In recent weeks, EMSI has talked to some of the foremost community college grant writers in the country to get their viewpoint on successful grant applications. The following is taken from a conversation with Tom Prendergast, Director of Institutional Research and Grants at North Central State College (OH), and Betty Wells, the VP of Institutional Advancement at NCSC.
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1. When Considering Grants, Think About Return on Investment
Be choosy, and consider the likelihood of getting the grant. Really focus on the right areas of investment for the college. Also, understand how many awards the granting agency intends on giving out. Very often, the best grant options are usually for specific programs like community-based job training grants (CBJTs). State funds and local foundation grants are also good ones to pay attention to because they can be easier to write and win (as compared to the big federal grants). Don’t get starry-eyed about big money, even local foundation grants can be a good yield. Finally, grantors want planning-based grants – they want to see that you have a strong strategic plan.
2. Follow Instructions
Write grants based on exactly what the grant application says. Interpret the criteria set forth in the application and make sure the content you include hits this criteria. Also, a good rule of thumb is to follow the scoring matrix and understand that no detail on the grant application is too small to ignore.
Another piece of advice is to get involved with the Council for Resource Development. Join its listserv and see what folks are talking about.
3. Clearly and Concisely Address Criteria Questions
If you want to make your grant application stand out, good writing never hurts. Use the active voice, and use language that is specific and vivid. Also follow the rules of writing – keep it simple and specific. Finally, include evidence to support what you are trying to say.
4. Use Evidence and Data
Labor market information is an important quantitative aspect of the application. It helps point you in the right direction. However, just having the data isn’t enough – you have to be able to articulate “Why.” This is where a lot of good local knowledge comes in. For instance, in the Midwest you may see a lot of demand for industrial maintenance occupations, which seems counterintuitive given declines in overall manufacturing employment. In this case the data helps reveal an area where we need to dig deeper to find the story. One reason that these industrial maintenance occupations were such a big deal because there is still a strong need for multi-craft maintenance (e.g., mechatronics) workers to service the high-tech equipment used in modern manufacturing.
Time and experience definitely makes finding the context for this stuff easier. But just doing some very basic subject matter research can really help. For one CBJT we discovered that in Ohio, nursing aid occupations required about 75 hours of initial training, which rank among the lowest among the states. We partnered with a Cleveland-area think tank on elder care issues that had performed extensive research on the direct care workforce. This showed that minimum training standards in the direct care workforce were not sufficiently addressing the evolving skill sets for dealing with the many unique clinical needs of the elderly. Most were going into their positions woefully underprepared. We built a plan to upskill these workers to make them better prepared and qualified.
5. Other Important Considerations
Holistic thinking is very important – see the big picture and then apply analysis. Also, keep the party who will implement the program/system once you get the grant involved as much as possible. Doing a shoddy job on implementation can be worse than not getting the grant.
6. The Most Unpleasant Part of Grants: The Time Commitment
A good grant application could take weeks to complete. The larger the grant, the longer the application. And sometimes when you spend all that time writing the grant and don’t get the award, it really hurts. However, you should always look for elements to salvage for other proposals as well as lessons to learn. Always ask for reviewer comments!
7. We Use Analyst to Set the General Tone of the Grant
Good grants build on top of the data. EMSI’s Analyst can be excellent for this. For instance, because many grants are about retraining workers, it is important to show occupational compatibility, which indicates the relative ease or difficulty of moving workers into new occupations. If you’re looking to show this data, you can easily pull up O*NET compatibilities in Career Pathways.
New and replacement job figures are very important for grant work. They allow you to show the full range of need within a region.
Staffing patterns and inverse staffing patterns are additionally very important. All grants require occupation data, but others require industry data as well.
