Blog
20 Nov Funding Alert! Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions
National Endowment for the Humanities – Preservation & Access Attention humanities folks in small or mid-sized institutions! If your organization is seeking funding to help preserve and care for collections of books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving images, sound recordings, textiles, archeological artifacts, digital materials, and more, you might be interested in this opportunity. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is accepting applications for Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Universities to help institutions improve their capacities to preserve significant humanities collections.
12 Nov Funding Alert! STEM Education Grants for Hispanic-Serving Institutions
National Science Foundation Attention higher education folks! The National Science Foundation is accepting applications for its multi-track program, Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI program). The HSI program is intended to enhance the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and to increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of historically underrepresented students in these fields who are working toward associates or baccalaureate degrees. Let’s take a closer look at this grant program.
09 Nov Let’s Go Shopping! Ethics in Procurement Part II, By Whitney Gray, MA, GPC
Imagine this hypothetical situation: Your organization recently won a large grant award ($200,000) and plans to use the funds to construct a new playground for the children it serves. The organization’s board is rightfully excited about the grant award and the positive impact the playground...
06 Nov Funding Alert! Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Programs Grants
Department of Health and Human Services - Health Resources and Services Administration Does your organization provide professional training programs in the behavioral health sciences? The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently opened a funding opportunity through its Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals. This program focuses on creating and expanding experiential training opportunities (such as internships or field placements) to improve the behavioral health workforce in underserved, high-demand, or rural areas. BHWET encourages building relationships with community-based partners (hospitals, crisis centers, first responders, etc.) to improve access to behavioral health services in these regions.
04 Nov Oh, The Places You’ll Go (And Have Been)! By Tracey Diefenbach, GPC
I always think of the last quarter of the year as the “learning season” when I attend the Grant Professionals Association (GPA) National Conference and begin thinking about the year past and ahead. This is not an easy process for me. As a grants professional, it is so easy to get bogged down in the daily grind, but this season really forces me and gives me permission to think about my own learning and goals. It reminds me of the Dr. Suess book Oh, The Places You’ll Go. A friend gave me this to me when I graduated college with my bachelor’s degree. At the young age of 20, I could not even begin to imagine where I would go. Some 20 years later, after working as an in-house grant professional and now working in a consultant role, I am using this learning season to really reflect on where I have been and where I will still go. There are so many different paths in the grant professional’s work. This just one example – my journey.
02 Nov Building an Ethical Foundation for your Funder Relationship By AGS Staff
While there are legal requirements for nonprofit organizations around transparency and disclosure of financial information, there can also be some grey areas where ethical decisions aren’t as clear. For instance, it can be tempting to apply for and accept funding anywhere you can get it. But what if you serve clients who are struggling with substance use, and a potential funder is known for contributing to the opioid crisis? If accepting money means you are straying from your mission, or if you have any doubt about the morality of doing business with a certain corporation, it may not be worth the financial benefit. Your goal should be to build funder relationships that you can stand behind and feel good about. Here, we are going to explore a few other ethical dilemmas you may run across when building relationships with funders.
28 Oct Funding Alert! Folk and Traditional Arts Cooperative Agreement
National Endowment for the Arts – National Folklife Network If your organization is interested in working with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to build and manage a formal network that supports the unique local and regional cultural traditions found throughout the United States, this funding opportunity might be for you. The NEA recently opened applications for the National Folklife Network (NFN) cooperative agreement to select an organization, or “cooperator,” to establish and administer the NFN. The NFN will assist each of seven regional cohorts through training, fieldwork, convenings, collaborations, and cultural asset mapping.
25 Oct Don’t Just Write It, Cite It: Ethical Research in Grant Writing by Leah Hyman, GPC
The topic of ethics in grants is incredibly broad, as there are often many moving parts and people involved with grant awards. The fund-seeking agency might have a variety of staff members contributing to the process: the executive director, program staff, finance staff, a grant writer, maybe even the board of directors. And then, of course, if the agency receives an award, there are ethical considerations for managing the sometimes very large sums of money. Once again, there might be a host of individuals carrying out the program activities, reporting progress, expending the funds, and so on. In other words, the agency is responsible for ensuring ethical practices across many levels of a grant award. But for the purposes of this discussion, I want to back up a bit. What about some of the ethics that go into researching and writing the proposal?