For colleges and universities, grant funding helps to bring programs to campus that may not otherwise be funded, such as scholarships, student and faculty development programs, facility renovations, and research projects. These initiatives are often led by a subject matter expert (SME), who is often the individual(s) closest to the work, an expert in their field, and leads the vision for the project. Without SME involvement in grant pursuits, the chances of success are miniscule. Often when applying for grant funding the challenge for higher education institutions lies in the utilization of their SMEs in a manner that enhances, rather than overwhelms, their primary academic and research priorities while safeguarding their capacity for innovation and thought leadership.
We present several key strategies for effectively harnessing the expertise of your SMEs to increase grant funding without leading to overwhelm or diversion.
Leave it to the experts
Grant submissions are just one of many “asks” for which SMEs are responsible. Other core accountabilities may include managing day-to-day activities of programs, overseeing staff and volunteers, developing reports, tracking data, and leading evaluation efforts. Further, for many SMEs at higher education institutions, their primary responsibilities are to teach, mentor students, and implement curricula. The result of these competing priorities can be high levels of stress, burnout, and churn.
Consider,
- According to a recent Council for Nonprofits survey, program and service delivery positions, the job category that typically includes nonprofit SMEs, have the highest percentage of vacancies, with more than 50% of nonprofit practitioners citing stress or burnout as the main cause of these vacancies.
- A 2023 Inside Higher Education survey found a high number of college and university staff reported that they are often or always physically exhausted (33 percent), emotionally exhausted (38 percent), or worn-out (40 percent).
- Inside Philanthropy’s Funding trends in higher education highlights some of the many issues facing grants for higher education, including plummeting government funding, skyrocketing tuition, and ‘brain drain’ of academics and subject matter experts (SMEs) fleeing to industry jobs.
Adding the management of comprehensive grant submission processes to SMEs already intensive workload threatens not only to divert their focus from pioneering advancements in their field, but also puts them at high risk to leave your college or university altogether.
To mitigate the risk of overextension and to retain focus on their essential contributions, consider partnering SMEs with professional grants experts. Such collaboration allows SMEs to concentrate on their areas of expertise, while grants experts can extract the most pertinent technical content and align it with the goals and requirements of the funding opportunities.
What Our Clients Are Saying: Prima Community College
“As the project’s Subject Matter Expert, having Grants Plus’s support allowed me to focus my attention on the solution we were providing. Grants Plus provided relevant data, a thorough statement of need, and illuminating edits that connected the dots between our solution and the goals of the funder. Grants Plus’s commitment to our project’s success, coupled with its expertise on the RFP process, helped us craft a cohesive and compelling proposal.”
Missy Blair, Prima Community College
Aligning vision with funder intent
In our experience, the most successful grant applications include a single core compelling idea that defines the vision of the project and aligns it to the goals of the funder. The SME is often the person with the most comprehensive understanding of the landscape in which the project will be implemented and can articulate how a project is at the cutting edge when compared to others in the field. Often, the SME will be the core individual responsible for implementing the project once it is funded. As a result, the SME typically provides vision for the project, and can define the core compelling idea of the application.
A professional grant consultant complements a SME’s vision with a deep understanding of the funder’s intention, ensuring that the core compelling idea is well articulated and reinforced throughout the grant application.
Driven by data
The most successful grant applications also demonstrate an institution’s experience implementing similar projects or previous iterations of a program. As the individual implementing initiatives over the long-term, a SME can often secure historical data about evolution, growth, and challenges of projects. This data demonstrates to funders that the applying organization is prepared to take on the proposed work.
While SMEs can provide crucial data from within, professional grant experts are adept at providing an outside perspective on historical data. Professional grant experts also combine this internal data with publicly available information to demonstrate the impact a project will have on addressing critical community needs.
Cross-team collaboration
Grant applications have many budgetary and administrative requirements which must align with the policies and procedures of the funding agency and the applicant organization, as well as those of partner organizations. Given the nuanced complexities involved, most successful grant pursuits require collaborative team efforts that involve at least a budget expert, an individual connected to the institution’s strategy, a project manager, as well as a SME. Expecting a SME to manage these cross-department teams, align an application to the many required policies, and meet tight deadlines is unreasonable and often unsuccessful.
As a project team grows, so does the need for comprehensive project management support. A professional grant consultant uses proven project management techniques and clear, direct, respectful communication to coordinate across departments and ensure seamless and timely grant submissions.
What Our Clients Are Saying: UCLA: Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute
“Grants Plus provided very valuable input on the narrative as well as strong project management. They exceeded our expectations by spearheading collaboration between two organizations that had never worked together on a grant application. I would not hesitate to recommend Grants Plus to other organizations seeking grant writing support.”
Conrad Leiva, Vice President of Ecosystem & Workforce Development, UCLA: Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute
Elevating the support for SMEs in the grant application process is far from a mere advantage—it is a strategic investment in an institution’s mission and its competitive positioning for funding. By fostering an integrated support system where SMEs are paired with grants experts, the challenges of grant seeking are transformed into opportunities for innovation, program implementation, and educational excellence. As such collaborations flourish, the benefits extend beyond the realms of financial gain, enriching academic and research endeavors with renewed focus and enhanced impact.
