Program Highlight - Grantwriting

Graziani says of grantwriting, “It’s a subject that’s near and dear to my heart.”

As executive director of the Westmoreland County agency, he says they’ve had to raise $2.7 million from grant sources including private, corporate, foundations, non-profits and government groups from local to state and national. Some funds come from cost recovery for workshops.

When times get tough and people are struggling, resources diminish and demands increase and everybody from local governments to school boards want to increase grant-writing capacity, Graziani says. “It’s very competitive.”

A statewide team from Penn State Cooperative Extension’s Economic and Community Development is well-versed on grant writing and approaches it from several fronts: seeking funding for operations for their own offices, teaching municipal officials how to write grants and assisting other groups in writing grants to keep them viable.

Grant writing goes far beyond getting a list of sources and filling out a few papers, Graziani says. The art of it is in the nuance of each individual grant. Timing is important. And so is having a board of directors plied with members who know people with money and are willing to stick their necks out.

Foundations once operated in a down-home, family sort of way, Graziani says. But now they have moved to a more professional way of doing business. Even the gatekeepers of government coffers have become more discriminating. “A proposal might get a look-at of one minute before (screeners) decide which pile it goes on.” In order to get a second look, it’s good to have board members who can get to the right people.  Success in applying often happens  because of an active and engaged board.

Even Graziani and his office coordinator are willing to seek outside help because, as he puts it, “You have to spend money to find or get or make money.”

Norm Conrad, who has landed grants from very small to six figures over a quarter century, agrees that grant writing is part art and part science.

 “The melding of the two is simply knowing what funding sources will be most successful,” says Conrad, an Extension educator in agriculture, crops and soil, in Union County.

 Discovering funding sources usually works best through networking. Sometimes the best sources are not on a list, such as foundations or individuals who feel strongly about supporting a specific program but prefer to remain anonymous to avoid the entanglements that come with being considered a philanthropist.

A successful grant writer knows that it’s important to simply know who those folks are and how to approach them, Conrad says. “You have to have your ducks lined  up.”

When he first started writing grants, Conrad recalls that it was unusual for a community or county to use grant money. “Now,” he says, “Things don’t get done without grants.”

Community leaders who apply for grants must constantly be considering how to take the next step, how to get from soft funding to sustainable funding that will last beyond a decade, Conrad says.

Within the ranks of Extension, Conrad says, many large federal grants are sought for agriculture, water and forestry.  Such funding often requires the science angle that connects the field with the University.

Sometimes grant applications that have small pots of available cash arrive with reams of paperwork while some large business grants can be obtained with few requirements. The successful grant writer has to be able to sort it all out, asking himself, “Where is my time best spent?”

You need to know how to build sustainability into a program because sometimes a single-year of funding would mean little if there’s no way to sustain the program. For example, he points to program grants to individual counties for stopping the spread of West Nile Virus. The state pulled out of the program but personnel costs were covered through the use of college students. One key partner is still being sought.

Sometimes the funding agency has restrictions on how money can be used. For example, some say the money must all be used on the project and not to augment salaries. Other times, the group seeking grants dictate similar terms.

The county where Conrad works, Union, is a seventh class county and too small to pay a full-time grant writer. So a couple workers who have strong grant-writing skills seek funding for programs through zoning, planning and economic development. Successful Main Street Programs which operate in many Pennsylvania communities are adept at grant-writing, Conrad says. Other successful entities include Chamber groups, councils of government and Intermediate Units.

Jeff Himes, an Extension educator for community development and rural leadership in Tioga County says he is on the statewide grantwriting team and has assisted numerous groups in successfully applying for grants, from 4-H to Charlie’s Place, an after-school drop in center for 6 to 14-year-olds.

At Charlie’s Place, the kids get off their bus and are served a meal, do their homework and research for school projects before being allowed to use recreational facilities that include pool, television, computers, tennis and games until 6 pm.

Operating the center, complete with paid staff, is cash-intensive and requires a lot of creative thinking, Himes reports.  Local churches are very generous in providing grants and even the member-owned cooperative, Land O’ Lakes, provided a $5,000 grant, through a system that Himes says requires ,“You have to know somebody. Your contact person submits you application for you.”

Himes says it’s not unusual for members of a board of directors to approach him with grant applications and ask for assistance in preparing them. He says he helps with wording and explains basic principles that include matching funder’s intentions with specific organizations’ needs.

by Linda Hudkins