Pre-Proposal Activities

Once you have decided you are ready to seek funding, the next step is securing information from the sponsor and details on the grant opportunity.

Initial Contact with Sponsor

Funding agencies have varying requirements for making initial contacts regarding funding of sponsored projects. These guidelines frequently specify the exact requirements regarding the appropriate means of initial contact (i.e. email, telephone, or pre-proposal).

Once these guidelines are understood, faculty should feel free to contact funding officers directly to discuss the scope of individual projects to ask potential sponsors the kinds of questions that will assist them in submitting a competitive proposal.

The sponsors’ officers can offer valuable guidance and assistance to the faculty member in preparing the proposal according to the requirements of their organizations. (add space between these sentences)

Before contacting corporations or private foundations, faculty are encouraged to contact Sponsored Programs (link to sponsoredprograms@svsu.edu email). We work closely with the SVSU Foundation to determine if we can pursue funding based on institutional priorities and current grant application submissions. Our goal is to strategically ask for support and not submit competing applications.

Application Guidelines

Once a funding source is identified, Faculty or staff can secure the application guidelines and should notify Sponsored Programs of your intent to apply.

Notifying Sponsored Programs, allows us to help support you in the application process. We can provide institutional information, review guidelines for qualification and will be providing you a Budget excel document which needs to be completed with your application.

This document is critical for the review and approval process at SVSU.

After securing the guidelines, follow application guidelines in preparing the proposal.

Guidelines include important details such as submission deadlines, formatting, and certifications necessary prior to submission.

Sponsored Programs will secure needed authorized official signatures for submission when the application is routed for approval. The only Authorizing Official at SVSU is the President, Provost, or the Executive Vice President for Administration & Business Affairs.