Carrie Mitchell has worked at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) as a Grant Program Specialist for 12 years. She currently works on the Justice for Families Program.
In this episode of Patchwork, Carrie shares tips about how articulating a strong business case for a good cause helps secure grant funding. She talks about the elements of strong grant applications and offers suggestions about how to make a strong pitch to secure federal funding.
Carrie Mitchell has worked at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) as a Grant Program Specialist for 12 years. She currently works on the Justice for Families Program.
In this episode of Patchwork, Carrie shares tips about how articulating a strong business case for a good cause helps secure grant funding. She talks about the elements of strong grant applications and offers suggestions about how to make a strong pitch to secure federal funding.
Patchwork is a podcast from the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington. Patchwork offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the legal movement called the Violence Against Women Act or VAWA. VAWA provides federal grants to help women at local, state, and national levels. Patchwork explains how VAWA awards are made, shows what happens after funds arrive in communities, and share stories of help and hope. Patchwork brings you the voices of people on the front lines combating domestic and sexual violence. Our efforts to serve victims and hold offenders accountable create stories that knit us together and propel us forward. Welcome to Patchwork.
Carrie Mitchell:Every solicitation has a contact person. We are delighted to answer questions through email or phone. The simplest thing is also to some degree, the most powerful thing in applications, and that is being responsive to the solicitation. The Justice for Families program specifically like some of the other programs here at OVW are very competitive programs and unfortunately, we're just not able to fund everything
Bob Davis:To help e nd violence against women. OVW provides federal funding to people on the frontlines of the domestic violence issue to ensure that money is used effectively. We must determine that the folks can deliver on the pitch that they make in their grant application. Our staff comes from the field so they understand what works. They joined peer review experts to assess many applications competing for the same resources and the grant program experts not only h elp decide who gets funding, but then they perform oversight after the funds are awarded. That means they travel to communities to see how funds were actually spent. During t hese site visits, they often see firsthand how the VAWA money was used to help people impacted by violence. Today, we'll hear some tips on what makes a good OVW grant application from one of these g rant p rograms s pecialists. C arrie Mitchell is a lawyer who, before joining the Department of Justice worked in courtrooms in Alabama. Now she manages the Justice for Families program, which improves the response to all aspects of civil and criminal justice systems to families with a history of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or cases involving child sexual abuse. C arrie, thanks for joining us. Start, if you would, by telling us what you do.
Carrie Mitchell:I'm a Grant Program Specialist on the justice for families grant program.
Bob Davis:So what does that mean to be a Grant Program Specialist?
Carrie Mitchell:It means that I manage grants under my program from cradle to grave. So I help write the solicitation, review all applications that come in help make funding recommendations, and once awards are made, then I manage those awards through their lifetime. So talking a lot to grantees about the work they're doing, visiting them in person, reading their progress reports and, fairly consistent communication with all the grantees that I manage.
Bob Davis:It must be interesting to see people taking different approaches in different places across the country.
Carrie Mitchell:It is, we have a wide variety of awards under our program and across the office at large so you see a lot of different projects and a lot of different areas and communities that they're serving.
Bob Davis:What, um, anything memorable? Like what, what do you, what really inspires you or what do you like about what you see when you get outside the beltway and get into the real world?
Carrie Mitchell:I like seeing in person what they're doing, um, we obviously read their applications and know what they're awarded to do and read their progress reports. But when you actually go in person and see from my program specifically, see what they're supervised visitation center looks like and what other services they're providing, even outside our funding sources to see what they're doing, what the community actually looks like in person, what the court system is like and to kind of put yourself, at least in that moment in the shoes of a victim of what i s it like when they walk into that courthouse, do they know where to go? Do they know who to talk to? How are people interacting with them and really see how your grantees are addressing the issues in their c ommunity
Bob Davis:Because your grantees are really helping those victims navigate those systems. Is that, how do you describe the work that they're doing? The grantees?
Carrie Mitchell:Yes. A lot of our grantees are helping victims navigate those systems. The Justice for Families program specifically works with courts. So a lot of domestic violence dockets. So we're working with judges court, personnel, court advocates. We also have grantees that are providing supervised visitation services, so working with those centers and the supervised visitation monitors that monitor those visits and then we also have civil legal services. So attorneys providing direct legal services to victims.
Bob Davis:It seems like it's a really useful resource for victims because I can really imagine how scary it would be for some of them to enter the system. They already have a lot going on because of whatever happened that led them to seek justice and it always strikes me that it's a kind of a scary environment, uncertain words, practices, things like that, are those things that your folks help with.
Carrie Mitchell:They do. And I can tell you as a former attorney, it's still intimidating to me sometimes to walk into the courthouse and figure out where you're supposed to go and to sit in court and hear the judge talk to people. That's a very intimidating process for most people and then when you layer on that, the trauma people have been through is, you know, an extra layer of burden for them to get through those systems. And so for our grantees to work directly with those victims and be able to explain to them what the process is going to be and help them navigate those systems, help them, you know, on some occasions we'll be filling out paperwork or filing legal papers for them working through whatever their issues are, is really helpful to them to have someone on their side that can lead them through that process.
Speaker 3:I noticed during deadline season recently that people walking around the office seem very upbeat and chipper and happy and I was surprised because there is a lot of work this time of year as grants are being reviewed, but it seemed like people really enjoy seeing these applications come in. Is that, do you get a sense of that or was I just seeing people at a weird moment?
Carrie Mitchell:I think it is exciting to see applications come in. We, you know, at OVW, we're familiar with the people we've managed before, so it's nice to see them come in and see what they're proposing to do, whether it's a continuation of what they're already doing, or they're looking to expand their project or add on something. And then it's exciting to see the new applications that we haven't heard from before. It's nice to read through and see what people are proposing to do all across the country. Since we're nationwide funding, we get applications from all of the States, territories, and it's just nice to see what's coming in and, and where there's common issues and common solutions to some of the issues that we deal with here.
Bob Davis:So I wanted to talk to you today about what makes a good grant application because you, part of your job is reviewing those applications. What is it that you look for when you open up a new application?
Carrie Mitchell:The simplest thing is also to some degree, the most powerful thing and applications, and that is being responsive to the solicitation. So when applicants carefully read the solicitation and then respond to every element that's within that solicitation, that really helps us understand what they're doing and help helps reviewers understand what the project is.
Speaker 3:That sounds easy, but it is, is it government speak? I mean, how hard is it to answer the questions in a solicitation?
Carrie Mitchell:We try to make the solicitation as clear as possible, understanding that many of our applicants do not have professional grant writers that are responding to the solicitation. It's frequently the executive director, or it's an advocate or it's someone else that works at the organization who may or may not have a lot of experience writing formal grant applications. So we do try as best we can to make the language simplified. If someone doesn't understand what's in a solicitation, every solicitation has a contact person. We are delighted to answer questions through email or phone. We can talk to applicants about their proposed project. We can't always answer every question and give them guidance on what may or may not be funded, but we can always give them advice on, whether they might be ineligible entity to apply to a particular program or not. And whether things they're proposing to do would be allowable under the project and help troubleshoot any questions they might have about what's required in the solicitation,
Bob Davis:In your experience, reviewing applications. Are there any things that you've seen that are surprising or notable that you would want people to know- careful here or not so much?
Carrie Mitchell:There are a few things that I've seen over the years, that are sort of consistent year to year that we see that I would caution applicants against. One is obvious victim safety concerns. I feel like those are fairly easy to identify.
Bob Davis:What do you mean?
:For example, if someone is proposing a supervised visitation center or a program under the Justice for Families project, and they're not considering any of the safety concerns of having victims and batterers in the same location together, those are some fairly obvious victim safety issues that may be raised. Or any kind of victim blaming language in an application would raise some concerns.
Bob Davis:Tell me what victim blaming language might look like.
Carrie Mitchell:I think language that implies the victim is at fault for the battering. So language such as,"We'll help the victim make better life choices to avoid being victimized." Something sort of in that vein that could be interpreted by peer reviewers, as blaming the victim for the battering rather than the perpetrator would raise some concerns.
Bob Davis:Yeah.
Carrie Mitchell:Another issue we see that's similar, but a little different is a lack of discussion around any kind of victim safety issues, which leads reviewers to wonder whether the applicant understands that there are some of those and are addressing them, or whether they're completely unaware of some of those issues. Applications that set out goals that seem unrealistic or unlikely to succeed, always raise some concerns with the review of those applications. For example, when an application says, they're going to serve a very high number of victims, but then propose in their budget, a very low number of attorneys, where it seems unlikely that you could actually serve that number; that would raise some concerns about whether that project can really be successful with OVW funding.
Bob Davis:What advice do you have for people who really want to do a good job? I can imagine that if I was handed this as an other duties as assigned-"Here, Bob, fill out this grant application", that's pretty intimidating because you're maybe talking about a lot of resources, maybe some, something that's really important for the organization. But it doesn't sound like it's necessarily that easy. What advice do you have for people to answer those questions?
Carrie Mitchell:Well, I have a few practical tips that I would be happy to give out. Number one is obviously talk again to OVW and the specific program that you're looking to apply to so we can help work through some of those questions. Um, if you've ever submitted an application to OVW before you can request the peer review comments from that application that can help you see what reviewer saw in your previous application they'll note areas of improvement and they might have also noted particular areas of strength. So they may have noted things in your previous application that they really liked to help give some guidance on what might make it successful application in the future. You can also file a Freedom of Information Act request for a successful application and we have all the information of how to do that on our website. We have a contact person here at OVW that can specifically fulfill those FOIA requests, but you can ask to see an application that has been funded by OVW before to give you an idea of what the format looks like, what the substance looks like for that particular application. And finally OVW hosts a pre-application information session before each solicitation is released. The information of how to register for those sessions is included in every app- and excuse me- is included in every solicitation so you can register for those. Some of them are prerecorded and they're available on the website. Some of them are hosted live where you would call in and listen, but it's OVW grant program specialists on that particular grant program, walking through the solicitation, pointing out frequent mistakes or areas of questions that we get on areas in the solicitation and just providing a little additional guidance beyond what you see in the language of the solicitation.
Bob Davis:Those are great tips. We'll make sure we put those links on the webpage and the notes for this episode, cause that's really helpful. It's a great idea to get feedback on a previous application, do many people do that?
Carrie Mitchell:Some do frequently when they're getting ready to submit a new application, they'll request the comments for their previous applications, but that is available to anyone. So even if you were awarded an OVW award, it still can be beneficial to see what the comments were on your application.
Bob Davis:What kind of comments might they see? What do you see in applications where you really would like for them to learn from either good or bad?
Carrie Mitchell:The comments they'll typically see are, and again, these are from the reviewers that actually peer review the applicant, um, the comments that they will receive will point out specific issues within the application. For example, it may say the budget did not require- excuse me-"the budget did not include the required amount for OVW technical assistance and training" or"the budget did not include the required amount for language access". We a sked f or reviewers to give very specific comments so applicants know exactly what we're referring to. We don't want to give general feedback. Hearing the application could have been clearer is not helpful to an applicant so we a sked t hem very specific feedback on what was with what was in the application that n eed clarification or additional detail.
Bob Davis:How often do you think somebody has a good idea and might've been well qualified, but it just is not communicated in the application. Do you ever get a sense that it's not that I don't agree that this is a good idea and these people could do it, but I just can't support it with what they've submitted.
Carrie Mitchell:We do see that and again, we sit in with peer reviewers and listen to them as they discuss each application in the peer review process. And frequently there are applications that are probably really good projects, just the way that they are described in the application doesn't convey all of the necessary information that we need to know to understand what they're actually proposing to do. Sometimes our continuation applications and those are people who have current OVW funding and are requesting another award to continue that project. Sometimes their application tends to not provide as much detail. So I would suggest to those applicants always write your application as if the person reviewing it does not know anything about your organization or your project. Make sure you fully explain what the need is that you're looking to address and how the activities you're proposing would address those needs.
Bob Davis:Is there anything that you would suggest people not do when they're applying for a grant.
Carrie Mitchell:Some of the frequent mistakes we see in applications are not being responsive to the solicitation. So if the solicitation is requesting ten specific bits of information under a section, and you only address seven of them, we can't fill in the gaps of what you don't include in your application.
Bob Davis:So if I'm asked to spell out ten things and I only do seven things, should I address the missing three? Does that help?
Carrie Mitchell:It does help to address why something is not included in the application. There are areas in the solicitation that specify if it's not applicable to you to explain why. So I would, of course, encourage everyone to follow those instructions. But if there's something that the applicant feels is being asked for, and there's a reason they can't provide that information even a simple sentence or two of why that's not being provided is helpful to give OVW and the reviewers information that you recognized it as an issue in the solicitation and why you didn't address it in your application.
Bob Davis:Since you go out to the field and you see these projects in action later, what do you find that the application process gives you a pretty good idea? Are you surprised when you get there that it's better, worse? What you expected, not what you expected based on what you read about it before going out.
Carrie Mitchell:Sometimes there are things that I personally think are difficult to really fully understand until you see it in person. And so there are, there have been times that I thought I appreciated some of the challenges in a particular community and then I visited the grantee and realized,"Oh, this is much more challenging than I really expected". And it adds another layer of perspective on what the grantees doing and the great work that they do. So, for me personally, most of the time, it's what they're doing is even better than what I expected them to be doing.
Bob Davis:I can imagine it would be a pleasant surprise to go on a site visit and see the work in progress when most of what you've had to base your impression on has been in writing. It's very challenging to capture some of these things, especially in a, something as formal as a grant application, think about like a job application, right. Is it, or is it more storytelling?
Carrie Mitchell:A lot of it is storytelling. The solicitation does ask for specific bits of information. So some of it is going to be, you know, factual descriptions of a population to be served. But a lot of the applications are also describing the work that the applicant has done and if space within the application allows they can include some stories of what they've done and particular work that they've done under that project.
Bob Davis:What else would you want to tell someone about applying for a grant? It's kind of a big deal.
Carrie Mitchell:It is a big deal. And you know, the Justice for Families program specifically, like some of the other programs here at OVW are very competitive programs and unfortunately we're just not able to find everything. So I would encourage anyone who has applied or does apply in the future if they're not selected for funding again, to request their peer reviewer comments and to not take that necessarily as a sign that they should stop applying for funding, because we've had many applicants that have come in and not been selected and came back in the next year and were so I would just encourage people to keep applying, keep talking to OVW about your project and what you want to do and get feedback from us as well.
Bob Davis:That's wonderful. Thank you, Carrie. Really appreciate you sharing that. I mean, do you need to be a writer to be successful?
Carrie Mitchell:I think most of our applicants do not have professional grant writers are people who on a regular basis it's part of their job. So I think most applications we receive are probably by people where this is a once a year duty or, you know, less than that. So, I think most of them probably are not professional grant writers.
Bob Davis:You know? It sounds like what you're saying is if you may be applying for a grant, don't wait until the last minute. There are things that you can do to prepare throughout the year to get ready for your next application.
Carrie Mitchell:Certainly, I would recommend that people read previous solicitations to have an idea of what each program is looking for. There may be changes year to year in the solicitation, but it can give you a good idea of what to expect. Many programs require certain partnerships. For example, Justice for Families requires partnership within a domestic violence or sexual assault, victim service provider and a court. So if someone wanted to apply for Justice for Families funding, that is something they would want to work on before they really get into the application process because we're looking for meaningful partnerships. So it's not something you would want to put together a week before the application is due, you'd really want to establish those relationships and be able to explain in your application how your organizations work together and what sort of history you have together and how you're going to work together on the project.
Bob Davis:That's really great. Cause it's not just about the narrative. It's about the partnerships, all the work that you're doing on that end, that takes a lot of time to get it together. They're probably letters and confirmation, right? That you're that you have partnerships. Yeah. That's huge. Something else that you mentioned that caught my ear is give us a call, basically, if you have questions and you've said there are some things that we can talk about, we can't answer all questions. Tell me kind of where the line is in the competitive process. How, how much help can we provide to people who are just trying to get this right?
Carrie Mitchell:We can certainly help people understand whether they or their proposed partners would be eligible under a particular program and we can help guide them on what sort of activities are allowable and within the scope of a particular project. So questions of whether could I pay for this with OVW money are things we could definitely answer for them.
Bob Davis:Carrie, thank you. Thanks so much for your time. And thanks for those great tips. We'll put those on show notes online, and I want to thank everyone for listening to Patchwork. Please let us know what you'd like to hear on a future episode by sharing any questions you have with us. You can tweet us at@OVWJustice, send an email to patchwork@usdoj.gov, or give us a call(202) 307-6026. If you like this podcast, please help us expand the conversation by sending it along to someone you think may enjoy hearing what we shared and if you want to help us reach even more people take a minute to review the episode. Patchwork is made possible by help from everyone here at OVW, but Minh Ha and Portia Obeng work really hard to put all these pieces together here and on the website. Thread by thread, we offer insights through Patchwork.