Guides
45 guides to the parts of this that are genuinely confusing. Weighted toward the questions whose honest answer is discouraging, because those are the ones that save you the most time and the ones nobody else wants to publish.
Every figure here either names its source or is read from the product at build time. If you find something out of date, tell us.
Eligibility and readiness
The questions that decide whether to start at all. Worth the most and answered the least, because nobody markets disqualification.
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?
Do you need a 501(c)(3)?
Do I need 501(c)(3) status to apply for grants?
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?
SBIR and STTR
What are SBIR and STTR grants and who can apply?
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?
Foundation money and for-profit companies
Can a for-profit business receive money from a private foundation?
When the right answer is not a grant
What is a CDFI, and when should I look at a loan instead of a grant?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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 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?
Looking up a single term?
The glossary defines the vocabulary on one page, without the circular definitions that make most of them useless.
Or skip the reading and see what you are eligible for.
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