The deadline for submission of DRS grant applications, January 6, 2025, is about three weeks away. At this stage in the process, you’re likely putting finishing touches on the narrative, gathering appendix items, and planning for submission of your application. This round of DRS is unique in that the final steps of the application process are taking place over the holidays when many programs have closures or staff are out of the office.
Below, we provide strategies for managing DRS through the holidays and tips for submission of a competitive DRS grant application by the January 6 deadline.
1. Confirm roles, responsibilities, and timelines. It’s important to know who is doing what in the final weeks of application development. This includes reviews, revisions, and sign off prior to submission. Communicate regularly with everyone involved so that there are clear expectations. You might consider sharing a list of when team members will be out of the office so that everyone is on the same page.
2. Log in to Grants.gov and establish your Workspace. If you haven’t already, we strongly encourage you to log into Grants.gov. If applying for the first time, you will also need to Register. Once you’re in Grants.gov, you can establish roles and privileges for team members so that they may contribute to the Workspace. Taking these steps now will allow you time to contact the Grants.gov Help Desk for assistance, if needed. Keep in mind that Grants.gov maintenance is scheduled for December 21 at 12am to December 23 at 6am. You will not be able to access Grants.gov during this time.
Also, note that there are two pathways to applying for grants with Grants.gov Workspace – applying directly from the Opportunity page and applying through the “Applicants” tab. These options are equally effective and you can choose your preference.
3. 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 could 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.
4. Tie up loose ends in the Appendix. If there are placeholders in your Appendix, now is the time to follow up on outstanding items. This is especially important if you have partners or agencies writing letters of support that are closed Christmas through New Year’s Day. If you have some “maybe” Appendix items, determine if they are in or out. This will allow you to finalize your page space to ensure you stay within the 150-page limit.
5. 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 in 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.
6. Submit your application early. If you can, give yourself a few days of wiggle room in advance of the January 6 deadline to submit your application. Don’t wait until the deadline – instead, submit by January 2 or 3. In the event that you experience unforeseen circumstances or technical difficulties with Grants.gov, planning for an early submission will give you time to adjust, if needed.
Carefully navigating the next few weeks will help to ensure timely and successful submission of your program’s application.
Thank you.
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