PREPROPOSAL CONTACT

Once you have identified a funding source, if it is a federal agency, contact the program officer by letter, telephone or agency visit. If the funding source is a foundation, preliminary contact is critical. The Office of Grants and Contract Development will help in making this contact and advise as desired. By making this preliminary contact, you have the opportunity to benefit from the sponsor's comments on your ideas.

State and Federal Agencies

In the mission-oriented agencies, where program interests are specific and changing and where the program officer is directly involved in the selection process, this preliminary contact is essential. This initial contact gives you a chance to introduce yourself and your project idea to the agency, to listen to suggestions from agency personnel for improving your project idea, and to understand the funding interests of the agency and how your idea fits these interests, all of which should improve your chances for being funded when you do submit your proposal.

If a preliminary proposal is requested by an agency, it forms a basis for discussion; it does not commit you or the University to anything. However, since preliminary proposals often do become the basis for negotiation for actual funding, you should have preliminary proposal clearance prior to contacting the agency.

Find out if pre-submission contact is permitted or encouraged. If it is permitted, take advantage of it. A study of 10,000 proposals submitted to federal agencies found only one significant predictor of success -- pre-submission contact with the agency. Submit drafts of the proposal well in advance of the deadline. Have staff members make suggestions about how to make your proposal most attractive to the agency. Don't be surprised to find staff very willing to offer help six months before the proposal due date, and unwilling two weeks before.

Before contacting a program officer, find out as much about the program as you possibly can. By doing this you tell the program officer that you have done your homework and they typically are more willing to visit with you. Note: Not all program officers are friendly or helpful, but persist anyway.

Approaching Government Agencies

1. Telephone a program officer in the grant category where you think your request belongs to discuss your idea and determine whether it falls within the scope of the grant program.

2. Ask if it would be appropriate to send the program officer a two- or three-page preproposal describing your project clearly and succinctly. If so, send the preproposal and establish a two-week follow-up telephone contact date.

3. If the agency accepts draft proposals, take into account the program officer's response to the preproposal, and prepare a full draft of the proposal for agency review. Aim for a draft that is as close to the final product as you can, so the program officer can review it as though it were actually before a peer review panel.

4. Prepare a revised draft or a formal proposal addressing all of the program officer's comments.

Questions for Federal Agencies

1. When do they anticipate the application packets will be available? (you should already know the basic timeframe for the competition.)

3. Is it possible to get a copy of an expired application packet?

4. Do they anticipate significant changes in the next competition?

5. Is it possible to get copies of the abstracts from a previous competition or are they available on Internet?

7. How many new awards do they anticipate?

8. Would it be possible to send a 3-5 page preproposal for review prior to the submission deadline?

General Suggestions

1. In most agencies, program officers are former or on-leave academics or other experts in the subject area with which the grant category deals. The best way to approach them is like a colleague.

2. If you have ANY questions about an agency's priorities, requirements, biases, or any other matter, call and ask. No question is trivial. It is the program staff's job to answer your questions. It's remarkable how many faculty members spend months guessing at or worrying about matters that could be answered quickly and easily with a phone call.

3. Program officers usually welcome the chance to discuss proposals with potential applicants in person or on the telephone. However, you should make an appointment only if you have a specific idea you want to discuss; avoid non-specific meetings designed merely to get to know an agency.

4. Try not to take personal offense if agency staff questions your ideas or methods. Program officers are acting as devil's advocates who are challenging you to present a case that will be persuasive to reviewers who hold a range of views and possess different areas of expertise.

5. If the program officer believes that your proposal is premature or otherwise non-competitive, consider postponing your request and submitting it later in a stronger version or to another agency.

Preliminary contact with a foundation or corporation is even more important than it is with a federal agency. Frequently, these organizations will meet with you several times to discuss your ideas and determine how they fit the organization's priorities. It is important that you make a good impression in preproposal contact, as foundation and corporate giving officers generally have more input into funding decisions than do federal program officers. The impression you make can play a significant role in the decision regarding your proposal.

In some respects, private funding offers a desirable alternative to public grants. Private sources generally have less red tape and paperwork, and tend to be more personalized.

But, the same qualities that make foundation and corporation grants less painful to administer may also make them more difficult to obtain. With private funders, intensive research into the foundation's interests and key persons is crucial and may take a considerable amount of time. The Office of Grants and Contract Development can assist with this research, identifying potential foundations and providing you with information about these foundations.

Keep these points in mind when applying to foundations and corporations:

It is advisable not to submit a proposal "cold" to a foundation or corporation. Contact the executive director or a program officer in advance (usually by telephone, though some foundations prefer letters) to discuss your ideas and make sure your proposal falls within that funder's interests. If you write to request an interview and get no response within about two weeks, it is permissible to follow up the letter with a phone call. Foundations and corporations grant money to serve their own interests. The interests they identify may be specific or general. A corporation may want to limit its support to projects that will improve life in communities where its employees live or its offices are located. Another company may want to support only technology research likely to affect its interests. Failing to research these interests -- that is, assuming that a project important to you will necessarily be important to any foundation -- will more than likely doom your proposal to failure. A standard proposal sent in identical form to a number of foundations is unlikely to be successful. As you write, couch your narrative in terms that link the foundation's interests to your proposal's objectives -- use terms and phrases where appropriate from the foundation's annual report.

Large foundations often look for projects that are not only intrinsically valuable but are likely to have a national impact or serve as national models. Smaller, more local foundations will be less concerned about a project's transferability and more concerned about its local impact.

Personal relationships often play an important role in obtaining foundation and corporation grants. Unlike a government funding agency, which must go to great lengths to ensure as much objectivity as possible in its selection process, a private funder may select its projects according to the personal interests of its president, chief executive officer, or board members. A private funder may choose to fund the same organizations year after year, or may make decisions according to criteria that appear unidentifiable to outsiders.