Top 10 ways to ensure successful funding

Grant applications can be challenging and confusing. Here are ten tips to ensure your grant will be awarded.

1. Plan, plan, and plan some more: Before looking for a grant application, do your due diligence and work through a well-researched and complete strategic planning process.

2. Understand your funding needs: Make sure you can justify your NEEDS and are not just chasing the money.

3. Get to know your funder of choice: Research, read and understand your selected grant funder. Know their mission, scope of funding, requirements, best practices, lessons learned and funding limitations.

4. SAM and DUNS: Register at Grants.gov to enable you to apply. If registered already, remember to annually update of all your information at both sites.

5. Develop an entire project plan and budget: Each grant project must be planned in full before you start looking for a grant application. Research and develop the entire project and budget before you begin a grant application. This will ensure that your department can afford, manage, and sustain the entire project when the grant funding ends.

6. Justify your approach for the problem statement: Research, gather data and information to assure that your policing strategy and approach to solving your identified project is current, up-to-date and a scientifically proven approach.

7. Create a justified and accurate budget: Research and plan a budget that leaves the funding saying “Of course” all of the costs are justified and allowable under the financial guidelines for each funder.

8. Make sure your department fits the request: Police departments come in all shapes and sizes. Make sure your crime and community data drive your project and strategy. A small department in a rural area will have very different strategies and projects that a large city.

9. Allow enough time to complete an application: Create a case statement for each funding goal in your strategic plan. This will ensure you are ready for the grant announcement. They typically only allow up to four weeks or so for application. The case statement will provide 80-90 percent of what you need to develop a fundable project.

10. Always give your project plan to someone else to read: Having a person who did not help create the project will be able to ask questions you did not think about! They may also catch typos not caught by the spell checker or you!