CHAPTER 2:
Grow Your Budget With Outside Funding
Most municipalities find grants are necessary for moving progress forward on capital improvement projects, disaster recovery efforts, and other key construction and maintenance work.
However, securing funds for critical projects is not always an easy process. Typically, you face ample competition and strict requirements. Understanding how to stand out can mean the difference between success and failure.
Fortunately, municipalities can use several strategies to prepare their applications and bolster their chance of success.
Having a clear list of assessment needs will prove invaluable when it's time to pursure grand funding.
Because of the level of detail required to tell this story, obtaining professional assistance from a grant writing company or an engineering or planning consultant if often advantageous.
Pair projects with funding buckets
Having a clear list of assessment needs, as discussed in Chapter 1, will prove invaluable when it’s time to pursue grant funding. In addition, having a clear sense of project targets that meet specific grant application requirements gives municipalities an opportunity to align their lists of infrastructure project priorities with identified grants.
For example, if it’s clear that funding will be made available for roadway reconstruction projects, and your community has identified a project that fits this description, this may be an excellent project upon which to move forward even if it is lower on your list of prioritized needs.
Understanding the specific grant program’s financial requirements—such as local funding matches, for example—will also help you better position your grant request for success. When you’re trying to secure federal or state grants, you’ll find that joint projects tend to score better because the agencies approving funding often see multi-jurisdictional projects as a more impactful return on their funding. Prioritizing infrastructure projects that could be pursued jointly with another jurisdiction can increase your rate of successfully securing funds while lowering the total bill for your region.
At any given time, a range of funding opportunities may be available to match your prioritized projects. To remain abreast of these opportunities, municipalities may want to enlist their engineering partners’ support in creating a source-and-use-of-funds matrix that focuses on matching various parts of a project with a range of federal and state grants and loan programs. For example, you may find it possible to fund portions of a roadway project with federal funding for pavement and state funds for landscaping. While many grants require local matching funds, this added support can stretch a tight budget to cover a big project.
Get support in building the case for funding
Once you’ve identified the appropriate grant for your project, it’s time to prepare your application. This can be a daunting task for many agencies, particularly those lacking in grant writing experience. It is essential that the application present data that explains how the problem for which you’re seeking funding has impacted your community and how the grant can help alleviate this hardship. It may help to engage an engineer or consulting firm to define the project scope and provide an Engineers Opinion of Project Cost. This information further solidifies the case for receiving funding and serves as a crucial piece of the project narrative.
Because of the level of detail required to tell this story, obtaining professional assistance from a grant writing company or an engineering or planning consultant is often advantageous. To boost your application’s chance of success, you will want to work with a partner that has experience writing successful grant applications.
Prepare for the future
The time between application submission and award notice will vary for each grant, but funding decisions tend to be made within three to six months. For many municipalities, the challenge truly begins when the grant is awarded.
There may be a tremendous demand upon manpower to effectively manage the project once funding has been awarded. Your project team may have specific grant instructions and measurements of success to follow. This may include administrative requirements to meet, such as ensuring proper financial management, environmental studies, and other documentation. Effective project management will also be essential for establishing the design, bid, and construction phases. As a result of these intensified demands, it’s best to consider early on how you will manage your workflow so that you are able to act swiftly should funds be awarded.
In the event that your application does not secure grant funding, it is acceptable to ask for feedback on the application’s denial. Getting feedback will help you gather valuable information to support your next grant submission.
