Guides

Eligibility and readiness

The questions that decide whether to start at all. Worth the most and answered the least, because nobody markets disqualification.

• Can you apply for a grant while your SAM.gov registration is pending?

  Can I apply for a federal grant while my SAM.gov registration is still pending?

• Why your SAM.gov registration is stuck, and how to unstick it

  Why is my SAM.gov registration taking so long?

• The registrations you need before applying for a federal grant

  What do I need to register for before applying for a federal grant?

• SAM.gov registration and your UEI

  How long does SAM.gov registration take, and do I need it?

• What a grant writer costs, and when to hire one anyway

  How much does it cost to hire a grant writer?

• Is your organization ready to apply for grants?

  What does my organization need before it can apply for grants?

• Cost share and matching funds

  What does a matching funds or cost share requirement actually mean?

• Who can actually apply for grants

  Can my type of organization apply for grants?

• Limited submissions, and how to run the internal competition

  What is a limited submission grant?

• Grants with no local match, and how to find them

  Are there grants that do not require matching funds?

• Do you need a 501(c)(3)?

  Do I need 501(c)(3) status to apply for grants?

• Is this grant worth applying for?

  How do I decide whether a grant is worth applying for?

The four kinds of money

Grants, government contracts, foundation funding and community lending get lumped together and behave nothing alike. One of them is debt.

• Grants and government contracts are not the same thing

  What is the difference between a grant and a government contract?

• Foundation funding, and who is open to you

  How do foundation grants work and how do I get one?

• How for-profits win grant money without applying for a grant

  Can a for-profit company get grant money without applying for a grant?

• When the right answer is not a grant

  What is a CDFI, and when should I look at a loan instead of a grant?

Funding a company

The for-profit shelf: research money that takes no equity, contracts that count as revenue, the narrow foundation door, and when to take investment instead.

• Non-dilutive funding

  What is non-dilutive funding and where does a company get it?

• Grants for startups

  Are there grants for startups, and which ones are real?

• Grants or venture capital

  Should a startup pursue grants or venture capital?

• The SBIR commercialization plan

  What is an SBIR commercialization plan and what goes in it?

• Government contracts for startups

  Can a startup win government contracts?

• SBIR and STTR

  What are SBIR and STTR grants and who can apply?

• Foundation money and for-profit companies

  Can a for-profit business receive money from a private foundation?

• Grants for non-citizen founders

  I am not a US citizen. Are there grants for my company?

• State economic development grants for business expansion

  What are state economic development grants?

• How to write a capability statement, one agency at a time

  How do I write a capability statement?

• Past performance when you have little or none

  Can I win a government contract with no past performance?

• Small business set-asides: 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, EDWOSB and SDVOSB

  Which small business set-asides do I qualify for, and how do I certify?

• How to find state and local government bids

  Where do I find state and local government contracts?

• How to respond to an RFP and stay compliant

  How do I respond to an RFP and make sure it is compliant?

• How tribal enterprises win federal contracts: 8(a), Buy Indian Act and the Indian Incentive Program

  How can a tribally owned business win federal contracts?

Reading an opportunity

NOFO, FOA, RFP, cooperative agreement, solicitation number. What the words mean and where the disqualifying sentence hides.

• How to read a funding announcement

  How do I read a NOFO or funding announcement properly?

• The vocabulary, defined plainly

  What do all these grant terms mean?

• Five minutes that save you three weeks

  How do I quickly tell if my organization is eligible for a grant?

• Not every deadline is a deadline

  What are the different types of grant deadline?

• The scoring table tells you where the points are

  How are grant applications scored?

• Three documents that only look alike

  How do federal, state and foundation grant announcements differ?

• What changes as a grant gets bigger, from $5,000 to $1 million

  What changes when you apply for a bigger grant?

The documents funders expect

What you should have ready before a deadline exists, and what a funder's own filings tell you about what to ask for.

• What to have ready before you need it

  What documents do I need to apply for a grant?

• The capability statement

  What is a capability statement and what goes on it?

• Logic model and theory of change, told apart

  What is the difference between a logic model and a theory of change?

• Letters of support and letters of commitment

  What is the difference between a letter of support and a letter of commitment?

• Indirect cost rates, and the money most organizations leave behind

  What is an indirect cost rate and do I need one?

• Audited financials, a review, or neither

  Do I need audited financial statements to apply for grants?

Writing something that wins

How a reviewer actually reads, what gets a compliant proposal screened out anyway, and the mistakes that repeat.

• How a reviewer actually reads your proposal

  How do grant reviewers actually read proposals?

• The mistakes that repeat

  What are the most common mistakes in grant proposals?

• The budget narrative, line by line

  What goes in a grant budget narrative?

• Write for the person who has 39 others to read

  How do grant reviewers actually read proposals?

• Reusing a proposal without it showing

  Can I reuse a grant proposal for a different funder?

• The parts only your organization can supply

  What parts of a grant application can software not do for me?

• How to write grant objectives a reviewer can score

  How do I write good objectives for a grant proposal?

• How to write a grant application fast

  How do I write a grant application on a short deadline?

• How long does it take to write a grant?

  How long does it take to write a grant application?

• Grant application checklist

  What should be on a grant application checklist?

• How to get a letter of support fast

  How do I get a letter of support for a grant quickly?

• Avoiding Grants.gov submission errors

  Why was my Grants.gov application rejected, and how do I avoid it?

• Can you get an extension on a grant deadline?

  Can I get an extension on a grant deadline?

Funder research

Working backwards from funders instead of forwards from opportunities, and how to read what a foundation files about itself.

• Start from the funder, not the opportunity

  How do I find funders who would actually fund my organization?

• Reading a foundation's tax return

  What can I learn from a foundation's 990-PF?

• Most foundations will never read your proposal

  Do foundations accept unsolicited grant proposals?

• Foundation relations: finding funders for a campus priority

  How does a university find foundations to fund a priority?

• Finding grants without paying anyone

  How can I find grants for free?

• How much foundations actually give

  How much money does a typical foundation give, and how big is a typical grant?

• What Part IX-B of a 990-PF tells you

  What is Part IX-B on Form 990-PF?

• The checkbox that means do not bother

  What does “contributes only to preselected charitable organizations” mean on a 990-PF?

• Foundation giving, state by state

  Which states have the most private foundations?

• What the money actually went to

  What do private foundations spend their money on?

• How your board can help you win grants

  How can our board help us win grants?

• Reaching a foundation that does not take applications

  How do I approach a foundation that does not accept unsolicited proposals?

• Grant databases: what they cover and what they miss

  What is a grant database and which one should I use?

• How to search a foundation grant database

  How do I search a foundation grant database?

• Federal grant databases: Grants.gov, SAM.gov and SBIR.gov

  Where do I search for federal grants?

• State and local grant databases: where to look

  Where do I find state and local grants?

• Grant database or grant matching: which saves more time?

  Is a grant database or a grant matching tool better?

When something changes

A funder leaves, a program is cut, a council or a board asks for a plan. What to do first, and where the next money comes from.

• A funder you counted on is not renewing

  Our biggest funder is not renewing our grant. What do we do?

• Your board is asking for a grant pipeline

  My board wants to see our grant pipeline. How do I build one?

• Your federal funding was cut

  Our federal funding was cut. Where else can we find money?

• Your council wants to pursue federal grants

  Our city council wants us to go after federal grants. Where do we start?

• Your SBIR Phase I is ending

  My SBIR Phase I is ending. How do I prepare for Phase II?

AI and funders

What each funder allows with AI, what they can tell, and how to use it so every application stays your own.

• How funders treat AI in grant applications

  Can I use AI to help write a grant application?

• What to say when a funder asks how you used AI

  How do I disclose AI use in a grant application?

• Will a funder know if I used AI?

  Will a funder know if I used AI on my grant application?

• Using AI on an NIH application

  Can I use AI on an NIH grant application?

• Using AI on an SBIR proposal, agency by agency

  Can I use AI to write an SBIR or STTR proposal?

• Writing your organization's AI policy for grant work

  How do we write an AI policy for grant work?

After you submit

Timelines, what a rejection is actually telling you, and the obligations that arrive with a win.

• What a rejection is actually telling you

  Why was my grant proposal rejected and should I reapply?

• The work that starts when the money arrives

  What are my obligations after winning a grant?

• How to follow up with a program officer

  Should I follow up with a program officer after submitting a grant, and how?

• What your Grants.gov and eRA Commons statuses mean

  What do the application statuses in Grants.gov and eRA Commons mean?

• What to do while you wait on a grant decision

  What should I do while waiting to hear back on a grant application?

• How long until you hear back

  How long does it take to hear back after submitting a grant application?

• Ask for the reviewer comments

  Can I find out why my grant application was rejected?

• Most declines are a queue, not a verdict

  Should I resubmit a grant application that was rejected?

• What happens in the first ninety days

  What do I need to do after winning a grant?

• How to cover costs before the grant money comes

  How do I pay for grant costs before the grant money arrives?

• How federal grant drawdowns work, in ASAP and PMS

  How do I draw down federal grant funds?

• Reimbursement vs. advance payment on grants

  What is the difference between reimbursement and advance payment on a grant?

• How long until grant money arrives after an award

  How long does it take to receive grant money after being awarded?

• The four numbers that changed in 2024

  Did the single audit threshold change?

• How long you have to keep the paperwork

  How long do I have to keep grant records?

• Passing money on, and what comes with it

  What are my responsibilities if I subaward federal grant money?

• The last 120 days

  What happens when a federal grant ends?

Where grant funding is heading

Perspectives collects essays by Quillify's founder on where grant money is moving and how organizations of every size can grow with it.