“Our Strategic Funding Team (SFT) supports partners by helping them find available funding that supports ecosystem and salmon recovery. The SFT also offers free grant writing technical support. On this page, you can learn more about our grant writing support along with some tips and resources.

You can read more about the SFT at our Strategic Funding Program page.

What does a Grant Writer do?

A grant writer drafts or assists in the drafting of a proposal that is used to request grant funding from an awarding body.  

Our Grant Writer and Strategist can provide Tribes, Local Integration Organizations (LIOs), Lead Entities (LEs), and local partners with grant writing technical assistance and the capacity to prepare their grant applications for submission. They can help develop grant proposals to federal, state, and private funding agencies. The overall goal is to increase the number of successful submissions for Tribal, local, and regional recovery projects.

Grant writing support is free for Tribes and partners, and we do not take any of the award if you’re successful.

How do I request grant-writing assistance?

For technical assistance and any questions, please contact our Grant Writer and Strategist, Michelle Deckard at Michelle Deckard at michelle.deckard@psp.wa.gov or by following this link. 

What specific grant writing help do we provide?

What we can do:

• Review and edit applications.
• Draft grant applications.
• Review opportunities or notices of funding.
• Provide grant application management.
• Provide grant strategy development.

What we cannot do:

• Write a grant application by ourselves. This requires collaboration from the partner.
• Submit a grant for a partner.
• Be a lead applicant or fiscal agent on any grant we are helping with.
• Grant write on SIL or regional EPA funding opportunities.
• Provide post award help

What is the Grant-Writing Assistance Process?

Getting Started

First, you can request assistance by using our intake form. To help us provide a more efficient experience, please try to include as much information as possible.

Review

We will review your application within 48 hours. During this time, we will decide if the request is eligible, and if we can help. After the review we will contact you to set up a first meeting.

First meeting

During the first meeting we will discuss a high-level project description with you and explain how we can help and what the process may look like. We may also need follow up meetings depending on the type of help we are providing and the project status.

Grant writing help

Our Grant Writer and Strategist will provide you with the requested help using the format of your choosing. We recommend using Tracked Changes in Word Documents for reviewing and editing. Our Grant Writer will work with you to make sure deadlines are met and that applications are complete and competitive.

Post application

After you have submitted the grant application, our team will contact you with a feedback form to record the outcome of the application we helped with. This helps us be able to provide any further help if needed.

How you can help us

To provide you with a better grant writing experience, there are a few things you can help us with. Before contacting us, please make sure you have prepared the below information.

Note: We can only support projects that align with our Action Agenda, Salmon Recovery Plan, or the Science Work Plan.

Project/Program Information

Please have a project concept, problem statement, project sponsor, collaborators, and project scope.

We will also need to know if the technical requirements of the funding opportunity have either been completed or have a planned completion. This may include design, engineering, or modeling. We cannot complete any technical requirements for you.

Funding Opportunity

A grant opportunity or notice of funding has been reviewed and it has been determined that the project sponsor and project are eligible.

Note: If you have a project or concept that you have been unable to identify a funding opportunity that fits, or if you have a project and/or funding need and want support in identifying possible local partnerships, please contact our Strategic Funding Coordinator for help. It does not mean you cannot receive assistance; it just means you are not at the writing stage yet.

Capacity & Readiness

Before beginning the grant application process, assess your organization’s ability complete the project, along with financial management, compliance, reporting, and that you can manage your relationship with your grant management officer and/or program officer. Puget Sound Partnership will not be able to provide any post award support through this team.

Make sure there are no barriers that would prevent the success of the project if the funding was awarded. If there is a barrier, please contact to our Funding Barriers Strategist for help before applying for funding. Read more about funding barriers here.

You should also make sure that you are ready to receive the funding. This could include a current SAM account and UEI for federal opportunities.

Financial Information

Please prepare a draft or a completed budget. We may be able to give general feedback and advice on formatting, but specific numbers need to come from the project sponsor. You should also have your organization’s financial documents in order and ready to include in any application.

After you have considered these items and are ready to request assistance, please apply by using our intake form. If you are unsure about any of the above, please still complete the intake form and describe your uncertainty and the Strategic Funding Team will help.

Developing a Funding Strategy

Grant Matching – Opportunity Driven

When an opportunity opens that aligns with any existing projects or partner funding needs and interests, the Strategic Funding Coordinator or the Grant Writer and Strategist will share the opportunity with you and suggest that it may be an option for them.

Funding Strategy – Project Driven

A deeper dive into a large project where a partner seeks support in developing a roadmap of funding opportunities that align with a project’s timeframe, funding needs, and additional criteria.

Before starting a funding strategy, your project should be assessed through community processes, have partners named, and have activities and outcomes already determined. A request to develop a funding strategy will begin with an in-depth consultation so we can learn about your project, its history, timelines, and begin to review any materials that have been created. We will use that information to find existing funding sources that align with the project’s needs and that the project would likely be competitive for. This may mean piecing together different types of funding for phases and looking out over multiple years. Together we will select the funding opportunities that seem best fitted to pursue to fully fund the project.

We are not the funders and while we might create a funding strategy with options that seem promising, we have no guarantee that you will be awarded those specific funding opportunities. We will do our best to help you to be in the best possible shape for your applications with our technical assistance.

Funding Strategy Steps:

• Internal Partner Readiness.
• Consultation.
• Strategy Development.
• Post Discussion.

Post Assistance

To track and improve the effectiveness of our technical assistance, we ask that you keep us informed by confirming you have submitted an application and if it is successful. Other data on impact and success will be explored on a case-by-case basis. We will contact you for this information.

Contact

For more information or if you have any questions about your inquiry, please contact our Grant Writer and Strategist, Michelle Deckard at michelle.deckard@psp.wa.gov. or follow this link.

 

Last updated: 1/09/25