CCP professionals have extensive experience guiding clients through the complex environment of federal, state, and local grants.
Thousands of federal, state, local, and private grant opportunities are announced daily. Keeping track of deadlines and pre-deadline requirements (like letters of intent) can be daunting.
The CCP team relies on contacts, daily research, and historical knowledge to predict when grants will be announced and catch RFPs when they are public, giving our clients as much time as possible to work on an application.
Importantly, our diverse and deep experience with numerous programs allows us to make recommendations and begin strategically planning well in advance of a grant process opening.
We have worked with numerous agencies and departments across every level of government and are able to confidently identify the most suitable grants within reach of our clients.
Every one of our team members prides themselves on diligent, compelling writing. Grant RFPs can be difficult to understand, and many requirements are buried in appendices.
We begin any grant writing engagement by carefully reading through all the requirements and consulting with our clients. We craft compelling narratives well in advance of deadlines so that our clients and us can holistically review an application.
We will have honest conversations about a narrative's strengths and weaknesses. When desirable, we will research statistics and key publications to help clients make a stronger case for funding.
While the narrative is the centerpiece of any application, forgetting to include other attachments can disqualify an otherwise compelling application. We will help assemble these necessary attachments and ensure they comply with the grant requirements. This includes budget narratives, administrative information, support letters, partnership letters, and more.
When grants are ready to be submitted, we diligently assemble (upload) everything. We make sure additional CCP team members will carefully review the package to ensure there are no mistakes or missing information. We will work closely with clients to create an application they are proud of and excited to submit.
Feeling anxious while assembling and submitting an application is extremely common. Being so passionate and close to a project and fear of failure compound and make the process extremely time-consuming and mentally exhausting. CCP's extensive experience in successfully preparing and submitting applications can help streamline this challenging process.
Once a grant is awarded, and a contract is signed, significant preparation and work must be done to ensure the letter and intent of the government's rules are followed.
Awardees are expected to document spent funds meticulously. These documents must demonstrate requirements like prevailing wage, competitive bidding, and essential historical reviews that are carefully followed.
Periodic reporting deadlines require quantitative and qualitative data. Program changes need to be addressed with administrators well in advance.
The CCP team will take on many of these burdens. We ensure clients know the rules before starting a project or spending funds. If a project changes, we can help make a change-of-scope request.
We will work directly with grant administrators on clients' behalf and engage with consultants and contractors. We will keep the administrative process moving along as efficiently as possible. Our experience allows us to identify potential roadblocks well in advance so our clients can plan accordingly.
Importantly, we carefully review successful applications and conduct detailed and nuanced discussions with key government contacts. We ensure clients are well prepared for grant requirements and burdens and start work well in advance to make the administration process as carefree for clients as possible.
Federal Departments and Agencies post hundreds of new and annual grant opportunities daily. Announced through grants.gov, these opportunities are significant and can help organizations fulfill their mission, grow and serve more people, and get federal recognition for their hard work.
However, federal grant opportunities are often the most challenging to apply for and secure. These opportunities are highly competitive, and evaluators carefully pour through every application aspect. They demand concise and compelling narratives free from error. Every attachment must be uploaded, and every form must be correctly filled out. Any application with a mistake is generally rejected. Federal applications typically require a team of people dedicated to its success, and for small organizations, they can take up days of the entire workforce's time.
The CCP team has secured grants ranging from a hundred thousand to over three million dollars for clients. We have high experience with the federal process and pride ourselves on our solid and compelling writing skills.
We help our clients meticulously work through every requirement for an application and carefully review applications before submission. Beyond writing strong narratives to showcase clients, we can gather quantitative and qualitative data from secondary sources to stress the importance of our client's projects within their service area.
Finally, we can help with coalition building and facilitate introductions to potential partner organizations and supporters. Applications that showcase a broad and diverse network of supporters and partners have competitive edges with reviewers.
We work with organizations and teams and help manage this seemingly daunting process. Importantly, we start planning months before a deadline. We rely on our extensive experience with multiple opportunities and agencies to predict when grants will open and prepare likely requirements well before an application period opens. We work with our longstanding clients to formulate and facilitate broader narratives and statistics in anticipation of new opportunities. We can easily navigate the grants.gov application process, including the many required forms (such as but not limited to, SF-424 family of documents).
We have extensive experience and foundational knowledge with opportunities from the following federal entities:
In Pennsylvania, there is presently no single announcement portal for funding opportunities. CCP monitors daily state portals for RFP announcements. However, we also rely on longstanding knowledge of grant programs to carefully predict open application periods.
The CCP Team knows the timelines for significant grant programs available to nonprofits and local governments by networking with our strong contacts throughout Pennsylvania's departments and agencies. With this knowledge, CCP helps clients strategically plan to apply for the best complimentary programs, write compelling narratives, collect supplemental information, and submit the final packages through state portals such as the DCED Single Application.
CCP will develop an effective advocacy plan for our clients to maximize success with state decision-makers. Notably, many nonprofits qualify for "embedded line items," legislatively directed dollars for programmatic and operational needs. CCP develops a strategy for clients to pursue this funding opportunity.
We have extensive experience and foundational knowledge with opportunities from the following state entities:
Our wide range of services at the federal level of government Is backed by decades of institutional knowledge and our strong relationships with long-standing decision-makers in Washington, DC.
CCP professionals have worked on numerous efforts and engagements in the House and Senate, with Committees of Authority and multiple Executive Branch agencies.
The most powerful strategy for any government affairs effort is the building and maintaining long-term relationships with one's Representatives and Senators in Congress.
CCP helps our clients develop strong and concise messaging, set up meetings with key staff, work to develop an appropriate "ask," and maintain communications with key offices throughout the legislative process.
When ready, CCP will create a list of Representatives, Senators, and key staff that can help move our clients' issues through the complex processes of Congress.
Federal Departments and Agencies are delegated a significant amount of authority and responsibility. Building relationships with key program officials, political appointees, and other leading officials gives our clients insights into existing and new opportunities.
These professionals can help clients make the right decisions when deciding whether to invest significant resources in response to a grant notice of funding. As the relationship grows, our clients can effectively share concerns and participate in regulatory reform.
Spending nearly $10 Trillion over the past decade, the Department of Defense is the most powerful global force in research and development. The DoD is intently involved in the United States' significant technological advancements spanning hundreds of sectors.
Clients exposed to DoD SBIRS /STTRs and technologies of interest to Defense and Homeland Security can accelerate their R&D timeline through plus-up requests. This Congressionally directed funding can provide significant investments into projects and offices.
Non-profit and public entities can benefit from the newly created "community project." Here, Representatives and Senators can request money in the annual discretionary budget for infrastructure, capital, and programmatic needs. CCP helps clients find the correct account to make these funding requests and develops and implements an outreach strategy with Congressional offices to ensure proposed projects receive full consideration.
Thousands of organizations, trade associations, companies, and individuals vie for decision-makers' attention when Congress undertakes reform efforts. Bills are crafted and changed at dozens of points throughout the process.
CCP uses long-standing relationships built on trust and mutual respect when identifying key staff to shepherd legislation through the office. We bring these individuals well-crafted arguments for our clients that are concise, compelling, and backed by statistics.
Importantly, CCP helps build relationships between its clients and senior aides. When new reform efforts are initiated, the clients are on lists of critical stakeholders, sought out by aides for preliminary input into an idea.
Across the Executive and Legislative branches of government, the government has established thousands of advisory boards to help decision-makers identify short and long-term sectoral opportunities and challenges. These stakeholders have the precious opportunity to identify pain points in need of reform and participate in regulatory and legislative processes from inception.
CCP will help clients identify the most effective board they should spend valuable time and effort on. Once identified, we will help gather references from lawmakers and craft any application to ensure decision-makers give our clients full consideration for board participation.
Thousands of bills are introduced, and the Federal Register's daily publications have thousands of pages of text. The CCP team stays on top of the daily activity in Washington and can flag important legislation, amendments, and proposed and final rules.
Beyond this, we can help put together a timeline of upcoming proposed and final rules, comment periods, and key contacts using periodic publications from the Office of Management and Budget.
Most importantly, we can get our clients on stakeholder lists through relationship building. Decision-makers commonly reach out about the proposed policy before it becomes public, and clients can provide their perspectives and concerns at the start.
Through strong connections built on trust and respect, we engage Pennsylvania's legislators and decision-makers to create and maintain meaningful relationships between them and our clients.
CCP professionals have worked on numerous efforts and engagements in the Pennsylvania Legislature, Committees of Jurisdiction, and multiple state Departments and Agencies.
Pennsylvania has the largest full-time legislature in the United States. The 253 legislators are busy throughout the year addressing the challenges of the Commonwealth. Laws are amended and tweaked. New funding opportunities are continually created. And reform initiatives to improve the lives of Pennsylvanians are vigorously debated.
CCP helps our clients develop solid and concise messaging, set up meetings with key legislators, work to develop an appropriate request, and maintain communications with key offices throughout the legislative process.
As thousands of bills and amendments are proposed every year, CCP can help our clients know where the Pennsylvanian Legislature's priorities are focused. Understanding these dynamics helps clients utilize the most effective vehicles for their desired change.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the fifth most populated state and the sixth-largest economy in the United States. As such, the executive branch of government is complex, with many diverse governing responsibilities across diverse communities of the Commonwealth. Building relationships with key program officials, political appointees, and other leading officials gives our clients insights into existing and new opportunities.
Legislators have the constitutional responsibility to create and enact a state budget annually. At nearly $40 billion, Representatives and Senators can direct a significant amount of these funds through what is formally referred to as "embedded line items."
These funds are primarily intended for programmatic efforts and capital projects, depending on the "line" under which it falls. The most common lines include "Legislative Education Grants" and "Keystone Community Projects." Applicants are generally non-profits. Our experience has given us significant knowledge of internal timelines, key decision-makers, and projects most likely to get funded. We can help our clients put forward the most competitive request.
Over 80% of bills introduced in the Pennsylvania Legislature never make it out of committee. Single-issue bills with broad appeal are often either loaded up with amendments or made into an amendment in another omnibus bill.
We can help clients understand the trajectory of priority legislation through our contacts in Committees and leadership. We also have resources and procedural knowledge of the process to effectively track key legislation for our clients.