Building Your Federal Grant Muscles
What to Do While You Wait for Opportunities to Reappear
Right now, things are weird.
If you’re like me, you’ve been watching RFPs vanish from federal websites like socks in the dryer: there one day, gone the next. We don’t know what’s being pulled, rewritten, or quietly shelved. If you’re new to federal grants, it’s easy to feel like the ground is shifting beneath your feet.
But here’s the good news: you don’t need a live opportunity to start preparing.
In fact, this moment, when things feel paused or postponed, is one of the best times to build your capacity. To double down on your readiness. To get your ducks (and documentation) in a row.
Because when those reworked RFPs trickle back out—and they will—you want to be in a position to hit the ground running, not scrambling to catch up.
So where do you start?
Here are my recommendations:
Get honest about what you don’t know.
Not sure how federal reimbursement works? Confused by the reporting requirements? Wondering what “time and effort tracking” even means? Great. Now’s the time to learn.Upgrade your systems before you need them.
Do you have a system in place for tracking staff hours? Can you prove expenses down to the penny? If not, you’re not alone—but you’ll need to build that muscle before you get a grant.Bake grants management into your program budget.
One of the biggest mistakes I see is folks trying to manage a federal grant off the side of their desk. That won’t work long-term. You’ve got to budget for capacity, from financial oversight to HR upgrades.Get Federal grant ready.
This is different for everyone. You may need to secure buy-in from your leadership team that federal grants are a solid fundraising strategy. You may want to start tracking data in a different way. You may want to enhance community partnerships.
And yes, this takes time. It takes unsexy planning and hard conversations with your board. But the payoff is real.
This isn’t about panicking. It’s about positioning.
Because federal grants aren’t going away. They’re too embedded in the economy to vanish. And when the new cycles start (and they will), I want you ready, not rushed.
So take the time now to build. To learn. To advocate. To get clear.
Future you will thank you.
If you’ve ever set your sights on federal funding, the time to prepare is now.
The Federal Grants Accelerator gives you the clarity, tools, and community to do this well—from writing a competitive narrative to managing your grant with confidence.
Click to apply for the Federal Grants Accelerator: Fast Track Training.