Sneak Preview: Panel Addresses Pre-award Challenges Facing Small Communities

(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) Smaller communities struggling to apply and compete for federal grant funding could fare better if federal awarding agencies provided more technical assistance, made application and reporting systems more uniform, and allowed lower matching rates from such communities, according to panelists during a recent forum hosted by the Office of Management and Budget.

The forum responded to findings in a recent report, No Front Door: Barriers to Access for Small Communities Seeking Federal Grants, issued by U.S. Digital Response (USDR). Panelist Pari Sabety, senior grants advisor for USDR, said the report found that many small communities opt out of applying for notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) because of challenges in the grant process. “The journey is so complex,” she explained. “If we improve the federal grants process, we know that will bring benefits to small communities. Grant managers dream of a world where they can identify federal grants with pinpoint accuracy, apply for that grant at the click of a button and automatically produce reports in exactly the format required by the funder. It’s critical to apply a user-based approach at every step in the grants process.”

After surveying more than 350 local governments nationwide, USDR learned that there are opportunities to expand grant access to local communities by:

• Increasing the opportunities for interaction, feedback and question-and-answer sessions between grant seekers and federal awarding agencies, as well as urging federal agencies to provide liaisons overseeing specific NOFOs to help local communities conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether to apply for a particular grant.
• Developing grant programs tailored to each community’s size and risk profile, then smaller communities will not waste time pursuing grants targeted towards larger entities. This process could include focusing funding on intermediaries (e.g., regional government collaboratives) that could provide technical assistance and foster collaborations among regional stakeholders. “Is there a way to create compliance models for small, medium and larger recipients?” Sabety asked.
• Creating a streamlined, modular common application that pre-fills relevant fields with data, and will immediately notify applicants when they are not eligible for a specific award based on this data. In addition, simplifying extensive applications would encourage more small towns to apply and put funding where it is most needed.

Fellow panelist Chelsea Sadler, director of grants and opportunities for the city of Chattanooga, Tenn., said that the main challenge when her office applies for and manages grants is the overall complexity of the federal funding lifecycle, particularly with new funding opportunities provided in recent years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It almost feels like we’re playing dodge ball at times because we can be applying for one grant opportunity, then we are hit with five or six more [opportunities] from all different agencies and we’re trying to strategically figure out what best fits our needs,” she said. “Navigating the changes in the NOFO, template or application system is a challenge because we need to figure out who has access [to an application system] or how do we get access to apply. It’s almost like learning a new language every time, which adds administrative burden when seeking to receive an award. It can be very overwhelming with the sheer amount of information coming down from the federal level.”

(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)

Join us for our following Thompson Grants events:
Virtual Advanced Federal Grants Forum | Oct. 25-26, 2023 | Virtual Event
Thompson Grants Workshop: Procurement | Nov. 16, 2023 | Virtual Event