Dealing With Past Grantees in Seeking Government Funding Sources

 

Approaches to Acquiring List of Past Grantees
  1. Letter to funding source.
  2. Phone call to funding sources.
  3. Use of Congressional representative as an intermediary (federal bureaucrats required to respond to such a request).
 
Once List is in Hand
  1. Select a grantee that is not in close proximity to you.
  2. Call grantee and explain how you got name.
  3. Ask to speak to director or person who worked on the proposal.
  4. Consider asking some of the following questions:
  Did you call of go see the funding source before writing the proposal?

  Whom did you find most helpful on funding source staff?

  How did you use your advocates or Congressional representatives?

  Did you use consultants to help you on the proposal?

  Was there a hidden agenda to the program's guidelines?

  When did you begin the process of developing your application?

  What materials did you find the most helpful in developing your proposal?

  Did the funding source come to see you (site visit) before the proposals were awarded?

After awarded? Who came? What did they wear? How old were they? Would you

characterize them as conservative, moderate, liberal?

  How close was your initial budget to the awarded amount? (You can double-check by

looking at the proposal via the Freedom of Information Act.)

  Who on the funding source's staff negotiated the budget?

  What would you do differently next time?