Grant Cycle Process
Application Process
When a group decides to apply for a grant, they should be able to do so entirely using documents and information that can be found on your Website. Make sure that your website contains the most up-to-date information and the most recently-edited application documents from the Website and Documents Committee. All updated materials should be put up several months in advance so that applicants who download materials early do not accidentally download and fill out the previous year’s application materials. The main document that applicants will need to complete is the “APPLICATION FORM,” a several-page-long document asking for basic group information, two pages of short answer questions about the proposed project, a budget, and signatures verifying the presence of a nonprofit project sponsor and the acquisition of all necessary permissions. Throughout the application process is important to make sure that all potential applicants are aware that board members are available to help answer questions about the application form. Board members can even volunteer to give comments on the application materials as a whole if the application is completed and submitted a week or more before the deadline. This gives an organized group sufficient time to edit the application and re-submit it to make sure their project is in line with the funding criteria of your program. Applications should all be submitted to the program manager.
Groups may need help identifying a project sponsor, a required partnership with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that will receive and handle reimbursements of grant money for each funded project. This project sponsor is necessary, as outlined later, so that funding can transfer from your nonprofit fiscal sponsor to the group’s nonprofit fiscal sponsor tax-free. Finding a project sponsor usually does not require going too far, as schools and religious institutions (and therefore groups within those institiutions) have 501(c)(3) status. However, for scout groups and other groups, a nonprofit sponsor is a little farther away. You can help groups find a sponsor by creating a list of local nonprofits and descriptions of those nonprofits, sending the list to those having trouble finding a sponsor and asking them to look for a nonprofit on the list that shares a mission with their potential funded project’s goals. You can send emails (“To Potential Project Nonprofit Sponsor,” “Seeking Nonprofit Sponsor – Youth Project Leader,” or “Seeking Nonprofit Sponsor – Youth Project Leader,” depending on who is sending the email) to potential sponsors to request sponsorship. Visiting in person works best, though.
One other obstacle for groups is obtaining proper permission for carrying out their project. Projects taking place in a park must have park permission before applying for funding, and projects taking place in a school definitely need school permission before earning funding.
Check with important locations, such as parks and school systems, to see if applicants need to go through any specific process in order to get permission for a project at that specific location. If locations request a certain process by which projects should obtain permission, be sure to make this process known to grant applicants by posting it on the website. This avoids the potential problems that could arise if an applicant, not knowing about the proper process, asks and obtains permission from someone who does not have the power to give permission for the project.
For example, as the Carmel Green Teen Micro-Grant Program became more established in the community, more and more students in the district schools were applying for funding and needed permission to complete their application. Because one school in the district was particularly large, it had multiple assistant principals, several of whom were approached to obtain project permission. Although each of the assistant principals had power to give permission according to our program’s requirements, the school had a different system of obtaining approval that was different than our program (ie, the school requires all project proposals must go through the same individual, while our program just requires a signature of approval from a school administrator). Because one applicant group was unaware of and therefore did not follow the school’s approval process, their school project could not be funded even though it followed the program’s permission requirements. To avoid this problem in the future, our program created an “Administrative Approval Form” for all projects taking place in that school. The form requires a short summary of the proposed project and includes information on who to send the summary to in order to get project approval.
If you find that one or more of your schools requires a special permission process, consider creating a form for this process and posting the information on the website to prevent permission discrepancies from occurring at the expense of your grant applicants’ projects.
Beyond troubleshooting these harder parts of the application, the most important part of the application process for the board members is being available to support grant applicants and field questions. Check email frequently, and be prepared for most of your questions and applications to come in on the day of the grant deadline. Send grant applicants a reminder of the deadline a week before the grants are due, reminding them that all application materials must be received by that deadline for an application to be considered complete, and send one final reminder the day before the grants are due.
Applicants should be sent “To Grant Applicants – Applications Received” upon receipt of their grant submission.
When a group decides to apply for a grant, they should be able to do so entirely using documents and information that can be found on your Website. Make sure that your website contains the most up-to-date information and the most recently-edited application documents from the Website and Documents Committee. All updated materials should be put up several months in advance so that applicants who download materials early do not accidentally download and fill out the previous year’s application materials. The main document that applicants will need to complete is the “APPLICATION FORM,” a several-page-long document asking for basic group information, two pages of short answer questions about the proposed project, a budget, and signatures verifying the presence of a nonprofit project sponsor and the acquisition of all necessary permissions. Throughout the application process is important to make sure that all potential applicants are aware that board members are available to help answer questions about the application form. Board members can even volunteer to give comments on the application materials as a whole if the application is completed and submitted a week or more before the deadline. This gives an organized group sufficient time to edit the application and re-submit it to make sure their project is in line with the funding criteria of your program. Applications should all be submitted to the program manager.
Groups may need help identifying a project sponsor, a required partnership with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that will receive and handle reimbursements of grant money for each funded project. This project sponsor is necessary, as outlined later, so that funding can transfer from your nonprofit fiscal sponsor to the group’s nonprofit fiscal sponsor tax-free. Finding a project sponsor usually does not require going too far, as schools and religious institutions (and therefore groups within those institiutions) have 501(c)(3) status. However, for scout groups and other groups, a nonprofit sponsor is a little farther away. You can help groups find a sponsor by creating a list of local nonprofits and descriptions of those nonprofits, sending the list to those having trouble finding a sponsor and asking them to look for a nonprofit on the list that shares a mission with their potential funded project’s goals. You can send emails (“To Potential Project Nonprofit Sponsor,” “Seeking Nonprofit Sponsor – Youth Project Leader,” or “Seeking Nonprofit Sponsor – Youth Project Leader,” depending on who is sending the email) to potential sponsors to request sponsorship. Visiting in person works best, though.
One other obstacle for groups is obtaining proper permission for carrying out their project. Projects taking place in a park must have park permission before applying for funding, and projects taking place in a school definitely need school permission before earning funding.
Check with important locations, such as parks and school systems, to see if applicants need to go through any specific process in order to get permission for a project at that specific location. If locations request a certain process by which projects should obtain permission, be sure to make this process known to grant applicants by posting it on the website. This avoids the potential problems that could arise if an applicant, not knowing about the proper process, asks and obtains permission from someone who does not have the power to give permission for the project.
For example, as the Carmel Green Teen Micro-Grant Program became more established in the community, more and more students in the district schools were applying for funding and needed permission to complete their application. Because one school in the district was particularly large, it had multiple assistant principals, several of whom were approached to obtain project permission. Although each of the assistant principals had power to give permission according to our program’s requirements, the school had a different system of obtaining approval that was different than our program (ie, the school requires all project proposals must go through the same individual, while our program just requires a signature of approval from a school administrator). Because one applicant group was unaware of and therefore did not follow the school’s approval process, their school project could not be funded even though it followed the program’s permission requirements. To avoid this problem in the future, our program created an “Administrative Approval Form” for all projects taking place in that school. The form requires a short summary of the proposed project and includes information on who to send the summary to in order to get project approval.
If you find that one or more of your schools requires a special permission process, consider creating a form for this process and posting the information on the website to prevent permission discrepancies from occurring at the expense of your grant applicants’ projects.
Beyond troubleshooting these harder parts of the application, the most important part of the application process for the board members is being available to support grant applicants and field questions. Check email frequently, and be prepared for most of your questions and applications to come in on the day of the grant deadline. Send grant applicants a reminder of the deadline a week before the grants are due, reminding them that all application materials must be received by that deadline for an application to be considered complete, and send one final reminder the day before the grants are due.
Applicants should be sent “To Grant Applicants – Applications Received” upon receipt of their grant submission.
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