Sometime shortly after the beginning of the federal fiscal year, the Federal Funding Forecast for the individual agencies are announced (Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, etc). This is an indication of what grant will be offered over the next fiscal year. This allows the DWA team to start to line up potential applicants with the grants.

During the fiscal year individual grants are announced by their respective agencies. Some of these grants may come with a predefined eligibility list of school districts. Others may reference a broader eligibility. DWA reviews their list of potential applicants (culled from previous clients and schools, school districts and non profits that have indicated they want to be considered for this review.

The DWA team will contact the specific qualified potential applicant to determine interest. In some cases, DWA may send out a broader "Grant Alert" to its potential applicant base to gauge interest.

Once a suitable potential applicant is found for the grant a reciprocal agreement will be signed. This document outlines that the grant will be written for the applicant at no charge and in exchange the applicant will employ a firm for the required evaluation services for this grant and will employ DWA Partners for the required data management and reporting services. Should the applicant fail to be awarded the grant, the grant will be written for the applicant the next time it is offered at no charge.

During the grant writing process, after the reciprocal agreement is signed, a great deal of effort will be needed from the applicant. DWA will match skills with the grant writer and the applied for grant but it is the responsibility of the applicant to make the right resources available during the writing process. Oftentimes we will be working under short lead times and will need to put in extra hours to complete the application.

The grant application will outline the program the applicant will put in place should they be awarded the funds. It also outlines what services and at what cost will be provided by DWA.

There is often a significant amount of time (4-6 months) between submitting the application and award announcement. The DWA team has a history of winning over 50% of its applications.