Altrivas provides three core courses that provides the foundation for our AIM for grants model:
Preparing for Federal Grants
Crafting a Winning Proposal
Federal Grant Compliance
This course will walk you through the essential elements to preparing your organization to propose and perform Federal grants.
Section 1: Readiness
Project or Concept Development
Readiness Assessment
Policies and Procedures Development
Building a Winning Team
The Capture Plan
Training
Section 2: Resources
Building Collateral
Plans and Agreements
Outside Services
Section 3: Research
Funding Sources
Funding Lifecycles
Determining Funding Fit
Section 4: Representation
Capabilities Statement
Marketing Materials
Social Media
Responding to Requests for Information (RFIs)
The construction of a winning proposal comes down to creating all aspects of the proposal and application successfully to submit on time, with the right level of detail, and providing the right information to achieve the maximum score. To this end we have chosen several very important topics to discuss that will help you get organized, write efficiently, and effectively communicate to your awarding agency. This course and associated articles and materials support the following topics:
Section 1: Getting Started
Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) Review
Defining the Project
Concept Development
Getting Approval to Apply
Proposal Schedule
Formulating the Proposal Team
Preparing to Write
Selecting Writers
Avoiding the Death Spiral
The Kickoff Meeting
Section 2: Managing the Proposal Effort
How to Manage the Proposal Effort
Managing Your Proposal Team
Section 3: Proposal Development
Learn Your Audience
Outline
Assumptions
Collateral
Data
Writing Techniques
Real Examples
Writers Block
Writing the Management Approach
Writing the Abstract or Summary
Using Artificial Intelligence
Including Plans in Your Proposal
Managing a Contractor Developed Proposal
Section 4: Budget Development
The Basics
Cost Categories
Cost Share
Allowable and Unallowable Costs
Aligning Project and Budget Development
Section 5: Proposal Review
Types of Proposal Review
The Administrative Review
The Technical Review
The Budget Review
Proposal Review for Senior Leaders
Awarding Agency Review
Section 6: After the Proposal
We Got the Grant; Now What?
This course and associated articles and materials addresses the various areas you may be required to comply with under a Federal grant award.
Section 1: The Basics for Federal Grant Compliance
Federal Grant Regulations and Uniform Guidance
Overview of Compliance Requirements
The Annual Compliance Supplement
The Single Audit
Federal Grant Award Documents
Records Management
The Project Management Office (PMO)
Grant Management for Public Works Projects
Federal Grant Program Guides for States
Reviewing and Approving Invoices
Section 2: Building the Foundation for Compliance
Board and Executive Level Policies
Organization Policy and Procedures
Establishing Internal Controls
The Team RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Coordination, and Information) Chart
The Compliance Self Assessment
Section 3: Cost Guidance
Cost Principles
Policy on Costs
Direct Costs
Indirect Costs
Cost Allowability Factors
Advertising and Public Relations Costs
Compensation for Personal Services
Equipment and Other Capital Expenditures
Materials and Supplies Costs, Including Computing Devices
Professional Service Costs
Rental Costs of Real Property and Equipment
Termination Costs
Travel Costs
Timekeeping for Non-Exempt Employees
Timekeeping for Exempt Employees
Timekeeping for Supervisors and Managers
Section 4: Cash Management
Requirements Overview
Section 5: Eligibility
Requirements Overview
Section 6: Equipment, Supplies and Real Property Management
Requirements Overview
Intangible Property (Intellectual Property, Patents, Data, etc.)
Section 7: Matching, Level of Effort, Earmarking
Requirements Overview
Section 8: Period of Performance
Requirements Overview
Section 9: Procurement
Requirements Overview
Procurement Methods
Grant Procurement for Procurement Professionals and Buyers
Build America Buy America Act
Procurement Pricing Analysis
Disaster Procurement
What You Need for an Audit (Procurement)
Section 10: Program Income
Requirements Overview
Section 11: Reporting
Requirements Overview
Project Status Reports
Federal Financial Status Report
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency and Accountability Act (FFATA) Reporting
Equipment Reporting
Final Reports
Section 12: Subrecipient Monitoring
Requirements Overview
Subrecipient and Contractor Determinations
Subrecipient Risk Assessment
Single Audit Report Review
Subrecipient Agreement Requirements
Subrecipient Monitoring
Section 13: Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (DBRA) - Prevailing Wages
Requirements Overview
DBRA Definitions
Framework for DBRA Compliance
Federal Prevailing Wage Determinations
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Prevailing Wage Requirements
Contact Altrivas for quote and scheduling.
Altrivas provides these specialized on-demand courses that can be tailored to your organization and delivered in person or by webinar.
Grant Capture
Proposal Planning (requirements review, concept development, Go/No-Go, schedule, and managing the proposal team)
Managing the Proposal Effort
Proposal Review
Grant Budget Development
Subrecipient Partner Selection
Subrecipient Management
Grant Policy and Procedures
Federal Grant Compliance Overview
Grant Readiness Assessment
Grant Procurement
Grant Equipment
Federal Prevailing Wage (Davis Bacon Act)
Buy American
Federal Requirements for Accounting Systems
Allowable and Unallowable Cost Rules
Invoice Review for Grant Project Managers
The most successful Federal contractors have a capture program to fill their pipeline with new awards. Today, many grants are competitive and requires a winning strategy such as a capture program. Whether you want to continuously win grants or just want to go after that big one, you should learn about capture. This course explains what capture is, how to implement a successful capture program, who should be responsible for capture. You will learn about a capture plan, what should be in your capture plan, and who should be responsible for executing the plan.
What do you do when a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is released? Do you have a plan? Do you have processes in place to win the grant? This course will show you what to do when the NOFO is released. We will provide techniques on conducting a requirements review, organizing your proposal outline, developing your concept, putting your proposal team together, and scheduling the proposal development. Also during this course we present a proven process for senior leadership application approval with a Go/No-go process.
Managing a proposal effort is like managing a project that has a lot of customer requirements and a short deadline that cannot be extended. This course will show you how to use the requirements matrix to assign and manage the proposal effort. We will introduce you to an effective way to address the different areas of proposal development that includes administrative, concept, budget, writing and review. We will discuss using the kickoff meeting to assign task and get contributor commitment. Finally, we will talk about using a form of SCRUM to manage the proposal effort.
If you Google proposal review, you may learn there are a number of different types of reviews. Some companies use red teams while other use red, blue, gold, etc. Regardless of how many and what color review you use, the review will not be successful if the reviewer is not prepared, committed to the process and focused. Our approach in this course is to overcome some of the barriers to a successful proposal review by offering a focused approach to review. Our approach discusses how to conduct both an administrative and technical review and how to prepare the reviewers for each of these approaches.
The budget is as much a part of the competition as the proposal. To win on the budget side, you must carefully plan out the cost of your project and justify why staff, supplies, equipment, contractors, etc. are included in the budget. You will likely need to get early input from subrecipient partners and get vendor quotes on supplies, equipment and services. In this course we cover the basics of grant budget development, the cost categories that are used in a Federal grant budget, cost contributions (cost share, in-kind, and leveraged), allowable and unallowable costs, project and budget alignment, subrecipient budgets, indirect cost rates,
You may have crafted a winning proposal but not be in a position to win the grant award. Why? If the awarding agency determines you are too high of a risk, you are likely not going to get the award. One of the reasons an organization might be seen as high risk is teaming with a subrecipient that is high risk. To avoid this the grant Uniform Guidance in 2 CFR 200 provides a guideline to assess risk. In this course we will share our process for collecting the necessary information and vetting subrecipients.
The success of your grant award depends on the success of your subrecipients. You may be familiar with managing contractors who provide goods and services to many different customers regularly. Managing a subrecipient that is working on a grant project using Federal funds requires far more oversight than a contractor. In this course we talk about establishing the proper contractual relationship and monitoring your subrecipient to ensure they follow the Federal rules under the award and their subrecipient agreement.
Federal grants come with a host of rules and regulations that require internal controls so the grant project achieves its goals and funds are used appropriately. Compliance should start at the top so it is necessary to have the right policy and procedures in place. This course will share a set of policy and procedures implemented at a public utility that involved Board oversight and executive leadership with grants that resulted in over 12 years of successful grants and audits.
So many times the capture and implementation of Federal grants is assigned to staff that have little or no knowledge of the requirements that must be followed. Even when building a proposal to apply for a grant can get you in trouble if you don't know the rules. This course is designed for teaching Federal grant requirements to project managers, researchers, principle investigators, or anyone else charged with managing a Federal grant. The focus of this course is an introduction to the various phases of a Federal grant (pre-award, award, and closeout) and compliance areas within each that may be required.
It's easy to fall into the trap of wanting to apply for a Federal grant when you see a NOFO that seems to fit your goals. But before you get organizational buy-in to pursue the grant and generate community support, you might want to stop and assess whether or not you and your organization is ready to apply for the Federal grant. In this course we will talk about our template for conducting a readiness assessment based on compliance with the Federal regulations that may apply.
If you are in the grant management role you may want to pass the procurement over to your internal staff or contractor that handles your procurement activities. However, they may not be accustomed to the requirements in 2 CFR 200 so you may need to help get them up to speed. You also may want to know the rules so you don't propose something such as using current contractors on your grant project. In this course we will go through the Federal procurement rules to include competition, suspension and debarment, contract cost and price, bonding, contracts, and documenting the grant procurement for audit purposes.
This topic may seem like something your accounting and procurement folks may take care of but if you are a grant project manager you will want to learn what the rules are when planning your grant project and once grant funds are expended for equipment. We will cover the definition of equipment; what commitments you incur during the grant; and the requirements that exist long after closeout of the grant to include maintenance, inventory, and disposal.
If you are in a state such as California, you may be accustomed to public works requirements that is so automated that it requires little, if any, oversight during a project. Many Federal grants require payment of Federal prevailing wages under the Davis-Bacon Act (DBA). Provisions of the grant award may also require oversight for labor compliance. And in addition, there are likely differences between prevailing wages, implementation and reporting between the state and Federal rules. This course will discuss what you may encounter when implementing a Federal grant that requires the DBA.
Some Federal grants have a requirement for Build America Buy America which has more stringent rules than what exists in the provisions listed for contracts and grants in 2 CFR 200. In this course we will introduce process and tools used by a local government entity to successfully implement and comply with the Buy American provision of their grant. This course may be particularly helpful if receiving benefits under some of the Department of Energy programs (e.g., Section 247 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.)
If you need to conduct a grant readiness assessment or review subrecipient viability for a Federal grant then this course will provide you with an overview of the Federal requirement for accounting systems and a template for assessment. This is important information in these assessments as this will directly impact your ability to comply with Federal regulations and will show the grant awarding agency the level of risk they may incur if they decide to award Federal funds to your organization.
Whether you are on the front end building a budget for a Federal grant, writing a proposal, conducting accounting task, or reviewing invoices from contractors and subrecipients you will need to know what costs are allowable and which are unallowable. This course will provide you with an overview of what costs are allowed and what is unallowed under a Federal grant.
Anyone who is placed in a position to manage contractors will likely also be the person who reviews their invoices. If you have a contractor performing under a grant, there are a few more things to consider during the review to ensure compliance with all of the Federal rules. What's more is if you have a subrecipient, there's another layer of compliance you must consider when reviewing your subrecipient's invoices. This course will walk you through a review process you may find helpful when reviewing invoices under a Federal grant.
Contact Altrivas for quote and scheduling.
Altrivas delivers several on-demand courses that can be tailored to your organization and delivered in person or by webinar.
California Prevailing Wage Compliance
FEMA Command Structure Basics
Instructional Systems Development (ISD) for Leaders
ISD Fundamentals
On-the-job Training Design and Implementation
SSAE Compliance for Local Government
Contact Altrivas for quote and scheduling.
Contact Altrivas for quote and scheduling.