By: Paula Bodine, HydroWorx Clincal Education Specialist
During these unprecedented times, many of us are trying to find creative ways to keep our projects and businesses going. Grants are a great way to seek community, state or even federal funding for your clinic, care center or hospital. We understand that you want to make your health and wellness initiative a reality and we are here to support and guide you as much as we can. There are financial resources available to you, including various foundations and grant agencies that could potentially help fund your new HydroWorx unit. Here are some tips to help you get started.
The process of submitting a proposal and applying for a grant can take longer than you think. It is important to know that there are a lot of different steps, and completing each step can be a time-consuming task.
Start your application as soon as possible. At the very least, make sure you go through all the steps and pages of the application so you can get an idea of how long it might take you to work through. Some applications might require you to submit financial data and records, and when you start early, you ensure you have plenty of time to get that information on hand.
Before you apply for a grant, reach out to the grant sources that you are interested in and ask questions. This will help ensure that the grant you are applying for is relevant, that you understand and meet the application’s criteria, and that you are eligible for the grant.
It is important to develop a relationship with the grant sources because they will be happy to help you through the process and point you in the right direction. Plus, they’ll become familiar with your cause and may even want to help you over other unfamiliar applicants. Many sources will also have information feeds or email newsletters that you can subscribe to in order to stay up-to-date on relevant topics related to your grant.
You already know that teamwork is essential to most major projects, and applying for a grant is the same. Create a team to work through your grant process. Seek out co-workers who may have written or have been a part of a grant selection process in the past.
Getting a team involved in grant writing at an early stage is a good idea, even if some members are observers. You’ll have people to check and double-check one another’s work, and the application process will feel much less daunting when you can split the work up and rely on each other.
Plan your application and take your time. If you are considering getting a grant for a HydroWorx solution, take some time to think of all the ways HydroWorx pools will help your business and community. Make a strategy for how you’ll reach success, and create contingency plans for it. Here are some questions to get the ideas flowing:
How is this grant going to assist you in solving a problem or developing a resource? Try to be as clear as possible that by approving your application, your source is enabling you to help others and change people’s lives through HydroWorx recovery pools. Provide specific examples of how this might work. Furthermore, how will you measure if your project is successful? Create specific objectives that quantify success.
While you want to make sure you convey the grant’s importance to fulfilling your objectives, try to keep it as concise as possible. Your grant reader will appreciate it!
Most likely, the grant provider will know what you need from the first sentence in your application. But how is their support your solution? Provide a clear rationale for how you are going to utilize the HydroWorx unit they’re helping pay for. Show ambition in your application to solve a problem, but be clear on the reality. Provide information or statistics on what you know and clarify that their assistance will be the reason you can improve your community.
If your goal is to improve human health, explain how your team is going to record the data. Make sure you have a clear plan on how you will capture and report on the information you record. Having defined objectives and measurement capabilities is very important for a research grant.
You are pitching to a new audience and selling an idea. The person reading your application is just that — a human. Humans react more strongly to stories when there’s an emotional attachment or implication, so appeal to those senses to get the best reaction. If the application allows, utilize testimonials to share your organization’s story and needs. Take the human experience and link it to your solution.
When you’ve been looking at the same words for hours, days and even weeks, you’re likely to skim over errors, as you’ve gotten so used to seeing them. Before you submit your application, have someone with fresh eyes proofread and check that you are sticking to specified formats — all those details matter! If you have a staff member or close family friend with an eye for English, now is the time to call in a favor with them. You want to do everything you can to make a good impression, and an application with grammatical errors tends to do the opposite.
Don’t wait until the deadline to have your application complete. Give yourself time to submit the application early. If an application is submitted electronically, you don’t want to run into technical difficulties the day of the deadline or have it get lost in the mail. Allow yourself and your team at least a few days. This way, you can contact the funding organization to confirm that they have received your application.
When you do the work well, you increase your chances of approval exponentially. So, follow these steps and feel confident in your work, and you’ll be on the way to a new HydroWorx unit as soon as possible. For more tips on how to improve your application’s odds, connect with HydroWorx today. We’ll do everything we can to secure your facility’s future and provide you with the tools to change lives every day.
Grants. Gov: https://www.grants.gov/
Rural Health Info: https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/topics/grantwriting
American Occupational Therapy Foundation: https://www.aotf.org/Grants
Physical Therapy Research Grants: https://foundation4pt.org/grants/
Health Resources and Service Administration: https://www.hrsa.gov/grants/index.html
US Dept. of Health and Human Services: https://www.hhs.gov/grants/index.html
Medical & Health Grants: https://www.grantwatch.com/cat/14/health-and-medical-grants.html
National Institutes of Health: https://www.nih.gov/grants-funding
Page Updated: 8/30/2022
This post was last modified on August 30, 2022 12:45 pm
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