "asking for it" - completing and submitting an application - is making your appeal in a more effective way than the other departments or agencies that may be applying for the same grant, because most grant programs out there are competitive. Grantees are selected based on grantor perception of need and whether the prospect is deserving based on program criteria. If your needs and the representation of why you deserve the money or equipment are more compelling than the next guy, you win.
There is money available and grant authorities want you to have it. Many of these programs - especially those funded via federal budget - live or die on their success in getting money and equipment into the hands of the responders for whom these assets are intended. For 2006 alone, monies or assets available to law enforcement through federal grant programs include the Law Enforcement Grant Program ($400 million), Port Security ($150 million), State Homeland Security Grants ($1 billion), Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance ($50 million) and the Urban Area Security Initiative ($850 million).
Getting your share
There are a number of basic, yet very important, actions that can make or break your success in the pursuit of any grant. Most grants - public or private - are looking for the same information. The format may vary, but the essentials are the same. The following are some basic tips that may help in securing grant funding for your department.
Know your department and community. Have a firm grasp of the demographics including the size of the department, number of paid officers, significant crime statistics, area patrolled (square miles) and general population.
Clearly define the need. Be specific. What will you do with the money or equipment? What will you buy? How will you use it? How will this better equip you to solve the challenges within your department and community?
A very important theme today is interoperability. More and more grants are emphasizing the requirement that an applying department be able to demonstrate how the acquired equipment will support interoperability with other responder entities. For example, some thermal imagers may be equipped with wireless transmitters and receivers that operate on the same frequency, so the same visual information can be shared across departments to ensure communication for command and control. This capability may meet a grant's interoperability requirement.
Respond to the grant objectives. While most grants ask for the same general information, each one usually has a distinct stated objective, whether it is to protect seaports, safeguard large urban areas or respond to terrorist actions. Be sure to acknowledge that objective in the narrative. To win consideration, goals must line up with grant objectives.
This year marks the first grant cycle in which there is a National Preparedness Goal (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/odp/docs/InterimNationalPreparedness Goal_03-31-05_1.pdf) to shape national priorities and focus expenditures. This common planning framework, and the tools that support it, allows the United States to better understand how prepared we are, how prepared we need to be and how we prioritize efforts to close that gap. The plan embraces the major categorical elements of protect, respond and recover. The National Preparedness Goal should therefore become the framework for assertions and objectives within grant narratives.
Coordinate and collaborate with other local and regional responder agencies. A significant level of federal grant funds flowing out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) flow to and through state-level authorities. DHS has directed that this coordination is the responsibility of each state's State Administrative Agency (SAA), which is the entity within each state specifically authorized and responsible for state-wide planning and submittal of plans back to DHS, and the coordination of community funding within that state. SAAs can be found on the Web at www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/states.htm. The SAA can be a guide as to what documents need to be prepare for each aspect of federal funding and can further advise you as to what local and regional agencies with which you should coordinate. This coordination is very important. The plan you develop and the needs you assert have to be in concert with the regional plan, which ultimately feeds into the state-level plan.
The things grant reviewers expect. Put yourself in the shoes of the grant reviewer. Am I submitting the information and the assertions that will make sense? Is my submittal relevant to the grant objectives? Is my submittal clear, concise and well organized? Have I clearly demonstrated a need with expected results, grant in hand? Have I demonstrated a consistency with other local, regional and statewide plans? If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, then you are well on your way.
A few final tips
Be prepared, and don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today is probably among the best advice you can receive.
- Assemble all of the information you can now. Don't wait for that time-pressured application to hit your desk. Do the research and build the framework of common information early so it will be at your fingertips when an opportunity arises.
- Contact your SAA today and build a relationship that will provide insight into the state's overall priorities.
- Work closely with your local or regional responder structure to ensure coordination and collaboration on grant requests. There is strength in numbers.
Then all you will have to do is tailor the canned information to the grant-specific criteria. With some of these details out of the way, you will have more time to go grant hunting and will spend less time sweating the details.
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