Center for Nonprofit Management - Grant Seekers Handbook Chapter 7

The Grant Seeker's Handbook: A Guide to Finding Funds
Chapter 7

PUBLIC SECTOR FUNDING: FAIRLY SHORT AND SWEET*

Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E

Back to:
* Looking for Funding
* About Resources & Tools

BACKGROUND

Within their myriad of guises and functions, various levels of government also exist as funding sources. While it makes sense to consider the possibilities for bagging some government bucks, you should have some understanding of the arena before you decide to enter.

To begin with, government-generated revenues, including those derived from taxes, are subject to and the result of the political process. In other words, government funding and programs reflect the push and pull of special interest groups and the jockeying of elected politicians around the legislative process.

Legislation spawns dollars in the public sector and takes place at every level, from city hall to Sacramento to Capitol Hill. Once legislation is passed, possibly resulting in programs and their funding, it becomes the responsibility of various departments or offices of government to administer and implement. Government agency funds are usually made available in the form of grants or contracts. There are two basic types of government grants: formula grants and project grants.

Formula grants, named as they are because some type of formula is used for distributing the funds, are non-competitive and are generally broad in program coverage or focus. Also known as block grants, they are often made from one unit of government to another, particularly from federal departments or agencies to state planning agencies. These funds tend to flow regularly as long as the legislation that created them is intact.

Units of government receiving formula grants may redistribute or pass the funds through to nonprofit organizations. This is typically done by making the grants available for competition as project grants. In addition to being competitive, these grants tend to be much narrower in program focus than the original block grants. They are usually limited in duration, meaning that competition for refunding can take place annually. Project grants may be available directly from government funding sources at the federal, state and local levels.

Contracts — also available at every level of government — are competitive but differ from grants because they represent the purchase of services, goods or expertise from competing organizations. This allows the government agency awarding contracts to have much more say-so in directing the activities of successful contractors. If your organization emphasizes research in particular, government contracting is well worth considering. (This is certainly well known among colleges and universities, which often have Grants and Contracts Offices.)

IMPLICATIONS AND TACTICS

Given the volatile nature of government funding, its history of changing priorities, and the importance of the legislative process, two considerations should mark your efforts to secure and use the sector’s money.

First, you should realize that over-reliance on such funding has caused organizations considerable difficulty when money has dried up or been reduced through changes in legislation. Furthermore, replenishing relinquished government money with money from the private sector is not easy. (Your research into foundation and corporation funding will bear this out.)

Second, it makes good sense for organizations seeking dollars in the public sector to learn about legislators and their staff members — with particular emphasis on staff. Remember, state senators in Sacramento as well as the U.S. variety in the District of Columbia offer constituent services to the citizenry through staffed offices. Resource development and grantseeking qualify as such services. A note of caution: don’t expect politicians’ staffers to work for you if you won’t cultivate a relationship with them. Take the time to find them, meet them, and let them know about you and your organization. Offer to help them with their community-based efforts as well.

Following are some other strategic suggestions.

Since public sector funding currently favors the states as prime program operators, you should make it your business to get up to Sacramento periodically as part of your research and meet with government representatives. While it’s true that there are project grants from the federal government for which you can compete, you are sometimes competing against a unit of a state government. A lot of federal money goes to the state capitol and roosts there. Coupling those dollars with money that is authorized and appropriated by the state legislature makes it easy to see how important state agencies are in the inter-governmental scheme of things.

Part of effective resource development in the public sector involves connecting with legislators and their staff members. Cultivating relationships with legislative staff can lead to their taking your research efforts seriously as part of constituent services. Another reason to work with them is legislation itself. As already mentioned, legislation leads to funds for a variety of programs, so it makes sense to understand as much as you can about the legislative process. (Some individuals have been so effective in representing their organizations’ needs that line items have been created for them in legislative packages. This means they are guaranteed funding under such legislation, as long as the legislation is intact.)

It’s also important to understand the requirements made by government grants before applying for one. Sometimes matching funds are required, which means your organization has to come up with a percentage of the needed funds either as a hard match, meaning cash is required, or a soft match, where the values of in-kind goods and services are allowed.

Government grants may have associated administrative costs, not necessarily covered in a program grant. If so, can your organization cover the expenses, or might you need to seek other funding to cover them?

Don’t be surprised if government funding carries with it a heavy volume of paperwork. Are you ready to cross your t’s and dot your i’s? Monthly? Quarterly?

While you may have to wait for six months to a year for a response to a government funding application, should a grant or contract come through, your funder will most likely expect your program to begin rapidly. So you’ll need to have done your program planning, even if the availability of funds is uncertain.

None of this is intended to keep you away from the public sector. Rather, it is meant to give you some idea of the experiences of those who have been there. There certainly can be benefits to compensate for the extra effort and uncertainty involved in pursuing government money, including the possibility of grants larger than those found from private sources.

RESOURCES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ON GOVERNMENT FUNDING

Available through the Nonprofit Resource Library

Government Grants
A web page maintained by the Center for Nonprofit Management. Provides basic overview of government grant web sites, including federal, state, county and city. (Coming Soon)

Guide to Federal Funding for Governments and Nonprofits
Provides full descriptions of each Federal program, with summaries that include key facts and contact information. Updated quarterly, the publication also includes twice-monthly Federal Grant Deadline Calendars. Information about the book is online at http://www.thompson.com/public/offerpage.jsp?promo=FITS08WP&priority=WEB97237.

GrantStation
GrantStation is a database which provides information on funds from government and private foundations. You will learn to use GrantStation to identify potential grant makers for specific projects, develop competitive proposals and create a sense of urgency for funding your project. www.grantstation.com/.

Federal Funding

For the very serious federal fund seeker, a necessary evil is the Federal Register, located at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr and published every day of the year except weekends and holidays. Inside, you’ll find more information than you ever wanted to know about the workings of our government. Of particular interest to the fund seeker are Proposed and Final Regulations, as published, and a section titled Notices. Regulations represent the translation of federal legislation into program terms and concepts by the administering departments. The Notices section includes data about available funds, often described as discretionary or for research, and demonstration programs. Information on how to obtain application forms and who to contact for technical assistance is also included. The Register is not available at the Nonprofit Resource Library — a year’s supply would fill a corner of the library from floor to ceiling. It can be found, however, in many public, legal or college/university libraries.

The best bet for getting your hands on the print version of the Register, as well as other government funding resources, is to locate a Federal Depository Library (http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/), in which you will find federal government reference sections and librarians. These libraries make the Federal Register available on a reference basis and carry a lot of other federal government periodicals and publications that might interest you as a grantseeker. There are around fifty Federal Depository Libraries in the metropolitan, five-county area. If you have trouble locating one, try asking someone at your local public library where the closest depository library is.

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (http://12.46.245.173/cfda/cfda.html) has been referred to as the Sears and Roebuck Catalog of federal funding and the federal funding Wish Book. It is the single most complete listing of federal programs for organizations and individuals in the U.S. and contains descriptions of up to a thousand grants, loans, contracts, technical assistance programs, scholarships and fellowships. It also includes information about eligibility requirements, application procedures and deadlines. The introduction to the catalog makes for very good reading. Truly. Read it, and you will have a solid grasp of the workings of the feds in their funding role. You can read the introduction online at http://12.46.245.173/CFDA/pdf/intro.pdf.

The Commerce Business Daily (CBD), located online at http://cbdnet.gpo.gov/, appears as frequently as the Federal Register. In the form of Requests for Proposals, it contains information about contracts the federal government intends to award through competition. Contracts to be funded cover a range of services from provision of goods and supplies (to almost any branch of government) to research and training (from higher education to the defense industry). You won’t find the Daily at the Nonprofit Resource Library, so check your Federal Depository Library. If you know anyone working in a college or university Office of Grants and Contracts, the chances are good they can get you access, since higher education often competes for government research contracts.

State Funding

The State of California now has a web portal for their grants called GetGrants! You can access it at http://getgrants.ca.gov/. Grant opportunities listed on this website are posted by grant managers employed by a government agency. Each listing gives a brief description of the grant program and provides contact information of the program grant manager. You can search for grants using a Categories menu, which lists grant programs under Federal or State Agency, or a Topics menu, which provides grant information according to a specific field of interest, such as Health, Education, Environment, etc. Alternatively, you may use the Advanced Search feature under the Main menu. As new grants become available, they are posted on the homepage of the website under the What’s New menu. You may also find additional grant information by clicking on the Related Websites link.

Local Government Funding

Things get a bit tougher here. The primary area served by the Center for Nonprofit Management contains various departments of government for Los Angeles County. County government often acts as a local provider of services, using federal and state monies along with funds appropriated locally. You might consider finding out which County Supervisor governs the district where your nonprofit organization provides services. Next, check with that supervisor’s staff about funding opportunities and/or the existence of a county government directory describing local programs or departments of county government.

Furthermore, there are hundreds of units of city government of varying size within the county. The City of Los Angeles, of course, represents the largest of these, and coordinates a number of social service programs itself, as do other units of city government. Once again, we suspect that your willingness to seek out local city politicos, and especially the staff who work for them, can lead to information about additional local funding opportunities.

*Short and sweet because: a) as part of The Foundation Center network of resource libraries, the Nonprofit Resource Library emphasizes resources from the private sector; b) there are volumes and volumes of information about government, especially the feds, and this is a mere synopsis.

Continue to Chapter 8