NGMA Welcomes Aspire Grant & Development LLC, A New CAPP Partner

Q.  NGMA: What do you love about grants management?

The post award grant management process offers us the opportunity to see our projects unfold - to be part of the outcomes, which at times are life saving or life changing. While grant writing and grant management are both important departments at Aspire, we really enjoy being a resource to our first-time grantees as they may not have prior experience with reporting, reimbursement or other critical key functions of grant management. It allows them to remain focused on the excitement of project implementation, while we ensure sound management of things like Davis Bacon/procurement, indirect cost rates, and compliance in general.

Q.  NGMA: What would you like us to know about Aspire Grant & Development, LLC?

Aspire Grant & Development, LLC was founded in 2014 as a boutique firm focused on economic revitalization for the Appalachian region of the United States. The diverse, professional consulting team brings a wealth of experience to clients, allowing top level identification, submission and management of public and private funds to support philanthropic causes and largescale economic development. Since inception, the firm is proud to document sound management of just over $210 million in public and private grant awards. Aspire is proud to hold national certification as a Women Business Enterprise (WBE) and Women Owned Small Business (WOSB).

Together with our clients, we aspire to create a better tomorrow.

WHAT SETS US APART FROM THE COMPETITION?

• A team of credentialed grant professionals, all with graduate level education, and experience in specialty practice areas. We offer clients a seasoned professional in a variety of areas, including - health and welfare, opioid prevention, nonprofit development, economic development, sustainability and sports tourism.

• Aspire’s founder has served several federal agencies, and a few national foundations, as a registered grant reviewer. This increases our ability to understand key scoring metrics for public and private funding applications, offering our clients a higher scoring application. In fact, if we do not feel that we can develop a higher scoring application for a project, we are unlikely to take it on. This keeps our overall success rate high (88% or above).

• All grant professionals associated with Aspire are required to maintain membership in the National Grants Management Association – we love the training opportunities as they are not specific to one state, geography, or agency. This helps us to ensure that we are well prepared to serve our clients located in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee or Alaska (really anywhere). This past year Aspire relied heavily on NGMA for educational guidance on applications that were written and awarded under the CARES Act, U.S. DOT BUILD, U.S. ARC, and other agencies. During COVID-19, this virtual support network was invaluable to our firm.

• We subscribe to IMPLAN economic modeling software and build a model for nearly every application where job growth or tax impacts should be documented, aiming to show three (3)-year ROI to the public grantor agency.

Q.  NGMA: What is a surprising fact about Aspire?

Aspire loves to teach! We find that grant writing can be intimidating, so we love sharing what we know in no cost community workshops – in fact – you can check out a “Basics of Grant Writing” podcast we developed for Mother Earth News here: https://www.motherearthnews.com/podcast/grants-zepz1902zcbru

Q.  NGMA: How can NGMA’s Members connect with you?

Aspire is proud to offer a web-based utility for clients to request a grant consultation at no charge. We find that this allows our team to analyze your organization, and project, for perfect fit grant programs. Additionally, not all organizations are a good fit for grant funding, which we typically can determine. Our plans use software to research grant funding programs that could be a good fit for your project at the state, federal and private level.

The form can be completed here: https://www.aspiregrants.com/prospective-clients/

Additionally, many clients choose Aspire to manage compliance for grants we have written, and those we have not. We really enjoy this, and we have a great track record of success in preparing clients for audit. For additional information on grant writing or management services, you can give us a call at (814)-701-2787 or email: [email protected].


Q.  NGMA: Tell us what you love about being an NGMA CAPP partner?

Our founder has been participating in educational events held by The National Grants Management Association (NGMA) since 2009, and really feels that the peer support, education, and connection to federal agencies has shaped her career. Therefore, Aspire Grant & Development, LLC is immensely proud to support the mission of NGMA as they become a CAPP partner, allowing all of our grant writing management professionals professional development and collegial support that will be career changing.