This section briefly describes how to search for funders, theimportance of reading the funding announcements, navigating fundingopportunities and getting accounts set-up in order to apply for federalfunding.
Welcome to the ANA Project Planning and Development On-Demand Training Series.
This is Video 14. Next steps, finding the right funders for your project.
Now that you've created a community-informed project to help you achieve your long-term community goal, how will you fund this initiative? This can be daunting as there are many funding opportunities out there, but there are also lots of ways to research them. One of the best tools I personally use when starting a search is to use an internet search engine. This could be Google, Bing, or other similar programs. Grants.gov is also a fantastic resource for navigating federal funding opportunities. You are able to input your search criteria for federal grants, and that includes eligibility, funding type, federal agency, and historical and forecasted grants. The State of Alaska website has announcements specific to our state with a function similar to that grants.gov. Other smaller grants can be found on an agency such as Rural Cap or the Alaska Community Foundation, among others. When visiting these sites, I'd also encourage you to sign up for their mailing list. This will help you keep you updated when announcements are made.
So now that you found an opportunity that you may be interested in, what do you do next? Most awards have the eligibility, funding criteria, and other really important information at the top of the announcement. You can quickly use this to screen the grant and see if it'll be a good fit for you. Remember, each grant has different requirements or conditions. The best advice I can give you is to read the announcement in its entirety. They're lengthy and they take time to read, but this will be your best way to ensure the grant your screening will be a good fit for your project and your organization.
When you've decided to pursue an opportunity, one of the first things I would encourage you to do is look into any required registrations. Your funding announcements should outline everything needed. If you're applying as a nonprofit, having your 501c3 certification will be required, and you should have that handy. Others may include grants.gov and sam.gov accounts, and I cannot emphasize this enough, start this process as early as possible. Some registrations can take time to create or to renew, and this could impact your application submission. Your grant NOFO will most likely inform you what registrations will be needed in order to apply.
When writing your grant application, this list has some helpful reminders to consider. As mentioned throughout this training, becoming very familiar with the funding announcement you're responding to is critical. The announcements provide information about the application deadlines, formatting requirements, but they also provide agency contacts and guidelines to help you with the process. Lastly, have others read your application before submitting. This is very helpful.
ANA funds a variety of community-based projects for tribal communities. Any tribe or tribal organization that wants to implement a community-driven project should absolutely think about applying for ANA. These funding opportunities are incredibly flexible and there is a lot of support provided during the application as well as throughout the life of your funded project.
Thank you for viewing Video 14 of the Project Planning and Development On-Demand Training series. If you have any questions regarding project development or the administration for Native Americans, please feel free to contact us at anaalaska.org.
