So, You Want to Find Grant Funding for Your Livestock Slaughter or Processing Business…

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Written By Guest User

Written by Dana M Havas, CCE Cortland Agriculture Team Leader

On Thursday, January 27th the Cornell Cooperative Extension Livestock Program Work Team hosted ‘Preparing for, Accessing, and Identifying Public Funding Opportunities: for NYS livestock slaughter and processing facilities’. Three topics were highlighted in this webinar 1) How to be prepared for when a funding opportunity arises, 2) How to work with economic development agencies and grant writers and, 3) how to identify federal, state, and other potential funding opportunities.

You can view the video recording here

The speakers were, in order of appearance: Liz Higgins - Business Management Specialist for the CCE Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture Team, a successful grant writer and a USDA grant reviewer for almost 12 years; Gio Holmquist - Director of Industry Development for NYS Empire State Development (ESD) covering agribusiness; and other topics. Every day Gio works with new and existing companies to create and retain jobs as well as generate business investment in NYS; and Myron Thurston III - CCE Oneida Food Supply Chain Marketing Specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County. Myron’s background is in non-profit fundraising where grants are critical, and he currently serves as an independent grant reviewer for the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service.

Part 1: Are you really ready to manage a grant?

(From the Public Funding presentation by Elizabeth Higgins)

Many people are attracted to grant opportunities due to their seemingly ‘free money’ but are they really free? Grants for for-profit businesses usually come from public funding sources.  Recipients are held to a high standard of recordkeeping and compliance to make sure that public funds are spent as intended. As you learn more about grants and grant opportunities you may find that this accountability makes grants something you are actually not very interested in pursuing – but fret not! There are other funding opportunities one can pursue. Loans, private investors, and tax incentives are alternatives to grant funding.  These sources are available for a wider array of projects and may be available in a more timely fashion for your project. Loans are great and for most businesses are necessary if you have little to no capital to start with, but of course, you will need to pay them back – with interest. Getting other people to invest in your business is another option to decrease one’s financial risk in a company but that decrease in individual risk comes with sharing profits and management decisions. Tax incentives are certain and should be the first place farm businesses looking for financial support. Of course, there are many other considerations one should ponder in making these decisions, these thoughts are simply to get you started.

As mentioned, while seemingly ‘free’ grants are anything but, grants come with a lot of work and accountability. Applying alone takes a lot of preparation and effort. When reviewing a grant opportunity, it is worth your while to determine not only if you are eligible, but does your project stand a good chance of being funded, based on how the proposals will be evaluated, and is this project a good fit for your needs. Some quick ways to review this are:

  • Are you eligible? - Most every grant application states who is eligible for the grant, and sometimes (often) they can be rather specific.

  • Can you afford your funding request upfront? – Most grants are awarded on a reimbursement basis, and not only will you need to have access to the capital you may need to provide proof to the funding organization that you have access to that capital.

  • Will it cover the expenses you want it to cover? – Grants are very specific with what the funds can be used for and allow for little flexibility once the grants are awarded (of course there are exceptions).

  • Are you prepared to follow it to the letter? – Often there are specific requirements pertaining to items such as licenses, insurance, etc. of the awardee and any contractors.

  • Can you match funds? – Grant funding often asks for a match or a specific percentage of the proposed project to be funded by you (here you may incorporate alternative funding opportunities - i.e., in-kind, loans, etc. - but be sure however you decide to meet the match the funding organization permits that method). **Be aware that while in-kind may be attractive it can also be an additional administrative burden.

We’ll get into the Request for Applications (or Proposals) - RFA or RFP for short - later, but for now all you need to know is that the RFA is where you can find this information.

Okay – so you’ve found a grant opportunity that looks attractive to you what happens next? First, weeks of writing and rewriting, and revising, and data collection, and putting together a budget and a timeline and… but wait, that is actually not where you need to start. Let’s go back a bit… Ideally, realistically, it all starts with your business plan. As you well know, being business-people, a business plan is a living document that keeps your business moving forward strategically and from it one can easily extrapolate where you plan to be in the next few years.

There are a few advantages of having a clear business plan when pursuing public funding opportunities. First, a business plan will keep you from getting side-tracked. Money is attractive, and seemingly ‘free’ money even more so – but this is another point where we find that what seems to be free actually isn’t. Pursuing a funding opportunity simply because it exists can all too easily tie up precious resources and pull you away from your business goals.

Another incentive for having a clear business plan is that when you do find a funding opportunity that lines up well with your business goals much of the plan can be translated into your grant application. As Liz stated in her presentation “the best proposals have a clear idea, know what the project is, know how it fits in with what they want to do, and they can articulate that. In addition, the applicant can demonstrate how they have set themselves up so that the outcome of getting this funding will be success”. Using your business plan as the guiding document when pursuing public funding sets you up for success.

While having a business plan is a crucial start there are some additional items you’ll want to have in place before pursuing public funding opportunities. These items include a good accounting system and a competent bookkeeper, attention to detail and good administrative capacity, and for federal grant opportunities having a DUNS number and being registered with SAM. You can learn more about DUNS and SAM here – we highly recommend you do this now as it can take precious time when time is of the essence.

Pursuing and managing grants requires time and effort. Having clear goals and knowing your business’ capacity to administer a grant can save you precious time, which is of even greater value as a small business. That being said – the perfect public funding may be out there and in the next two sections, we will go into more depth on identifying opportunities and accessing and working with grant writers through economic development agencies.

Part 2: Working with EDOs and IDAs to access grant writers.

(From the Public Funding presentation by Gio Holmquist)

Economic Development Organizations (EDOs) work state-wide to attract companies to NYS and help companies grow within NYS. There are 10 Empire State Development (ESD) regional offices. These offices work with a variety of agencies, governmental, and non-profit and academic partners to help NYS businesses grow.

EDOs exist at various levels throughout the state. On the state level, there is Empire State Development and the NYS Economic Development Council. There are numerous EDOs on the regional level, one example is the Greater Rochester Enterprise. Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) are often found on the county level, and another example of county-level EDOs are chambers of commerce – working to invest in the business community. Although not too common municipalities may have an economic development component. Then, there are the organizational-based EDOs run by colleges and universities, utility companies, etc.

A great place to start to engage EDOs is on the county level with your local IDA – of course, you are more than welcome to contact any EDO to see if they have something that could assist you in your business. The IDA is a public benefits corporation established under general municipal law and public authorities’ law to foster economic development in specific localities. IDAs are important because they provide incentives for economic development projects including sales and use tax abatement, property tax reduction with ‘Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), mortgage recording tax abatement assistance, and assistance with site searches. IDAs will even, often, invest time and money to be sure sites are shovel ready for development and act as an advocate for your project within the community and with other agencies.

In addition to these direct services, IDAs are great networks with their members entrenched in the business community. A common network component that IDAs have on retainer is grant writers. To gain access to an IDAs grant writer it is important that you have a few things ready and at hand:

  • a business plan with estimates of processing volumes.

  • project budget – broken out by year and category.

  • the estimated employment ramp-up by year and job type (this is very exciting to an EDO so have this upfront, it can also play a role in them identifying incentive programs for you); and

  • a general idea of where the business will be located.

If you have these items in place and have found an opportunity you think you might like to pursue (the EDO can also help you find funding opportunities) contact your EDO of choice. If they deem the project eligible, they may offer to assist with the proposal on behalf of the company and project and may enlist the help of a grant writer to help write the grant and identify if the timing is appropriate.

As mentioned prior, it is important to know your plans and be able to show that they are credible through a business plan. Having a comprehensive business plan will motivate an EDO to advocate for you and increase your success in pursuing and subsequently being awarded public funding. Understand how your proposal will impact the community, how a grant can take the project from A to Z, and be able explain the loss of impact if funding is not identified. By bringing these things ‘to the table’ with an EDO they will be eager to help you find the right opportunity and will leverage their knowledge and skills to help you achieve your goals.

Part 3: Identifying Public Funding Opportunities

(From the Public Funding presentation by Myron Thurston III)

If you need another reminder about the value of having a business plan when pursuing public funding, I’ll do so now. As Myron stated in his presentation “If you don’t know as a business where you want to get to next, there is no grant out there for you”. Thankfully Myron also shared a few great resources for developing business plans if you don’t have one already:

But let’s say, for the sake of things, that you have a business plan (and all the other items Liz pointed out in part one) and you’re ready to start looking for public funding opportunities – what is next?

There are three main avenues to search for public funding opportunities: federal, state, and through an EDO.

Federal opportunities that pertain to livestock slaughter and processing will typically be listed by one of the following agencies

New York State does not regularly fund agriculture-related projects, but it is still worth perusing to see if something does relate to your business plan. You can find NYS public funding opportunities through the grants gateway, which will require an account set-up if you were to apply for an NYS-based grant. A nice feature of the NYS grants gateway is that you can quickly review the eligibility requirements of available grants by scrolling through the available grant listings, so you don’t waste your time searching for this in the RFPs.

As Gio mentioned EDOs can help identify funding opportunities. It is important to remember, however, that when you approach an EDO their focus is on manufacturing, industrial development, and job creation so walking into an EDO with this in mind is of great value. When considering agriculture and agriculture-related businesses some economic impact points you could make may include:

  • providing employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled labor

  • providing food and raw material to non-ag sectors

  • demand for goods produced in non-ag sectors

  • providing investable surplus (savings and taxes)

  • earning valuable foreign exchange through export of ag products

One potential funding opportunity that can be found through an EDO is the Consolidated Funding Application. In its 11 years, the Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) has helped to fund 8818 projects throughout NYS and can be a source of funding for projects that are a high priority in your regional plan, provide job opportunities, or are significant infrastructure investments (like a meat processing plant).

Once you’ve found an opportunity you think might be a fit it is time to dive a little deeper by reading the RFA (or RFP). While a tedious document, this is where all the important details reside and must be followed to the letter – anything missed in your application and it may be cast aside before it even gets to the reviewer’s desk.

The RFA is where you’ll learn the answers to all of the bullet-pointed items in part one of this article and be able to determine if you really want to jump down the rabbit hole and follow this opportunity by writing a proposal. The RFA may also have a grant checklist – a rather valuable document that will help you make sure you’ve collected and submitted all the required materials (if there isn’t a checklist you may want to consider creating one). The RFA also typically reviews the evaluation criteria, giving scores or weights to each section and sub-section – really valuable when considering how to spend your time in writing and if, again, this opportunity is a good fit. A nice feature of an RFA and how they are typically written is that you can easily create an outline using the RFA as a guide.

Having an outline to follow when writing a grant application, or proposal is practically a necessity – together with the use of hard data (proof) and definitive language such as “I will…” opposed to “I hope to…” gives the grant reviewer a clear picture of the intention and impact of your project.

When writing a grant proposal, it is important that you start early, writing and organizing grant proposals take a significant amount of time. In fact, you may want to enlist a friend or family member to help you read through and catch any spelling or grammatical errors that can be easily overlooked when you’re focused on developing a persuasive argument.

Some additional items to consider when writing a grant application include:

  • It is important to carefully prepare the budget – check and double-check the math.

  • Letters of support are invaluable (and sometimes required).

  • Don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions – there is typically a contact person listed for you to contact with any questions.

Once the grant is submitted the waiting period begins, it can take up to several months before awards are announced. Upon announcement of an award terms are spelled out and contracts are signed. Once the contract is signed there is no going back, you are committing to do what you said you would do when you wrote the proposal, and to ensure that you are fulfilling your obligation the awarding agency will ask you to regularly submit reports.

There are many steps and considerations when deciding to pursue public funding opportunities, it can be overwhelming. Thankfully, you are not alone – with a complete business plan and the assistance of various support agencies (EDOs, SCORE, SBDC, CCE, etc..) – you may find just the right fit.

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