Article
Applying for Grants
The Grants Office submits all federal/discretionary program grants for the divisions of FSSA. The Grants Office receives all notices of awards and tracks information about awards in the Grants Office database. The office maintains FSSA’s registration in the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) and the FSSA DUNS number, which allows FSSA to do business with the federal government. The Grants Office also maintains accounts in several federal electronic grants management/application systems, such as: Grants.gov, GrantSolutions, eRA Commons, and DOJ Grants Management System.
Identification of Opportunities
The FSSA Grants Office is engaged with FSSA leadership to understand trends in federal funding priorities and to explore new sources of funding and collaboration, particularly for planning and innovation. Each day, the office reviews new grant opportunities via federal publications or direct division referrals and assesses them for relevance to each FSSA division. Appropriate opportunities are summarized in a grant approval form and forwarded to the division for their review. If the division decides to pursue the grant, the form is completed with an explanation and justification of the proposed grant activities.
Division contacts who identify opportunities of interest should contact the Grants Office immediately for assistance with the grant approval and application process.
Approval to Apply
FSSA must obtain approval from the State Budget Agency before applying for any federal discretionary/program grant. The FSSA Grants Office is the sole liaison for this process. The Grants Office works with SBA and division staff to obtain the necessary approvals. During SBA’s review of the grant opportunity, Division staff proceeds with the application development process.
Resources for Developing Applications
The Grants Office provides several resources to the division staff to assist in the application development process. Each resource is customized, if necessary, to the specific grant application requirements. Resources may include:
- Timeline for grant application review and submission
- Narrative template
- Budget template
- Confidentiality and participant protection template
- Sample language
- Business assessment questionnaires
- Program duplication questionnaire template
- Facilitation assistance
- Other technical assistance, as needed.
Timeline
All applications for federal grants are submitted by the Grants Office at least two days prior to the federal deadline. This ensures that there is time to address any technical issues during the electronic submission process.
Near final applications and supporting documentation must be submitted to the Grants Office at least six calendar days prior to the application deadline. The Grants Office reviews, edits, and formats the final version of the application for submission to ensure readability, that all federal application requirements for formatting are met, the budget is correct, and the application complies with a standard look established by the Grants Office for all FSSA grant applications.