Municipalities face unique challenges when seeking grant funding. With dedicated teams responsible for a wide range of essential services, municipalities often find their capacity, budget, and resources stretched thin, which limits their ability to pursue grant funding consistently. This means that many municipalities are missing out on opportunities and leaving money that could be serving their communities on the proverbial table.
GrantMatch has helped hundreds of municipalities access grant funding by augmenting their current practices and increasing the odds of success. Learn more about how collaborating with GrantMatch helps municipalities maximize their grant funding to create lasting community benefits.
1. Gain In-Depth Program Knowledge
Municipal grant applicants must dedicate significant time and resources to researching the right opportunities, learning the nuances of various grant programs, and aligning their projects to the program’s priorities. With limited time or expertise in grant programming, many municipalities pursue the wrong grant opportunities and have their applications denied for funding, creating the impression that grant funding is seemingly out of reach for many municipal applicants.
Here's the truth: millions of dollars of government funding are allocated every year to grant programs tailored to municipalities and their specific needs.
GrantMatch utilizes powerful software and a team of funding experts to identify the most suitable funding opportunities for municipalities. GrantMatch’s in-depth program knowledge enables municipalities to go after the right funding opportunities and submit high-quality proposals. By deeply understanding what programs are looking for, GrantMatch develops strong narratives that align projects and their outcomes with funding priorities, generating higher odds of success while saving municipal teams from the arduous process of identifying the best opportunities.
2. Utilize a Team of Experts
Developing a successful grant application requires time, proficiency, and collaboration. Unfortunately, many municipalities don't have dedicated resources to develop grant proposals and application packages that stand out from the crowd.
GrantMatch’s team of experts develops high-quality grant proposals and all submission documents, helping municipal teams present their projects in ways that give them the best chances of being funded. With GrantMatch, municipalities can be confident that the contents of their applications will clearly showcase the strengths of their projects, align with program priorities, and reflect the character of their communities.
From strategy creation to the research and writing stage to the final editing process, each application undergoes a rigorous internal review to ensure it is polished and compelling. The GrantMatch team comprises skilled writers and researchers from diverse educational backgrounds, and the collaborative team implements various checks and balances that distinguish GrantMatch applications from the rest.
3. Build a Proactive Funding Strategy
Since grant funding windows open and close throughout the year, a long-term municipal funding strategy is crucial for maximizing grant funding and accelerating the transformative impact that grants have on communities. However, many municipalities are often focused on the urgent issues at hand and require more resources to research and pursue grant opportunities for projects further out on the horizon, leading to missed opportunities and forfeited potential funding.
By working with GrantMatch, municipalities save time by sharing projects from their wish lists, strategic plans, and Asset Management Plans, allowing GrantMatch to find relevant matches for each municipality’s initiatives. By building a long-term strategy that accounts for both program deadlines and municipal priorities, GrantMatch empowers municipalities to pursue the right funding programs for their needs, thereby increasing the likelihood of approval.
4. Strengthen Compliance Oversight
Writing and submitting a grant is a big milestone, but the work is not over. Once an applicant is selected for funding, the compliance process begins. Applicants need to regularly report on the project’s progression, show proof of responsible utilization of grant funds, and detail progress on milestones and KPIs, all while keeping track of reporting deadlines.
Reporting periods vary by program, with some extending over multiple years. Instead of devoting internal resources to the lengthy compliance process, collaborating with GrantMatch enables municipalities to focus their efforts on the projects at hand, allowing them the time and resources to create more opportunities for future funding, further benefiting their communities.
GrantMatch’s Compliance Specialist is an expert on the compliance process and regularly helps GrantMatch clients maximize their funding. Alongside time savings, GrantMatch’s Compliance Services provide municipalities with real cost savings. Projects naturally undergo slight changes between the proposal and implementation phases, and a compliance expert helps ensure that if certain eligible costs are no longer required, other eligible costs can replace them, allowing all allocated grant funds to be spent and eliminating the need for unspent funds to be returned to the program.
5. Leverage Competitive, Performance-Based Pricing
Many grant consulting firms operate through retainers, hourly fees, and project-based fees, even if the application is not approved for funding. Meaning, municipalities are paying for services that sometimes do not yield funding dollars for the community, eating away at municipal budgets and furthering the sentiment that grant funding is unattainable.
GrantMatch operates on a contingency model, under which municipalities pay for services only when funding is approved. By assuming the risk with our clients, GrantMatch maximizes municipal grant funding by targeting opportunities with the strongest likelihood of success. With performance-based pricing, municipalities know GrantMatch’s success is tied to theirs, ensuring maximum effort and results.
Whether representing a growing township or a bustling city, municipalities can rely on GrantMatch for costs that are consistent, equitable, and free from surprises. Moreover, GrantMatch’s competitive, performance-based pricing enables municipalities to apply to as many opportunities as possible, significantly increasing the chances of securing funding.
Collaborate With GrantMatch and Maximize Municipal Grant Funding
Maximize municipal grant funding by collaborating with GrantMatch. The GrantMatch team provides start-to-end grant application assistance. From long-term strategy creation to proposal writing to compliance oversight, the GrantMatch team is ready to help municipal teams focus on building resilient, vibrant communities by enabling them to access the funds they need to realize their initiatives.
Contact the GrantMatch team today to learn more about how grant funding can help enact transformative change in municipalities across North America.