Services > Grants and Funding > Grants and Funding FAQ
Q. "I know what you mean by 'grants'. What do you mean by funding ?"
A. "Funding" refers to other resources -- loans, contributions of goods, services, technical assistance, etc -that can be of value to you in completing a project. BEI will advise you on whether pursuing these types of funding will be helpful in meeting your goals.
Q. "Where do most grants come from?"
A. Most grants to municipalities come from the NJ Department of Transportation, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program, the NJ Department of Community Affairs and other state departments. From time to time, other sources of grants to municiplaiites issue requests for applications, but traditionally the "universe" of grants available to towns is limited. But to keep you informed of all the latest grants and funding opportunities available, BEI monitors grant availability on a daily basis.
Q. "How much money will we get?"
A. While there is no definite answer to your question, the success in securing grant awards is directly related to how sound your funding plan is. BEI will work with you to identify your needs, match those needs to grant opportunities, and develop a grants and funding timetable to heighten your chances of success.
Q. "Can't we find, apply for, and get grants on our own?"
A. Yes, of course you can. However, experience indicates that most municipal staff either lack the time or the expertise to find, applyfor and get grants. BEI's Grants and Funding Department works with you full-time to find, apply for and get grants for a number of municipalities throughtout New Jersey. As a result, we become expert at knowing what you need, presenting your needs to funders and - most importantly - increasing the liklihood of a grant award by maintaining relationships with those funders year after year.
Q. "I have been contacted by several grant-writing consultants. Why should I choose BEI's Grants and Funding Department and not them?"
A. To meet the cost of doing business, grant-writing consultants often will charge you both an annual fee and a per-grant fee. In addition, these consultants need to rely upon your municipal professionals to produce for them those materials (concept plans, renderings, maps, environmental assessments, etc.) that are required as attachments to grant applications. This results in greater demands on municipal money and staff. On the other hand, BEI's Grants and Funding Department is a "value added service" within a multi-disciplinary consulting and environmental engineering firm. We have all the professionals needed to make your applications complete and our cost of doing business does not rely on charging you multiple fees. So you save time and money.
Q. "How long will we have to work with BEI's Grants and Funding Department before we receive a grant award?"
A. It can vary, but the key to success is devising a sound and realistic funding plan. We will help you do that, and you should see results in a year or so. If not, we reduce our fee and double our efforts. In the long run, we can guarantee that you will get grants in an amount between 3 and 10 times the amount of fees.