Writing grant proposals is a key responsibility of many human resource professionals, but it might surprise some to know business owners and others often get involved.
That’s what happened last year when Providence-based New England Pest Control decided to apply for a $1,500 work-force training grant from the Governor’s Workforce Board Rhode Island, which is awarding $1.5 million in work-force training grants to Rhode Island companies this year. The most a company can get is $50,000.
“It fell on me, basically, because I had time to do it,” said Laurie Goldman, director of special projects for New England Pest Control. “Our head of HR was swamped at the time … she did the prep work [for the grant].”
Goldman had some knowledge of the grant-writing process because she had attended one of the work-force board’s pre-proposal conferences where representatives from the board take prospective applicants step-by-step through the process.
But she faced challenges when writing the actual application. She felt the application asked the same question several times, just worded slightly different.
“I thought I was saying the same thing over and over,” she said.
Goldman’s struggle with the writing process is shared by many applicants, says Robert Cipriano, an independent corporate trainer.
One of the biggest problems he sees when working with companies on grant proposals is an “unwillingness to be specific,” he said.
“People take an academic approach to the writing rather than a business approach,” said Cipriano, who taught a grant-writing workshop geared specifically for applicants of state work-force training grants last month at Bryant University’s Executive Development Center.
The academic approach takes a long time getting to the point, he said. Grant reviewers are looking for clear, concise language about specifically what kind of training the company needs, the amount of money needed and why the training is needed.
In addition, applicants need to be outcome-focused when preparing to apply for the state’s work-force training grants, said Annette Cerilli, director of the school’s executive development center. The center reinstated the grant-writing workshop after more than five years because of several phone calls from businesses needing grant-writing help.
The board requires that 10 percent of the work-force grants are used to determine outcomes, such as increased sales and productivity, as a result of the training, said Nancy Olson, coordinator of outreach and development for the Governor’s Workforce Board RI.
“It helps the company access where they are,” said J. Michael Koback, executive director of the board. “It helps them justify applying for more grants.”
The board also encourages human resource professionals to talk to people in several departments to determine where the greatest need for training is, he said.
“They often have a good, broad view of the whole system,” he said. “But meeting specific needs of specific departments is a challenge.”
Edward Brodeur, vice president of finance at Murdock Webbing Company Inc. in Pawtucket, said he interviewed several people in several departments when preparing to apply for last year’s round of work-force training grants.
That’s how he determined the company needed work-force training in lean manufacturing on the plant floor and strategic planning for upper management.
Brodeur said he was given the grant-writing responsibility because he had written other grants for the company. He also helped the state work-force board analyze grant applicants in a previous year, which gave him insight when applying for the grant for Murdock Webbing.
It’s important to talk to someone else who’s applied for the grant, he said.
It’s also good to have someone who doesn’t know anything about the company read a grant application before sending it in, Koback said.
For DJ Horton, co-owner and president of WorkPlace Dynamics Inc. in Providence, the key to a successful grant application is to get involved in the process herself.
“Owners have to take ownership of the grant writing process,” she said. “For most companies, I don’t care how big they are, it’s the owners’ vision … that got them where they are … and it’s the passion of top management and the owners that has to come through [in the grant application].” •
