OCTOBER!
You may have noticed there wasn’t a September newsletter this year. Sunflower was extra busy writing new grants and winning grants, increasing our total amount secured for clients to over $16M! We also had a great team building exercise that brought us all closer together and helped us feel ready and excited for Q4. Let’s go!
WHO KNEW?
The most popular type of grant is for Program support. Program grants provide funding for specific projects or programs. Don’t get discouraged though – it is possible to get grants for General Operating support – but it can help to tie your request back to Programmatic needs. Reach out to find out how to do this!
IMPLEMENT THIS IDEA OF THE WEEK
Try applying for a federal grant with our help!
Federal grants are competitive but offer a truly great ROI. There are over 900 grant programs offered by the 26 federal grant-making agencies. These programs fall into over 20 categories; the greatest number of Federal grants each year fall under Health and Human Services.
FEATURED GRANT STORY
A June 14, 2024 article in Bloomberg (“For US Cities in Infrastructure Need, Grant Writers Wanted” By Patrick Sisson) does an excellent job of highlighting a current “crisis of opportunity” in the grant world:
The applications aren’t simple two-page forms. These evidence-driven processes require extensive community data, census-tract-level breakdowns, historical comparisons, and especially for IRA green economic programs, local workforce data. (More quotes from the article are further down if you are interested in more detail).
Smaller cities don’t often have the staffing capacity to complete and file complicated state and federal grant forms, even if there is significant money available to them.
Federal grant applications can take up to 100 hours to execute – that equates to 2.5 weeks of work – and very few people have an extra 2.5 weeks of “free time” to fill in-between their regular job duties.
Sunflower believes strongly that everyone should have access to grant funding, and we have already started reaching out to some smaller cities to see if we can help.
[There are] 90,000-plus municipalities and tribal governments [needing assistance to] finish filling out all the paperwork.
Local governments without the expertise or budget to apply could be left out of the action. Lack of grant-writing capacity is a chronic complaint for city administrators. In Jackson, Mississippi, for example, former chief administrative officer Robert Blaine, now at the National League of Cities, said one of many issues that impeded the city’s efforts to fix its water crisis was its inability to compete for and win grants due to a lack of staff to complete applications. “We really, really needed the funds, but we didn’t have the competency, we didn’t have the capacity to be able to apply for it,” he told Streetsblog in 2023.
The stakes are large, says Jillian Blanchard, director of the Climate Change and Environmental Justice Program for Lawyers for Good Government. Her group estimates up to $2.2 trillion can be leveraged for climate, infrastructure and water investments. “The potential of this money from these bills can completely change the framework of systemic environmental racism,” she said. “That’s why we spend a significant amount of our time providing legal resources and providing support, because we want to see that money equitably distributed. The devil’s in the details and in the implementation.”
“We call it a crisis of opportunity,” said Blanchard. “It makes it almost insurmountable for some of these local governments or even frontline organizations that are now eligible for some of this funding to get in the game.”
Efforts to make sure grants are used efficiently have led federal agencies to tighten up requirements, and really focus on shovel-ready projects, creating a more comprehensive and complex process. The need for grant help is great, said Relf, the group’s director of research and impact.
FEATURED SUNFLOWER GRANT WRITERS CLIENT
- Kansas City Women in Technology (KCWiT) is an organization that empowers women in technology-related fields in Kansas City. They offer hands-on workshops, activities, networking, and programs for girls to introduce them to technology and encourage them to pursue tech careers.
- The mission of the organization is to get girls interested in technology careers early on. KCWiT is working to provide workshops and camps for girls to introduce them to creating through technology and giving them the self-confidence to pursue career ideas traditionally targeted towards boys.
- They are involved with Kansas City school districts, assisting in tailoring curriculum to match desired skills currently needed in the industry.
- KCWiT also provides mentoring programs for high school and college girls considering technology career paths. There are few mentors available for girls needing support in areas like computer science, robotics and web development.
- The goal of KCWiT is to help grow the number of women in technology related jobs. Though many women may start in technology, the dropout rate for professionals is staggering. Growing the number of women in technology includes the need to retain women currently in it.
- KCWiT host networking events aimed to meet all the needs of the members, be it growing certain skills, building relationships, re-inspiring techie-love through mentoring, or just giving the reassurance that “I’m not the only one.”
- The board behind Kansas City Women in Technology is comprised of people currently ‘in the trenches,’ giving them a fresh perspective on providing tools for women still trying to make their mark on the industry, and creating opportunities for established members to mentor and help shape the next generation of women in tech.
- For more information, visit their website at https://kcwomenintech.org.
CHECK IT OUT
The ODIDA’s utility box art wrap project is moving right along. Check out Courtney Porto’s box at 14th & Howard. Her work is colorful and whimsical, and you can’t help but feel happier after you see it. Sunflower secured the funds for this wonderful new improvement project in Downtown Omaha!
FINAL THOUGHT…FROM SOMEONE ELSE
“If plan A fails, remember there are 25 more letters.”
– Chris Guillebeau
That is all for now! Stay hopeful and passionate!
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