User Story: Federal Program Manager Prepares for the Closing Date

Posted on by Grants.gov

The clock is ticking down for Trish, a program manager at the Department of Health and Human Services, and for the organizations who are preparing to submit grant applications.

You may recall, in Part 1, we explained the process that Trish took to publish a new grant opportunity on Grants.gov. Since then, she has been focused on preparing for the peer review panels and other responsibilities. But now it is time to begin preparing for the posted grant’s closing date.

Trish - Federal grant manager - As the close date approaches, I need to be able to prepare for the review process and help my applicants.

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Grant Writing Basics: Understand the Funder before Writing

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Whether you are writing an email, blog post, or lengthy proposal, you need to consider the question, “Who is my audience?” In the grants world, your audience will usually be the agency awarding funds and the people reviewing your application.

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The process of learning about a grant-making agency is closely related to evaluating mission alignment, so this next installment of the Grant Writing Basics series assumes that (1) your organization’s mission aligns with that of the grant-making agency and that (2) you are actively preparing to write a grant application.

Why Is It Important to Understand Your Audience?

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Federal Program Manager – The Beginning of Trish’s Grantor Story

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Trish: As a federal program manager, I need to publish a grant forecast and Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the public to apply for.

Before anyone can apply for this HHS grant, Trish needs to coordinate the design and posting of the FOA. To allow prospective applicants more time to plan, Trish would also like to publish a grant forecast.

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Grantors: Two Ways to Register New Users on Grants.gov

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The latest Grants.gov release adds new functionality for grantors who need to associate (add) new users to their federal agency account.

There are now two ways an agency can affiliate a new user, as discussed in the video below:

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What Is a Subaward and a Subrecipient?

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To understand the definitions of “subaward” and “subrecipient”, it helps to think in terms of a grant that has just been won. If you are not sure what an “award” is, start with the What Is an Award? post then come back.

Rather than the grantor (i.e., the grant-making agency) entrusting just one entity with carrying out a federal program, sometimes multiple awardees will shoulder the responsibilities.

In such cases, one entity – the one who submitted the grant application – will serve as a pass-through to the partnering entities, which are called subrecipients.

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Attn. Grantors: What Does the Legacy PDF Retirement and Workspace Mean for Me?

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With the switch to Grants.gov Workspace as the standard grant application method, some federal grant managers have asked us what this means for them.

To avoid burying the lede, here it is—the system process for grantors has not changed since Grants.gov launched Workspace in October 2015 and will not change as a result of the Legacy PDF Application Package retirement on December 31, 2017.

While Workspace is a new-ish, upgraded user interface for grant applicants, the submissions you (i.e., grantors) receive after the retirement date will not change. Grantors will continue to use the same process to create and post funding opportunities on Grants.gov.

What Do I Need to Do as a Grantor?

Grantors should update any instructions pertaining to Grants.gov that may be included in new Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA). To make this easier, we have a Grantor Standard Language page that we maintain for agencies to copy into opportunities so that you do not have to re-write Grants.gov instructions.

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Grant Agency Spotlight: Institute of Museum and Library Services

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In this installment of our grant agency spotlight series, we look at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and its mission to “inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement.”

According to IMLS, there are around 120,000 libraries and 35,000 museums in the U.S.

Many of these institutions – public, research, academic, tribal – have benefited from IMLS grants.

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Grant Agency Spotlight: National Endowment for the Arts

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In continuing the grant agency spotlight series, we look at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and its work to give “Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities.”

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Why Does NEA Exist?

Browse the NEA website and you will likely notice a two-word credo repeated on almost every page: “Art Works.” Here’s how the bureau of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities explains the credo:

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Shared Services in Federal Government & Grants.gov

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Many federal agencies conduct similar types of work, such as awarding federal grants. While the mission and specific goals of each grant program vary, many of the processes for posting, applying for, managing, and reporting on federal grants are the same. This is where federal shared services come in. Rather than each agency developing & maintaining the same services, the costs and benefits are shared. In this role, Grants.gov serves its purpose—to be a shared service for both the public and federal agencies.

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Updated Instructions for Grantors to Include in Funding Opportunity Announcements

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If you have followed this blog for more than a week, you have heard about Grants.gov Workspace—the standard federal grants application method on Grants.gov.

Illustration of a federal building

For those of you federal grant managers out there, you also know how much work goes into developing and posting a funding opportunity announcement (FOA). In addition to all the programmatic and financial information and requirements, there are also the nuts-and-bolts how-to instructions to guide applicants in responding and applying for the grant.

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