Federal Grants Readiness
A Cautionary Tale
When federal grant readiness is typically discussed, organizations almost immediately jump to whether they have the fiscal and administrative capacity to report on a grant. After years of working with dozens of nonprofits to pursue federal grants, I know that federal grants readiness has an even more fundamental step that often gets overlooked: are ALL organization leaders bought into and understand the process?
So, first, what do I mean by leaders? I mean anyone involved in what might be described as an internal leadership team and possibly the board of directors. Often composed of four to five staff, the leadership team is likely comprised of people with titles such as CEO or Executive Director and Vice Presidents, Chiefs of, or Directors leading programs, finance, human resources, evaluation, and other broad categories of work within the organization. Each of these verticals will be called upon in a federal grant-seeking and management process quite different from their role in a typical foundation grant. They need to be educated on their role and understand why the organization is pursuing federal grants as a strategy.
Does your board need to be involved? Many organizations have grant acceptance policies requiring board approval. This is common for schools, local governments, and some private nonprofits. Receiving at least verbal approval or providing notification before submitting allows board members to voice any concerns upfront.
Why do grant writing teams need to seek this broad support before writing federal grants?
First, a cautionary story.
I began working with an organization wishing to pursue federal funding. I interfaced with the Director of Development (a leadership team member) and worked primarily through them to strategize and plan for their first federal grant. Writing the first grant was somewhat rocky, but no more than is expected with a first-time applicant in its start-up phase. The grant was awarded, and the multi-year project began. In the second year of our work together, getting information from the evaluation team became harder and harder. My contact didn’t seem concerned, and we continued to pursue federal grants. Partway through the second year, the Director of Development left and was replaced. As a result of the transition, I was provided more insight into the organization's inner workings. About half of the leadership team was not on board with the federal grants strategy. The leaders who were not bought in were in evaluation and innovation, and they had previously (unbeknownst to me) refused to participate in the grant development process, halting program and metrics development.
Several issues became clear: (1) the evaluation team was not bought in and refused to provide evaluation metrics, which the Director of Development then created and submitted to me as if they came from the evaluation department, and subsequently, (2) the program team did not achieve their intended outputs and outcomes in year one, creating a sour taste among direct program staff. By the time the Director of Development left, the program lead had tipped to the side of not wanting to pursue federal funding. Federal grant-seeking ground to a halt.
Why is broad organizational buy-in crucial?
Proposals need to align with the organization’s strategic goals and short-term metrics for programs and reflect where the organization currently is - not an idealized version.
Cooperation across departments is essential in creating accurate and accountable federal grant proposals.
Proposals benefit from the knowledge and expertise of team members across departments. Evaluators can help spot over-ambitious objectives. Human resource folks can spot salaries that are not within the organization’s pay bands. Program team members can share insights from daily practice.
We aren’t writing federal grants to win federal money. We are writing federal grants to solve real problems, and getting the money doesn’t solve the problem. Delivering a high-quality service or intervention might. And we can’t get at solutions without an entire team bought in.
So, how do you get buy-in? How do you educate each department on their pre- and post-award responsibilities?
One way is to engage in an organization-wide assessment process of strengths and weaknesses across departments related to federal grant requirements. Often, you’ll need to begin at the end by understanding post-award compliance, even if you aren’t compliant yet (a blog for another day).
Second, get to the bottom of the resistance. Is it past bad experiences with federal grants? Acknowledge that federal grants can be challenging and share a plan of how grants management and reporting will be shared throughout teams. Or is it something beyond grants? It’s a lack of buy-in about the fundraising department’s role in general. Or personality or organizational culture issues.
Sometimes, it IS best to stop, take a breath, assess, and determine the next move. Even if the next move is to work toward becoming grant-ready. Even if you already have federal grants.
By fostering a culture of collaboration and shared ownership, nonprofit organizations can significantly increase their chances of securing federal grants and maximizing their impact.