diversity

Higher Education Applauds the Biden Administration FY 22 Budget

The Biden Administration’s FY 2022 Budget for higher education signals support for innovation in agriculture and science, climate change, rural development and access as well as equity via the funding of minority institutions. For example, the NIH and NSF budget increases of 20% are for innovative programs that translate to the increased funding for transformative… read more

virtual

Going Virtual: A Paradigm Shift for Grants

With the rise of working from home, organizations and universities transitioning online, and even pandemics, it’s no surprise that video conferencing has become an integral part of our working lives. According to Video Conferencing Statistics, 94% of institutions claim that video conferencing has increased their productivity.Research to date demonstrates both the challenges and opportunities of… read more

match

SBIR/STTR: A Win-Win Partnership for Private and Public Sectors

Partnerships between institutions of higher education and the private sector are encouraged and often lucrative endeavors. The Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) are the best mechanisms toward this effort and are often referred to as the nation’s largest sources of early stage/high risk funding for start-ups,… read more

bidding

The Development of Competitive Bids is an Art and Science

The formal business acquisition process has always been a competitive endeavor. Today, winning bids is especially challenging given changing priorities, limited time and resources, and constrained budgets. The most successful organizations adopt industry standards and best practices – and when pursued diligently – find that win rates improve, and effectiveness and efficiencies are discovered. Best… read more

support

University Support for Faculty Funding Success

The pool of funds available for grants in the US is steadily shrinking given that funding is similar from year to year, and those funds are not keeping up with inflation and labor costs. Also, grant funding has been dramatically reduced in certain federal funding agencies and in others it has fallen by 20-25 percent,… read more

writing

Critical Tips for Captivating Grant Writing

The focus of this blog is effective grant writing. The reviewers of your proposal will be the ultimate judges of your funding success. To assure that they are enthused, you need to address: Whose story is this? What is this about? How does the material link backward and forward? What material warrants my attention? Let’s… read more

hands

How to Write Persuasive Proposals

A 2015 meta-analysis of more than 1000 articles with advice to proposal writers showed that most of the top 10 recommendations focus on strategic positioning and project design.1 I’ve seen scores of presentations advising faculty how to write more competitive grant proposals and I rarely hear anything besides these. Only one of the top 10… read more

success

How to Build a Successful Nonprofit

The key to maintaining a successful nonprofit organization is to have a diverse fundraising strategy that builds upon your organization’s core strengths and resources. It is essential, therefore, to know your organization, understand your place in the giving community, and build on your strengths and resources. Once, when I worked for a small, under-resourced organization,… read more

doctor

Critical Questions to Clarify Your Research

How you will construct the direction and destination of your proposal depends on the initial questions that you ask. As you move from generating the topic, to gathering the background information, to adding focus to your research, you should begin with the open-ended questions of “how” and “why”, while at all times considering the “so… read more

international

Foundations & Corporations: The Art of Procuring International Funding

In my last blog, I discussed United States federal funding for international programs and research. In this article, I will focus on foundation giving for international programs. According to The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations, during a five-year study from 2011-2015, grant-making by American foundations to charitable organizations outside the United States reached… read more