Strategies for Developing Federal Grant Applications

Developing competitive federal grant applications requires early planning, strong partnerships, and clear alignment between community needs. This resource outlines key strategies local governments can use to prepare and submit strong federal grant applications.

Quick Overview: Developing Competitive Federal Grant Applications

Local governments preparing competitive applications should focus on the following key steps:

• Align projects with community priorities and long-term plans.
• Establish clear internal roles, processes, and governance for grant development.
• Carefully review the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) and evaluation criteria.
• Use data and community engagement to define the problem and demonstrate impact.
• Build partnerships with regional, community, and institutional stakeholders.
• Demonstrate project readiness, including financing, match requirements, and implementation capacity.

Looking for a quick operational tool? Check out the Best Practices Checklist for Federal Grant Applications to guide your team through the application preparation process step by step.

Prepare Early and Think Big

One of the best ways local leaders can prepare their teams for federal funding opportunities is by ensuring grants teams are equipped to develop robust and competitive grant applications. In order to do so, local leaders should:

• Establish a broader local action plan;
• Implement an operational framework and establish roles and responsibilities;
• Align project outcomes with the broader community vision; and
• Build on successful models.

Establishing a Broader Local Action Plan
If one is not already in place, developing a broader local action plan with comprehensive short- and long-term goals is a great place to start, as it offers a centralized vision for project applications to refer back to. Competitive applications should demonstrate the connection between a funding request, the agency’s goals, and your community’s long- and short-term goals — even if a project application only addresses a small portion of your community’s goals, making sure the funding is aligned with your goals not only strengthens your application, but it also allows for the project to serve your agenda and its communities more powerfully.

Implementing an Operational Framework and Establishing Roles and Responsibilities
Once you have identified your community’s long- and short-term goals, and have developed the comprehensive plans necessary to meet those goals, it is best to build an operational framework, identify and understand the problems that are meant to be solved as part of your goals, and establish roles and responsibilities for both project management and grant application writing.

An operational framework is an essential element of managing and submitting competitive federal grant applications. Think of your framework as a roadmap for how your identified plans/projects will be managed and supported. It should reflect how new capabilities will be integrated into existing systems and processes, and define associated key performance indicators (KPIs). This could include incorporating a “project definition” that defines how each project will be implemented to achieve its goals, program statements, recommended solutions, high-level solution requirements, and expected benefits.

Tip: Looking at your community’s capital improvement and long-term strategic plans can also help your city identify what projects you need funding for, what challenges your city is trying to solve, and which projects fit within your city’s vision. Plans and projects can be grouped by categories like what stage they are in, how critical the need is, what funding is currently available, and the type of project.

Drafting applications can be an intensive process with many moving pieces that requires work within and across local government agencies, as well as with external partners. Using established project management tools like a MOCHA or RACI chart to define roles and responsibilities, and to ensure each part of the project has an owner and each stage receives approval from the appropriate parties can help maximize the efficiency of grants management and project management teams. These tools can help create project plans to ensure that all of the necessary steps for submitting applications are accounted for and have corresponding deadlines mapped back to the final submission date.

Aligning Project Outcomes with the Broader Community Vision
Identifying and understanding the problems that your community is trying to solve as part of its broader goals will help develop project visions and plans, and identify the priorities and desired outcomes of each project. Start by taking a broad view of how to reach each goal, then narrow down to specific steps to figure out what each project should focus on to meet each goal. Goals can include broader efforts like reducing operational costs, enhancing resident engagement, strengthening community resilience, improving public safety, and bridging accessibility gaps.

Tip: Thinking about your key constituents and key stakeholders for each project can also be helpful when aligning projects with your city’s broader vision. Addressing the needs and perspectives of impacted communities and identifying key project partners early on will aid in the development of a more competitive grant application.

Building on Successful Models
Finally, think bigger and build on successful models. Many federal grant funding opportunities encompass more than just surface-level projects. Focusing on multi-dimensional solutions that reach and invite collaboration with impacted communities, and address complex challenges, can ensure that projects outlast a mayoral administration while creating lasting results that support other local priorities.

You also don’t have to start from scratch. There are many agencies that highlight “trailblazer” or “heavy-hitting” projects that identify local governments who are implementing impactful and innovative federally-funded projects. Cities can use these examples as inspiration or models of success to build upon as they are considering their own project plans and priorities.

Get Familiar with the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

Before any application development begins, grant writing teams must understand all aspects of the NOFO they are applying for. Each NOFO has its own set of requirements, themes, and scoring criteria that should serve as the outline for submitting a complete application.
A successful proposal will synthesize all of the necessary provisions (as outlined in a NOFO) in a detailed plan — most of which usually require addressing a specific need as it related to the grant program, demonstrating stakeholder and community support/engagement, showcasing appropriate data and identifying processes for ongoing data collection, and including goal-setting for the project.

Tip: While project applications should always address the key themes and priorities highlighted by the NOFO, it can also be helpful to review and include current administration priorities (where possible) to drive project alignment at all levels.

Additionally, you’ll want to make sure you are paying close attention to the scoring criteria/evaluation rubric. It can be helpful to map out your narrative and application responses with the scoring criteria/evaluation rubric, creating a crosswalk table to help show exactly where each rubric element and scoring criterion is addressed in your application narrative. This will help your grants team confirm that every requirement is addressed and that reviewers can easily locate the information they need for scoring.

While no two NOFOs are exactly alike, there some important things you can look and be prepared for when reviewing a NOFO:

• Just because it’s one NOFO doesn’t mean it’s only announcing one program — for example, in FY2025, the Low or No Emission program was paired with the Buses and Bus Facilities program on the same Notice of Funding Opportunity, but each program had different requirements.
• Sometimes, a NOFO will require a prerequisite that involves having or developing a plan/strategy to be eligible for project implementation funds — for example, the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program requires that a comprehensive safety action plan be in place before applying for implementation funding.
• Thoroughly review and identify the NOFO eligibility criteria, specific project requirements, and pre-developed plans or approvals needed to ensure you will be able to submit a competitive application.
• Look for underserved or small community specifications. Sometimes, grant programs will have requirements on how a project should benefit or support a small or underserved community, including specific percentages and/or ranges of a specific type of community a project should be serving.
• Identify any allotments or “set-asides.” Allotments or “set-asides” are specific amounts of funds in a NOFO cycle that are required to fund specific things like planning projects, underserved or small community benefits, rural projects, etc. If applicable, these allotments can help improve your application’s success rate if you are able to frame your application within one or more of the allotment buckets.
• Some NOFOs require submitting a notice of intent prior to submitting a formal application — make sure you are aware of these deadlines and what information needs to be submitted to avoid missing out on grant opportunities.

Use Data to Craft a Compelling Narrative and Highlight Success

A data-driven project narrative should help reviewers understand the “why” of your project. This can make a big difference in demonstrating your project rationale and how it will be implemented successfully. Ensure your data highlights how the project addresses your community’s priorities as they relate to the NOFO’s requirements and key themes. The data used should highlight the challenge(s) a project is aiming to resolve; address the requirements of the NOFO; outline how federal funding will benefit impacted communities; showcase community support and involvement; and indicate specific metrics and tracking data that will be used to ensure successful project implementation — this will help clearly define the “why” of your project.

So how can data help you tell the story? Based on the grant program, you should be able to draw a direct line between the information you will include in your application and the outcomes/priorities of the NOFO. Aside from quantitative data needs that are explicitly defined in a NOFO, local governments should consider which additional metrics and reports can be used to address NOFO priorities and highlight project benefits. For example:

• If a NOFO requires an equity framework, your data will likely require robust engagement with public, private sector, and community groups to ensure an inclusive and representative process to get input from residents and gather data.
• If a NOFO requires something more topically specific, like a roadway safety plan, you will likely need to collect data on crashes, roadway injuries, High Injury Networks (HINs), etc. While some of this data can be gathered via government databases and other national resources, consider non-traditional ways of collecting community input, such as online surveys, community kiosks, or distributing public service announcements to develop a more robust narrative.
• Some projects can have wide-ranging impacts on economic mobility, including in some ways that are less obvious. A strong application will use local, regional, or even national data to explain potential economic, health, climate, and other broader benefits of a proposed project.
• Consider partnering with local experts such as universities, regional planning organizations, nonprofits, private-sector partners, or sometimes even neighboring jurisdictions to truly understand how a project will impact the people, communities, built environment, and priorities in your jurisdiction. Local data is critical and large-scale, national databases often aren’t enough for local planning, especially for smaller communities.
• Leverage proven, evidence-based strategies that have already been successfully used to address the challenges your community is facing. For deep-dive examples on previous projects that have been successful in receiving and implementing project funds, explore examples of communities delivering bold infrastructure projects from Accelerator for America.

Another way data can help strengthen a federal grant application is by outlining how a project’s progress and outcomes will be measured over time. Establishing a baseline and procedures to track progress can help ensure you’re delivering timely results for your community.

Finally, there are many grant programs that offer local governments the flexibility to invest in data and evidence tools as part of their program expenditures. Taking advantage of this flexibility means you get long-term benefits from this funding.

Tip: When investing in data and evidence tools as part of program expenditures, make sure you’re incorporating data management into your application’s budget appropriately, especially for grant programs that focus on or include technology solutions, capacity, and building data.

Engage the Community as Often as Possible

Community engagement at all phases of a federal grant application and subsequent project implementation create a more robust and impactful project. Community engagement should be based on a commitment to long-term relationship building — starting from identifying and supporting community priorities, all the way through to the planning, ideation, and implementation phases of a project. Effective community engagement allows you to better understand historic injustices, uplift the people who will be most affected by a project proposal — or those who have been most burdened by inequities — and offer impacted communities the opportunity to play a key role in a project’s design, implementation, and outcome.

Identifying issues that disproportionately impact specific communities in your jurisdiction and prioritizing projects that address the vulnerabilities and invest in underserved communities will improve long-term community support and help drive continued project momentum. Not only does community engagement help to generate buy-in, but it can also promote critical feedback loops, providing information and perspectives that may otherwise go unnoticed.

Tip: Particular attention should be paid to the needs of low-income or persistently disadvantaged households and neighborhoods, since they often bear a disproportionate burden of the costs of climate, infrastructure, and economic issues/challenges.

Competitive applications will demonstrate how the benefits, solutions, and technologies of the proposed project will match with specific community needs. As such, it is crucial for applicants to engage frontline community stakeholders early and consistently throughout application planning and development, which is essential to ensuring that local projects are designed effectively. Without knowing the issues that residents face, policymakers risk developing solutions that fail to address community needs.

Successfully improving resident economic mobility outcomes depends on meaningful community engagement. This is why it is so important to learn from community members about which projects, issues, and/or initiatives are of highest priority to them to ensure their needs and wants are being met in each project. Identifying and prioritizing the needs of impacted communities also allows opportunities for cross-cutting or intersectional approaches to solving community challenges, further strengthening federal grant applications. Community engagement can provide:

• A better understanding of community needs to ensure projects are aligned with community priorities and designed to be fully accessible;
• Increased project support/buy-in from impacted and non-impacted communities;
• A more complete project narrative that allows for application evaluators to understand the complexity and innovation of a project;
• A medley of data points and trends that support why your project is necessary and should be funded, as well as baseline metrics that offer areas of improvement; and
• Insights for future partnerships with community organizations that can be highlighted in project applications.

Developing a detailed plan for public engagement at the forefront of your initial project planning will help streamline your grants team’s ability to effectively select the appropriate NOFO and specific project category your local government should be applying for.

Tip: A proven strategy that can help drive impactful community engagement is pursuing a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA). Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) are legal agreements between community organizations and developers where developers agree to provide specified benefits in exchange for community support of a project. Benefits can include contributions to economic trust funds, local hire provisions, workforce training, and wage agreements, among other benefits. Since CBAs are rooted in community partnership, they offer the opportunity to build community voice into a project from the start and empower community members to advocate for their needs.

Your team should also ensure that they understand the financing options and benefits for disadvantaged communities. There are many federal grant programs where a specific percentage of the funding takes the form of grants and forgivable loans specifically for disadvantaged communities. Local partners should prioritize strategies that improve the way capital is attracted and deployed to projects that expand housing, cultural, and economic opportunities and neighborhood services to underserved communities.

Ultimately, applications will be most competitive if they meaningfully embed community development and accessibility in the entire project design, and use data to clearly demonstrate how they will meet community needs, address inequalities, and achieve expected outcomes.

Leverage Stakeholder, Community, and Regional Partnerships

Forging partnerships with neighboring jurisdictions, metropolitan planning organizations, state agencies, community-based organizations, academic institutions, and other regional stakeholders can strengthen federal grant applications by improving coordination, expanding project scope, and demonstrating broad support.

Working with community partners such as nonprofits, youth organizations, school boards, and shelters can also help local governments gather feedback, better understand potential project impacts, and ensure projects reflect community priorities. These partnerships help incorporate community perspectives throughout project planning and implementation.

Tip: Partnerships can often bleed into community engagement efforts, so it is important to clarify which partnerships will support community engagement and which partnerships will drive other efforts.

Communities who want to maximize the impact of their project funding might also consider partnering on an application and pooling grant resources — a strategy that can be particularly effective for regional projects and/or smaller towns and cities. For small communities in particular, it can be helpful to propose projects in partnership as it can increase capacity for applying to and implementing grants, and allows applicants to expand the scope and impact of their project in order to better compete for federal investment. Local governments can also choose to partner with their state offices for larger regional projects to expand project impact.

Tip: Remember that partnerships in formation or projects in early planning stages may not be ready to apply for capital grants. For these scenarios, planning grants may be a better place to start and allow leaders to build strong partnerships and projects over the life of a grant program — and strong partners outside of government can ensure that a project is sustained even if elected leaders change.

Additionally, connecting early and often with your congressional delegation to ensure they know the challenges facing your community and support your pursuit of federal grants. They may also offer valuable guidance throughout the application process.

Tip: Some federal grant funds are allocated at the state level, such as the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs or the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program. Therefore it is important to understand how a grant program is administered and coordinate closely with state offices/representatives as appropriate.

Finally, states can help local governments identify opportunities to leverage funding and coordinate with complementary programs. Demonstrating alignment between local priorities, federal grant goals, and state economic development plans can strengthen applications — especially when both local and state partners commit funding.

Helpful partnership-building resources:

• Institute for Local Government’s resources for partnering with CBOs
• NLC: 3 ways local governments and CBOs can partner on sustainability

Take Advantage of Available Support

Federal funding opportunities may seem overwhelming, which is why taking advantage of all the available high-quality help is essential. Oftentimes, federal agencies will create and release guides that highlight model projects for many different eligible grant activities, share grant application checklists specific for grant programs, host informational webinar sessions, and release other supporting and guiding resources for their respective grant programs. There are also multiple non-profit organizations, public and private initiatives, and policy organizations that offer free and/or low-cost technical assistance and resources for local communities. Grant writing teams should take advantage of these resources as they can aid in supplementing capacity constraints and reinforce accessibility to first-time applicants.

Many grant-focused technical assistance opportunities help communities identify
challenges, use data to shape a narrative, build capacity, develop community engagement strategies, address federal administration priorities, and even support in developing tangible federal grant application materials.

It is important to note that higher-capacity communities are historically more likely to receive federal grant funding, so it is especially important for smaller and/or lower-capacity communities to take advantage of as many supportive resources and opportunities as possible.

Prepare for Local Match Requirements

If matching requirements are a financial barrier for your community, don’t automatically assume that means you should not apply for a federal grant. Many programs offer waivers for communities that meet certain requirements.

If local match waivers are not applicable for a grant program your community is interested in, or your community isn’t eligible, there are other creative ways to make the local match — some options include:

• Partnering with states, business improvement districts, or local foundations
• Including other federal funds to count as matching (such as from programs like Regional Commissions or State Water Revolving Loan Funds)
• Implementing a local option tax rate and project-related fees to raise funds earmarked for project-related funding purposes
  • For example, cities might consider implementing a sales or gas tax, or motor vehicle registration fees to raise funds earmarked for infrastructure-related funding purposes.
• Using other government sources such as county or state funds, private or philanthropic funds, and grants where appropriate

Reading the program NOFO carefully can help you identify these opportunities.

Blend and Braid Multiple Sources of Funding

Braiding and blending funds — which occurs when multiple funding sources are combined to support a single project or program — provides an opportunity for local leaders to design and execute projects that address multiple community needs at once. Braiding and blending can demonstrate that a city is thinking holistically about how different funding opportunities intersect with its strategic goals, and can therefore improve the strength of federal grant applications.

Unlike the cost sharing/local match that is required in typical federal competitive grant programs, some programs allow applicants to “leverage” funds (like the Brownfields Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) program). While both ask applicants to provide nonfederal funding sources, leveraged funds differ from cost sharing in that their uses don’t have to be allowable grant project costs — leveraged funds can include funds from other public sources, private funds, or in-kind resources.

While leveraged funds often do not have a specified percent of project costs that need to be leveraged, applicants are usually asked to describe their strategy for leveraging resources in their project narrative. Some programs even allow applicants to use certain other federal funds from non-agency grant programs as their non-federal match, sometimes termed “braiding funds.” This guide can be helpful for finding federal funding opportunities that are eligible for braiding funds.

Where possible, local communities should consider leveraging multiple sources of funding for a project to further strengthen their grant application’s competitiveness.

Demonstrate Project Readiness

Local governments can increase the likelihood of receiving a federal grant if they are able to demonstrate that a project will be completed within the designated time frame. Agencies may look to your local governments past performance in managing infrastructure projects in your grant application. Ensure that your local government has completed other projects on time, and on budget, while providing effective and timely reporting. Nearly all federal grants will require your community to have an up-to-date Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) ) and grants.gov account for submission. Registration can take a few weeks, so be sure to register as early as possible.

Tip: Some grants programs may require permitting, approvals, or a benefit-cost analysis be completed prior to submitting a formal grant application. Reviewing federal application materials, including prior awards, FAQs, and informational webinars from the last cycle of a funding program can help you determine your project’s readiness, and get a headstart on pre-requisite items, even before a new NOFO is released.

Communities that are interested in capital investment grants should have a project site identified and be able to demonstrate that they are prepared to obligate all funds by the timeline required by law, and show progress toward needed approvals from federal, state, and local authorities. If a project is not yet at this stage of readiness, cities may consider applying for a planning grant instead (when applicable). Planning funds can aid in driving more robust project development, creating a streamlined effort in getting community development projects from planning to implementation.

Tip: Before applying for a grant, applicants should obtain necessary permits and approvals from local or state government authorities or relevant private entities; plan for grant compliance and reporting; socialize their plans with relevant stakeholders and undertake meaningful community engagement; and secure financing.

Integrate Workforce Development Provisions

Cities should think holistically about long-term workforce opportunities and work with workforce development stakeholders — including community colleges, workforce boards, and local labor union offices — to create and foster job creation pipelines and mid-career training opportunities for workers. Workforce development is a great way to strengthen a federal grant application. Even if you’re not applying for a workforce development grant, consider highlighting workforce development opportunities in your application that may come from your project plan.

There are many strategies that local governments can use to include workforce provisions in federal grant project applications; the key is to consider which strategy(ies) will work best for your specific project. Explore the following strategies for workforce development that can support community engagement:

• Include workforce and labor plans in grant applications
  • Workforce and labor plans detail how applicants plan to create pipelines for jobs on a specific project. One way to include labor plans in a project application is through Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). PLAs are legal agreements between employers and unions that establish the terms for a construction project, including wages and benefits. PLAs build worker input into the project from the start through pre-hire agreements between construction unions and construction contractors.
• Forge partnerships with workforce stakeholders and community partners
  • Local governments should work closely with workforce development stakeholders as these entities have access to data, existing programs, and processes that can be leveraged or re-tooled for community-driven workforce development, such as apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and student outreach services.
  • Local leaders can use their convening power to encourage meaningful collaboration between public agencies and local workforce boards to ensure grant applications include accessible workforce development strategies to make an application more competitive.
• Use grant/project workforce dollars to fund supportive services for workers
  • Workforce development doesn’t have to be limited to training and educational opportunities. Providing wraparound supports like childcare, transportation, housing assistance, and funding for emergencies are crucial interventions that can boost workforce retention and reduce barriers for the completion of training programs, especially for low-income workers and women. Local governments should think creatively about providing these opportunities as part of their projects and look towards evidence-based interventions to improve outcomes. These services can and should be tailored to the specific needs of the community and work best when they are provided in response to community needs.
• Targeted outreach and recruitment for job training opportunities to areas of persistent poverty
  • To attract the workers needed to meet sector workforce demands (as they relate to your project application), workforce development programs should look beyond traditional workforce pipelines and make a dedicated effort to recruit local talent just beginning their career. As part of this outreach, local governments should be having conversations with community members interested in skilled, sector-based fields about the barriers they experience and how to reduce them.

Integrating workforce requirements into procurement processes and contracts for federal grant projects can also be an option for communities looking to incorporate workforce development provisions into their applications. Some cities have integrated workforce requirements or community benefit agreements into their contracting and procurement processes. Some ways to do this include:

• Requiring a minimum share of workers who must be apprentices;
• Setting goals for the share of work performed by women and people of color;
• Integrating job standards like wage and benefits requirements; and
• Setting a minimum share of local workers.

Address Community Impact and Sustainability

Collecting and using disaggregated data to prioritize underserved communities and reverse negative impacts of previous policies and investments can help strengthen a project application. Oftentimes, federal grant applications are more competitive when they show significant anticipated benefits on safety, sustainability, quality of life, mobility and community connectivity, and economic competitiveness and opportunity. Building these considerations directly into your program design, and ensuring that all impacts are tracked using data, can help ensure that your goals are aligned with the grant program priorities and that there are processes in place to meet those goals.

Tip: If your jurisdiction has a Data Officer, be sure to enlist them to use data to drive future decision-making. You can also consult with your agency directors, who may have access to data or ideas for innovative approaches. It’s also important to consider the workforce benefits and opportunities associated with your application as they can and should be part of your equity agenda.

Incorporating technology that enables sustainability is vital, especially for grant applications that involve infrastructure and technology developments. To include sustainability efforts in grant applications, communities can do things like commit to zero-emission fuels and renewables, use technology to promote overall sustainability, or integrate data safety improvements for all residents.

Tip: For infrastructure-based projects, cities may also consider sustainable planning, design, environmental management and engineering practices that integrate natural features or processes into the built environment to promote adaptation and resilience. These solutions often offer significant and diverse benefits, and often at a lower cost than more traditional infrastructure.

Impact statements and assessments can highlight how your community aims to address long-term impact. Instead of just surface-level data, they should consider long-term health impacts, life expectancy, safety, and chronic disease. Tools like the National Equity Atlas can help identify where past and existing policy investments have perpetuated racially and economically disparate outcomes and support the development of policies, strategies, and investments to advance community wellbeing. Quantitative data should weigh the market-based impact of the proposed project on real people, while qualitative data should consider the relationship between the project asset and the lived experience of the community’s residents.