How to Win Government Grants: A 5-Step Guide to Success

If you’ve ever heard the expression “it’s like reading Greek”—meaning completely confusing—the language of a Request for Proposal for a government grant competition is the perfect example. But here at Metis, we speak Greek. Metaphorically. Metis grant writing professionals have been writing and advising on government grant applications for over 30 years, and the process and technical language have become second nature for us.

Successfully competing for discretionary grant dollars is akin to a sprint rather than a marathon. Identifying the right grant competition, garnering organizational support for the grant project, preparing a competitive and compelling application, and hitting the deadline with time to spare are daunting and can dissuade potential applicants at any of these stages. But if your timing is right, your need or motivation is authentic, and you have the right guidance, you’ll be on the path to success. 

Here are five tried-and-true steps that have helped our clients secure hundreds of millions of dollars in government grants over the last three decades. We hope they will help you in your next grant consideration.

A 5-Step Guide to Secure Your Government Grants

Whether you are a novice or a seasoned grants professional wearing too many hats and need a handy guide, here are five steps to greatly enhance your track record in securing government grants.

Step 1: Break the code of the Request for Proposal (RFP)

Among the first barriers to entry to the government grants arena is understanding the Federal Register notice inviting applications for new awards. This densely-worded, three-columned publication of the National Archives and Records Administration spells out almost all of the critical elements of the grant competition, including the purpose of the program and key background information, the priorities established for the program (more on that later), eligibility criteria for applicants, the amount of the grant award, the duration of the funding period, key definitions, and last but certainly not least, the deadline for proposal submission.

The key companion piece to the Federal Register notice is the application’s instructions document, available on grants.gov where you will upload and submit your completed application. It is critical to download and review this document side-by-side with the Federal Register notice because it has additional instructions for proposal preparation and submission. We have often experienced discrepancies between the Federal Register notice and the application instructions, so it is important to get clarification from the program office if this is the case. 

Step 2: Assess the fit of the funding opportunity

Now that you understand what the government grant program is looking for and requires, decide if you and your organization want to embark on the long, complicated, and arduous journey of preparing a grant application. Here are nine considerations that can inform your go-no-go decision:

1. Does the grant purpose directly align with your agency’s mission?
   If the answer is no, do not pass go.  
2. Does your agency meet the eligibility criteria for this funding source?
   Likewise, if the answer is a clear no, let it go. If you have any questions about your eligibility, contact the program office.
3. Will the program support your agency’s strategic plan, or will focusing on this grant detract from other key agency priorities?
   Shiny pennies (or in this case, potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars) can be enticing. But if the tail of the grant will wag the dog of the organization, it will be distracting at best and derailing at worst.  
4. Will developing this grant application build your knowledge base, stretch your collective imagination, and allow you to form new partnerships?
   There are always good reasons for pursuing a grant even if the odds of winning do not seem in your favor. If the grant represents a new or growing program area for your organization, this could be the impetus to develop your thinking and planning further.
5. Does your agency have the capacity to provide the scope of services being requested in the RFP?
   While it is often possible to use grant funding to defray the cost of staff to support grant implementation, it is critical to remember that when the grant is over you are expected to sustain activities seeded by this funding. Furthermore, the grant will likely require support from existing staff above and beyond their current roles.
6. Will the grant funding suffice to implement your project with fidelity and rigor?
   Be realistic when you are designing your grant project. Even if you are planning on leveraging in-kind resources, make sure you can cover the lion’s share of the project with grant funds without cutting corners.  
7. Are there champions for the grant within your organization and a clear owner for the project?
   If you have champions for the grant during the grant seeking process, they can build a bridge to an effective implementation process. Building buy-in for a grant among key stakeholders can also ensure support for the project in the event of staff transitions.
8. Does your organization have the capacity to fulfill the evaluation and reporting requirements of the funder?
   Government grants have comprehensive evaluation and reporting requirements, which can run the gamut from “bean counting” (e.g., how many people received a grant-funded service) to rigorous impact studies. If your organization does not have an internal research department, you may need to reach out to an external evaluation partner like Metis to support the program evaluation aspect of your grant.
9. Will you be able to sustain some or all of the project after the grant funding expires?
   This is probably the hardest question to answer and almost every RFP asks it (so annoying, right?). It is nearly impossible to know what next year will bring in terms of funding, let alone at the end of a five-year grant. When addressing this question, we recommend highlighting all of the funding sources that your organization has been able to count on over the last several years that can support aspects of your program when the grant expires, along with any commitments you have gotten from private funders. In addition, describing your organization’s grant writing capacity and track record helps convince the readers that if there is a will to sustain the program there will be a way.    

Step 3: Assemble the A-team to develop the proposal

It takes a village to prepare a government grant application. There are five key steps that the A-Team must carry out under the direction of its leader:

1. Assemble and energize the proposal team 
2. Craft the vision for the proposal
3. Create the proposal development work plan and timeline delineating key roles and responsibilities
4. Manage the proposal writing process
5. Debrief after proposal submission

The A-team you need to collaborate on a proposal and address all of the questions above includes people with different skill sets:  

• The Idea Person. Every grant proposal has a “hook” that the rest of the proposal wraps around. It is essential to have a thought leader (or partner) on the proposal team to ideate and get folks’ creative juices flowing.
• The Data Person. Every grant proposal must be data-informed. In fact, most often the first section of a grant proposal lays out the need for the project by presenting relevant, current data to substantiate the need. Find the data nerd to honcho this key part of the process. 
• The Dollars Person. Detailed grant budgets are a key component of every government grant application. They need to tell the exact same story as the narrative but in numbers (and in words). The dollars person does their due diligence to make sure the budget is accurate, falls within the funding range, and meets the federal funding criteria of being “reasonable, allowable, and allocable” per Part 200 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
• The English Teacher. I learned everything I need to know about punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure from my dad, a former NYC public high school English teacher. You need someone on your team with an excellent command of the written word to take the team’s ideas and make them sing and make sure every “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed before you hit SEND in grants.gov.
• The Task Master. The least glorious of all roles—the taskmaster (aka proposal team leader)—ensures the team stays on track, hits internal deadlines, follows the RFP chapter and verse, and gets the proposal in with time to spare (and does not sleep until the two confirmation emails arrive via email). 

Step 4: Articulate the competitive edge of your proposal

Government grants can be extremely competitive with hundreds of grant submissions to a particular competition with very few grant awards. What will make your grant proposal stand out from this crowded field? Is it:

1. Your organization’s demonstrated track record and wealth of experience
2. A compelling need that your evidence-based project design will address
3. A meticulously thought-out management plan and timeline
4. A strong research or evaluation design to test your theory of change
5. All of the above 

I’m sure you’ve figured out the answer.

In all seriousness, there are tips to follow that can make the difference between getting funded and coming away from a grant competition empty-handed. First, make every effort not to leave any points on the table. Many government grant competitions have three types of priorities applicants are asked to respond to: absolute priorities, invitational priorities, and competitive preference priorities. You must address absolute priorities, may address invitational priorities (this is most common with Education Department RFPs), and can earn extra points if you address competitive preference priorities, sometimes called bonus points.

In our experience, grants can be won or lost by as little as a quarter of a point (a horror that I can attest to). Second, follow the prescribed format of the narrative to the letter, even if the proposal structure seems counter-intuitive and does not lend itself to telling a good story. And absolutely adhere to the required page length (we have been known to exceed the recommended page length, but not by much).

In the end, humans make decisions to give grants to other humans. In my experience over the past 30+ years, I have found professionals at the various federal agencies to be responsive, helpful, and knowledgeable. If there are particular grant programs that are a viable fit for your organization, I encourage you to try to cultivate a relationship with the program office. While they are not the ones to read and score your grant, they play a key role in the process and can provide valuable insights. 

Step 5: Learn from the results

As the saying goes, you win some, you lose some. One of the most productive aspects of the government grant-seeking process is the feedback you receive on your proposal. Peer reviewers (generally 2-3 are assigned to review each grant) are tasked with scoring section by section of your proposal (with points values assigned by the funding agency) and providing a detailed discussion of the proposal strengths and weaknesses. 

Regardless of whether you are funded or not, pay very close attention to this feedback! While the process has changed a great deal over the years I’ve been writing government grants, the basic format of having these peer reviews with scores and detailed feedback has been a constant. While we do not always agree with the comments, we always learn from them.  Hearing about the proposal’s strengths will reinforce the blueprint we will use the next time we write for this grant. Reading about our weaknesses gives us direction for enhancing or improving our proposals the next time around.

Learn more about Metis’s grant writing services, or reach out to start a conversation.

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