A lot of people ask me about writing grants and how they can do it. After all it’s just as simple as putting some information down on an application about how great their non-profit organization is, how many great things they do, how broke they are, and then shortly afterwards the money should start rolling in. That’s it right? As anyone that’s actually attempted putting together an application for a grant program can say: WRONG!
Note I said “putting together an application” not writing an application. It is correct that you could write a lot of sentences and submit a lot of applications in a short period of time, and maybe one of them will hit. There’s also that saying about a blind pig and truffles that you might want to keep in mind. My experience in putting together grant applications is that the whole purpose is to be competitive and have a very high likelihood of receiving the funding for your organization. Since time is the most expensive commodity in the world, why waste yours on any efforts that aren’t going to be likely to pay off? If you need funding you need to ensure you’re doing everything possible to make your applications competitive, not just another file in the stack.
At the grant-writing workshops I teach, I often throw out this simple statement: 95 percent of grant writing has nothing to do with writing a grant application. While short, this statement is both deep and confusing for a lot of folks. This is the first point where students start to realize it’s not such a simple endeavor to try and solicit funding from grant programs. The truth is, putting together competitive grant applications involves a lot of work before the grant application files even get touched. The reason why we can say that writing an application is only 5 percent of the effort is the fact that ALL grant applications ask the same basic 5 questions in varying formats:
- Who are you?
- What do you need?
- How much will it cost?
- What good will it do?
- How will it improve the organization?
Since every grant application asks these same questions there is no reason that at any given time we shouldn’t have the answers. Do not start to look for answers when the grant deadline is announced. The mantra of every public safety agency is to be prepared for what could happen, yet grant applications are some of the most predictable events and most are completely unprepared for them. Grant application periods happen either quarterly, biannually, or annually, and from one application period to the next very few changes occur for the most part so there is no reason to be unprepared.
After you know what the questions are, you can work to create our answers to those questions. The thing to remember when crafting answers is that since every grant application asks these questions, and every applicant is answering them, the key to success is in the specifics of your answers. The key to knowing those specifics is where the previously mentioned 95 percent of the work statement comes from. That involves legwork on your part to put together the information that is going to help your application stand out from the others.
For instance, as a law enforcement agency the general answer to Question No. 1 is that you (as an agency/applicant) are a police department charged with protecting and serving your community. And so is every other police department for their communities, so the way to become competitive is to figure out how you’re different than every other police department, including those that are right next door to you. This involves asking yourself some deeper questions, such as:
How many officers are in your department?
What special services does your department provide? (Mounted patrol, foot patrol, bicycle officers, SWAT, car seat education, DARE, etc.)
How often are community outreaches conducted and what types?
What is the trending of certain types of crimes in your area?
What risks exist in your area creating enforcement issues?
The answers to some of these questions will also lend information for Question No. 2 because it’s not what you’re asking for that a grant review will be concerned with, it’s why you need what you’re asking for and whether or not there are valid reasons for your agency to need them. Again, it’s not the general reason why a law enforcement agency would need something; it’s why your specific department has the particular need that is the issue.
Everyone with even a small bit of knowledge of law enforcement knows that every police department has basic needs that must be satisfied in order to function including officers, training, vehicles, uniforms, weapons, and communications capabilities to name a few. It’s when the grant request is above and beyond the basics that the specifics will come into play. For example, any department might have a use for night-vision equipment to help with night-time surveillance. Wanting night vision equipment because you could use them to see better at night is not something that’s going to resonate with a grant program’s review panel in a competitive manner.
The question that needs answering is why does your agency have a need for it in the first place? Considering the expense of the necessary military grade equipment, what is the Return on Investment (ROI) to the department and community for this project? Has there been an increase in night-time drug trafficking? Burglaries? Assaults? What has happened in recent history that is prompting this particular request is the information that is needed in order to create a competitive application, and without doing the research to know what the deep seeded reasons are, you as a writer aren’t going to be able to distinguish your application from the others.
One of the most important specifics that most grant applicants skip over is the financial reasoning behind the request. After all, you are making a request for some other entity to give your agency some of their money. The first question you should realize that they’re going to expect an answer to is “Where is your money going now that prevents you from making the investment in the project?” This means you need to know where your money is going every year to the penny, which is going to require intimate knowledge of your own budget and all expenditures under every line item.
To be even more competitive you should know why you aren’t getting more funding, and simple answers such as “city/town council is making cuts” isn’t enough. Why are they making cuts? Why have revenues gone down? Has a major employer closed? Has tourism been a staple and now your area isn’t getting the same level of visitors as in the past? Have there been any natural disasters that have caused state or local reserve funds to be diminished? These are the types of local and specific financial conditions that will only affect a small number of potential applicants to any grant program, and will help shore up the need for non-local funding to effect improvements.
Once you get to this point answering Questions number three through five will now be more intuitive, because you’ll have asked yourself the questions and given yourself the answers that will point to the specific reasons behind your request, the improvements that will be made, and the need for outside funding for your organization.
Again, these are the basic beginning steps to a successful grant application. There are many, many nuances to every step of the grant process, but taking the correct first few will help make the journey that much easier, and also repeatable for every grant application you attempt thereafter.
Brian Vickers
Brian P. Vickers has been in the fire service for 18 years with numerous state and national certifications for Fire, Rescue, and EMS disciplines. He is a former department training officer and district captain, as well as a former Army National Guard soldier. He is CEO of Vickers Consulting Services (VCS), a public safety consulting firms specializing in strategic financial planning and grants.
