Grants are a great way for your department to receive funding beyond the limits of your operational budget. They can help bridge the gap between your department’s resources and its needs. Grants are meant to be a solution to evolving community problems when budgets aren’t able to adjust quickly enough. Grants can help pay for communication equipment, software, or even provide funding for training.
Grants can be a boon for cash-strapped local governments agencies looking to expand or maintain their capabilities. The truth is, any department can benefit from a little grant writing help, from the smallest town government to the largest municipal agency.
Grants are by definition direct monetary assistance to an organization to undertake a specific project or program. Grants fund solutions to identified problems within a community. Grants come from federal, state and private resources.
In order to receive a grant, your department must submit an application or proposal. It’s important to recognize that a considerable amount of research and planning is necessary in order to submit a strong application.
The application process can be challenging to navigate. Most grant programs are only open once a year, are designed to fund a specific focus area (such as safety, environmental, or human services) and each individual grant program has specific requirements for eligibility.
On top of that, getting grant funding can be very competitive. The number of requests for funding is always greater than the funds available. This means that sometimes even a strong application may not be approved for funding.
But don’t be discouraged. With a little good old fashioned effort, planning and persistence, you should be able to secure funding for your project.
At GovGrantsHelp, we’ve developed an easy-to-follow process to get you up to speed on the basics of identifying, applying for, and securing local government grants.
This step-by-step guide will walk you through the sometimes tedious process of collecting the information critical to nearly all grant opportunities, regardless of their origin.
Following our step-by-step guide will put you on the right track to a successful local government grant application.