Grants Training Provides Strategies for Building Relationships with Funders

Earlier this month, Centralina Regional Council hosted a grants webinar, How to Establish and Maintain Excellent Grant Funder Relationships, as part of its Centralina Learns training series. Diane Leonard, a Grant Professional Certified and Approved Trainer of the Grant Professionals Association, led the session, which was designed to build and strengthen participants’ relationships with grant funders to increase their organizations’ grant revenue. Local government staff from across the Centralina region attended the interactive webinar where Diane presented strategies and tools for engaging with federal, state and charitable funding agencies. Through her expertise, participants explored:

  • The importance of grant funder relationships, what they look like and how they fit into the grant life cycle
  • Outreach and communications steps for establishing new relationships with funders
  • Approaches to managing and improving existing relationships
  • Meaningful and personal ways to express next-level gratitude to funders during the grant year

Centralina members can access a recording of this session and previous grant training webinars from the Professional Development tab of the Member Portal.

In addition to training, Centralina provides weekly grants alerts and an annual forecast of federal grants to help member governments plan for future funding opportunities (see Grant Support tab of Member Portal). Upon request, Centralina can also provide letters of support and technical assistance or feedback on grant applications. Please contact kweston@centralina.org for information about these services.

Federal funds are commonly passed through state agencies in North Carolina before being awarded to local governments, which can make the original funding source less obvious. Before proceeding with a procurement, local governments should verify whether an award originates from a federal source. This determination affects compliance obligations, including procurement standards, reporting, and audit requirements.

When a construction or repair contract over $300,000 involves a building, the procurement and contract are subject to additional requirements under N.C.G.S. 143-128. Therefore, this question must be answered to determine whether the additional statutory requirements apply to this procurement scenario.

The micro-purchase threshold is a federal procurement threshold under which competitive procurement is not required. The default micro-purchase threshold is $15,000, but local governments may increase the micro-purchase threshold up to $50,000. An explanation of increasing the micro-purchase threshold and a template for the required annual self-certification is available here.