Demystifying Government Grants for nonprofit leaders with Justine Krank
9/23/2025
“Going through RFPs is a really tricky process for a lot of nonprofit leaders and understanding how to dissect that, being able to comb through that and pull out the relevant information. There’s [often] gonna be a lot [of links].... It’s important to check those out because they hide information within those links isn’t necessarily super obvious on its face reading.”
In episode 132 of Nonprofit Mission: Impact, Carol Hamilton and Justine Krank discuss the realities and nuances of pursuing US government grants for nonprofit organizations.
They discuss:
common misconceptions including that government grants equals federal grants
The challenges and compliance demands that come with government dollars.
How to decode complex RFPs -- the hidden requirements that can make or break an application, and
how to get an organization truly grant-ready — not just on paper, but with the capacity to manage the work.
why the human side of building relationships even in the often opaque government grant space is important
Episode highlights:
[00:08:17] Clearing Up Misconceptions About Government Grants
The common confusion between government and federal grants, explaining how state and local grants often differ in funding sources and compliance.
[00:09:24] The Challenge of Reading RFPs
Why dissecting lengthy, jargon-heavy RFPs is a stumbling block for many nonprofit leaders — and why attending bidder conferences and external meetings can make all the difference.
[00:11:48] Why It Matters Who Writes the RFP
How understanding which department issued the RFP — procurement office or specific agency — can clarify the intent and improve proposal alignment.
[00:13:49] The Hidden Details in Grant Links
Examples of crucial details buried in RFP links, like licensing requirements or budget templates, that applicants overlook at their peril.
[00:16:02] Budget Pitfalls in Grant Applications
Start with the budget first, ensuring it reflects true costs, sustainability, and funder expectations, rather than treating it as an afterthought.
[00:17:32] Federal vs. State and Local Funding
Comparison of the stringent compliance demands of federal grants with the relative flexibility of state and local funding, noting how funding sources like tax dollars can insulate programs from federal freezes.
[00:20:08] Balancing Risk, Reward, and Compliance
The hidden costs of compliance and why organizations need to run a cost-benefit analysis before pursuing big-dollar government grants.
[00:23:18] Shifting Grant Strategies Amid Funding Freezes
Some nonprofits are pivoting away from federal grants due to uncertainty, but cautions leaders to weigh whether local and state funds could offer better stability.
[00:25:45] Building True Grant Readiness
The three essentials: having paperwork in order, ensuring internal capacity for tracking and compliance, and doing deep research into funding streams to play the long game.
[00:28:40] How to Research Relevant Funding Streams
Practical tips for finding and analyzing past RFPs, attending meetings, and asking the right questions to align funding with program goals.
[00:30:56] The Often-Overlooked Human Element
The value of showing up, building relationships, and collaborating with agencies — even in the government grant space where connection is less obvious than with private funders.
[00:32:31] The Bottom Line: Alignment and Capacity
Nonprofit leaders should always assess whether new funding opportunities align with their mission and whether they have the capacity to deliver — avoiding shiny object syndrome.
Guest Bio:
Justine founded Gold Dust Grants in January 2023 after almost 10 years in the nonprofit field. She's an Intersectional Professional with a background rooted in reproductive justice, a B.A. from UC Berkeley, and over six years of dedicated institutional grant writing experience, bringing in almost $12 million as Lead Writer. As a consultant, she leverages her experience in nonprofit contracts & compliance, and her legal studies background, to help nonprofits submit clear and cohesive proposals with a strong case for support. While the bulk of her grant experience is writing for Transition-Age Youth programs (ages 14-25), she also has extensive experience in: Housing, Mental Health, Workforce Development, and LGBTQIA+ services. She has worked on successful proposals totaling over $25 million in awards funded
Important Links and Resources:
Related Episodes:
Episode 101: Insights for nonprofits from MacKenzie Scott's philanthropy
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Carol Hamilton: My guest today on Nonprofit Mission Impact is Justine Krank
Justine and I talk about the realities and nuances of pursuing US government grants for nonprofit organizations. We discuss:
The common misconception that government grants equals federal grants
The challenges and compliance demands that come with government dollars.
How to decode complex RFPs -- the hidden requirements that can make or break an application,
How to get your organization truly grant-ready — not just on paper, but even more importantly with the capacity to manage the work.
Why the human side of building relationships even in the often opaque government grant space is important
Before talking to Justine, the government grant space seemed super opaque and esoteric to me. I don’t think anyone in the nonprofit sector can completely avoid being involved in a grant writing process in their career. Early on when I worked at a small organization where it was always a little bit of all hands on deck, I did my fair share of grantwriting for foundations. I could write – but truthfully – as a brand new nonprofit staffer, I really had no idea what I was doing. A stint working at a grantmaker association gave me a window into the world of philanthropy. It helped me understand the importance of relationship building for fundraising success – and in the grants field – really having a good idea of what each foundation was looking for – as they each had a strong agenda as to what they were seeking to fund and the impact they were trying to create with their investment in the organization.
And as I learned from Justine, these principles are true in the government space as well though it may seem harder to decipher both. Thus, I really appreciated Justine’s point that leaders need to weigh the cost benefit of pursuing grants and be realistic about assessing their capacity to the greater complexity that comes with grant dollars – especially in the government space. Many board members and other volunteers will push pursuing grants without really having any understanding of what an undertaking it really is. Not to say that it is not a worthy undertaking. It is. Just that like any project, it is more complicated than what it may seem on the surface.
So asking a series of questions and having some healthy conversation about the benefits and the costs. The benefits might seem obvious – grant dollars generally come in much larger sums than your average individual donor can give. But the costs in terms of time invested to succeed needs to not be underestimated. Doing your research to find opportunities that really fit with your goals, finding out the requirements for pursuing those opportunities, finding out who really makes the decision about the funds and what they are looking for – getting to know them and their goals and how they align with yours. As Justine says – this is all a long game. Otherwise it can be a lot of effort mixed with throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.
Many organizations are seeing drastic funding cuts and so are having to make swift pivots in terms of their approach. This includes pivoting to diversify their revenue streams.
In crisis, it is hard to not want quick results. As you weigh where to put your energies, consider Justine’s question – What is in alignment with your goals? And what is within your capacity to tackle? If Government grants – especially state and local funding - is an area that you are investigating – this conversation will help you get started on the right foot.
Welcome, Justine. Welcome to Nonprofit Mission Impact.
Justine Krank: Thanks so much for having me.
Carol: So I'd like to start out each conversation with what drew you to the work that you do. What would you describe as your motivation or your why?
Justine: I think early on when I entered the workforce, I was in the veterinary field and. I learned early on that purpose driven work is really important to me. I will say specializing in grant writing specifically with transition age youth programs, I kind of fell into it, but it's also something that's very meaningful to me because I was also a recipient of those services when I was a young person.
So it's very personal to me and it's definitely something that. me going and, and makes me wanna just like continue with that specialization.
Carol: Absolutely. So you talked about that and you work with people now helping them. Get grants for their organizations. I think that feeling feels like the first thing that when a new board member or, or a new organization comes together all the board members say, well, we, we have to go off and get some grants.
And you specialize in the, in the federal or not federal, but the government grant sector. What would you say are some misconceptions that people have about that space?
Justine: I think the biggest misconception, which has really kind of come to the surface this year in particular, is thinking that government grant equals federal grant. I. Which they're
Carol: I just made it.
Justine: Which, which, yeah, I mean all federal grants. Sorry, hold on. I'm like, not all government grants are federal grants. So there's Right. Federal and then state and then local. And so I think that's just like the biggest misconception, just the assumption that if it's a government grant, it's federal funding. And that's not the case. Federal funds, you know, go through federal grants and they can show up in local and state grants as well, but not necessarily because those are also funded through local or state tax dollars. So I think that's the biggest misconception that has been particularly prevalent this year.
Carol: Right. Right. So what are some of the common questions that you find that nonprofit leaders have about the government grant space?
Justine: The most common questions that they have about it. I think going through RFPs is one big question mark for a lot of folks.
Carol: Yes.
Justine: whether it's a 30 page or 400 page and I've seen them both. Yeah, I think going through RFPs is a really tricky process for a lot of nonprofit leaders and understanding kind of how to dissect that, how to pull the meaning that is relevant to you, pulling that out of there. and yeah, that's, I feel like that could be. An hour long webinar in itself, really just going through how to dissect an RFP, but being able to comb through that and pull out the relevant information. at all the links. There's gonna be a lot oftentimes, but it's important to check those out because hiding information within those links isn't necessarily super obvious on its face reading.
The RFP. So, and, and attending meetings for those RFPs, they usually have like bidders conferences. There's oftentimes external meetings that are open to the public through committees and, other, you know, work groups and attending those is always really helpful. So, yeah, there's a, there's a lot of ways to, to get better at understanding them.
Carol: I mean, I've taken a look at some, probably more on the contract side of, you know, government RFPs and you know, I'll admit sometimes my eyes just glaze over. I mean, there's so many pages and it's really hard to tell what's actually relevant to this request and what is all of the information that they're required to.
Provide because of various different regulations. And so you don't know, you know, what's the pertinent information and what's the, you know, just the template that they have to throw into every RFP that they put together. So how are, what, what are some ways that you've, you've been able to kind of parse out, you know, the difference between those things?
Justine: Okay, so this is kind of interesting. There's this one thing that I think about now, which is that the government department agency that writes the RFP isn't always the same agency that's granting the funds necessarily. So I'm just gonna go with who I am. I am from the Bay Area in California, and I'm very familiar with the funding landscape out there.
So I'm just gonna go with Alameda County. That's where the city of Oakland is, right? Alameda County. They could release an RFP that is for its child welfare services dollars, but it's just the general contracting office of Alameda County that puts it out because, you know, maybe child welfare services, they're short staffed and they don't have the time to put together that RFP. So. you can kind of find this out by attending the bids conference, like, oh, welfare didn't actually write this rp. And sometimes they put it in the document itself, but this is being released by the general service agency. But I think knowing where the RFP came from, like who wrote it, is really, really helpful because when it comes from the relevant department, it's gonna have all the information. And if that department is understaffed, you know, there are, you know, issues going on with that government agency and it's coming from the general services, general procurement services. Right. Will not be able to answer a lot of questions at the Bidders conference. They're gonna have to outsource for answers to a lot of questions.
So it's kind of interesting how that works. Like, no, just knowing where that RFP came from has been just like one of those really little useful tools and being able to understand the language you're reading and what they're asking. But Sorry, there's a tiny tangent there, but.
Carol: No, not at all. Not at all. And you mentioned also that oftentimes there are a lot of links and that you actually should take the time to take a look at them. What are some of the things that might be hiding behind those links that could be useful?
Justine: Yeah, so oftentimes certain credentials, licenses, so, and you know, you also mentioned this earlier, like right. You're like, yeah, what is relevant? Like, what's required versus not, right? Because sometimes there'll be like having your local small business enterprise. is encouraged, right? It's not actually required, but it's encouraged and sometimes it might be required. And so clicking on those links to get further information, if you do need to secure that licensing, maybe you can get it in time, maybe not. But things like that. There was one I was looking at for a client recently. They all needed to be certified recovery mentors. So all staff, right? And this is not anywhere within the RFP.
It was kind of like you gotta click on the links and figure out they're asking for. And it turned out that that was a requirement. So there's, you know, little requirements like that hiding in there. And
Carol: Yeah.
Justine: the budget, the budget template, which is a really, really big part of any government grant application. And sometimes that's just a link. an attachment or something, but it's always really, really important to look at that because there is some really critical information, like their funding allocations by county, right? If it's a state grant or something can just find a lot of pertinent information among those little links.
Carol: I feel like sometimes if you're new to this, that the budget part of the application can be a little bit of an afterthought. What are some, what are you, and you're saying, you know, no, that's really critical that you get that. Right. Or you know, are doing it the way they're asking for. What are some common mistakes that you see people making when they put together their budgets?
Justine: Common mistakes with the budgets. Think I. Not reflecting the full and true cost of your program is a really common mistake including a thorough accounting of even income and other, other sources. I think some folks are afraid that it's going to, oh, we don't wanna show that we're getting too much money. But I don't think that's necessarily true. thing to be worried about because, you know, sustainability is important to funders. And of course making the budget last. That's an oversight. I'm definitely in the camp of grant writers and consultants who like, start with the budget. That's, that should be the first thing you start with.
Carol: Yeah, and I've, I've talked about budgets being essentially like your plan in numbers. So you know. Starting out with it versus it being the thing that you throw together in the last, you know, hour before the, the submission deadline is, I think is really good. Good advice. At the beginning you talked about how one of the big misconceptions is that, you know, if you say government grants, it's by default, federal grants.
What are some of the differences between those different levels, federal, state, and local?
Justine: Yeah, well, I think, I think most people are aware of Federal grants, right? That's, you're going through grants.gov and it's gonna be a very intensive application process. You to make sure you have. The UEI number, your Sam's registration, grants.gov registration, all of those things in place just to apply. And then generally speaking, the application is really, really intensive. It's just a lot of, you know, red tape. And I think all of that points to the compliance you're looking at, like federal grants have really stringent standards and regulations for compliance. So I think that's like the biggest key difference, whereas so state and local, right?
Some state or local grants can still be federal pass through dollars. That happens and some aren't. A state grant could be, you know, tax dollars. I'm just gonna go with California again, right? Tax dollars through the sales of marijuana. funds a state grant out there, right? So that's just one example of state funding or transitional housing, like transitional housing for foster youth. And that's like state funds. So that's kind of today's climate protected from some of those federal freezes, right? So that's a big difference. Again, going down one, one level further to the local. So a city or county, again, there's still federal through funds that can show up in city or county government grants. But then a lot of them, like the City of Oakland passes, measure AA and measure AA funds, become a pot of money for the city. And that, you know, goes into the city grants. So kind of understanding, right? It's like following the money. Follow the money, right? That's the big thing. When looking at these different funding streams, where is that coming from? And that's gonna help you see, going back to the federal grants, compliance is gonna be a really, really big time for federal funding. So even if you're getting a little city grant that's like small potatoes or something, if it's federal funds, you might still be looking at some really intensive compliance for those dollars.
Carol: Yeah, so there's actually kind of a cost benefit analysis that an organization really has to do. One upfront kind of opportunity, cost of going through the process, but then if they do get the dollars, the amount that's gonna be needed in terms of backend in terms of that compliance. And I've definitely seen that.
I worked at an organization where their CEO years before I started there, the organization had been about 50%. Federally funded and for a variety of reasons, including the compliance cost, but also to have more leeway in terms of, you know, positions that they were taking in terms of advocacy.
They decided to get out of the federal grant. Game. And so over time they kind of, you know, it, shrunk as a percentage of the revenue. And they found revenue in other, other arenas. But I remember, you know, I, I was managing like the very last federal grant that we had and, and we had, you know, it wasn't a lot of money compared to the whole organization.
It was a pretty small percentage. And yet we had a halftime person. You know, dedicated just to make sure that we were doing all the reports right and tracking everything in the right way and, and, and all of that. So it does take you know, it takes personal power to, to make sure that you have that. And obviously, you know, if you do, those can be really big dollars and, and it can be a worthy investment.
But it is something for, for organizations to kind of think through carefully.
Justine: Yeah. I think it's so funny, it's almost like there's this inverse relationship where smaller and newer organizations, which the bulk of the organizations I work with, and they, to January of this year, were very eager to go after the federal dollars. And I was like, let's back it up a little bit.
Right? Whereas like, perhaps. Older agencies, more established ones, ones that have larger budgets are the ones that are like, no, we're good. Or, I worked with a client earlier this year founded by someone who used to work for the federal government. And so when talking to him about sort of a grant strategy, he's like, no, no, federal.
And I was like,
Carol: Wow.
Justine: And he's like, I know what that takes, I know what that means. And I'm like. I really
Carol: I, I think it could go one way or the other, right? It's either like, I am gung-ho. I know how the process works. We're gonna do this, or I know how the process works, and we are not going to do
Justine: Exactly. Exactly. Yep.
Carol: So we've talked about, we haven't talked a lot directly around the, the freezes that are happening at the federal level. And you know, I think we've just kind of seen the beginning of them. Probably next year it'll be, it could be even more severe, but how do you see, with the clients you're working with currently, how do you see them kind of shifting their, their, their grant strategy?
Justine: Yeah, it's you know, on the one hand I will say I, I feel slightly insulated in that most of the organizations I work with do have government grants, their state and local.
Carol: Mm.
Justine: one organization I worked with earlier this year where the NNIH funding freeze and ultimately cut it affected them.
And so yeah, having to rearrange like, okay, where are we gonna get the funding for this program now? I think generally speaking, I've seen a lot of organizations saying. No to government grants, like even prospective clients that I've met with, it's just been the theme of the year. Don't necessarily agree with that position. 'cause again, right, I think if it's federal funding, not, maybe your dollars are better invested elsewhere, but state and local, you know, especially, again, I'm from California. I work with a lot of orgs out there. City and county of San Francisco dollars are not going anywhere, you know? So I know a lot of organizations are really pivoting towards more private dollars, which is fair. I think that's also gonna, we're gonna see higher gonna be greater impacted grant cycles, right? Because of that. So. don't have answers, but I'm very curious as to whether that means maybe this is the best time to go after local and state grants if people are
Carol: Are generally kind of frightened away.
Justine: I mean, again,
Carol: Yeah.
Justine: wondering out loud.
I'm not saying it is, but yeah, it's, it's definitely we're seeing a shift to private and I'm seeing some foundations sort of being very responsive. And understanding of that shift. But I think there's also a lot of foundations that have been playing the wait and see game. So like you said, right, especially over 2026 if we see further cuts, I'm, I'm also curious to see how the private philanthropy sector will continue to respond.
Carol: Well, right. Because if people are mo, you know, if everybody's kind of shifting over to that, there's already been a huge demand and then it's even more so. So, it can be even more competitive. What are some of the things that you, for, for any time you know, right now we're in a particular crunch, but what are some of the things that an organization can do to really get themselves to be grant ready, ready to be funded?
Justine: I think, you know, sort of foundation is always having paperwork ready to go. You know, whether that's your nine nineties financial policy and procedure, job descriptions, right? Kind of having that, that base level of, documents that are gonna be required, ready to go. But then also assessing your own organization's internal capacity. You know, do you have finance staff that can track these budgets and spend downs? And are program staff, do they have the capacity to monitor their own budgets and work with the finance staff? Making sure that you've got the internal capacity. And then lastly, I think right now, especially in this moment, researching and playing the long game to a certain extent really, and when I say researching, I'm talking about funding streams, right?
Especially for organizations that are, whether it's foundation or private dollars or public really getting to know the funding stream you're interested in. Is it housing dollars? Is it child welfare, workforce development? Diving into the funding stream that's appropriate for your organization or your program to meet your funding gaps and really looking at what are the opportunities available within that funding stream. And you know, it's, it can be a long game, but that can actually be really beneficial too, If you're. Taking the time to research that over the next year so that point, you know, in the middle of 2026, you're ready to apply. I think workforce development is something that is, seeing still be very, I, I'm not gonna say it's, you know, immune from federal cuts, but it's something that is, still. There's dollars there. You know what I mean? Like workforce development. We're still in this post COVID I era. We want to see more jobs get created, more people getting the employment support that they need. So yeah, all of this is to say paperwork, internal capacity and research, the funding streams you're interested in.
Take the time to really dive in and, and then be ready to apply.
Carol: So in terms of research, what are, what are some ways to get started in that?
Justine: Yeah, well, once you have the funding stream identified diving into your local or state government websites and to see who, what are the agencies that are granting those funds? Right. So I'll go with workforce development. Maybe you're in Omaha, Nebraska, and you would just start googling. Omaha Workforce Development, right?
Then they can go by workforce Development Boards, office of Economic Development, names and titles like that. But just getting, getting into saying, okay, can we get these? Where can we tap in for these funds? just start researching. And then you can find RFPs and just start. Looking at past RFPs, what did they look like?
What are they requiring, right? Like, what do we need to have in place? What might compliance look like? Is this aligned with our program or are they looking for something totally different? doing all of that kind of research. And then again, external meetings, government agencies hold public meetings or meetings open to the public frequently.
So oftentimes workforce development boards. hop in on a phone call or a Zoom session or show up at the, at the office and in. So yeah, doing all of that kind of research to just really ensure alignment. sure you have your ducks in a row, you know what you're getting into. It can take a long time.
It's a lot of work, but I think that's the best way. A fit that you won't regret later if you do get the grant? Yeah.
Carol: So you talked about public meetings and I, you know, I'm thinking about the RFP, that that could be anywhere from, you know, as you said, 40 to 400 pages. So, and websites, and it all feels like, you know, it's a little bit added distance. What's the, what's the kind of the human factor in, in this kind of grant process in terms of government grants?
Justine: That is a great question. I feel like when it comes to foundations, it's a lot like very interpersonal and with government grants, you don't hear as much about that. But, but yeah, I think that's another important point to getting your foot in the door into some of those meetings and listening in. You know, whether you're present on Zoom or in person, getting to know some of those folks. In my old organization I used to work for, I attended a lot of external meetings while researching a particular funding stream. And there was one organization where it was just like. They saw my name pop up frequently, and I got to know them by attending the meetings and so then. We're able to build a relationship with them, right? Like, okay, who in our agency knows someone at their agency? And then we were able to go in on a collaborative grant application together, which we got. So I think, yeah, that's another key piece to showing up, is to be able to build relationships with government grants.
There's relationship building as well.
Carol: Yeah, absolutely. So just to, to round out, what's one question that you wish more nonprofit leaders would ask themselves when thinking strategically, either broadly or in this particular arena in terms of pursuing grants?
Justine: One question that they would ask themselves. Oh man. I think. Alignment plus capacity asking themselves about both alignment plus capacity. You know, I think some leaders might wanna go after something really big or something, you know, whether you've got a strategic plan or not. But pursuing it. Some really big projects, but you know, one is aligned with the strategic plan and what we're doing already.
And two, knowing your organization's internal capacity, and where folks are at and, and really kind of having a pulse on program, staff, data finance, whatever your departments may be. But yeah, just really stopping to. Ask themselves about those two things, alignment and capacity. I think that would be like the biggest thing that comes to mind for me.
Carol: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This hasn't been a topic that I've, I've, we've, I've had lots of people on who've talked about fundraising and various aspects, but this particular niche which represents a lot of dollars, is not one that we've talked about before. So I really appreciate you coming on.
Justine: I'm, I could talk about it all day.
Carol: Always my favorite. All right. Well, thank you so much.
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