Ethics: Creating Ethical Grant Budgets and Sustainability Plans Session 6 of the Ethics Series For many organizations, a federal grant will be a significant expansion to an existing program or the initial funding for a program that does not yet exist. This can make the creation of...

Recently, I conducted a pre-submission peer review on several federal grant proposals from organizations located in rural Kansas. The first question each organization had to respond to was, “Describe your geographical/service area.” Each organization named the counties served in their respective service areas and then went on to describe just how ‘rural’ their area is. While each applicant organization had some aspects of serving rural areas of Kansas in common, they each approached the description differently. Some of the descriptions included the total square mileage contained within their service boundaries; others referenced the state’s definitions that place a county on a continuum of ‘frontier’ to ‘urban’; others pointed out the distance in hours to the nearest major city. Ultimately, each applicant described their geographical service area with the purpose of convincing federal reviewers that Organization XYZ was the only provider of important services for its region.

  Grants 101 - Demonstrating Sustainability  Session 8 of the Grants 101 Series A common question on grant applications is “How will you sustain this program after the grant funding is over?” Many grant writers will want to answer glibly, “Write more grants, of course!” But, what should...

Starting Small and Dreaming Big: Developing Collaborative Grantsmanship at Small Universities Session 2 of the IHE Starting an Office of Sponsored Research Series Starting Small and Dreaming Big will offer key considerations and practical advice for developing a collaborative culture of grantsmanship at small to medium-sized organizations....

You want me to write about what? How can I write about progress when the right data wasn’t collected to measure progress? Grant professionals are frequently faced with the reality of gaps in data in pre-award, and post-award. We are asked to respond to sections which require a discussion of national, regional, and local data to justify need; as well as sections requesting data-supported rationale for the proposed intervention, and finally a proposed series of measurable objectives indicated by an improvement over baseline. Sometimes there is something to work with. Oftentimes we are asked to work magic!

  Federal Grants: Federal Research Grant Budget Justifications Session 10 of the Federal Grants Series The budget justifications for research have unique requirements which surprise many grant professionals used to foundation grants and even some grant professionals used to writing federal implementation or demonstration grants. This session will...

  Federal Grants: Federal Budget Justifications: Reasonable, Allowable, Allocable Session 9 of the Federal Grants Series Federal budget forms are not the only part of federal budgets which are different. The information expected in a federal budget justification is also more specific. All of these budget justifications must...

Building a Career as a Grant Professional in an Institution of Higher Education Session 1 of the IHE Starting an Office of Sponsored Research Series In Building a Career as a Grant Professional in an Institution of Higher Education, the presenter will describe her personal career trajectory that...

  Federal Grants: Standard Budget Forms Session 8 of the Federal Grants Series Many foundation grants allow you to provide your project budget in your own format, but not federal grant agencies. All federal agencies have their own form which must be used to convey the costs associated...