Welcome to Grants Republic!
We’re Stan Saunders and Heather Fukunaga, and we’ve been writing grant proposals for a combined 26 years and counting. Stan has written grants and raised money since joining a nonprofit agency in 2002, while Heather started grant writing after joining Stan in the same Development Department in 2012. In 2019, we started Grants Republic to help other agencies (including nonprofits, school districts, institutions of higher education, and cities and counties) raise needed grant funding to support the programs and services that make our communities better places to live.
Our Mission is to help your Agency get funding that supports important programs that improve communities
We’re very serious about this and supporting all the services you provide your clients. Heather worked for several years in direct service positions at a public health study abroad program, a women’s STEM organization at a university, and a community schools program that served low income families with education and wraparound support services. Stan taught history for several years at community colleges before turning to grant writing. We both believe in the transformative power of education, human services, job training, housing, and neighborhood revitalization to change lives, and that’s why we started Grants Republic.
How do we Support You?
We help you submit high quality proposals for funding. For some agencies, this means full grant writing services in which we create and submit the entire proposal working with your staff. For others, our comprehensive federal grant writing course might be the way to go. It builds your staff capacity to write federal grants now and going forward. It offers guidelines, how-tos, videos and templates to make it as straightforward as possible for you to put together high quality proposals that are funded.
But more generally, information on our blog and in our newsletter gives you important resources about funding. Our newsletter has insights on open Requests for Proposals (RFPs), primarily from federal agencies, but also from other funders. On our blog, we provide tips based on our firsthand experience writing grant proposals. These can talk about things like setting up your SAM account, the importance of an indirect cost agreement to your agency, and the core building blocks of a strong narrative. The newsletter and blog are always free, and we hope they benefit you.
What's our Track Record?
We’ve done this for a long time, and our track record includes successful grant proposals that support important education, job training, community development, and other programs and services for clients in need. We’ve worked with nonprofits, school districts, charter schools, cities, and institutions of higher education to bring in funds. Over the past nineteen years, grant proposals we have written have raised over $250 million, with over $150 million specifically raised through federal funds.
For more information, check out our Grants Republic flyer (pdf download) and below.
U.S. Department of Education
- Promise Neighborhood ($30 million awarded in 2017)
- Promise Neighborhood ($30 million awarded in 2012)
- GEAR UP ($18.2 million awarded in 2018)
- GEAR UP ($11.1 million awarded in 2017)
- GEAR UP ($16.2 million awarded in 2014)
- GEAR UP ($6.3 million awarded in 2005)
- Full-Service Community Schools ($2.5 million awarded in 2014)
- Full-Service Community Schools ($2.5 million awarded in 2010)
- Full-Service Community Schools ($2.5 million awarded in 2008)
- School Climate Transformation Grant ($3.75 million awarded in 2019)
- School Climate Transformation Grant ($3.75 million awarded in 2014)
- Educational Opportunity Centers ($1.18 million awarded in 2016)
U.S. Department of Labor
- Re-Entry Projects ($1.5 million awarded in 2019)
- TechHire ($4 million awarded in 2016)
- Pathways to Justice Careers ($1 million awarded in 2016)
- Face Forward ($1.05 million awarded in 2015)
- YouthBuild ($1.1 million awarded in 2015)
- YouthBuild ($1.1 million awarded in 2013)
U.S. Department of Justice
- Community-Based Crime Reduction, formerly called Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation ($1 million awarded in 2017)
- Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation ($1 million awarded in 2013)
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
- Promise Zone (one of the first five federal designations awarded; written on behalf of City of Los Angeles) in 2013
- Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant ($500,000 awarded in 2013)
U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive ($500,000 awarded in 2016)
- Local Food Promotion Program ($100,000 awarded in 2014)
Corporation for National & Community Service
- AmeriCorps National Direct ($1.9 million awarded in 2018)
- AmeriCorps National Direct ($1.9 million awarded in 2015)
- Operation AmeriCorps ($164,000 awarded in 2015)
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
- Assets for Independence ($581,000 awarded in 2013)
U.S. Department of Commerce
- Broadband Technology Opportunities Program ($5.6 million awarded in 2010)
California Department of Education
- Learning Communities for School Success ($1.3 million awarded in 2019)
- Learning Communities for School Success ($1.9 million awarded in 2017)
- Career Technical Education Incentive Grant ($513,000 awarded in 2016)
- Afterschool / expanded learning funding from After School Education and Safety (ASES) and from 21st Century Community Learning Centers ($16 to $18 million awarded annually from 2014-19)
Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development
- California Community Reinvestment Grant ($300,000 awarded in 2019)
California Department of Community Services & Development
- California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) Outreach & Education ($447,000 awarded in 2019)
- California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) Outreach & Education ($429,000 awarded in 2018)
- California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) Outreach & Education ($300,000 awarded in 2017)
- California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC) Outreach & Education ($300,000 awarded in 2016)
California Public Utilities Commission
- Broadband Adoption Account Program ($221,000 awarded in 2019)
City of Los Angeles
- WorkSource Center ($892,000 annual contract, first awarded in 2013 and renewed in 2019)
- FamilySource Center ($800,000 annual contract, first awarded in 2010 and renewed in 2015)
- YouthSource Center (two sites, each $605,000 annual contract, first one awarded in 2010 and the second one awarded in 2017)
- Gang Reduction & Youth Development Prevention Grant ($250,000 annual contract, awarded in 2015 and renewed in 2018)
- Project imPACT ($556,000 awarded in 2017)
- Day Labor Centers in Van Nuys and North Hollywood ($200,000 annual contract, awarded in 2004 and renewed periodically)
Stan Saunders Heather Fukunaga