Apply for Business Grants
Posted 10th July 2014 at 06:14 AM by imarkedy
As an individual or company, you can apply for business grants. Whether successful in the application process largely depends on if your project aligns with federal, state or local government funding initiatives. Often times, entrepreneurs and small businesses have great ideas on how to solve some social crisis, key to receipt of funds, but fail to properly research funding sources. In this article, we’ll briefly discuss ways to make your organization or project eligible for government grants. One of the most attractive aspects of grants is (unlike business loans) they don’t have to be paid back to a funding entity. You must, however, report on progress throughout the term of a grant whether funded by a government agency or private foundation. Success (or lack thereof) will determine if the initiative receives ongoing funding. Let me be clear; just because a project is successful and achieving outlined goals doesn’t mean it will continue getting funded!
Having worked for the government and taken advantage of certain grant funding opportunities, I say with 100% surety it, like corporate America, often rewards failure and frowns on success. Nevertheless; most funding opportunities, regardless of agency, can be found at Grants.gov. There are a series of steps you must take in order to be eligible for any funding opportunity.
Those steps are;
1. Complete the registration process at Grants.gov
This process can take between 3-5 business days and may take longer if your company information is inaccurate or incomplete. Whether registering as a company or individual, certain criteria must be met. Before going forward, let me say something which will ‘fly in the face’ of conventional wisdom; there are grant funds for both 501(c) 3 non-profits as well as for-profit businesses. It bothers me to no end when I read information by professional grants writers, less than honest, who shout from the rooftop U.S. government grants are only for non-profit organizations. It isn’t an issue of whether your company is for or non-profit. The only issue is most grant writers are either unwilling or lack the skill set to write effective grant proposals geared towards for-profit business models. It would be more honest for them to say “We don’t know how to write for-profit grants and even if so, we just won’t”!
2. Download the grant application package at Grants.gov
Before doing this, however, use the onsite search feature to locate suitable grant opportunities. In particular – when locating a grant you may be eligible for, record the ‘funding opportunity number’. This is a key piece of information for successful grant application submission. Downloading the application allows completion of the package offline. Most importantly - have it reviewed by someone else in your organization or third party vendor before submitting it to funding agencies. Once downloaded, make sure to read the instructions on the cover page. Agency specific instructions are also available for download and will be needed to provide required information.
3. Complete the grant application package
Take your time (keeping in mind deadline submission dates), double check and conduct a final review of information on the application. Save your work and understand something as small as a spelling error, missed field or failure to supply all information requested will (not may) result in application rejection. The grant funding process is as much about disqualifying applicants as it is finding the right company to fulfill initiative goals. More simply put; government agencies understand if your organization fails to fill out a funding request properly, there is little chance you’ll be able to perform funding objectives! Not a bad assumption in my humble opinion and true is the saying “it is the little things which will kill ya!”
Here are pre-grant application tasks needing to be completed before a successful application package can be submitted;
• DUNS Number; you can apply for a Duns and Bradstreet number on their website
• Registration with SAM (System for Awards Management)
• Creation of a Grants.gov username and password
• Quick response to all Grants.gov email requests
4. Submission of completed Grants.gov application package
Submitting the completed Grants.gov package will require an Internet connection. You will, of course, need your assigned username and password to access the interface. After you’ve entered all requested information, gathered supporting documentation and eliminated errors; you can automatically upload your package to Grants.gov. Once complete, a confirmation screen will appear and provide a tracking number for the funding request as well as the official date and time of submission. All grant funding announcements have a ‘close date’ which regulates when organizations will no longer be allowed to apply for grant opportunities so make sure submission occurs before that date.
5. Track status of submitted grant application package
Once your grant application package is submitted, you can track it through use of the following tools;
• CFDA Number
• Funding Opportunity Number
• Competition ID
• Grants.gov Tracking Number
Thus far, we’ve found no limitations on the number of business grants an organization can apply for during any period of time. Years ago, I worked at a non-profit which had an entire department assigned to do nothing more than seek out and source grant funds. Sometimes they’d apply for 10 per month and at other times, many more.
Make sure your project, whether at a non-profit or for-profit company, aligns with funding goals as listed by Grants.gov or other funding agency. Whether applying at the federal, state or local level, myriad opportunities exist to get funded. How that occurs boils down to the manner in which your organization presents a project.
Brian D. Dale
Government Contracts Course
Having worked for the government and taken advantage of certain grant funding opportunities, I say with 100% surety it, like corporate America, often rewards failure and frowns on success. Nevertheless; most funding opportunities, regardless of agency, can be found at Grants.gov. There are a series of steps you must take in order to be eligible for any funding opportunity.
Those steps are;
1. Complete the registration process at Grants.gov
This process can take between 3-5 business days and may take longer if your company information is inaccurate or incomplete. Whether registering as a company or individual, certain criteria must be met. Before going forward, let me say something which will ‘fly in the face’ of conventional wisdom; there are grant funds for both 501(c) 3 non-profits as well as for-profit businesses. It bothers me to no end when I read information by professional grants writers, less than honest, who shout from the rooftop U.S. government grants are only for non-profit organizations. It isn’t an issue of whether your company is for or non-profit. The only issue is most grant writers are either unwilling or lack the skill set to write effective grant proposals geared towards for-profit business models. It would be more honest for them to say “We don’t know how to write for-profit grants and even if so, we just won’t”!
2. Download the grant application package at Grants.gov
Before doing this, however, use the onsite search feature to locate suitable grant opportunities. In particular – when locating a grant you may be eligible for, record the ‘funding opportunity number’. This is a key piece of information for successful grant application submission. Downloading the application allows completion of the package offline. Most importantly - have it reviewed by someone else in your organization or third party vendor before submitting it to funding agencies. Once downloaded, make sure to read the instructions on the cover page. Agency specific instructions are also available for download and will be needed to provide required information.
3. Complete the grant application package
Take your time (keeping in mind deadline submission dates), double check and conduct a final review of information on the application. Save your work and understand something as small as a spelling error, missed field or failure to supply all information requested will (not may) result in application rejection. The grant funding process is as much about disqualifying applicants as it is finding the right company to fulfill initiative goals. More simply put; government agencies understand if your organization fails to fill out a funding request properly, there is little chance you’ll be able to perform funding objectives! Not a bad assumption in my humble opinion and true is the saying “it is the little things which will kill ya!”
Here are pre-grant application tasks needing to be completed before a successful application package can be submitted;
• DUNS Number; you can apply for a Duns and Bradstreet number on their website
• Registration with SAM (System for Awards Management)
• Creation of a Grants.gov username and password
• Quick response to all Grants.gov email requests
4. Submission of completed Grants.gov application package
Submitting the completed Grants.gov package will require an Internet connection. You will, of course, need your assigned username and password to access the interface. After you’ve entered all requested information, gathered supporting documentation and eliminated errors; you can automatically upload your package to Grants.gov. Once complete, a confirmation screen will appear and provide a tracking number for the funding request as well as the official date and time of submission. All grant funding announcements have a ‘close date’ which regulates when organizations will no longer be allowed to apply for grant opportunities so make sure submission occurs before that date.
5. Track status of submitted grant application package
Once your grant application package is submitted, you can track it through use of the following tools;
• CFDA Number
• Funding Opportunity Number
• Competition ID
• Grants.gov Tracking Number
Thus far, we’ve found no limitations on the number of business grants an organization can apply for during any period of time. Years ago, I worked at a non-profit which had an entire department assigned to do nothing more than seek out and source grant funds. Sometimes they’d apply for 10 per month and at other times, many more.
Make sure your project, whether at a non-profit or for-profit company, aligns with funding goals as listed by Grants.gov or other funding agency. Whether applying at the federal, state or local level, myriad opportunities exist to get funded. How that occurs boils down to the manner in which your organization presents a project.
Brian D. Dale
Government Contracts Course
