Helping You Find Critical Grant-Related COVID-19 Resources
We continue to see questions coming from organizations wondering where they can go to find funding resources in response to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, as well as where to find critical information about maintaining their programs and properly administering their grants under these constantly changing conditions.
Organizations can spend countless hours searching though other general COVID-19 discussions to find assistance that is grant-specific. To address this challenge, Thompson Grants is taking a multi-phase approach to help the grants community pinpoint available funding to meet their particular needs, and to stay abreast with regulatory flexibilities and new policies implemented by federal agencies.
GrantScape
Because the need to obtain financial assistance has become especially critical, Thompson Grants is making it easier to access its GrantScape database, which can help nonfederal entities find thousands of grants opportunities and billions of dollars in funding — particularly during these difficult times — from federal agencies, state governments, local municipalities and private foundations. GrantScape can assist users in finding new sources of funding that may be hard to locate otherwise. Subscribers have access to unlimited tracked grants with notifications for upcoming deadlines; unlimited saved searches for weekly alerts; a personalized, exportable grants deadline calendar; and analytics to help subscribers monitor their search process and optimize your funding sources.
For example, the Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services and Department of State, among others, along with a host of private funders, currently are seeking applications for funding pertaining to COVID-19.
Better still, through June 1, Thompson Grants is extending a 66% discount on its signature GrantScape subscription. You can receive this discount — regularly $29 per month, now just $10 per month — with the code “HERE2HELP”. Consultants assisting grant-seekers looking for funding can enjoy a special discount on Thompson’s GrantScape Pro subscription through June 1. The GrantScape Pro subscription, just $49 per month (down from $99 per month) is available using the promo code “HELP2PROS”. And for good measure, subscribers to Thompson’s GrantScape Lite will have their subscriptions upgraded to GrantScape at no additional cost.
COVID-19 Grants Management Update
Along with the need to find funding in response to COVID-19, there is also a lot to learn about managing grant awards during this critical time. Congress has made more than $2 trillion in assistance available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) — $940 billion of which includes grants and loans — which must be managed appropriately. In addition, OMB has released several memoranda in the last couple of weeks to federal agencies on flexibilities that they can offer to grant applicants and recipients that have experienced operational losses due to COVID-19, and for implementing the CARES Act. Federal agencies are now implementing guidance addressing these memoranda and are releasing their own guidance policies addressing certain award programs.
To assist in learning more about these developments, Thompson Grants hosted an April 14 webinar, in which Jack Reagan, partner in the UHY Certified Public Accounting firm, discussed major COVID-19-related measures that affect the grants management process. Attendees learned more about new legislative and administrative initiatives, including details under the CARES Act; learned how to take advantage of major grant and loan programs now available from the federal government; and found out the best ways to capture costs related to COVID-19 compliance and how to document those costs to facilitate reimbursement. Thompson Grants has made the webinar available for purchase on demand here.
Thompson Grants also has now issued a free whitepaper, “How COVID-19 Is Impacting Grants,” which is available here. The whitepaper provides an overview of grant funding in the CARES Act, information on the 13 grant administrative flexibilities under the recently released OMB memoranda, and examples of agency policy pertaining to COVID-19. For example, the memoranda enable awarding agencies to extend grantee closeout report and single audit submission dates, and to waive certain prior approvals.
Thompson Grants Compliance Expert
In addition, along with several news articles to keep subscribers up-to-date on the latest developments related to COVID-19 and grants, Thompson Grants also now is providing a free Grant-Specific COVID-19 Links roundup at is Grants Compliance Expert library to enable the grants community to find federal government links addressing COVID-19 and grant programs.
We aim to answer those questions at organizations still have pertaining to COVID-19 funding and oversight.
