Government Grants and the art of prepping

Prepping for Federal Grants: If the right RFP drops, will your nonprofit will be ready?

Here at Nonprofit Navigators, every few months we have a client or prospective client call or email us excitedly about a recently-announced federal grant opportunity. They might breathlessly share, “We’ve found the perfect grant for our homeless youth program--I mean it’s just perfect--almost like they wrote it for us--we are so excited to move forward! It’s due in a month!”

And then, inevitably, comes our next question, “So you have your DUNS and SAM in place, right?”

And sometimes the unfortunate pause, and often slow response we next hear is: “Who is Sam?”

That’s when the federal grant games begin and getting set up in these somewhat convoluted and confusing systems is the first step to becoming grant ready for federal funds. If you even think there is a remote chance that your nonprofit might one day apply for a government grant, or even participate as a partner on such a grant, getting set up in these systems is key.

Many nonprofit leaders we have worked with assume that if their organization has been serving clients for several years, they are automatically set up. Yet this is simply not the case. Sometimes nonprofits are set up, but cannot get in the system because the credentials and passwords left long ago with a former Executive Director. Other times part of the requirements were completed but not enough to actually apply for a grant. Still often the systems were set up years ago, but since they weren’t maintained, they are no longer valid. Avoiding these issues can relieve much of the stress and heartache of federal grant preparation.

Decoding the Process: DUNS, SAM and Other Confusion

The first step to becoming ready for federal grants so to set up DUNS and SAM. We all know the government thrills to a good acronym, and understanding their meaning is part of the battle to setting your nonprofit up for federal grant eligibility.

DUNS stands for “Data Universal Numbering System.” Catchy, eh? A DUNS number is a unique nine-character identification number provided by the commercial company Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), a provider of business information reports. The information required to obtain a DUNS number includes the business/organization name, type, location, number of employees, and contact information. The federal government uses the DUNS number to maintain consistent name and address data about organizations/businesses. This helps maintain and organize applications and contracts across federal agencies.

Nonprofits generally have a DUNS number in place. If your nonprofit does not have one, however, you can apply for one online at: https://fedgov.dnb.com/webform/. This is a fairly simple process that generally does not take too long. We have seen problems arise, however, when a nonprofit cannot become set up in other key federal systems because their current address does not match the address associated with their DUNS number. Having this rectified can require a variety of required documents sent in via certified mail and can take several weeks.

We had one client a few years ago who could not get this situation rectified even with an eight-week lead time and subsequently had to stop writing a grant for which they were a great fit. Our advice here is before a nonprofit considers even looking at federal grants, they need to double check that their DUNS is set up correctly and the information is accurate.

SAM, the acronym for System for Awards Management, is the next system a nonprofit must utilize to be ready for federal grants. SAM (https://sam.gov/content/home) is a free government-wide registry for vendors doing business with the federal government. (More on why free is key here in the next section below). SAM centralizes information about federal financial assistance recipients, bank information for payments, and provides a central location for you to change your organizational information. If you search for SAM, the first four links that pop up (and look quite official) are not the actual SAM registration site. Only the link above is accurate. These other sites are set up to “trick” nonprofits into paying for their company to register you for a free SAM account.

SAM used to be called Centralized Contractor Registration (CCR). If your nonprofit had an active record in CCR years ago, then you most likely have a record in SAM. The complications arise if a nonprofit does not know the name of the leader who set up SAM, does not have access to the email address where SAM notifications are sent, or does not know the phone number for the account. If any of these details are missing, problems arise that can easily result in having find and send in old documentation and even completely resubmitting a SAM application—all of which can take several weeks and blow a close grant deadline.

Our advice is to use the nonprofit’s main phone number to set up SAM. Never use a personal phone number or any number that is likely to change through the years. The same goes for the email address. Create a generic email for your nonprofit that is used for these types of filings and make sure several people in leadership can access that email in perpetuity.

We recently had a client whose SAM was tied to an employee’s personal cell phone number—an employee who had left the nonprofit. No one else at the nonprofit could log in and assess the situation. No one had any passwords. Nothing could be done other than to start the process over from scratch. This has caused much frustration and wasted much time for this wonderful nonprofit!

Remember, SAM has to be renewed every year. Not doing so can also results in headaches and troubles when trying to apply for grants as well.

Don’t fall for the scammers!

As discussed above, DUNS and SAM registrations are absolutely free. Once you start searching for information on either, however, there is a good chance you will be contacted either by phone or email by a scammer wanting to file and renew those filings for you for the “low, low price of $1,500.” This happens to our clients all the time. These wily scammers with official-sounding names like “SAM.gov Registration Services” or “Federal Contract Registry” will call you and email you and promise you that unless you let them shepherd you through this complex process there is no way you will make your deadline and have any hope of winning this grant. They will know incredibly detailed information about your nonprofit and seem so legitimate. Do not be fooled. Applying for and maintaining DUNS and SAM is always free.

Next quarter we will further explore how to get set up for federal grants as we discuss Grants.gov and Workspace. Stay tuned and please reach out to us with any questions!

Sharon Haukohl is a Navigator for clients in Birmingham, AL and Denver, CO and has been writing grants for 30+ years.