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Spooky season is upon us, and at AGS we’ve been thinking about what keeps us up at night when it comes to grants. As grant pros, we are skilled at anticipating challenges and putting controls in place to mitigate negative outcomes in our grant programs. Here are some eerie grant scenarios with suggested actions that’ll have you sleeping like a baby.

National Endowment for the Humanities – Office of Digital Humanities Does your institution or humanities-related organization have a digital project in the works? If your program is seeking funding for the development or implementation of a scalable, sustainable digital project that has the potential to enhance humanities research, teaching, and programming, you might be interested in this opportunity. The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently opened applications for the Digital Humanities Advancement Grants (DHAG) to support innovative, experimental, and/or computationally challenging digital projects, whether at the early research/start-up phase, the sustainability phase, or anywhere in between.

Poetry for Personal Power (P3) recently received a grant for $100,000 from the Health Forward Foundation Mental Health Fund to support the Stars Among Us program. The Stars Among Us program will match 30-60 peers with a behavioral health peer support specialist for peer support and mentoring in the community. Each peer will receive 25 hours of one-on-one peer support from a trained peer; unlimited access to P3 peer workshops and groups; and access to P3’s trainings, resources, and events such as advocacy events, webinars, the peer information campus (PIC), and connection to community resources. Peer support, including connection and referrals to other community service providers that are part of the peers’ recovery plan, will aid in solving social determinants and will increase the likelihood of success in achieving mental health and substance use recovery milestones.

AmeriCorps Does your organization engage staff and volunteers in evidence-based practices or interventions that strengthen your community? Have you considered recruiting and training one or more AmeriCorps member(s) to help with these efforts? AmeriCorps recently released their notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for their Fiscal Year 2022 AmeriCorps State and National Grants program. This program supports eligible entities in establishing approved national service positions through which AmeriCorps members can engage in community service activities. Awardee entities recruit, train, and oversee the members and provide them with a living allowance and other benefits during the members’ year of service. The national deadline for this opportunity is January 5, 2022; however, most applicants serving a single state will apply through their respective state AmeriCorps commission, and the individual state deadlines may be coming up sooner.

One of the most important resources in nonprofit organizations is the staff. They form relationships with the people they serve. They build relationships in the community to find the resources clients need. Without them, the nonprofit programs and services which affect millions of lives would fall silent. While we are advocates of writing grants which describe how the target population is involved in the program, this does not mean that organizations should stop describing the strengths of their staff. Here are four ways to highlight the quality and importance of your staff in your next grant:

Institute of Museum and Library Services Last week, we featured the annual Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Museums for America funding opportunity, which supports project-based initiatives for museums of all sizes and disciplines. This week, we’re taking a closer look at an IMLS program that specifically supports capacity-building efforts of African American museums and/or archival collections at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The Museum Grants for African American History and Culture (AAHC) program provides funding for eligible museums to increase workforce capacity, provide staff with professional development opportunities, and improve access to collections through a variety of eligible activities.

Institute of Museum and Library Services Last month, we shared information about an annual Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) opportunity focused on capacity building for museums. This month, we’re looking at some additional open solicitations from IMLS that are closing later this fall. The Museums for America (MFA) program is one such opportunity. MFA provides funding for mission-aligned, project-based efforts for museums of all sizes and disciplines. These projects can vary in type, focus, reach, or scale of societal impact, but they should – in broad terms – advance knowledge and understanding and ensure that the IMLS grant funding benefits society.

Thrive Allen County (TAC) recently received a grant for $2,970,164 from the CMS Cooperative Agreement to Support Navigators to Federally-Facilitated Exchanges (FFE) to support the recruitment, training, and activities of 18 Navigators who will provide services in 42 counties throughout the state of Kansas over three years. Through the Kansas CARES (Coordinating and Assisting Reliable Enrollment Services) Program, TAC proposes to serve as lead applicant for a consortium of 10 subawardee entities that will hire, train, and oversee Navigators in their region. Navigators provide individuals with information about health insurance options and eligibility and help them enroll in a qualified health plan.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Does your organization work to improve access to and quality of mental and behavioral health services? The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has several funding opportunities opening in the coming months that will support efforts to expand workforce capacity to address community-based behavioral health needs, or efforts that focus on serving infant/early childhood mental health or children with serious emotional disturbances (SED).