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ARPA Nonprofit Professional Development: Building Capacity for Diversified Funds
As a part of Loudoun County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)- State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds efforts, the Department of Finance and Procurement offers capacity-building professional development trainings to nonprofits to assist in diversifying funding and leveraging more resources in the Loudoun County community. These trainings are designed to highlight resources and best practices from peer organizations and provide hands-on technical assistance to participants.
Spring 2024 Grant Training
Loudoun County is offering new training for nonprofits in May and June 2024 to include an introductory training open to all nonprofits and a specialized series of trainings open to a maximum of five organizations.
Grants 101 Introductory Session: Pre-Proposal Activities: May 7, 2024
The Grants 101 Introductory Session: Pre-Proposal Activities training will provide guidance on government grant seeking and application management best practices for local nonprofits. Loudoun County government staff will provide an overview of pre-proposal activities such as prospecting and standard grant proposal components. Participants will gain an understanding of what makes a strong government grant proposal and how to set their organization up for success with government grants. This virtual training may be attended by individuals as well as teams. Registration is open up to the start of the session.
Spring Professional Development Grant Cohort: May and June 2024
Nonprofit organizations that serve Loudoun County residents are encouraged to apply for the Spring Professional Development Grant Cohort, which will explore the various facets of government grant seeking and proposal development. Participants will develop proposals in response to relevant funding notices over a series of training sessions in a six-week period in May and June. (See course descriptions below.) At the end of the six weeks, organizations will have a complete set of standard proposal components and a tailored application package for a relevant state or federal government funding opportunity for their organization. The training is free, but space is limited to five organizations. Nonprofits working to create a systematic development program are encouraged to apply.
- Apply for Spring Professional Development Grant Cohort: Application Deadline is May 11, 2024.
- Spring Professional Development Grant Cohort Application Guidance (PDF)
Spring 2024 Cohort Schedule at a Glance
| Session Title | Date and Time |
|---|---|
| Pre-Proposal Activities, Prospecting & Critically Reviewing Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) | Mon., May 20, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
| Tailoring Proposal Narratives & Developing Program Evaluation Plans | Thurs., May 30, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
| Developing a Project Budget | Tues., June 11, 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. |
| Peer Review Panel | Tues., June 25, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. |
All cohort sessions will be held at the Loudoun County Government Center, 1 Harrison St. SE, Leesburg.
Course Descriptions
Pre-Proposal Activities, Prospecting & Critically Reviewing Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs)
In this session, Loudoun County staff will outline pre-proposal activities to prepare organizations in submitting a government grant. In the first half of the session, participants will review application project management systems and prospecting. A pre-proposal activities toolkit will include worksheets to assist participants in:
- Identifying a grants team at their organization.
- Creating standard application timelines and meeting agendas.
- Developing an application project management tracking document.
Participants will also build upon a set of standard proposal components for their organization, centered on their organization’s mission, vision, and the clientele utilizing their services.
In the second half of the session, participants will explore prospect management and searching government grant opportunities that align with the participant’s organization eligibility. Participants will critically review various federal and state NOFOs to increase their understanding of the components of a NOFO and ability to identify relevant and realistic NOFOs specific to their programming and services. By the end of the session, organizations will choose the funding opportunity that they can develop a proposal around for the remainder of the sessions.
- Who should attend? It is appropriate for development staff and executive leadership to attend this session.
Tailoring Proposal Narratives & Developing Program Evaluation Plans
Building upon the previous Pre-proposal Activities session, applicants will utilize their standard proposal documents to respond to the NOFO identified in session 1. Participants will learn and implement techniques to tailor their needs statement, proposal narratives and project budgets to specific funding opportunities.
In the first half of the session, participants will review peer’s needs statements and begin to draft proposal narratives.
In the second part of the session, participants will delve into program evaluation and how to present relevant, achievable, and realistic objectives to funders. They will develop a specific program evaluation plan and supporting documentation, in response to the NOFOs identified in session 1.
- Who should attend? It is appropriate for development and programming staff to attend this session.
Developing a Project Budget
In this session, participants will delve into the aspects of creating an accurate, reasonable, and realistic project budget. Led by Loudoun County staff, they will review project sample project budgets and draft their own project budget in response to the NOFO outlined in session 1.
- Who should attend? It is appropriate for development, program and finance staff to attend this session.
Peer Review Panel
In this session the participants will become the reviewers! Attendees will participate in a mock review panel to share their findings from the independent review, based on the merit criteria outlined in the NOFOs.
- Who should attend? It is appropriate for all participants throughout the series to attend this session.
Questions? Email Tracey Alperstein or call 571-258-3485.
About the 2022-23 Trainings
Two professional development series were held in the fall 2022 and spring 2023 over the course of six-eight weeks with the purpose of expanding capacity of nonprofits for grant and data management. Post-training materials included a PowerPoint, handouts and meeting recordings.
In the Grant Management Best Practices Series, participants learned about:
- county grants opportunities
- federal grant prospecting
- technical assistance with federal grants
- ARPA eligibility and compliance
- performance and fiscal management
In the Data Management Best Practices Series, participants learned how to:
- Build capacity to collect, manage, and present data for grant seeking, management and compliance.
- Build capacity to utilize data for more effective storytelling.
- Improve access to data relevant to their organizations as part of their grant seeking and management efforts.
Course Descriptions
County Grants Announcement & ARPA Eligibility and Compliance
Virtual resource highlight of the Loudoun County Human Service Grants announcement and orientation. Learn about the different funding opportunities available through Loudoun County to local nonprofits including:
Prospecting: Is Government Funding Right for You?
Virtual resource highlight that explores a tool to assess your organization’s readiness and capacity to apply for federal, state, and county funding. We will assist participants review the tool and assist in developing decision-making framework for saying yes to applying to a funding opportunity and lead participants in a review of federal prospecting tools and processes.
Demystifying Federal Grants
Technical assistance workshop where participants will explore the preparation and set up that goes into applying for federal funding. We will walk through the steps to apply for federal funding, review proposal components, staffing plans, and project management timelines necessary to submit a proposal. We'll provide guidance on what makes a strong proposal as well as technical assistance for setting up an online workspace. Following the presentation, the group will walk through a mock proposal submission. Participants will have time during the session to set up their own online workspaces for a funding opportunity.
Performance & Fiscal Management Across Diverse Funding Sources
Loudoun County staff and local nonprofit partners panel, as they explore programmatic work plans and facets of nonprofit budgeting including Eligible Direct Costs, Indirect Cost Rates, Restricted Funds, Matching and Cost Share, Multi-year Funding and Budget Narratives. Hear from non-profit partners as they navigate different funding to meet organization’s diverse programming needs as they provide comprehensive community services.
Data 101: Data Required for Grant Seeking and Management
join us for an informational presentation about data needed in grant applications. Explore data used to determine community need, program evaluation best practices and supporting work with evidence-based research. Learn how to tell your organization's story and back it up with data to make a compelling case for funding support. Participants are encouraged to send in their organization’s goals and objectives as well as raw data sets and survey tools to assist in shaping the workshops that occur later in series. This session is a foundation to the Data Management Best Practices series.
Making Sense of the American Community Survey
Join us for an interactive presentation from Data Dissemination Specialist Stacie Cochran-McNeal of the U.S. Census Bureau. Learn about Census Bureau basics, how data from the American Community Survey (ACS) is collected, as well as how you can access and utilize it for your both your grant-seeking and data administration. Understanding your clientele's need is essential for program development and grant seeking and Census Bureau tools can assist you. Participants are encouraged to follow along and participate in data exercises! This presentation will cover:
- Background information about census tools and the ACS, its methodology, geographies, data sets and topics.
- How to use data.census.gov, the narrative profiles and other resources to access social, economic, housing and demographic data available down to the neighborhood level (tract and block group).
- Uses and limitations of the ACS data sets.
Data 102: Data Collection and Confidentiality Best Practices
Participate in this Data 102 presentation and panel discussion to learn from peer organizations and Loudoun County about how to build a data collection system allowing for flexibility and adaptations. The aim of the training is to prepare organizations to build versatile data sets so they can adequately respond to changing needs and varied funder requirements. The training will open with a data collection best practices presentation. Following the presentation, a panel of nonprofit leaders will share their processes to efficiently collect substantive data while adhering to the needs of fast-paced programmatic work. Panelists will also discuss how they balance client confidentiality while capturing data to both demonstrate community need and program effectiveness. Learn quick tips, view concrete examples, and delve into privacy policies with your peers. Participants are encouraged to send in their organization’s goals and objectives, survey tools, and raw data sets to assist in shaping the workshops which occur later in series.
Data and Grant Seeking: Exploring Loudoun County Data
Attend this informational presentation to gain an understanding of where to access data relevant to Loudoun County nonprofit organizations in their grant seeking efforts. Loudoun County has prepared a Nonprofit Data Toolkit, which will be reviewed during the presentation. The toolkit includes relevant data sets from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Loudoun County office of Mapping and Geographic Information as well as education, budget and community data and environmental and equity data. Participants will also explore evidence-based research.
BYOD: “Bring Your Own Data” Workshop
Join us for a technical assistance workshop where you "BYOD" or bring your organization’s program evaluation and community engagement data. Led by Loudoun County Program Evaluation and Research Manager Megan Cox, the workshop will give participants a hands-on, interactive opportunity to share how their organization measures success and workshop their organization’s data. Together, participants will investigate how they ask questions of clientele and explore other opportunities to expand their data set to better tell their organization’s story in potential grant applications. Please note, program descriptions, goals and objectives, data collection tools, and raw data files should be shared two weeks prior to the event to be utilized as an example in the workshop.
Data Workshop 2: Crafting a Data Management Plan
Join Loudoun County for this brown bag lunch/technical assistance workshop to build your organization’s data management plan. Participants will explore sample evaluation plans utilized in grant proposals to build upon their organization’s current data collection and evaluation methodologies. Participants will also delve into logic models and have time to create their own data management plan onsite. This workshop is sequential to the “Bring Your Own Data” workshop but can be attended as a stand-alone workshop.
Resources & Meeting Recordings
- Loudoun County Data Toolkit - October 2023
- Grants Management Series Resources and Handouts
- Data Management Series Resources and Handouts
Recordings
Community Data Gathering
- Community Data Gathering: Census Tools Webinar
- Community Data Gathering: Exploring Census Data Webinar
Grants Management Best Practices Series
- County Grants Announcement & ARPA Eligibility and Compliance
- Prospecting: Is Government Funding Right for You?
- Performance and Fiscal Management Across Diverse Funding Sources
Data Management Best Practices Series
- Data 101: Data Required for Grant Seeking
- Census Training: Making Sense of the American Community Survey
- Data 102: Data Collection and Confidentiality Best Practices
- Exploring Loudoun County Data
- Crafting a Data Management Plan
- Virtual BYOD Bring Your Own Data Workshop
Stay Informed
Loudoun County has established a subscription service to provide information of interest to local nonprofit organizations, including county grant and professional development opportunities. Individuals can sign up to receive email or text updates.
- View all updates for nonprofits
- Sign up for updates in Notify Me, News Flash Category, choose Nonprofit Updates
Contact Us
- If you have questions, email Tracey Alperstein or call 571-258-3485.