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The Fund Finder News
Public Safety Grants Consulting

The Fund Finder News
A Bi-Weekly Grants News and Information Update By Kurt Bradley
Issue 16, December 3, 2004

Start Your Department's 2005 Financial Planning, NOW!

The end of 2004 is nigh, and you should be planning your 2005 financial health strategy right now.

Departments should begin planning how you are going to allocate your dollars, and utilize them, in the most effective strategy to benefit your departments, citizens and officers.

Throughout this past year's Fund Finder columns we've gone over proper strategies to maximize your effectiveness at utilizing ever-shrinking budget dollars. As we enter December and get closer to 2005, let's go over eight of the most important things to remember and enact for your department for 2005:

  1. Conduct a comprehensive "Needs Assessment" of your department.
    2. Do the homework now and conduct a good hard look at what your most critical needs are and then prioritize what those needs are. When you are prioritizing those needs, be sure to keep in mind that it is better to plan these things in stages. Here are some things to keep in mind as you plan:
    • Do not put too much on your plate to be handled in one year. Planning for upgrading, new programs and equipment replacement should be done in small increments.
    • Look at starting a program by first training your officers and getting them certified to perform the tasks and or to use equipment that you intend to purchase.
    • Start small with a "scaled down" mini-program and register some success with that program. Then, in the next year, build upon the success of that program and seek funding to "expand" on a proven track record. This is a proven strategy for funding success.

  2. Look at forming a grants team. As public safety officers, it is really impossible to research, gather statistical data, compose, write and apply for all the grants that exist out there every year. CHIEF Grants actively seeks to ease that burden, but it will never be able to do ALL of the tasks that need to be accomplished for a successful application. Remember TEAM: "Together Everyone Accomplishes Much."

  3. Consider using alternative funding methods to satisfy your needs. Utilize the eBay-style Government Liquidation auction website, which we discussed in the last Fund Finder. This is a tremendously helpful and useful tool, especially for smaller departments with limited funding but extraordinary needs. Capitalize on this great resource!

  4. Conduct private fundraising activities. We are often way too sensitive about asking taxed citizens to further contribute to our budgets – but it's important to get rid of the politics. Private citizens and businesses will in fact appreciate, and respond, to your efforts to raise the "matching dollars" so that you can get a bigger piece of the pie. Here are some things to keep in mind when considering programs for private fundraising in your community:
    • Citizens are NOT taxed at levels which even begin to cover our needs. Tactfully asking or seeking additional funding through private funding drives will serve to fend off future tax increases.
    • What is mistakenly considered to be "unprofessional" or "begging" is in fact fiscally responsible of department heads. What really is unprofessional, is to ignore a glaring deficit in your equipment or training programs, and operate in a reactive vs. proactive mode with your department.
    • Grant makers offer a "hand-up not a hand-out," so it is important to demonstrate to the grant maker that you are trying to deal with these problems yourself, you are just experiencing difficulty in funding all of it.

  5. Think "training aid" not "equipment". You may not find a grant which will fund the "equipment" itself but, if you put on a training course which requires that equipment in order to teach the course, it now becomes a training aid, and more apt to see you getting the funding – and the equipment.

  6. Utilize and consider looking for private and corporation grants.

  7. Identify "critical infrastructure" in your community and jurisdiction. DHS grants almost always require identifying that you have these within your jurisdiction for applying for these funding streams. Not identifying critical infrastructure may have been something wrong with a rejected application.

  8. Start getting in compliance with NIMS. Is your department ready for NIMS? Also examine the NIMS requirements from Tom Ridge, and start enacting measures to bring your department into compliance.

These are a checklist for planning your financial strategies for the coming year. In doing this homework now, you will make your future grant application process much easier to deal with.

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