User Story Collection: How the Federal Grants Community Uses Grants.gov

Note: This blog post was originally published in 2018 and updated on February 7, 2020.

The characters in our User Story Blog Series may not have super-powers, but – thanks to the ways they use the Grants.gov system – they are able to save time and increase their efficiency.

Here, we collect all of the user story posts we have published in the series.

User Story: Where In the World Is My Federal Grant Application?

All grant applicant journeys must eventually come to an end – ideally, with news of an award.

You may remember, in our last installment, our fearless applicants Susan, April, and Leo submitted their federal grant applications. In this post, we close out their stories with one final article about what happened after their applications were submitted.

Grantor User Story: Retrieving Submissions & Assigning Agency Tracking Numbers

The application deadline for Trish’s grant program has come and gone, so now she is ready to get those applications into the application review process. Trish would also like to add agency tracking numbers to give her applicants the opportunity to see the status of their application. (If you missed previous installments of Trish’s story, click here and here)

Retrieving the Submissions

User Story: Checking the Application and Submitting in Grants.gov

That sense of relief is almost here for Susan, Leo, and April. From their different circumstances and team sizes, they have all reached a similar point—the grant application is done and they are ready to submit. Before sending it in to the agency, though, they would also like to review the application to make sure it is ready. This review involves their team internally reviewing the accuracy and quality of the application, but it also includes validating it in Grants.gov.

User Story: A State Agency’s Annual Grant Application

April knows the grant program her state agency applies for each year. She’s familiar with the process and requirements, and this year’s iteration of the grant has hardly changed from last year. So, April would like to be able to re-use last year’s work to save time.

For some of the new work in this year’s application, April needs to add two fellow staff members to the team in Grants.gov, but they cannot have access to any of the budget information.

Time-Savers: Reusing Forms & Copying a Past Workspace

User Story: Federal Program Manager Prepares for the Closing Date

The clock is ticking down for Trish, a program manager at the Department of Health and Human Services, and for the organizations who are preparing to submit grant applications.

You may recall, in Part 1, we explained the process that Trish took to publish a new grant opportunity on Grants.gov. Since then, she has been focused on preparing for the peer review panels and other responsibilities. But now it is time to begin preparing for the posted grant’s closing date.

Now We’re Ready to Apply—Continuing Susan’s User Story

Now that Susan has been in her position for some time and has searched through grant opportunities, her university has targeted a specific grant to apply for. To do this well, and quickly, Susan needs to be able to ensure a faculty member, several Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) staff members, and two outside consultants can help with completing the application.

User Story: Applying for Federal Grants When Internet Connectivity Is Limited

Grants.gov has long been attentive to the needs of applicants like Leo. One of the key benefits of the Grants.gov Workspace platform is that it can serve a range of applicant needs, including those applicants who must work on forms offline due to slow or intermittent access to internet.

User Story: Designing a Strategy for Finding Federal Grants

Over the last few weeks, we have begun featuring user scenarios from across the Grants.gov user experience. Click the User Story tag for all the posts in the series.

Now that Susan is up to speed on the phases of the federal grant lifecycle, she feels better equipped to begin scouring Grants.gov for grant opportunities that hold promise for her organization. To complicate things a bit, Susan’s university is looking for grants across a range of different categories.

So for each grouping of opportunities, she will need to use a different combination of keywords and search parameters. Of course, it would be great to be able to save these different search queries and receive emails when a grant comes up in them.

Let’s look at a three-part strategy Susan has designed for finding opportunities that may help you find the grants you are looking for.

Federal Program Manager – The Beginning of Trish’s Grantor Story

Before anyone can apply for this HHS grant, Trish needs to coordinate the design and posting of the FOA. To allow prospective applicants more time to plan, Trish would also like to publish a grant forecast.