2010 Grant Development Process

Georgia State Seal

Georgia Division of Aging Services
Administrative Manual

Chapter:

2000 Fund Sources and Allocation Methodology

Effective Date:

08/16/2022

Section Title:

Grant Development Process

Reviewed or Updated in:

MT 2023-01

Section Number:

2010

Previous Update:

MT 2017-02

Summary Statement

The Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Aging Services relies on funding from Federal, State, and Private sources.

Staff is encouraged to develop resources through application for grants and contracts.

Definitions

The following definitions apply to Grant Development, Submission and Management:

  • Sole Source Justification – a written explanation of why specific products or services are available from only one source, also called sole source, sole provider, sole supplier, sole vendor or sole distributor.

  • Carry Over Funds – the amount of unobligated funds from prior funding periods that are permitted by the grantor agency regulations or grantor agency implementing instructions to be spent in subsequent periods during the grant award cycle.

  • No Cost Extension – authorization by the grantor that allows the grantee extra time to complete the scope and objectives of the project without additional funds being provided by the grantor.

    Every effort should be made to manage the grant to achieve deliverables in the approved time periods so that No Cost Extensions are requested only in unavoidable circumstances.

  • Project Director or Principal Investigator – the title used to designate the staff person at DAS who is the lead for the grant project. This person is responsible for coordinating programmatic and fiscal components of the grant.

  • Fiscal Officer – the DAS Business Operations Section Manager responsible for oversight of the grant budget process and other operations related to grant submission and management. The Fiscal Officer will assign contract staff to support grant development and management. The Fiscal Officer serves as the Authorized Organizational Representative to coordinate and complete grant submissions and reporting in federal data systems and to federal officials as required.

    Required grant programmatic requests for Carry Over Funds and No Cost Extension must be routed via “pink sheet” and submitted by the Fiscal Officer. Refer to Section 8003, Guidelines for Written Correspondence and Suspended Items.

Procedures

Each grant proposal has specific requirements. However, the following procedures provide general guidance in the selection and preparation of grant proposals. Refer to Section 2011, Grant Submittal Instructions and Section 2012, Grant Management for further grant processes.

Additional discrete tasks may be added or deleted from the process depending upon the grant project with approval from the appropriate DAS Management Team member. The order of the steps may be adjusted due to various factors including, but not limited to, time restraints and inter-relatedness of tasks.

The Project Director has primary responsibility for the grant, including development, submission, monitoring and reporting. However, it is expected that programmatic and fiscal staff work as a team to accomplish the gathering of information, compilation and review of data, and accurate submission of grant proposals and reports.

Grant Review and Selection

Step 1: DAS staff identify grant opportunities and bring them to the attention of the Division Director via their Section Manager.

Step 2: The Director will determine if the grant will be pursued. The Director will determine if Commissioner or Governor level approval is also needed and obtain those approvals if necessary.

Step 3: Prospective grants are assigned by the Director to a DAS Section for review.

Step 4: The Section Manager recommends to the Director whether to move forward with a grant application based on specific criteria, including, but not limited to:

  • Alignment with strategic priorities of the Division

  • Subject matter of the grant

  • Funding amount and duration of the grant

  • Availability of match requirements as confirmed with the DHS Office of Budget Administration

  • Current staffing levels, workload and responsibilities in the Section

  • Due date of the letter of intent

  • Due date of the grant application

Step 5: The Division Director may accept the recommendation, override the recommendation or reassign the grant to another Section.

Step 6: The Section Manager responsible for Grant Development assigns a Project Director for the grant.

Grant Development

Step 1: If required or allowed by the grant opportunity, the Project Director schedules a conference call with the grantor. The Project Director and his/her Section Manager must be present for the call. Additional subject matter experts (SMEs) may be asked to attend. SMEs may be requested from any Section in DAS as many grants are programmatically cross-cutting in nature. The Director, Deputy Director or any other Management Team member may elect to participate in the call.

Step 2: If a letter of intent is required or allowed by the grant opportunity, the Section Manager or his/her designee drafts a Letter of Intent for the Division Director’s signature. Follow protocol set forth in the grant instructions and Section 8003, Guidelines for Written Correspondence and Suspended Items.

Step 3: The Project Director determines if a Request for Collaboration to partners in the grant is desirable or required. Choice of partners is determined by several factors, including, but not limited to:

  • The nature of the grant project

  • The technical expertise required for grant partner(s)

  • Prior performance of grant partners in similar projects

  • Grant partner(s) participation in recent grant projects

  • Time limits for grant submission

The final decision of grant partners is made by the Division Director.

Step 4: The Project Director drafts for the Division Director’s signature the Request for Collaboration following the protocol in Section 8003, Guidelines for Written Correspondence and Suspended Items.

Step 5: The Project Director develops a budget template, using the required forms and format as specified by the grant announcement, that is submitted to the assigned fiscal staff for review. The template must include the match requirements, approved line items and differentials for multi-year grants.

Step 6: The Project Director prepares and forwards Program Guidance to grant partner(s) for completion and submission, unless the grant instructions are sufficiently simple to provide via email narrative. The Program Guidance documents include:

  • Scope of work

  • Budget template, if applicable

  • Instructions for completing the required grant documents

  • Deadlines for submission of documents to DAS

Step 7: The Project Director contacts partner(s) and collaborating agencies to obtain letters of support, if required.

Step 8: Grant partner(s) submit all required proposal documents to the Project Director.

Step 9: The Project Director compiles and reviews the grant budget and narrative(s), including Work Plans, Curriculum Vitae of key staff and other documents. Clarification or additional documents from partner(s) may be required.

Step 10: The Project Director drafts the full grant narrative and budget. This may be completed using the appropriate federal online system to avoid duplication of effort.

Step 11: The Project Director submits the final draft budget and narrative to the Business Operations Section Manager for review, allowing sufficient time for thorough review. Any discrepancies are resolved and the Project Director makes the required budget revisions.

Step 12: The Project Director submits the final draft of the grant, narrative and budget, for review by the Deputy Director. Note that this submission may be done simultaneously with Step 11.

Step 13: The Project Director submits the final version of the grant including budget and narrative for the Director’s approval after corrections or edits from Steps 11 & 12 have been incorporated.

Step 14: The Project Director prepares the grant documents, including the final budget, for submission in the method required by the funding opportunity (most commonly, for federal grants, either grants.gov or grantsolutions.gov) into the electronic grant file. Refer to and follow the processes described in Section 2011, Grant Submittal Instructions.

The grantor may contact the agency for additional information after the grant is submitted. The Project Director coordinates the timely collection and reporting of all additional information requested.