The Grants Clearinghouse for the 2012 cycle will open in January 5, 2011. Please download the RFA for a full explanation of the Grants Clearinghouse process .

Overview:

Through the clearinghouse, organizations working in California and parts of Nevada can apply online for some National Fire Plan grants for eligible projects by writing one grant proposal that is then routed to the appropriate grant program(s). The grant proposal form can be found on the Fire Safe California Grants Clearinghouse, www.grants.firesafecouncil.org.

The grants clearinghouse is made possible by California Fire Alliance member agencies. Grant funding is provided by the USDA Forest Service (FS), USDI Bureau of Land Management (BLM), USDI National Park Service (NPS) and USDI U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS).

2012 Timeline:

Call for Grant Applications and Issuance of Request for Applications (RFA): January 5, 2011
Application deadline: July 5, 2011 MIDNIGHT
Letters of Commitment and Fiscal Sponsor Agreement POSTMARK deadline: July 5, 2011

Letters of Commitment and Fiscal Sponsor Agreement Letter:

• Submit letters of commitment from all organizations providing matching funds to the project. Each letter of commitment must be on the organization's letterhead providing the match and signed by the organization's official representative.
• The applicant organization must also provide a letter indicating the amount of match and a description of the personnel and/or services to be provided.
• Fiscal sponsors must submit a letter on their letterhead certifying they have agreed to serve as the fiscal sponsor for the applicant.
• For identification purposes, each letter must include the project's name and the name of the applicant organization as they appear in the grant proposal. Each letter of commitment must describe what the organization will provide and the value of what they will provide. Note: all matching contribution amounts reflected in the letters of commitment must match your application.
• Send all of your letters of commitment in one envelope, including a cover letter listing all of the organizations and their match amounts, to the appropriate Grant Manager below:

The letters must be POSTMARKED by the grant application deadline of July 5, 2011 for your project to be considered for funding.

• If you would like confirmation that your letters were received by the California Fire Safe Council, please use a Return Receipt/Delivery Confirmation from the U.S. Postal Service or send your letters via UPS or FedEx with a delivery tracking number. The California Fire Safe Council will not notify you that your letters were received.
• You may not submit the letters via E-mail or fax.

Re-Submitting Applications from last cycle:

If you have submitted applications in the past and they weren't funded, you will be able to access those applications on your home page and resubmit them for consideration in the new application format. You need to resubmit them for funding consideration by the deadline noted above because, on the clearinghouse end, some application questions have changed. In addition, on your end, you may find that your budget needs updating or you'd like to update the scope of your project.

To resubmit in the new format, transfer the information from your old application into the new application format by clicking in the status box where it says, "Click here to copy this application to the current cycle." Since questions have changed, you will likely have to do some editing of the information in the new format.

Grant Writing Workshops:

The Grant Writing Workshops planned for December and January at various statewide locations will be postponed until later dates.

How to submit an application

Setting up an account with the Grants Clearinghouse is easy! Simply click on the link to Register as a New User and choose a User Name and Password. You will be asked to enter information about your organization (sorry- we don't give grants to individuals) and contact information. We highly recommend creating one account per organization as accounts cannot be combined.

After you setup your account, please download and read the Request for Applications here. This document will provide an overview of funding information, eligibility details, how to submit a grant application and evaluation criteria. Once you are ready to begin to write your grant application, check out the Grant Application Planning Tool.

1. Attend a Grant Writing Workshop. Locations and dates vary, please see the online registration form. New applicants are highly recommended to attend.
2. Call your regional Grant Manager. Grants managers are available to discuss project details, review grant applications and provide valuable advice on competitive grant writing.
3. Read our article on Successful Grant Writing
4. Download the grant application planning tool. This resource allows the user to write a sample application and share it with members of your grant writing team. Once your ideas are fleshed out, you are ready to log in and write up the final version of your grant application.