About
About Insight Grants Development, LLC.
Insight Grants Development, LLC. is a grants consulting firm located in Western New York that provides grant writing, editing, evaluation, research, planning, training, and advisement services to nonprofit organizations, municipalities, schools, and school districts seeking to close identified funding gaps. We support for-profit and vendor entities by offering information and assistance that will aid their public sector customers in obtaining funding to make needed purchases. Our primary purpose is to help nonprofits identify and fully leverage government and private grant funding streams in order to continue and/or expand the programs they offer to meet the needs of their communities.
Mission Statement
The mission of Insight Grants Development’s team is to meet our client’s needs and exceed their expectations by providing the best overall grants development consulting services. Our team will work tirelessly in assisting and guiding clients through the entire funding process. Our diligent efforts combined with the positive relationships build with clients will foster a strengthening of communities via the obtainment of grant funding.
Professional Focus
We exist to provide the grant support services of the highest quality to nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S., and earning and maintaining our clients’ trust and confidence is our focus. We are committed to excellent communication and complete client satisfaction in every situation. As your professional consultants, you can expect us to proactively identify and notify you regarding opportunities you may want to apply for. We deal in an honest and forthright manner and will do our best to disclose to you and contingencies you need to be aware of with the programs you are considering. Our goal is to help you meet your funding needs. We will not try to “sell” you on grants that may not be an adequate fit simply to land the work contract, and we offer a variety of capacity-building services in addition to grant writing, if your interest is in enhancing your organization’s ability to independently seek out and apply for grants. We want to work with your organization in a partnership that makes sense for your situation. We will work to earn your organization’s utmost confidence in our performance and reliability.
Executive Management
Our team is managed by Insight Grants Development’s owner, operator, President, and CEO, Rosalie J. Mangino-Crandall. Ms. Mangino-Crandall has extensive experience in grants research, writing, and editing. She has been a writer and presenter on a number of grant-related topics at conferences across the country. Although knowledgeable of funding at all levels and across many concept areas, she has been particularly successful in securing funding for K-12 education, homeland security, health and physical fitness, and technology. She has also served as a federal grant reviewer for multiple programs—including Carol M. White Physical Education for Progress (PEP), Emergency Response and Crisis Management Planning (ERCM—now known as Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools or REMS), and Improving Literacy through School Libraries (LSL). She has been instrumental in organizations winning millions in grant dollars in the last four years.
Previous to founding Insight, Ms. Mangino-Crandall co-founded and served as principal operator of and manager of all services for COGENT, LLC. Prior to that, she managed the Grants Development and Administration Division at Grants Office, LLC, where she oversaw all nonprofit services, including services for nonprofits sponsored by for-profit clients. Her duties at both COGENT and Grants Office included but were not limited to grants research, grant seeking plan development, grantwriting, editing, consultation, marketing, and contract development and execution.
Ms. Mangino-Crandall is a St. Bonaventure University graduate with a degree in English and history. Her past experience also includes editing articles and manuscripts for publication, teaching in public and private schools, curriculum planning in both classroom and museum settings, tutoring, and work in a number of after school and summer programs for at-risk youth.
Policies and Ethics
Payment Policy: Insight charges flat fees for service. For all contracts exceeding $1,000, a partial payment will be due upfront and the remaining balance will be due within 15 days of deliverable completion. Pricing for grant proposal development and grants management reporting assumes projects will be commissioned and the initial payment or purchase order received 15 or more business days prior to relevant deadlines. Late fees may be added to invoices that have gone unpaid for eight or more days past their due dates. If you know your organization requires more than 15 days to send payment, please discuss that with us during contract development so that we can make special payment arrangements for you to help your organization avoid late fees.
Contingency Policy: Insight does not write on contingency for the following reasons:
* A number of grant programs state specifically that contingency writing is not condoned and/or allowed.
* Contingency projects can result–even inadvertently–in unfair prioritization or deprioritization of client projects. Insight values all client relationships and makes every effort to make every project of equally high priority.Writing on contingency can send the inaccurate message that winning grant awards is reliant on writing and submitting a strong proposal alone. Although submitting a strong proposal is absolutely essential to being funded, it is important for the client to understand that a variety of factors go into grant award decisions, many of which Insight has no ability to control (ex. geographic location, political interests, etc.).
* Writing on contingency sends the message that our work and our time are valuable only if an award is received. Insight’s goal is always for your organization to receive an award and we will do everything we can to secure that end, but even when that does not happen, your organization still benefits simply from participating in the process. Your knowledge and internal capacity will be increased with every application process you complete, as will your overall chances of receiving funding.
Bonus Policy: In accordance with the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Code of Ethics and the guidelines for most grants, Insight does not accept additional payments of any kind (bonus, “cut,” etc.) from nonprofit organizations for grants that are awarded. Industry clients who intend to sponsor nonprofit customer grant writing and are interested in bonuses as a form of risk-sharing should contact Insight directly to discuss the issue. We will consider bonus arrangements with for-profit clients on a case-by-case basis.
Close Deadlines: Insight’s team has successfully completed—and seen funded–numerous grant writing projects with very close deadlines. We can accept most grant writing and grants management reporting projects as long as 20 or more business days (15 in some cases) remain between contract signing and the grant deadline. Pricing for grant proposal development and grants management reporting assumes projects will be commissioned and the initial payment or purchase order received 20/15 or more business days prior to relevant deadlines. Please contact us for the current “nearness to deadline” fee schedule. We reserve the right to decline any project we feel there is not enough time to adequately complete.
Guarantees of Success: Insight is a highly professional firm and its team members have significant track records of success. Although our assistance is likely to increase the customer’s chances of receiving a grant award and Insight will make every reasonable and professional effort to ensure the customer’s proposal is responsive to and compliant with the grant guidelines, of high quality, and competitive, due to the many considerations that go into grant awards which are beyond our control, we cannot guarantee any funding will be awarded. In general, unfunded grants will not result in refund or re-crediting of the client’s payment to Insight. If, however, the client receives a letter or reviewers’ comments indicating that the grant was thrown out for non-compliance or scored below an average of 70 out of 100, upon receipt of written request and copies of the relevant documentation, Insight will credit the grant back to the customer’s account. Therefore, writing for the customer’s next grant will be free of charge.
Process Problems: Occasionally problems arise on our end during the process that result in our inability to meet stated timelines and/or other expectations. In these cases, we do our best to keep the client informed and to adjust timelines as necessary and reasonable. In the event the issue results in a submission problem and/or failure to satisfactorily complete the project, the client will either receive a discount, not be charged, or receive a partial or full refund at our discretion, depending on the severity of the situation. Because your trust is important to us, we do our best to let you know if we feel we have not met the expectations we established and to proactively offer a discount, refund, or free services. If at any point you feel the services provided were not what you expected based on the work contract and we have not already raised the issue with you, we ask that you raise the issue with us. Your satisfaction is important to us and we will do our best to ensure it.
