Rogue Community College
GRANT DEVELOPMENT PLANNING GUIDELINES
Revision Approved June 6, 2005 by Executive Team

At Rogue Community College (RCC), the Grants Office includes the Grants Development Coordinator and the Grants Team whose membership represents all campuses at the college.  Grant development at RCC is aligned with the college’s strategic plan.  It is comprehensive and strategic, and follows a four-step process.  These guidelines were initiated in 2001-02 based upon model guidelines supported by the national Council for Resource Development, and have been revised for 2006-07.

Grants Office Mission
The Grants Office provides college-wide leadership and technical support for grants from public and private funding entities that enhance and expand activities that advance the mission, vision, and goals of Rogue Community College.

STEP 1: The Grant Development Annual Project List
The RCC Grants Office drafts a list of annual project concepts based on priority interests generated from within the college’s leadership and campuses which are grounded in the college’s strategic planning objectives.  Grants Team members will guide the following process to generate the Annual Grant Project List:

• Team members help their respective campus and/or department identify strategic planning objectives that could be appropriate projects for a grant, and develops a short concept description for each project.
  
• These project concepts are forwarded to the Grants Team for discussion.  The Team assigns each appropriate project a title, organizes each project within categories, and refers the projects back to each campus for ranking purposes.
• Campuses and departments rank order their projects (see Appendix-2), identify the project leaders (champions), estimate project costs, develop short project descriptions (if not already done), and send this information back to the Grants Team.
• The Grants Team makes final adjustments to the recommended Annual Grant Project Plan and refers the list to Executive Council for review, and final approval by the President.
  
  The Grants Office categorizes the information in two ways:

• By the priorities of RCC’s Strategic Plan; and
• By three categories: (1) Continuation Projects, (2) New Projects with known resource constraints, and (3) New Projects without known resource constraints. 

Resource constraints include projects with significant matching fund requirements (both in-kind and cash), projects requiring additional space for new staff, and projects that require significant time and talent from the Grants Office to complete.
Once RCC’s Executive Council and then the President approve this list, the Grants Team is empowered to develop continuation projects and new projects without resource constraints.

STEP 2: Analyze Projects with Decision-Making Matrix

Normally, new projects with resource constraints and any new “bubble up” ideas with resource constraints that surface during the year may be further analyzed with a Grants Development Decision-Making Matrix.  The Grants Development Coordinator will make a go/no go recommendation to Executive Council on “bubble up” projects without significant resource constraints.

The matrix helps the Grants Team analyze the request against the college strategic plan and other projects on the approved list.  This go/no go decision-making process is based on a rational process rather than, “Wow, what a neat idea–let’s do it!”  A sample matrix follows in Appendix A1.

As grant opportunities arise that are not on the Annual Grant Project Plan, the Grants Team ideally has three or more months prior to the proposal deadline to consider the request.  The Grants Development Coordinator and/or the Project Director will provide the Preliminary Grant Request (PGR) form (Appendix B) to facilitate the team’s decision-making process.  The Grants Team may use the PGR and/or the matrix to determine a go/no go recommendation.

To use the matrix, team members discuss the project and then rate it in 10 areas.  Each person completes the matrix, and compares the total to the maximum (generally 100 points possible), and selects “bid or no bid”.  The team then discusses the results of this independent scoring and comes to a consensus on whether or not to recommend pursuing the opportunity given other priorities and time availability.  As time permits, the recommendation is forwarded to Executive Council, Executive Team, or the President for a go/no go decision. 

Rejected projects may be appealed to the Executive Team, and if recommended for approval will also be referred to the Executive Council and the President for approval. Final approval may be secured through the President (or designee) if the grant deadline does not accommodate the schedules of the Executive Council or Executive Team.

“Bubble up” projects without significant resource constraints may be recommended for approval by the Grants Development Coordinator or an ad hoc committee of the Grants Team.  Applicable criteria from the matrix are used to evaluate the project.  The President will provide final approval, and the Executive Council will be appraised of the grant effort at their next regularly scheduled meeting. 

A key question asked of all Project Leaders is “are you prepared to win?”  A positive response to this question is critical.  A Project Leader must be a true champion with passion for his/her project, a desire to help develop and write the proposal, and a high level of commitment to implement the project when funded.  RCC will not submit a proposal without such a committed champion to manage the funded project.

The value of RCC’s Decision-Making matrix is two-fold.  First, the Project Leader and Proposal Development Team often discover additional ways to strengthen their ideas based upon this interdisciplinary, critical business analysis.  Second, the process fairly judges the project against the strategic direction of the college and clearly shows the Project Leader and Proposal Development Team why their project will be promoted and extensively developed or must be set aside for the benefit of RCC.

STEP 3:  Preliminary Grant Request Review

As approved projects are being planned and developed during the fiscal year and additional details are discovered, the Grants Office and/or the Project Leader/Proposal Development Team complete the Preliminary Grant Request form.   This is submitted to the Executive Council and/or President for review, ideally, from one-to-two months prior to the submission deadline.  Adjustments are made to the project based on this review and their comments.  On rare occasions, a project is stopped at this point if the project no longer advances the college toward the strategic plan.  Once approved, the proposal is completed, developed, written and a budget prepared.  See Appendix B - Preliminary Grant Request form.

Procedures:

1. Complete the Preliminary Grants Form (PGF) ideally a month ahead of the grant deadline. (Located on “Y” drive under Grant Forms and Guidelines or at www.roguecc.edu/grants).
2. Be sure to get the respective executive dean’s sign-off.
3. Forward the PGF to the Grants Office electronically and send a hard copy with the executive dean’s signature via inter-campus mail or in-person.
4. If the project is already on the approved Project List then the Grants Development Coordinator will forward the PGF to Executive Council for approval.  If the PGF is a bubble up project, the Grants Development Coordinator or Grants Team will review the project and give a recommendation to the Executive Council.

STEP 4 (optional): Grant Writing Reinvestment Program

Following project approval, a project champion may qualify for the Grant Reinvestment Program.  This program provides financial support for RCC staff working on large grants of $100,000 or more.  Projects must be approved for the Annual Grant Priority List. 

Program features: 

1. $10,000 from the Intra-college fund will be dedicated to providing financial support for RCC staff working on grants and/or to hiring a grant writing consultant(s). Any unused funds from the prior year will roll over and also be available to allocate in the subsequent year. The dollars will be held by the President’s Office, and administered by the Grants Development Coordinator within the framework of the annual institutional grants priority plan. 
   
   
2. Priority will go to staff working closely with the Grants Office staff on major grant proposals that support the college’s grant priorities (see annual Grant Priority List). Major grant proposals are generally defined as grant proposals over $100,000.  Support is generally not available for staff working on more basic proposals, or for such activities as attending brainstorming meetings, providing feedback on grant ideas, providing information about their department or program, new course outlines, curriculum revisions, or reviewing grant drafts.
   
   
3. Release time or other arrangements will be approved by the Campus Executive Dean and the department’s Associate Dean, after consultation with the Department Head.
   
   
4. Grant writing release time will not normally exceed 20% of a staff member’s work-load in any given term.
   
   
5. A portion of the budget set-aside may be used for grant training, or grant-related purposes.
   
   
6. Because the program is considered an investment, it is requested that Grant Reinvestment Program applicants plan on contributing to the RCC grant effort for future projects as well.