Anyone who's watched the mouse hole of federal funding knows that quick reflexes are essential. The time span from grant announcement to due date is often 30-60 days -- less, if you don't spot the announcement immediately.

Here are three steps to help you identify and prepare for opportunities that might emerge in the next flurry of federal grant activity.

Identify the possibilities

Get to know Grants.gov, the portal to federal funding opportunities past and present. Users can search on various criteria, such as general keywords (e.g., "special education"), funding instruments (grants or cooperative agreements), and eligibility requirements.

For example, searching all open, closed, and archived opportunities with "grant" as the funding instrument type, and "Department of Education" as the agency yields a list of nearly 700 opportunities. Adding the keyword "safety" narrows it to about 175.

Tweak the search parameters to find your best prospects, and then take note of the sponsoring agencies and program offices -- this is where you want to concentrate your efforts.

The program office may post application guidelines for past competitions, helping you learn program requirements and assemble boilerplate material in advance. But be careful about writing polished text to old guidelines -- if the program changes focus, you could waste a lot of time and effort.  

Study funded proposals, if available; you can learn many lessons from winning proposals. 

Watch the mouse hole

Grant seekers can monitor a number of sources for upcoming federal opportunities:

• Check Grants.gov daily for new opportunities, or subscribe to its RSS feeds and email alerts. You can customize alerts for specific agencies, funding categories and instruments, etc. 
• Subscribe to the Federal Register, which publishes daily notices (including grant announcements) from all federal agencies.
• Many federal agencies offer a grants forecast for the coming fiscal year (subject to final congressional funding), as well as agency budget news.

2014 Poverty Guidelines  

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued its 2014 poverty guidelines, which define federal measures of poverty for administrative purposes (i.e., eligibility for certain federal programs). DHHS's poverty guidelines are a simplification of the Census Bureau's poverty thresholds used mainly for statistical purposes. Both resources can be helpful in developing grant proposals requiring stats on poverty.

Annual Fund Advantage

Nonprofits with annual fundraising drives are more likely to meet their fundraising goals, according to a new report from the Nonprofit Research Collaborative, which surveys nonprofits in the U.S. and Canada on nonprofit fundraising methods and success. The report found that 77% of nonprofits with an annual fund met their goals, versus 57% of those without one. NRC's March 2014 Nonprofit Fundraising Study documented changes in foundation grantmaking over the last several years, with 50% of nonprofits reporting an increase in 2013 (versus 40% in 2010).