We’re often asked by farmers and agribusinesses how to apply for federal grant programs, such as the USDA Value-Added Producer Grant (due on May 16). While these grant programs can be a good option for growing agribusinesses to obtain capital, it’s important to understand how much work goes into receiving a grant, even beyond the application itself. Often, applying for federal grants requires 40 to 80 hours of work. Check out these four tips to help prepare you for applying for a federal grant program.
How Can I Get Free Money? Four Basic Steps of the Grant Application Process
We get asked all the time how to get “free money” in the form of grants for on-farm projects. The answer is pretty simple: there is no free money. While grants can be a helpful way to fund worthwhile projects on the farm, there is a lot of work that goes into receiving a grant. In this post, we discuss some of the key steps of the grant application process.
Screening for fit: How to save time when looking for grants
When you first find a grant program that could fit your interests, your main source of information will typically be a document called the “Request for Applications”, also called the “RFA” or in federal programs, a “Notice of Funding Availability” or “NOFA”. This document is key in determining if a grant is a good fit for you or your organization and can easily surpass 40 pages in length. While you will need to read the entire document eventually, we suggest reviewing the following sections first:
Q&A with James: KCARD and the Grant Process
James Barrett, KCARD’s grant facilitator, took some time to answer a few questions about himself and KCARD’s Agribusiness Grant Facilitation Program.