CHAPTER 7
PUBLIC SECTOR FUNDING: FAIRLY SHORT AND
SWEET*
BACKGROUND
Within their myriad of guises and functions, various
levels of government also exist as funding sources.
While it makes sense to consider the possibilities for
bagging some government bucks, you should have some
understanding of the arena before you decide to
enter.
To begin with, government-generated revenues,
including those derived from taxes, are subject to and
the result of the political process. In other words,
government funding and programs reflect the push and
pull of special interest groups and the jockeying of
elected politicians around the legislative
process.
Legislation spawns dollars in the public sector and
takes place at every level, from city hall to Sacramento
to Capitol Hill. Once legislation is passed, possibly
resulting in programs and their funding, it becomes the
responsibility of various departments or offices of
government to administer and implement. Government
agency funds are usually made available in the form of
grants or contracts. There are two basic types of
government grants: formula grants and project
grants.
Formula grants, named as they are because some
type of formula is used for distributing the funds, are
non-competitive and are generally broad in program
coverage or focus. Also known as block grants,
they are often made from one unit of government to
another, particularly from federal departments or
agencies to state planning agencies. These funds tend to
flow regularly as long as the legislation that created
them is intact.
Units of government receiving formula grants may
redistribute or pass the funds through to nonprofit
organizations. This is typically done by making the
grants available for competition as project
grants. In addition to being competitive, these
grants tend to be much narrower in program focus than
the original block grants. They are usually limited in
duration, meaning that competition for refunding can
take place annually. Project grants may be available
directly from government funding sources at the federal,
state and local levels.
Contracts — also available at every level of
government — are competitive but differ from grants
because they represent the purchase of services, goods
or expertise from competing organizations. This allows
the government agency awarding contracts to have much
more say-so in directing the activities of successful
contractors. If your organization emphasizes research in
particular, government contracting is well worth
considering. (This is certainly well known among
colleges and universities, which often have Grants and
Contracts Offices.)
IMPLICATIONS AND TACTICS
Given the volatile nature of government funding, its
history of changing priorities, and the importance of
the legislative process, two considerations should mark
your efforts to secure and use the sector’s money.
First, you should realize that over-reliance on such
funding has caused organizations considerable difficulty
when money has dried up or been reduced through changes
in legislation. Furthermore, replenishing relinquished
government money with money from the private sector is
not easy. (Your research into foundation and corporation
funding will bear this out.)
Second, it makes good sense for organizations seeking
dollars in the public sector to learn about legislators
and their staff members — with particular emphasis on
staff. Remember, state senators in Sacramento as well as
the U.S. variety in the District of Columbia offer
constituent services to the citizenry through staffed
offices. Resource development and grantseeking qualify
as such services. A note of caution: don’t expect
politicians’ staffers to work for you if you won’t
cultivate a relationship with them. Take the time to
find them, meet them, and let them know about you and
your organization. Offer to help them with their
community-based efforts as well.
Following are some other strategic
suggestions.
Since public sector funding currently favors the
states as prime program operators, you should make it
your business to get up to Sacramento periodically as
part of your research and meet with government
representatives. While it’s true that there are project
grants from the federal government for which you can
compete, you are sometimes competing against a unit of a
state government. A lot of federal money goes to the
state capitol and roosts there. Coupling those dollars
with money that is authorized and appropriated by the
state legislature makes it easy to see how important
state agencies are in the inter-governmental scheme of
things.
Part of effective resource development in the public
sector involves connecting with legislators and their
staff members. Cultivating relationships with
legislative staff can lead to their taking your research
efforts seriously as part of constituent services.
Another reason to work with them is legislation itself.
As already mentioned, legislation leads to funds for a
variety of programs, so it makes sense to understand as
much as you can about the legislative process. (Some
individuals have been so effective in representing their
organizations’ needs that line items have been created
for them in legislative packages. This means they are
guaranteed funding under such legislation, as long as
the legislation is intact.)
It’s also important to understand the requirements
made by government grants before applying for one.
Sometimes matching funds are required, which means your
organization has to come up with a percentage of the
needed funds either as a hard match, meaning cash
is required, or a soft match, where the values of
in-kind goods and services are allowed.
Government grants may have associated administrative
costs, not necessarily covered in a program grant. If
so, can your organization cover the expenses, or might
you need to seek other funding to cover them?
Don’t be surprised if government funding carries with
it a heavy volume of paperwork. Are you ready to cross
your t’s and dot your i’s? Monthly? Quarterly?
While you may have to wait for six months to a year
for a response to a government funding application,
should a grant or contract come through, your funder
will most likely expect your program to begin rapidly.
So you’ll need to have done your program planning, even
if the availability of funds is uncertain.
None of this is intended to keep you away from the
public sector. Rather, it is meant to give you some idea
of the experiences of those who have been there. There
certainly can be benefits to compensate for the extra
effort and uncertainty involved in pursuing government
money, including the possibility of grants larger than
those found from private sources.
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ON GOVERNMENT
FUNDING
Available through the Nonprofit Resource
Library
- Guide to Federal Funding for Governments and
Nonprofits
Provides full descriptions of each
Federal program, with summaries that include key facts
and contact information. Updated quarterly, the
publication also includes twice-monthly Federal Grant
Deadline Calendars. Information about the book is
online at http://www.thompson.com/libraries/grantseeking/fits/index.html.
- eCivis Grants Locator
An electronic
database of state and federal funding opportunities
for local governments and nonprofit organizations,
available online at http://www.ecivis.com/. Grants
Locator contains an average of 3,000 grants at a
given time. You can access the database at the
Nonprofit Resource Library (ask library staff for the
login and password).
Federal Funding
For the very serious federal fund seeker, a necessary
evil is the Federal Register, located at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr and
published every day of the year except weekends and
holidays. Inside, you’ll find more information than you
ever wanted to know about the workings of our
government. Of particular interest to the fund seeker
are Proposed and Final Regulations, as published,
and a section titled Notices. Regulations
represent the translation of federal legislation into
program terms and concepts by the administering
departments. The Notices section includes data
about available funds, often described as discretionary
or for research, and demonstration programs. Information
on how to obtain application forms and who to contact
for technical assistance is also included. The
Register is not available at the Nonprofit
Resource Library — a year’s supply would fill a corner
of the library from floor to ceiling. It can be found,
however, in many public, legal or college/university
libraries.
The best bet for getting your hands on the print
version of the Register, as well as other
government funding resources, is to locate a Federal
Depository Library (http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/),
in which you will find federal government reference
sections and librarians. These libraries make the
Federal Register available on a reference basis
and carry a lot of other federal government periodicals
and publications that might interest you as a
grantseeker. There are around fifty Federal Depository
Libraries in the metropolitan, five-county area. If you
have trouble locating one, try asking someone at your
local public library where the closest depository
library is.
The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (http://12.46.245.173/cfda/cfda.html)
has been referred to as the Sears and Roebuck Catalog of
federal funding and the federal funding Wish Book. It is
the single most complete listing of federal programs for
organizations and individuals in the U.S. and contains
descriptions of up to a thousand grants, loans,
contracts, technical assistance programs, scholarships
and fellowships. It also includes information about
eligibility requirements, application procedures and
deadlines. The introduction to the catalog makes for
very good reading. Truly. Read it, and you will have a
solid grasp of the workings of the feds in their funding
role. You can read the introduction online at http://12.46.245.173/CFDA/pdf/intro.pdf.
The Commerce Business Daily (CBD), located
online at http://cbdnet.gpo.gov/, appears as
frequently as the Federal Register. In the form of
Requests for Proposals, it contains information about
contracts the federal government intends to award
through competition. Contracts to be funded cover a
range of services from provision of goods and supplies
(to almost any branch of government) to research and
training (from higher education to the defense
industry). You won’t find the Daily at the
Nonprofit Resource Library, so check your Federal
Depository Library. If you know anyone working in a
college or university Office of Grants and Contracts,
the chances are good they can get you access, since
higher education often competes for government research
contracts.
State Funding
The State of California now has a web portal for
their grants called GetGrants! You can access it
at http://getgrants.ca.gov/. Grant
opportunities listed on this website are posted by grant
managers employed by a government agency. Each listing
gives a brief description of the grant program and
provides contact information of the program grant
manager. You can search for grants using a
Categories menu, which lists grant programs under
Federal or State Agency, or a Topics menu, which
provides grant information according to a specific field
of interest, such as Health, Education, Environment,
etc. Alternatively, you may use the Advanced
Search feature under the Main menu. As new
grants become available, they are posted on the homepage
of the website under the What’s New menu.
You may also find additional grant information by
clicking on the Related Websites link.
Local Government Funding
Things get a bit tougher here. The primary area
served by the Center for Nonprofit Management contains
various departments of government for Los Angeles
County. County government often acts as a local provider
of services, using federal and state monies along with
funds appropriated locally. You might consider finding
out which County Supervisor governs the district where
your nonprofit organization provides services. Next,
check with that supervisor’s staff about funding
opportunities and/or the existence of a county
government directory describing local programs or
departments of county government.
Furthermore, there are hundreds of units of city
government of varying size within the county. The City
of Los Angeles, of course, represents the largest of
these, and coordinates a number of social service
programs itself, as do other units of city government.
Once again, we suspect that your willingness to seek out
local city politicos, and especially the staff who work
for them, can lead to information about additional local
funding opportunities.
*Short and sweet because: a) as part
of The Foundation Center network of resource libraries,
the Nonprofit Resource Library emphasizes resources from
the private sector; b) there are volumes and volumes of
information about government, especially the feds, and
this is a mere synopsis.
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