External Fund Development in an Academic Environment Presentation to George Williams College January

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External Fund Development in an Academic
Environment Presentation to George Williams
CollegeJanuary 2003

• Cecile C. Guin, Ph. D., LCSW
• Director, OSSRD
• LSU School of Social Work

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• Learning how to get money to support your
  academic needs takes patience, perseverance and a
  good self image!
  
• Let me dispel some myths about getting external
  money
  
• There is no free money anywhere.
• You dont need graduate education to write
  grants.
  
• Grant writing is not that complicated once you
  get the
  
• hang of it.

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• I would also like to share some truths about
  getting external funds
  
• There is a lot of money out there!
• Grant writing is a multi-million dollar business
  in this
  
• country.
• At best, 1 of 10 grants is funded.
• Getting money for people makes you very popular
  among
  
• your colleagues!

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• There are many, many types of grants available.
  The types of grants that academic personnel will
  most likely be looking for include
  
• Research
• Teaching
• Program
• Pre-Dissertation
• Post Doctoral
• Operational
• Training/Conferences

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• There are basically two types of grant
  proposals
  
• Long proposals with a million forms to fill out
  that are submitted to government agencies.
  
• Shorter, more humane proposals to private
  sponsors.
  
• The university still requires a million forms,
  
  
• however!

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Private Sponsors generally include

• Foundations and Associations
• Ex The MacArthur Foundation
• The Public Welfare Association
• Corporate Sponsors
• Such as Exxon, Hewlett-Packard, local companies

Government Agencies include

• 1500-1600 Different Programs

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Governmental Funds may also be obtained in
different categories

• Discretionary
• identified by the federal agency as a target area
  and generally distributed from federal agency
  headquarters
  
• Demonstration
• also generally comes out of federal headquarters
• Purpose is to see if certain program will work or
  if research will offer solutions to a problem
  
• Ex. HUD Community University Partnership Projects

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Formula Grantthe federal flow through funds that
are distributed through state agencies.
Ex. JJDP,HUD Research Grantsusually through fed
eral agency headquarters a different type of
agency that deals with universities
Ex. NSF, NIH, NIDA, NAS
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• Many government agencies offer a research or
  evaluation component to programming grants and
  they prefer for universities to perform this
  function.
• CSAT/CSAPgenerally requires academic
• personnel for empirical evaluation

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Dealing with governmental agencies and private
sponsors requires different approaches

• Private sponsors generally like to develop a
  relationship with you or they have a relationship
  with the university.
  
• Government agencies generally do not like to have
  a relationship with new applicants, unless it is
  a research agency such as NIH or NSF.
  
• If you obtain a non-research grant from an agency
  such as Substance Abuse/Mental Health Services
  Administration (SAMSHA), it is a good idea to
  cultivate an on-going relationship for later
  purposes.

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• Getting Started on Grant Writing
• There are some questions you should ask yourself
  before you decide to submit a proposal
  
• Will my department chair support me in this
  endeavor?
  
• What information do I need to get from the
  universitys sponsored programs department?
  
• What type of project do I need funds for?
• Research?
• Program?
• Center operations?
• Post Doctoral?
• Conference?

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• What do I want to do? How much will it cost? How
  much time will it take?
  
• Who are potential funding sources?
• Do I need to partner with others? Community
  partners or academic partners?
  
• How does my idea support the funders
  priorities?
  
• Is my project new? Does it build on the work of
  others? Why does my project need to be
  undertaken?
  
• What has been done in the past that is similar to
  my project?
  
• What are the project goals or research
  hypotheses?
  
• What is my plan for accomplishing the project?

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Some of the grant literature suggests that it is
a good idea to develop a four page description of
the proposed project with every important point.
The four pages can be reduced for the abstract or
can be expanded for the narrative.
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• Your idea is good--now you need to find a
  potential funder.
  
• To look for governmental agencies
• Check individual websites if you know the agency
  you are interested in.
  
• Ex. National Institute of Health
• National Science Foundation
• National Academy of Sciences
• Can review the website of the Catalog of Federal
  Domestic Assistance (1512 program categories).
  
• Can check sites for your subject
• Ex. Juvenile Justice Funding

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• To look for private sponsors
• Check under specific foundations
• Ex. Fulbright Scholar Program
• Carnegie Foundation
• Guggenhiem Fund
• Check out the numerous websites for private
  sponsors
  
• Ex. The Foundation Center
• Academic Fundraising Web Resources
• Grant Select

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Once you have identified several sources, you
need to become very familiar with them.

• What are their funding priorities?
• Who have they funded in the past?
• What are the parameters on the amount of money
  they give?
  
• Are they any special requirements that I cannot
  meet?
  
• Is there a number they provide for additional
  information?

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Depending on the agency, they may provide a
person for you to talk to or they may offer to
review a draft of your proposal several months in
advance. Study the eligibility requirementsmake
sure you qualify. Note the deadline for arrivaln
ot just post mark. Examine all forms and try to f
ind someone experienced with the forms if you are
a novice. After studying your optionsmake a deci
sion, set a timeline and develop a task list from
the RFP/GFA.
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• Getting Organized
• Make a chart of grant requirements and who will
  do what by when. Include a checklist for
  monitoring progress.
  
• Identify any partners, collaborators or other
  people who must be advised.
  
• Advise chair you will need forms signed by a
  certain date.
  
• Check with sponsored programs to see what
  university requirements are.
  
• Identify who has to submit letters of supportyou
  will need to provide them a draft of what they
  need to say.
  
• Obtain any vitas that have to be included.

• Locate demographic data or reports you will need
  to include in justification of need.

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• Proposal Writing
• Examine the instructions for the narrative
  portion of the proposal.
  
• Follow the instructions completely.
• Most proposals require the following components,
  depending on the type of grant
  
• Title Page
• Abstract
• Introductory Section

• Problem Statement
• Purpose
• Significance

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• Background of the problem
• Lit Review
• Research Methods/Approach
• Design
• Implementation Plan or Timeline
• Evaluation
• Description of Institutional Resources
• Personnel
• Budget
• Equipment
• Services
• Cost sharing

• References/Attachments

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• Try to select a good title that captures the
  basic idea that you are trying to accomplish!
  
• Correctional Options Program (COP)
• Community University Partnership (CUP)
• Statewide Evaluation of TASC
• An Examination of the Social WorkerVolunteer
• Relationship in Nursing Homes

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The Research Proposal Guidelines will be quite
different from programming, operations or
training grants. They are much more rigorous, in
terms of requiring a hypothesis, sampling design,
analytical methods, etc
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Government grant requirements and private sponsor
requirements are generally very different. The
request to private sponsors is much less
complicated. It is always recommended that you ha
ve the proposal ready on time for people to
review.
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• After the Proposal is Submitted
• Send narrative part to the collaborators or
  partners with a note of thanks and the date the
  announcement of funded grants is planned for.
  
• Keep your file on the proposalif it is funded
  you will need all of your notes and contact
  information.

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• Outcomes
• If the grant is funded, get organized fast for
  implementation.
  
• Make friends with the program officers.
• Expect lots of complications.
• If the grant is not funded, notify everyone
  involved.
  
• See if you can get comments from governmental
  agency.
  
• If you submitted to a private sponsor, it may be
  appropriate to write note thanking them for their
  consideration.

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• Why do Proposals Fail?
• The main reasons is because people do not follow
  the directions or they fail to explain the
  project effectively.
  
• Sometimes you get bad reviewers.
• In an NIH publication, the rejection reasons were
  cited as
  
• 58--Problem Statement
• didnt describe the problem well
• couldnt justify need

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• 73--The Approach/Methods
• Methods/Procedures were unsuited to the stated
  
  
• objectives.
• Description was unclear and confusing.
• Not well thought out.
• 55--Investigator
• Didnt have adequate training.
• Unfamiliar with pertinent literature.
• Investigator is spread too thin.
• 16 Other Reasons
• Unrealistic requirements for equipment
• Institutional setting is unfavorable
  (University of Michigans Proposal Writers Guide)

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VII. Conclusions

• Never give up!
• Keep the grant writing experience in context.
• Develop thick skin and try again
• In reality, some personalities are better at
  grant writing than others. Some characteristics I
  would look for are

• Motivated to get money for poor people or poor
  
  
• departments
• Can sit still and write for long hours
• Detail oriented
• Determined
• Can work well with others

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• Many academics are not good grant writers. If
  you can find a
  
• good grant writer to support the really gifted
  scholar, it will
  
• be a good investment.
• Finally, keep yourself or your department in a
  grant
  
• readiness stage

• Maintain funding reports or access to current
  funding information on
  
• the internet.
• Pay attention to funding news that the
  university sends out.
  
• Keep current demographic information and
  literature handy.
  
• Plan for what you want and it will be easier to
  write once the
  
• opportunity comes up.
• Cultivate relationships with private sponsors.

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