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GCN Home > 10/11/04 issue

HHS, other agencies collaborate to make Grants.gov pay off

By Richard W. Walker, GCN Staff

If it takes nimble cross-government collaboration to really make electronic government work, Grants.gov is well ahead of the pack.

When the Web portal was getting started two years ago, program officials had to get grant-making agencies across the federal government on board. And they did.

The Government Accountability Office reported this year that Grants.gov was one of only two Quicksilver e-government projects to meet all its original objectives. Its mission was to create a simple, unified way to find and apply for federal grants on the Web.

“I think the collaboration among the agencies and [the] way they’ve all come together is as much of a success story as anything else,” said Rebecca Spitzgo, Grants.gov program manager at the Health and Human Services Department, the program’s managing partner.

“You just don’t see that happen often, whether it’s private industry or the federal government,” she said. “Those walls are up. We have people who have allowed those walls to be broken down and do things that are in the best interest of the citizen.”

Grants.gov lets state and local agencies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations find and apply for federal grant opportunities worth about $360 billion annually.

One reason grant-making agencies were keen to collaborate on Grants.gov was that they understood how crucial it was to their missions.

“They really believe in doing good things,” Spitzgo said.

“They want that grant money to go out for its intended purpose. In the long run, if you make it easier for the grant community, more people can apply, we get better-quality applications and the money is put to better use. I think both the agencies and the grant community have bought into that.”

Another reason for Grants.gov’s success is leadership from the top, Spitzgo said.

The Office of Management and Budget, for instance, has persistently driven the message that the Quicksilver projects—a centerpiece of the President’s Management Agenda—are critical to improving effectiveness and efficiency in government programs.

More news on related topics: E-Government, IT in Action, Management, Web Strategies



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