The deadline for submission of DRS grant applications, February 2, 2022, is less than three weeks away. At this stage in the process, you are likely putting finishing touches on narrative, gathering appendix items, and planning for submission of your application. It’s the home stretch and carefully navigating the final steps of the application process will help to ensure timely and successful submission of your program’s application.
Below, we provide a few tips for successful submission of a competitive DRS grant application.
1. Log in to grants.gov and establish your workspace. If you haven’t already, we strongly encourage you to log in to grants.gov. In case you run into any issues, we recommend establishing your workspace now so that you have time to contact the grants.gov Help Desk for assistance, if needed.
2. Begin entering data into grants.gov. You can begin entering and save data in grants.gov at any time. Getting an early start on data entry may help to reduce some of the last-minute stress that can come with submitting an application. You can even start to populate the 424 and 424-A if your budget is ready.
3. Tie up loose ends in the Appendix. If you have placeholders in your Appendix, now is a good time to follow up on any outstanding items. Page space is at a premium in competitive applications, so determine if items are “in” or “out” so that you can leverage any remaining room you have for narrative or attachments.
4. Conduct a quality assurance review. We highly recommend identifying someone who can perform a strong quality assurance review of your proposal. This will help to ensure you’ve met all of the criteria of the NOFO and your proposal is clear and formatted properly. The person reviewing your proposal can use the evaluation criteria in the NOFO to identify areas you may need to improve in advance of submission. This step could help to enhance the competitiveness of your proposal.
5. Submit your application early. If you can, give yourself a few days of wiggle room in advance of the February 2 deadline to submit your application. In the event that you experience any unforeseen circumstances or technical difficulties with grants.gov, planning for an early submission will give you time to adjust, if needed.
Our team at Foundations for Families has helped many programs navigate DRS. Please be in touch if your program is competing for funding in DRS and needs assistance with the final steps of the application process. We offer a variety of services to support programs in DRS, including quality assurance reviews and grants.gov submission support. Contact us to learn more.
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