[0:03] This video will provide instructions on applying for a grant to the city's eCivis platform.

[0:10] The first thing you'll need to do is navigate to the city's solicitation page, which is seen on the screen here.

[0:18] You should have a link to this page from the department's website or marketing materials about the grant to take you to the solicitation.

[0:29] Once you're on this page, you will see any grants that are currently open or soon to be open.

[0:39] And you can also display solicitations that have closed at the time that you are on the website.

[0:53] Once you're here and have identified the grant that you're interested in applying for,

[1:00] You'll want to select that grant,

[1:06] and a new page will pop up that provides additional information and details about this particular grant.

[1:14] For example, you'll be provided a title, application start and end date, CFDA numbers for the federal award if relevant.

[1:26] There may be a URL available for more information.

[1:30] information, a summary of the grant, and then each tab will provide additional information

[1:38] on eligibility, financials, how much is available, if there's a minimum or maximum award,

[1:48] contact

[1:48] information if you have questions about the grant, and finally, relevant files for

[1:55] the grant.

[1:56] This is particularly helpful as there is typically a grant guide or request for proposal or NOFA

[2:07] with more details about the grant itself and the rules around the grant.

[2:13] There may also be files that are necessary for an applicant to download ahead of time

[2:21] before clicking apply and complete and then upload during the application process.

[2:27] So pay particular attention to the notes in the files section.

[2:33] Once you are ready, you can go ahead and click apply.

[2:42] This is going to take you to the eSivis portal.

[2:49] If you haven't yet signed up for the eSivis portal,

[2:52] this will be a perfect time to do so.

[2:55] You would just click create an account.

[2:57] put

[3:02] in your first and last name, email and password,

[3:08] create a password, and then

[3:11] sign up.

[3:14] Once you click the sign up button, eSivis will send you an email that

[3:23] looks like this that says welcome to the portal. Please verify your email.

[3:36] You'll

[3:36] receive a second email saying that your email is verified.

[3:42] At this point, they'll provide another link

[3:45] to log back into the portal.

[3:54] So at this point, we'll want to log in.

[4:01] If you have an eCivus account already,

[4:04] for example, if you are a previous grant recipient

[4:07] and have already created an account,

[4:10] you won't need to create a new account,

[4:14] and you'll choose Portal Login.

[4:16] If you have used eSivis before the portal existed, you may need to log in using your

[4:24] grants network login.

[4:26] So if you sign in and click portal login and it doesn't work, try the grants network login.

[4:40] So I have opened up my account, but right now I only see a prior year grant.

[4:48] So I'm going to go ahead and go back to the solicitation.

[4:51] Sometimes this happens,

[4:56] click apply again, and because I'm already signed in at this point, it actually comes right up.

[5:05] So you'll see here this is the fiscal year 2024 CDBG grant that I had selected to apply for, and now it shows up automatically.

[5:18] So at this point I will create a new application using the screen button here.

[5:23] The

[5:37] website does make you log in with your credentials again in order to apply.

[6:03] The first step then once you have opened up the application is to complete the profile.

[6:13] So here it says action is required and there's an option to open the profile

[6:19] and

[6:24] it will populate some information about the applicant.

[6:28] But you'll want to complete as much of this information as possible.

[6:32] If it is asterisked, that means that there is a required field and you must complete it.

[6:40] It will not let you save unless you complete the required fields.

[6:44] It will give you an error if you have missed something.

[6:50] On the profile, what we're looking for is your basic organizational information.

[6:56] You, as an applicant, so who are you and your role with the company?

[7:02] Your organization identification number, unique entity identifier, that is the replacement

[7:08] for the old DUNS number.

[7:11] Who is your authorized representative?

[7:14] Who is typically the individual who has authority to sign the contract?

[7:20] Should you be awarded a grant with the city?

[7:23] Typically, that's going to be your president or CEO, and then a business or finance representative

[7:31] who might be your financial officer or controller or COO,

[7:40] your organization headquarters address.

[7:44] If you have multiple, you may want to choose to use the organization address that is your

[7:54] primary mailing address.

[7:58] Some more details about your authorized representative and business

[8:01] contact and then go ahead and create.

[8:06] Although very few of those fields are required, we

[8:09] do ask that you complete it as thoroughly as possible.

[8:15] Once the profile is completed,

[8:19] it gives me this other information. So now I can actually begin the application process

[8:26] by clicking this link here and what it's telling you here is that the colors will

[8:33] change on this little rectangle here if there's something wrong with with the

[8:44] application there'll be red when it's blue that means there's an action

[8:49] required and when it's gray that means that you've already submitted and

[8:53] your submission is under review.

[9:00] Okay, once you click that,

[9:02] it's gonna give you a little bit more information

[9:04] about your application process.

[9:06] For example, how many days are remaining

[9:08] to submit the application.

[9:11] And we're gonna go ahead and open.

[9:19] All right, this is where you will actually fill

[9:22] in the details of your application.

[9:26] Notice that there are two scroll bars on the right.

[9:28] That can be a little bit confusing at first.

[9:30] so you can scroll down a little bit.

[9:36] And here you will complete all of the fields

[9:39] for the application.

[9:41] So you'll want to add an application project title

[9:46] and your organization name here at the top.

[9:49] This is primarily for the purpose of reviewing

[9:54] the application later,

[9:59] and then begin

[10:00] to complete all of the fields.

[10:03] As I mentioned, an asterisk next to the field title means that that is a required field.

[10:15] And in text box,

[10:19] open-ended answers, you will notice that there's a word count down here

[10:25] and it will tell you how many words you have left.

[10:30] It's

[10:36] not required to use up all of the space if there is a word count but you

[10:43] will want to be mindful of the word count as you cannot go over it.

[10:50] You'll also

[10:51] notice that some questions have additional help text underneath. That is

[10:57] there to help to guide you in the event that a question may be confusing

[11:02] to an organization or additional information may be helpful in this

[11:08] case. So be sure to look for help text if there's something that you're unsure of. And if you

[11:19] don't know the answer and there is no help text, you should go back and look at the

[11:26] contact information that was provided in the solicitation and reach out to that individual

[11:32] with any questions that you have.

[11:37] Note also that some questions are conditional

[11:40] or dynamic, meaning that the questions that are available to complete will change depending on your selection.

[11:51] For example, here with CDBG eligibility, there are different categories, and this is pretty typical of grants.

[12:00] There may be certain categories of eligibility or program type that will require different

[12:12] types of questions.

[12:15] So for example, if I choose CBG public services, a couple of new questions going to come up.

[12:20] For example, is the proposed public service new or existing?

[12:25] And if I choose existing, there are additional questions.

[12:28] If I choose new, there are not.

[12:31] So just be mindful that as you go through the application, additional questions may appear

[12:38] that were not visible from the get-go.

[12:43] So I recommend highly that you go through the application briefly and select those that

[12:53] you know are relevant for any drop downs or radio buttons or checkboxes. First, just to get a glimpse

[13:02] of all of the potential questions you may be asked. So you're not scrambling at the end of the

[13:09] application period.

[13:16] There are generally several sections of the application to be completed,

[13:20] applicant information, there may be a program specific eligibility section,

[13:26] program description and scope,

[13:31] need and outcomes. Be mindful that when we ask

[13:36] for need and outcomes we are looking for specificity. So that may be noted here

[13:43] to be specific and include relevant data, but if not that is typically what is

[13:50] being reviewed for.

[13:55] We also look for administrative and financial capacity of

[13:58] the organization who is applying.

[14:06] And finally, there will be some required documentation

[14:09] that may be requested to be uploaded

[14:13] and submitted with the application.

[14:17] You'll notice that there is only one file options

[14:23] for each question.

[14:25] So in the event that two things are being asked for,

[14:29] for example, current and prior year budget,

[14:31] it, you will have to combine those two into one file in order to upload the information.

[14:44] And here you can see in this help text, this HUD conflict of interest disclosure form can

[14:51] be found in the files section of the solicitation.

[14:56] So, there's actually a link that allows you to go back.

[15:08] If you open this up, it will take you to the solicitation link and then back to the files

[15:17] that you were looking for if you get to that section and you need to download the file again.

[15:28] All

[15:59] right, so you'll note that when I clicked that back to solicitation, I had not saved

[16:05] the application.

[16:07] So take that as a lesson learned to be sure to save your draft application before you

[16:16] click off of this section.

[16:28] All right, once you have completed the main application section, there actually

[16:33] is additional information.

[16:34] So if you go to the right scroll bar and scroll down, there will be an option for application

[16:44] budget and goals.

[16:51] Here under actions, you can actually edit the budget and edit goals.

[16:57] Now not every application may ask for a budget and goals through this method.

[17:02] So be sure to pay close attention to the solicitation information as occasionally the systems budget process is not used, but instead you're asked to complete a Excel or a PDF version of your budget and then upload it with the application.

[17:24] So just pay particular attention to the instructions and if you get down to the bottom and there

[17:31] is no budget option or no goals option that is likely intentional for that particular

[17:38] application and meaning that it is not required.

[17:43] However, I will walk through it just in case the application you are submitting does

[17:47] require a budget and goals.

[17:51] So here we'll click edit budget.

[17:53] It

[17:56] will bring you to a new page that has the budget summary here at the top and then a list of budget items.

[18:10] You want to glance through this to see if everything you expect to request is here.

[18:20] And if not, you will use this other category for additional requests that are not captured in these categories.

[18:30] But I highly recommend that you utilize the categories given.

[18:34] And if nothing really doesn't fit, you may need to reach out to the individual who's responsible for the grant management from that solicitation page and get more information.

[18:50] But let's say that we do have the information that we have. Click personnel, for example, to add a request for a budget item.

[19:02] You will actually open up, like I just did, open up the line item, and then click into this cell that says cost.

[19:16] Now a cursor doesn't appear but it does turn blue. And then just use your keypad

[19:22] to enter the request. So for example here let's request $30,000 in personnel, okay

[19:31] I'm going to click off of it and now you can see I've requested $30,000 in

[19:36] direct costs and that's been updated also up here on the budget summary.

[19:47] We

[19:47] But instead, simply use the one line to summarize your request for each line item.

[20:02] For example, if we add $3,000 for supplies, it's the same.

[20:11] If you are making a request for a grant that requires a match,

[20:18] Match information can also be uploaded here

[20:27] and you'll want to add additional line items

[20:36] in the event of match.

[20:38] So for example, if we have purchased equipment that will count as match, I'll enter that

[20:46] cost here and

[20:51] then change this item type to cost share.

[20:54] Cost share is another equivalent for match and

[21:02] you'll see once I've clicked

[21:03] off of that it did update over here to cost share and we'll also have updated

[21:08] here. So the total amount on the left is going to be your total grant request.

[21:15] Total amount on the right is going to be any match or cost share that you're

[21:24] contributing to the grant.

[21:30] Please use the save option to save your changes. You

[21:37] can add a note if needed. And then use this budget narrative to provide an

[21:43] explanation for your budget request. So because this is rolled up, this $30,000

[21:50] let's say it's a large grant, you're actually asking for $300,000. You'll

[21:56] want to use the budget narrative section

[21:58] to explain the breakdown of that 300,000

[22:02] and the personnel that it will be provided to

[22:05] and their job title or duties.

[22:09] In addition to providing additional information

[22:12] or explanation for particularly high dollar requests

[22:17] or dollar requests that you'll need to explain the purpose.

[22:22] So if you're asking for mileage and travel,

[22:25] Is that for daily travel? Is that for travel to a training or a conference?

[22:30] Be specific about your request in the narrative.

[22:41] Okay, in the event that you don't know what your match is going to be used for,

[22:48] or the type of category that your match will be used for,

[22:51] you can use the other option to report your match.

[22:54] There are two other sections. Either is fine. We recommend that you use number 21 other, but either is fine.

[23:07] And if

[23:11] you do have, for example, if you're matching personnel dollar for dollar, you can in that case add another row for the

[23:25] purpose of recording your match.

[23:27] So

[23:32] here it shows 30,000 direct and 30,000 cost share.

[23:39] You can also use this little blue button to save and

[23:48] I'll give you errors if there is something that is missing.

[23:51] So here it's asking for a title and description for that match information that I already entered.

[23:58] So I'll want to provide additional information here.

[24:19] There's also this Excel export option.

[24:23] So, if you need to provide an example of your budget to your boss or if you need to export

[24:33] the budget request and have somebody else fill it out, you can use this option to export

[24:41] and get the information necessary from that individual or just keep for your records.

[24:56] Okay, once you're done, be sure you have saved and returned to your application.

[24:59] Okay,

[25:11] it may make you continue to sign in and

[25:26] then you will want to click actions and

[25:32] edit goals for the final portion of your application.

[25:38] Now not every request has a goals as I mentioned before, but if it does, this is how you'll

[25:47] enter it.

[25:52] On the left, you'll see the goal and objective.

[25:55] For example, for CDBG, there are goals for assisting businesses with grants, doing homeowner

[26:03] housing rehabilitation, serving individuals through public services, and here you'll

[26:08] enter the goal that you have that meets that goal or objective.

[26:13] So in my case, for example, let's say that I have a goal of serving 100 individuals through public services.

[26:24] The direct cost matching and program income expenditures are not a required portion of the goals, only the target units.

[26:32] And then you can go ahead and save.

[26:34] We

[26:39] turn to the application.

[27:05] Once your profile is complete and the application is completely ready to submit, this button

[27:14] here will turn green and at that point you'll want to click submit.

[27:20] It's grayed out for this application because there are required fields that have not been

[27:27] completed.

[27:28] But once those required fields are completed,

[27:37] you can mark your application as complete and then submit.

[27:56] Please note that the individual who submits the application will be the default individual for managing the grant once received.

[28:08] So be sure to select the individual to create the application, knowing that they will be the one to receive the emails.

[28:21] subsequent to the grant award if you are successful to submit the quarterly or

[28:32] however often financial reports and program reports and closeout documents.

[28:38] So that individual who submits the application will be the default

[28:44] individual to receive the grant award.

[28:50] It can be changed but it can be a little

[28:55] bit of a hassle, so just a recommendation there.

[29:00] And that is how you will apply for

[29:03] a grant using the ESAVIS portal.

E-Civis Application Walkthrough

Transcript