How To: Secure a Grant

When the Ozarks Regional YMCA needed a new pool lift for its Pat Jones branch, Sherri Cornelius jumped in and got busy.

As grant coordinator for the organization, Cornelius is in charge of securing grant funding for various YMCA needs, from equipment to seed money for new programs.

"It comes from people in our organization having a need that they know they can't fill in any other way," Cornelius said. "So they ask me to look for funding. Or once in a while they'll hear of a funding opportunity and want me to follow up on it to see if it's a good fit."

The Ozarks YMCA applies for between 40 and 50 grants annually, Cornelius said, and about a third of those are successful; the pool lift grant, received from Community Foundation of the Ozarks, was worth just more than $3,000, about half the cost of the equipment.

Available to nonprofit entities - and sometimes businesses - grants are essentially free money for the recipients. And in an economic environment where free money is perhaps being sought more than before, local professionals offer several tips for improving the odds of securing grant funds.

Identify the need

The first step to a successful grant application, Cornelius said, is making sure the applicant has a specific need in mind.

"The biggest problem is that people ... will see something on the news or online and say, 'This organization has money; let's see how we can get some of that money,'" she said. "That's definitely the wrong approach to take. You don't want to build a program around money that's available - you want to find funding sources that already have an interest in what you're doing."

That said, groups that offer grants are not looking to sit on the money they have, according to Ozarks Greenways Program Coordinator Lori Tack, who has written grant applications for the group for 15 years.

"They want to find out what their options are - their goal is to give the money away," said Tack, whose organization received just more than $29,000 in November from CFO's Metropolitan Springfield Community Grant program to create a trail connecting area neighborhoods to the South Creek greenway trail. Funds through that program come from unrestricted donations to CFO.

Part of the identification process, according to CFO Senior Program Officer Randy Russell, is making sure the need isn't already met by other agencies. Or, if agencies have identified a similar need, they can band together and request grant funding as a group.

Those multi-agency requests, Russell said, tend to be viewed more favorably because they typically get more bank for the grant buck.

"The agencies can bring more resources to the table before they even ask us for funding," he added.

Do the homework

Proper information gathering is key, according to Tack, including learning as much as possible about grant-givers.

"If they have a Web site that has a description of what they need or a formal application, it's about reading it completely, understanding what they want, and having the ability to express clearly what you need," Tack said.

And each grant process is unique - applying for a grant from a local organization is significantly different than applying for government funds, said Russell, whose organization handed out $12 million in grant funds in 2008.

"We don't look for things in a grant application that a federal grant might," Russell said. "In a federal grant, if the font size is incorrect, that can get the entire application thrown out."

Educational endeavors are often supported with grant funds. Faculty at area universities have, in recent months, secured grant money for projects; one example is Missouri State University professor Robert Pavlowsky, who received $92,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to study mining sentiments in Big River.

One handy program is the Funding Information Center, operated in conjunction by CFO and the Springfield-Greene County Library District at the Library Center. The program offers information about what grant opportunities, including government funds, are available in various fields.

CFO's Russell added that it's crucial to explain exactly how the money will be used - and, if it is to be used for an ongoing program, how that program will be funded after the grant money is gone.

"The agency should be able to say, 'If you help us get it started, we can take it over and keep it running,'" Russell said. "If the answer is after the one year the program goes away, that's not favorable. The worst answer you can give us is, 'Well, we're going to look for more grants.'"

Springfield technology firm U.S. Photonics Inc. is one example of a company using a one-time grant to fund a long-term project, as well as a reminder that for-profit businesses also are eligible for certain grants. The company received $95,000 from the National Science Foundation to fund research and development of high-density nanobatteries.

Be specific and precise

According to Tack, grant applicants must be specific about why the funding is needed. Grant applications, she said, are a lot like résumés - writers should keep it short and sweet, because the recipients don't want to sift through pages of information.

"They may receive hundreds of applications for a certain grant program, and they want to streamline their process as well," Tack said. "The better that someone can illustrate the need clearly and concisely, the better that information can be absorbed."

And just like résumés, simple errors such as typos and misspelled words must be avoided at all costs - especially in a tough economy where nonprofits are in greater need of grant money that is increasingly scarce.

Avoiding those seemingly simple mistakes is not as easy as it sounds, according to Russell. He noted that most groups applying for grants aren't large enough to merit retaining a full-time grant writer, meaning the person doing the writing often isn't trained for the job.

Tack, however, said a few minor errors can be overcome if the story is compelling enough to make an impact on those handing out the money.

"The need is the most important thing," she said, "but the better you can write the story, the better your odds are."