Follow the money

Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Merrill Douglas

More From Interoperability

Last year, the federal Assistance to Firefighters Grants program awarded more than $494 million to 5088 U.S. fire departments. Also in 2007, the one-time Public-Safety Interoperable Communications program distributed more than $968 million. This year, the Department of Homeland Security planned to give out $16 million for equipment and training, including support for video surveillance, information technology and covert vehicle tracking, through its Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program.

These are just three examples of the programs that public-safety agencies can tap for funds to buy communications systems and equipment. In an era of tight budgets, probably the biggest mistake an agency can make when it comes to winning grant money is not to try.

“It doesn't hurt to apply. It costs nothing,” said Chris Lienhardt, a dispatcher and grant writer with the Regional Emergency Dispatch (RED) Center, a facility in Northbrook, Ill., that serves 13 fire/emergency medical services departments.

Thanks in part to Lienhardt's grant writing skills, the RED Center received $722,000 this year from the AFG program to outfit member departments with mobile data and automatic vehicle location systems. It also secured $500,000 from the PSIC program for 700 MHz radio equipment to establish interoperable communications with the Illinois statewide radio system.

Grant applications developed with care could pay off in similar ways for other public-safety agencies. But written incorrectly, they will bring only disappointment.

One of the keys to a successful grant application is attention to detail. “Read the program guidance. Make sure your needs fit what the program is intended to do,” Lienhardt advised.

Each grant-giving organization issues a document — often long and complex — known as the grant guidance or request for proposals (RFP). It spells out the kinds of projects the grantor supports, the criteria it uses to make selections and the information that the grant applicant must provide. Applicants should read every word and follow instructions to the letter.

“People tend to read what they want to read instead of reading what they should read,” said Kurt Bradley, director of CHIEF Grants at CHIEF Supply, a vendor of public-safety equipment in Auburndale, Fla. The company offers free grant consultation and grant writing education.

“The objectives of the program and the focus need to be in line with what the funder is looking for,” said Marissa Berg, outreach coordinator at Resource Associates, a grant writing consultancy in Farmington, N.M. So do the applicant's priorities and partnerships, she added. If the guidance stipulates, for example, that a public-safety agency needs to form a partnership with a school district to apply for a particular grant, agency officials must make sure to sign an agreement with the district and outline the role of each partner, she said.

It's not enough just to pore over the grant guidance documents. The PowerPoint presentations, lists of frequently asked questions and other supplements that come with them also are important, Berg said. “You wouldn't believe how many times we come across things that were not stated in the RFP that were in the PowerPoint presentation,” she said. These items, such as advice about the kinds of projects the grantor is most likely to favor, carry just as much weight as if they appeared in the RFP.

Besides carefully reading the grant guidance, agencies should start work on their grant applications early. “Probably the biggest hindrance to public-safety agencies getting grants is their procrastination,” Bradley said. To persuade a grantor that the agency needs the funds and will spend the money wisely — and to show the impact the grant will make on the community — the application must provide a wealth of facts and figures. These might include details on the population served, the agency's activities during the course of a year and the critical infrastructure within its jurisdiction — the length of gas pipelines and the capacity of reservoirs, for example.

“Departments typically don't go out and get that information well in advance of the grant application period,” Bradley said, leaving them scrambling to meet the deadline after the RFP is issued. A better tactic is to get started as soon as the current application period ends, gathering information for the following year, he said.

Chris Gilmore, a grant writing consultant who works with state and local governments, suggests looking ahead even further than the one-year preparation cycle. “It's a total planning process,” said Gilmore, who is based in Bay Harbor Isles, Fla. “You don't just say, ‘There's a grant. Let's apply for it and we'll get some money.’” The agency needs to develop a fiscal plan that dovetails with its entire organizational plan and with the plans of neighboring agencies and communities, he said. “Your best chance of getting big money is to do a comprehensive planning process.”

Pursuing a single grant that provides $20,000 or $100,000 for equipment won't take care of an agency's communications needs, Gilmore said. He tells clients to draw up a plan that defines all the public-safety communications technology the community wants to implement over the next several years. “They tell us how they're going to phase it in; we tell them how much it's going to cost,” he said, citing figures in the millions of dollars. “Then we identify possible funding sources.”