Administration for Native Americans (ANA) Application Submission Survey

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BURDEN: The purpose of this information collection is optional to provide feedback to the Administration for Native Americans regarding its annual discretionary application submission processes. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 10 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. This is a voluntary collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # is 0970-0401 and the expiration date is 6/30/2024. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact [email protected].

The Administration for Native Americans (ANA) would like to learn more about applicants’ experiences with ANA’s funding opportunity announcement (FOA) application and submission processes. Data collected from the proposed surveys will be used to help ANA to develop future FOAs and update processes for applying to an announcement.

1. How many people were used to draft the grant application?

2. How many hours were used to complete the grant application?

3. Please describe the drafter(s) role in the FY2021 ANA application process. (Ex. Grant writer, official overseeing application process, community organizer compiling background information, etc.)

4. Please describe the position of the application author(s) in your organization or community? Grant Writer, Community Member, Project Staff, Tribal Administrator, Tribal Leader, Financial Director, Executive Director….Outside Contractor, Contractor within Organization/Tribal entity

5. Is the drafter(s) of the application Native American?

   1. American Indian

   2. Alaskan Native

   3. Native Hawaiian

   4. Indigenous person of Guam, American Samoa or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

What describes the application drafter(s)’ grant writing experience?

5. I have written no federal discretionary grant applications

6. I have written federal discretionary grant applications 5, 10, 15+

1. Is this your organization’s first time submitting an application to ANA?

   1. Yes

   2. No

2. Are there any other federal agencies that have a better FOA or grant process that ANA should look at modeling? If so, please list the agency, subagency, and grant name competition.

Comments:

1. Did you find any steps of the ANA grant application process difficult?

   1. Yes

   2. No

   3. If so, please rank the three most difficult aspects of the grant application? Please start with 1 to indicate the hardest aspect.

      1. Electronic Submission

      2. System for Award Management (SAM) Creation or Renewal

      3. Budget and Budget Justification Organizational Capacity

      4. Writing the whole approach

      5. Writing the Objective Work Plan part of the approach Writing the Project Framework part of the approach (includes a long-term community goal, current community condition, project goal, objectives, outcomes, indicators, and outputs)

      6. Gathering community input

      7. Designing an original project

      8. Submitting Tribal Resolution

      9. Submitting the Assurance of Community Representation

      10. Understanding the criteria

      11. Understanding how to put together a full application

      12. Obtaining the required commitment for the non-federal share (in-kind match)

      13. Locating potential partners, vendors, or needed resources

Comments on what you found difficult for some of these steps:

9. Did you attend any live on-line training prior to submitting your application?

   1. Project Planning and Development Training

   2. Pre-Application Training

   3. If yes, now that you have submitted the application, how would you rate the helpfulness of the training 1 to 5. 5 being very helpful and 1 being not helpful at all.

   4. How can we improve the training or services to best meet your needs?

10. Please rate any of the following online resources you may have used to prepare your grant application?

    1. ANA Application Toolkit

    2. SEDS-GO Application Toolkit

    3. ANA Pre-Application Manual

    4. ANA Project Planning and Development Manual

    5. PPD Toolkit

Comments on any of the available resources?

11. ANA offers free electronic assistance from our Regional Technical Assistance Center services for reviewing your application. Did you use the service?

    1. Yes

    2. No

    3. If no, was there a reason you did not use the service (other than running out of time)?

Comments:

4. If yes, can you provide brief feedback on the services you received or other available tools?

Comments:

12. Did you contact your regional ANA T/TA center to get help with your application?

    1. Yes

    2. No

    3. If no, was there a reason you did not use the service (other than running out of time)?

Comments:

4. If yes, can you provide brief feedback on the services you received or other available tools?

Comments:

13. Did the FOA clearly describe the information expected for the evaluation criteria sections of the application? For each evaluation criteria below, please rank your understanding of the information expected that aligns with project description from 1 to 5 (1 less understanding and 5 being great understanding)

    1. Approach

Comments:

2. Objective Work Plan

Comments:

3. Organizational Capacity

Comments:

4. Budget and Budget Justification

Comments:

14. What aspect of submitting or writing your application took the longest time and effort? Why?

15. Were there terms in the FOA that were hard to understand or needed more clarity? Please list the terms and explain why.

16. Is there any aspect of the FOA that you would suggest ANA not change?

17. If you were to apply for another ANA grant, what would be most helpful for you in the future?

Comments:

SEDS GO ONLY:

18. Did you refer to the ANA Project Framework, found in Section IV.2 Project Description, in preparing your application?

    1. Yes

    2. No

19. If yes, on a scale from 1 to 5, rate the helpfulness of the ANA Project Framework to design your project, where 1 represents unhelpful and 5 represents very helpful.

Comments:

20. ANA allowed for an 80-day application period for Native Language Preservation and Maintenance, Native Language Esther Martinez Immersion and Environmental Regulatory Enhancement and 85 days for Social and Economic Development Strategies, Social and Economic Development Strategies – Alaska and Social and Economic Development Strategies for Growing Organizations. Was that sufficient time to put together your application?