In an ideal world, budget restraints would never affect agencies that are dedicated to protecting the innocent. Yet all too often, child advocacy centers and law enforcement professionals must make sacrifices or postpone upgrades to their sites because the finances aren’t where they need to be. Fortunately, there are plenty of grant funding opportunities to help make up the difference for these important investments.
5 Strategies for Better Funding Options
The equipment requirements and design costs for reconfiguring an interview room rely on careful planning. When you can present your case effectively, you’ll be on a path to secure the funding you need to improve your operations, support your hard-working team, and continue serving your community.
1. Partner with an experienced team.
Doing a little research on the exact audio and video recording setup you want to adopt will help you present your case to the grant committee. For this, you’ll also have to consider the company’s reputation. Working with a team that has a great track record with clients who utilize grant funding can give you extra insights into what the grant process itself will entail.
2. Outline your agency and community goals.
After you have identified your interview recording equipment provider, you’ll be able to start writing your grant application. As a general rule, you should begin with a clear description of how the new system will benefit your agency and your local criminal justice process. Consider the issues your community is addressing, as well as any trends in your area. How will a streamlined interview recording procedure help tackle specific problems? Have you experienced errors with how evidence has been handled in the past?
3. Create an emotional connection to your work.
Stating that you want to “lower crime” may be too simplistic for most grant applications. Telling a story often makes a better impact. You might consider giving some background information on how your agency has grown or changed over the years. Maybe you’ve had to work through a couple particularly challenging cases recently. One or two examples of how your team is helping the local community—and why it’s time for an interview room equipment upgrade—can help persuade your readers to support your mission.
4. Include specific data with citations for support.
In order to have a better outline of your goals and more details for your storytelling angles, you’ll want to highlight a few hard facts. Certain statistics will help round out the emotional appeal of any case studies you share, and adding concise citations from team members or other community officials can help your grant reviewers feel more connected with you and the people you’re serving.
5. Follow the rules for organization and submission.
Once you have a complete draft of your grant application, you’ll need to set aside a good amount of time for structural edits and proofreading. You can’t afford to have typos in the final piece, and it’s crucial that you’ve presented your information in a clear manner. Above all else, follow the guidelines! Many grants have strict rules to follow for how your application is organized and submitted. Everything from how you title your submission to how you format the document can impact the committee’s decision, so you’ll want to be as thorough as possible.
There can be a lot of questions about the grant-writing process, even for senior grant writers. If you need help during the process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team here at iRecord. We’re happy to partner with clients at any stage of the funding process. Whether you’re still researching grant possibilities or you’re currently in the middle of writing your proposal, let our experience help you secure the funds you need. Please contact us to learn more about our success rate!