As a law enforcement agency, you do vital work for your community. Unfortunately, you may not always have the technology and equipment you need to do it as effectively as you would like. Fortunately, there is grant aid for local police that should be available to you. Police grant aid is a great way to supplement your budget, so you can get those critical pieces to the puzzle you need to accomplish your mission. If you’re not sure how to go about getting police grants, help has arrived! Read on for a few tips on winning police grants.
- Know What the Grant Is For
You can’t just go to a funding agency and ask for money because you have a tight budget. Grants are awarded for specific reasons, from stopping human trafficking to terrorism response to dealing with gang violence. Identify the biggest law-enforcement needs in your community and locate grant opportunities that speak to these needs.
- Know Where to Look for Your Grant
Once you know what kind of grant you need, where do you find it? There are many organizations that offer grant money, including federal agencies like the Department of Justice or the Department of Homeland Security. One useful resource that can help you find the grants you are looking for is PoliceGrantsHelp.com. Simply go to the site, fill out the form with your grant parameters and click the search button for a list of grants that may be relevant to your needs, along with contact information.
- Check With Your Community
Many grant-offering agencies respond to requests that have strong community support. Before making your grant proposal, make sure that another agency in the area has not already submitted something similar. Consider partnering with other agencies as part of your request. Gather evidence of support for your proposal with the community at large or a clear need for the goals outlined in the proposal for the community.
- Be Organized
You must be organized in order to write a successful grant proposal. Make sure you have all the statistics and data that support the need for what you are proposing by your side. If your proposal has been tried successfully in other communities before, make sure you have that information accessible to you and include it in your proposal. Be sure to have all the information you need before you begin writing.
- Have Passion
It’s important to have the facts and figures, but it’s also important to believe in your proposal. If you cannot communicate your passion for your idea and the good that the grant money can do, you may have a harder time getting the approval you deserve.
- Write a Great Proposal
It all comes down to this. You have one chance to write a proposal for this particular grant, and there are other agencies competing for money from the same fund. You really have to knock it out of the park. It may be worth it to you to hire a professional grant writer who can write fluidly and passionately and know what grant awarding agencies look for in a proposal.
- Check Your Work
If you’re writing your own proposal, make sure it is seamless before you send it out. Get a few colleagues you trust to read it over, making sure it is free of typos or formatting errors, that your proposal is in line with all the requirements of the grant, and that you clearly and succinctly communicate your need and passion. Don’t be afraid to write as many drafts as it takes to get it right.
- Know the Deadlines
Most grants should clearly post their deadlines. Know that date by heart the second you decide you are going to pursue the grant. Make sure you are progressing at a pace that will allow you to beat that deadline. If you miss it, you’re going to have to wait a whole extra year to get another shot at it.
- Set Reasonable Goals and Meet Them
When outlining the goals of your proposal, don’t reach for the stars. Set achievable goals you can meet. Grant-awarding agencies are more likely to respond when they think their money is going toward a goal that actually can be reached. When you pursue grants in the future, it will be better if you can point to a reasonable goal you far exceeded than an overly ambitious goal where you fell just a little bit short.
- Don’t Stop at Just One
There’s no law that says you can only receive one grant. Identify any areas of need in your department and seek grants for all of them. This way, if one or two don’t work out, you’ll have backup sources of funding. If they all are approved, you’ll be able to do so much more with your agency’s expanded resources.