A Lot of Interest in Federal Grants for Nonprofits and Businesses

I have been hearing so much about federal grants this year that I have been making special efforts to learn all I can about them to provide the best service to my grant-seeking clients. The federal government is pumping money, lots of it, into new programs through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This affects nonprofit organizations as well as businesses who are looking for federal funds for their programs. While I primarily focus on securing funding for nonprofit organizations, several potential clients have come to me asking for assistance in securing grant funds for their business ventures.

Yesterday I attended a seminar sponsored by Connect, a San Diego-based organization whose mission is to foster collaboration and innovation in the business and scientific development arenas in San Diego. The La Jolla Conference on Accessing Federal Funding was attended by more than 200 grant seekers and featured speakers including Tina Huth, Founder and Managing Director of R&D Business Solutions LLC, John Watson, Professor of Bioengineering at the von Liebig Center at UC San Diego; Mary Ann Beyster, President of the Foundation for Enterprise Development, and Alan Rubin, Director of Federal Government Relations, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC. They gave information about how to apply for these federal funds.

I was especially interested in learning about the SBIR and STTR programs, which is the Small Business Innovation and Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grants programs, respectively.

This is a program that is administered through the US Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Technology. These programs were designed to ensure that the nation’s high-tech sector businesses are included as a part of the federal government’s research and development initiatives. Eleven federal departments participate in the SBIR program, and five participate in the STTR program, awarding more than $2 billion in grants to high-tech businesses. I think this could be an excellent source of funds for businesses in the San Diego area. The specific goals and objectives of the SBIR Program are:

1. To stimulate technological innovation;
2. To use small business to meet Federal R/R&D needs;
3. To increase private sector commercialization of innovations derived from Federal R/R&D; and
4. To foster and encourage participation by minority and disadvantaged persons in technological innovation.

The next solicitation for grants is for the US Department of Transportation, which is due on November 16. One of the available programs is being solicited by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
for Transportation System Performance Measurement Using Existing Loop Infrastructure projects.

The SBIR is having their national conference in Reno, NV next month, Nov. 2-5.

Several people at the Connect event highly recommended attending the national conference for people who are serious about obtaining SBIR/STTR funding. There will be the chance to interact directly with SBIR program managers and to ask questions and receive feedback.

Since other more traditional funding sources, such as foundations and corporations, are pulling back their funding levels this year and possibly even into 2010/2011, I highly recommend investigating the possibilities for federal funding since that’s where the money is right now!