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Governor's Grants Office News
Martin O'Malley Anthony Brown
Governor Lt.
Governor
SPRING 2013
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Greetings!
In
this 10th year of the Governor's Grants Office existence, the hosting
of our Annual Grants Conference (see below) provided a good opportunity
to reflect on how individuals and organizations find, win, and manage
grants in the real world.
Training has always been a core
function of the Governor's Grants Office, and the best learning
opportunities consistently have shown themselves to be those taught by
you and your colleagues. The majority of the presenters at this year's
conference were in fact peers of the registrants, and the popularity of
these conferences has never been greater.
Of all the fields
where individuals with a lot of knowledge might be tempted to keep their
wisdom locked-away, you would think that grants would top the list, but
what we have found during this past decade is exactly the opposite. We
like to think this approach to team learning starts in our office, where
a consistent theme has been to share as much information as possible,
and to promote networking opportunities among both geographic and
programmatic peers.
It's also nice to see that in this digital
age, where GGO tries to economize on everyone's precious time via our
webinar training, that there is still value in face-to-face
communications among grants professionals in the state of Maryland.
Eric Brenner
Director
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Governor's Grants Conference 2013
GGO Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Nearly 450 People from six states, and as far away as Oregon, convened
at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) on March 21st to
hear a wide array of federal and state experts discuss funding
priorities and topics associated with grants management best practices.
The
Governor's Grants Office thanks our keynote speaker, Barry Anderson,
the deputy director of the National Governors Association, and the 58
speakers who comprised this year's agenda.
Most of the session speakers used Powerpoint presentations; they
are posted to our website on both the homepage and in the training
library at www.grants.maryland.gov.Thanks to all our sponsors - the National Grants Management
Association, Grant Professionals Association, Association of Government
Accountants, Deloitte, SB & Company, Management Concepts, and Grant
Thornton. Thanks too, to our exceptional volunteers for their help in making the conference a success.  
Deputy Director Merril Oliver
welcomed Maryland's own Kristen Mahoney,
former Secretary of GOCCP, now at U.S.
Department of Justice.
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 May Day! May Day!
Basic Grants Training for NonProfits
If
you work for or volunteer fundraise for a Maryland nonprofit
organization and you would like to learn how to find and apply for
grants, we have a half-day workshop just for you.
Please join
the Governor's Grants Office and our sponsor partners Humanim and the
Southern Baptist Church on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at the American
Brewery Building in Baltimore.
Seating is limited, online registration is required. Please click here for more information and to register. |
 Lt. Governor Anthony Brown Announces $11.8 Million in Grants for Nonprofit Housing Counselors Around Maryland
Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown recently
announced $11.8 million in grant awards that will be distributed over
three years to members of the Maryland HOPE Counseling Network. The
Network is a group of 39 nonprofit agencies statewide that provide
assistance to individuals facing foreclosures, act as a resource to
negotiate reasonable terms with mortgage servicers, and advise citizens
on the best actions to take to save their homes.
"Today, even as our economy grows stronger
and moves on the right path forward, foreclosure is still a significant
challenge for too many families, and too many communities, in
Maryland," said Lt. Governor Brown. "These funds will help local
nonprofits provide services to 20,000 Marylanders each year - a 25
percent increase from Fiscal Year 2012 - as we continue our efforts to
build strong, stable communities throughout our state."
The $11.8
million in grants represents the highest level of funding for
foreclosure prevention counseling in state history. The funds are part
of Maryland's award from the National Mortgage Loan Servicing Practices
Settlement and are being administered by the Department of Housing and
Community Development. In addition to increased funding for foreclosure
prevention counseling, the settlement also provided additional funding
to support legal assistance for distressed homeowners.
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Governor's Grants Office and the Intergovernmental Partnership
Free Toolkits for Grants Managers
The Interg  overnmental
Partnership is led by co-chairs from the federal and state levels of
government. GGO Deputy Director Merril Oliver is a member of the
Partnership steering committee and co-chaired the workgroups that
developed these toolkits. These
are free, online Toolkits and guides to help financial professionals
working at all levels of government do their jobs better. These
resources are specifically designed to solve some of the most vexing
management and accountability issues facing federal, state, local and
tribal organizations today.
Risk Assessment Monitoring Toolkit - provides states with a method of assessing sub recipient risk across federal granting authorities.
Financial and Administrative Monitoring Toolkit - assists state agencies establish sub recipient monitoring programs. For use with the Risk Assessment Monitoring Tool.
Fraud Prevention Toolkit - helps officials at any level of government detect, combat and prevent fraud.
Cooperative Audit Resolution and Oversight Initiative (CAROI) Guide
- helps identify the underlying cause of audit and oversight findings
and empowers the people who know programs best to chart a course for
program improvement.
In
an era of tight budgets, government officials are under increasing
pressure to leverage resources, increase program effectiveness and
enhance
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 Grants offered for Chesapeake Campaign
A
three-day commemoration, May 3-5, of the British attack on Havre de
Grace during the War of 1812's Chesapeake Campaign (1813-1814) kicks off
a traveling festival through Maryland that features re-enactors,
performances, food, drink and interactive fun. The festival - Maryland's
Chesapeake Campaign - runs through the summer of 2014. It includes a
series of events at locations around the Chesapeake Bay (along the
Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail), where British forces
invaded.
The
Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission offers grants that can be
used for Chesapeake Campaign programs and events.The window for
submitting proposals for the next round of Star-Spangled 200 Grants
closes May 1. Grants help nonprofit organizations and government
entities develop projects that promote resource stewardship, education,
and tourism and economic development -all of which promote participation
by Marylanders and visitors in the state's War of 1812 bicentennial
commemoration.
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 USAspending.gov Bugaboos When
the U.S. Census Bureau stopped providing information on how federal
funds flow back to states and to local governments (in its Consolidated
Federal Fund Reports/CFFR), the only place left to search for this kind
of information is at the USASpending.gov website.
By
law, all federal agencies must report all new grant and contract awards
on USASpending.gov within 30 days of the award being made.
While
agencies may be complying with the letter of the law in submitting this
information, we are finding very few constituents (be they elected
officials, budget staff, or nonprofits) who make regular use of this
website.
The Maryland
Governor's Grants Office conducted an informal survey using 7 members
from various agencies of our State Grants Team to assess the accuracy of
the federal grants information already posted to USASpending.gov.
They also tested for usability issues which can make or break an
interactive website in terms of encouraging the general public to return
because they had a positive experience and actually uncovered some
useful information.
The
results of this survey (which were not very good) were shared in a
recent conference call with federal Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) staff. They indicated that they are aware of the website's
short-comings, want to make improvements in the future, and continue to
be interested in hearing more feedback from the federal grants community
on both the primary and sub-award level.
If
you are a regular user of USASpending.gov we would appreciate hearing
how you use this website. If you have suggestions for how to
improve the website, or even what you would like to use the site for (in
an ideal world) we would like to hear about that as we anticipate
future conversations with OMB (and other states that have grants
offices) with the goal being a better, and more user-friendly
USASpending.gov website. It's important to get transparency
right.
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Two r  ecent
news stories caught our eye because they confirmed some anecdotal
information that we are hearing from constituents. With
the stock market having had a very good surge this past year,
nonprofits are wondering when/if the increased valuations will show up
in increased giving by foundations which are legally obligated to pay
out a minimal percentage of their assets each year. This Chronicle of Philanthropy story indicates that, at least among smaller foundations, the impact may already be occurring. Some
of the tougher phone calls we handle in the Governor's Grants Office
are from individuals wanting to start a new nonprofit. Times are
tough enough for existing nonprofits, so our first advice is to research
other organizations that may already be active in your field of
interest. Not surprising (to us, at least)
this article in the NonProfit Times
indicates a contraction in the number of nonprofit entities, a trend
that we would expect to continue whatever the future brings for the
stock market.
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Volunteer Maryland is Accepting Applications from Organizations
Applications are due April 26, 2013
Volunteer
Maryland, an AmeriCorps program, builds stronger communities by
developing effective volunteer programs. Since 1992, Volunteer
Maryland has worked with organizations across the state to better
mobilize volunteers and create structures to retain volunteers and show
results. On average, each Volunteer Maryland
partnership yields more than 180 new volunteers with each of them
giving at least 15 hours of service. Volunteer Maryland can be
just the expertise you need to help create a sound volunteer program.
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Free Service to Help Social Service Programs Track Their Performance
PeformWell
is a free, online collaborative service initiated by Urban Institute,
Child Trends, and Social Solutions. The site provides
measurement tools and practical knowledge that human service
professionals can use to manage program performance day-to-day.
PerformWell is designed to help novice and intermediate level users
expedite the process of deciding what and how to measure by providing
menus of outcomes, indicators, data sources and data collection
procedures. Information in PerformWell leverages research-based
findings that have been synthesized and simplified by experts in the
field. By providing information and tools to measure program quality and
outcomes, PerformWell hopes to help human services practitioners
deliver more effective social programs.
There
is an area at the site where you can sign up to receive alerts for
webinars and access prior webinars on performance management.
PerformWell content experts and software engineers are continuing to
build out different content areas, so new material continues to be added
to the site.
PerformWell is hosting a webinar on April 11 about how to make program outputs and outcomes data compelling to funders. |
The U.S. Census Bureau releases data for 69 different indicators
about your community every single year. Data-driven decision
making and community data added to grant applications can help your
local government or nonprofit better serve your stakeholders.
Contact Nesreen Khashan nesreen.khashan@census.gov for more information
about how your organization can tap into this valuable resource.
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Thompson Publishing Moving Its Publications Online
Thompson
Publishing, publisher of federal grants management and grants
development products, is transitioning from print to online information.
Their new website can be accessed at www.grantscomplianceexpert.com.
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