10 Sep

Posted at 00:20h in Budgets, Competency Five, Competency Four, Courses, Federal Grants, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, How-To, Julie Alsup, Julie Alsup, Uncategorized

    Federal Grants: Federal Grant Management - Financial Requirements Session 11 of the Federal Grants Series The most common concerns related to federal grant management are around the financial requirements. These requirements include paying staff, contracting for services, travel, and purchasing materials. This session will discuss the most...

05 Sep

Posted at 19:00h in Competency Four, Competency Seven, Grant Reporting, Grants Management, Organizational Development, Program Development, Thomas Assel, GPC, Tracey Diefenbach, GPC
Are you laboring too much over grants? Grants are great to have, and they’re often crucial to an organization’s mission, but there are only so many hours in the day to apply for and manage those grants. Grant professionals are susceptible to burn out from the heavy responsibility and high-pressure, deadline-driven work, which continues day in and day out in our profession. Grant applications and management can even get in the way of your organization’s mission. I was recently on a call with a client who was looking for help managing their grant portfolio. When I asked why they were seeking support, the client shared a striking comment: “We are so busy trying to get the money that we struggle to actually carry out the work.” I understood completely because I’ve seen this state of affairs before.

27 Aug

Posted at 09:23h in Budgets, Competency Four, Competency Six, Courses, Ethics, Ethics, GPCI Competencies, Grant Readiness, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, How-To, Julie Assel, Julie Assel, GPC, Program Design, Program Development, Sustainability, Uncategorized

    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...

16 Aug

Posted at 19:43h in Competency Four, Competency Nine, Whitney Gray, GPC, Writing
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.

12 Aug

Posted at 22:23h in Budgets, Competency Four, Competency One, Competency Two, Courses, GPC, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, Grants 101, How-To, Julie Assel, Sustainability, Uncategorized

  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...

12 Aug

Posted at 22:17h in Competency Four, Competency Seven, Course Industries, Courses, Education, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Higher Education, IHE Series, Whitney Gray

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....

09 Aug

Posted at 13:10h in Competency Eight, Competency Five, Competency Four, Competency Nine, Grant Reporting, Grants Management, Julie Alsup, GPC, Writing
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!

05 Aug

Posted at 12:49h in Budgets, Competency Four, Courses, Federal Grants, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, How-To, Julie Alsup, Julie Alsup, Uncategorized

  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...

30 Jul

Posted at 09:03h in Budgets, Competency Four, Courses, Federal Grants, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, How-To, Julie Alsup, Julie Alsup, Uncategorized

  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...