- What are some general guidelines about grants in general?
I would say that there are a few things you really need
to understand about the granting process.
First of all, you can have a project
that is perfectly suited to the grant you're applying for
and you may not get funding, even so.
And that's simply because grantors,
if they're foundations or corporations,
any kind of a group granting process consists
of trustees or program officers
and they may have projects that are currently
of higher interest than others.
You shouldn't be discouraged by being declined
from any one particular grantor or several of them.
If you keep putting your material out there,
someone is going to give you grant money, eventually.
If you've got your act together, it's gonna happen.
I really believe this.
Another important guideline is
that you need to do your research.
And this will save you time and sorrow down the road.
If you get into your local library
and you get into the foundation directory
and you start looking seriously for grants
or you go to grants.gov and start searching online,
make sure you read the guidelines
that the foundation or grantor puts out there.
In the document that I pulled up for my friend,
John Ferguson, who's got a wonderful program by the way,
there are guidelines specifically set up
that I'm going to have to go through
and see if this is gonna indeed be a good match for him.
Otherwise, we don't wanna waste our time applying
to that particular granting organization.
And so, research your grants thoroughly
to save yourself time in the future.
And I would say that's another important item to remember.
I think it's important to know
that grants are not instant cash.
This is a long process.
It takes from the time that you submit your grant,
frequently, six months until you find out
whether or not they've decided
that you're gonna be the successful grantee.
Sometimes it takes less time,
but I think, most often, it takes more.
So, it's important to understand
that particular facet of grants.