Strategic Project-Based Planning
OVID Solutions recognizes that creating competitive grant applications starts well before a grant cycle opening. With many moving parts to account for throughout the cycle, it’s essential to stay organized. For this reason, we work with our clients to first develop a strategic plan. The plan’s focus can be any number of areas, including economic development, disaster recovery, resiliency, infrastructure investments – the list goes on. The plan, in a nutshell, is a wish list of large-scale projects that are important to the community and will need funding. Our team can then condense these ideas into a concise plan that directs the project with a clear vision. We encourage our clients to adopt or approve these plans as this increases the competitiveness of their applications by showing that the project is part of something bigger and has community buy-in.
Grant Resource Matching
OVID Solutions starts by examining the project and then researches which grants would be the best fit. We call this process “resource matching,” a project-based approach to aligning a grant opportunity with a specific project. By doing this on the front end, we can accomplish several goals:
- We, as grant writers, can get to know the client to tell their stories more effectively.
- We can find the grant that best matches the project, instead of shoehorning a project into a grant that may not be a good fit but is available.
- The client can develop the partnerships necessary to put together a team approach – which also increases the competitiveness of the grant.
- We can get the grant in front of the governing body for approval, avoiding last-minute issues with commission/council meetings schedules that don’t align with grant submission deadlines.
- The community can think about the match and strategically spend dollars (like ARPA funds) to get the extra points needed to make their application rise to the top of the stack.
- We can work with the client’s lobbyist to make sure they are having conversations with decision-makers at the funding agency to advocate for the project. Having served in government and managed billions in state and federal funding – we know this is a crucial step.
We can exponentially increase an application’s competitiveness by taking the steps above–which is important to us because we like to WIN!
Grant Development
OVID Solutions helps communities, nonprofits, and private companies pursue large and small grants by leading grant application development and submission. Leveraging the support of a consultant for grant writing can significantly enhance an organization’s capacity. We write all narratives, seek to leverage local partnerships, conduct public outreach, and compile detailed budgets. For cost estimations on large-scale infrastructure and facility improvement projects, we work closely with your contracted architects and engineers . We do not provide this as an in-house service. This helps us build partnerships with local firms that have the knowledge of infrastructure systems within the community. With one internal staff grant writer, an organization’s resources can get tapped out quickly with just a few grants. Our team will work with internal staff to chase many grants, allowing staff to focus on the management of the projects to be implemented with project funds.
Grant Management
We can help communities with project management and reporting required for state and federal compliance. This can include policy development, financial tracking, grant reporting, and keeping files organized so that they are “audit ready” throughout the life of the grant. We specialize in federal and State of Florida grants with a team of individuals who have decades of experience working on the regulatory side of grant compliance. Our team builds an online database of your grant documentation so that it is organized and easily accessible to relevant team members throughout the lifecycle of the grant. When the time comes to be monitored by a federal agency, we will be with you every step of the way to ensure the funding agency has the documents needed to focus more on the success of your project and less on meeting federal requirements.
Policy Development
Many funding agencies require specific policies to be in place in advance of an award. We can work with your team to craft policies that meet federal and state regulations while also being specific to the needs of your organization. OVID Solutions is well-versed in federal speak and can help translate cumbersome requirements into easy-to-understand guidance that is useful to your staff and the recipients of the funding. We specialize in housing, disaster recovery, economic development, and overall grant administration requirements.
