Grant Writing Confidential

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Entries Tagged as 'Technical'

Why Winning an Olympic Gold Medal is Not Like Getting a Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) Grant

July 25th, 2010 · 5 Comments

A .0001 second difference can separate an Olympic Gold Medalist from a Silver Medalist for swimming, and a five minute difference may separate her and the hapless competitor from Lower Slabovia. The fastest swimmers win medals and the slowest swimmers get new Speedos. Think of the intrepid ski jumper, Eddie the Eagle, in the 1984 [...]

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Tags: Advice · Government · Grants · Stories · Technical

The Ups and Downs of Using a Fiscal Agent to Apply for Grants

July 5th, 2010 · 2 Comments

We sometimes write proposals, usually for foundation grants, when the applicant is not tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Most government grant programs and almost all foundations require that the applicant be a public benefit, tax exempt organization, but one can also use a fiscal agent/fiscal sponsor. A fiscal agent [...]

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Tags: Advice · Budgets · Grants · How-to · Technical

Supplementing Versus Supplanting Grant Funds: Examples from the Rural Housing and Economic Development Program and the Capital Fund Recovery Competition Grants

June 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment

In “Brush the Dirt Off Your Shoulders: What to Do While Waiting for the Stimulus Bill to Pass,” Isaac included a footnote that says “This is a big grant no-no called ’supplantation.’ In a future post I will explain how you can explain away supplantation in your grant writing anyway.”
This is that post, except I’m [...]

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Tags: Advice · Budgets · Clients · Government · Grants · How-to · Technical

Tools, Grant Writing, and Small Businesses: How to Buy a Phone System

February 8th, 2010 · 3 Comments

When Seliger + Associates moved its intergalactic headquarters to Tucson, we also decided to buy a new phone system under the assumption that prices were relatively low and hiring someone to set up our old system again would prove sufficiently difficult and expensive to justify buying a new one.
Doing so is harder than it looks—just [...]

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Tags: Advice · How-to · Technical · Tools

PSST! Listen, Do You Want to Know a Secret? Do you Promise Not to Tell?* Here’s How to Write Foundation Proposals

November 22nd, 2009 · 4 Comments

Hey you!! That’s right, you! The nonprofit Executive Director lurking in the back. Confused about how to write foundation proposals? I shouldn’t really do this, but, just between me and you, and if you promise not to tell anyone, I’ll let you in on some of the secrets of writing foundation proposals.
Many nonprofit folks, and [...]

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Tags: Advice · Grants · How-to · Technical

Tools, Grant Writing, and Small Businesses: How to Buy a Digital (Networked) Copy-Printer-Fax-Scan Machine

October 25th, 2009 · 7 Comments

Buying a copy machine is harder than I thought.
It became a necessary task when Seliger + Associates decamped from Seattle to Tucson and decided to replace most of its aging office equipment. I got tagged with the assignment. This is the first of several posts on my experience.
You’ll end up spending a lot of time [...]

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Tags: Advice · Technical · Tools

Technical note: GWC upgrade

October 3rd, 2009 · No Comments

A brief technical note: I updated some parts of Wordpress, which is our blogging platform. If you notice anything about GWC that behaves in unexpected ways over the next few weeks, please send me an e-mail or leave a comment in this post.

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Tags: Technical