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 Trainings

Trainings in spring 2024 will include a Professional Development cohort opportunity. Check this page for updates and view the summary and resources from 2023 Professional Development series below.

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

  1. Grants Management Best Practices
  2. Data Management Best Practices

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.