Video 16: Preparing your ANA Application

Preparing your ANA Application

This section provides guidance on how to format and arrange your application in preparation for submitting your ANA application. This information includes required formatting guidelines, fonts and sizes, page limits and exceptions, application components, attachment types, and file conversions. A clearly structured application will help reviewers easily find and assess important information throughout the merit review process and ensure that the application is received in its entirety.

Hello, and welcome to the 2025 ANA Pre-Application training, Preparing Your ANA Application. Before you start this process, please ensure that all of your passwords are up-to-date. This includes your SAM.gov account, grants.gov, and your UEI number. Also, some tips for Adobe. Ensure that you're using a compatible version with grants.gov. You can do this by following the following link, grants.gov/webs/grants/adobe-software-compatibility. You can also do an Adobe compatibility test in grants.gov as well to ensure you're using the correct version.
Here's some helpful resources when navigating grants.gov. The top link is a video on navigating the submission process with grants.gov, in addition to other YouTube videos showing you how to navigate grants.gov, learning about Workspace, and registering as an organizational applicant. Please note that passwords expire every 60 days.
When you're ready to begin, search for the NOFO on grants.gov. You'll go to grants.gov, you'll go to the Search Grants tab, and then you'll put in the federal assistance listing number located in the Notice of Funding Opportunity to search for that application package.
Please be mindful of electronic file naming conventions. This could interrupt validation within grants.gov, so ensure that file names are lesser than 50 characters. Please don't attach any documents with the same name. They should all have unique names. No diacritical characters or pronunciation symbols, this can cause formatting issues within grants.gov and validation issues. And then also attachments that do not satisfy the following rules regarding of the use of special characters may cause the entire application to be rejected or cause issues during processing. This is very important.
Okay, I have to give this reminder again, here's another look at the funding timeline for both SEDS and SEDS-AK. They were published on June 20th of this year. The applications for both will be due July 22nd, 2025. Project start dates both start on September 30th. I highly encourage you again to please submit your application early to prevent any issues within grants.gov in the submission process.
All right, when you're putting the application together, everything must be submitted electronically through grants.gov Workspace. This is how you access that. After you go to the funding opportunity we discussed previously, then you'll have the option to connect with your Workspace and start submitting your documents. This is what that will look like, and it will indicate the required forms, the status of those forms. You'll also have the ability to lock and unlock documents throughout the process, depending on the staff person.
When you're putting your application together, there's also another option to submit by paper if electronically is not an option. We try to encourage people not to rely on this. It does have a certain approval process. There is a fourteen-day requirement that the application must be submitted before the deadline, and knowing that this year is a very short window of 31 days, there's not a lot of time, so please try to get the electronic version to work if at all possible.
When you're putting your application together, organize it based on an 8 1/2 by 11 white paper with one-inch margins all around. Ensure that everything, with a couple of exceptions, is double-spaced Times New Roman font, 12-point, and that there's no longer a two-file requirement. Now we do suggest three files, and we'll go over those in the next video on the submission process. So, regarding those exceptions that I mentioned, for things like the SFs, the project summary, any agreements, the budget, you can use single-spaced, and the footnotes can be in 10-point font as well. So, please note that there are some exceptions to the formatting rule. Also, some exclusions, ANA has a 100-page limit, but it does exclude OMB-approved forms, the project summary, the OWP, and the required assurances of certification.
Business plans; if you plan on having a business plan, it's not required during submission, but ANA will require it during the negotiation, and it's highly suggested including the Executive Summary in the application attachments, and reference your business plan in the narrative.
Okay, when you go to start compiling all of your information into those three files, this is what we recommend for file one. This is a lot of the information that we've covered throughout this training, and it's your project narrative. In file one, you'll include the table of contents, the project summary, which can be single-spaced page for that part, and then all of the components with the project narrative.
For file two in the documents, a lot of this is the supporting documentation for your application. This can include job descriptions, resumes, governing body documentation. Also, these documents are included in that 100-page limit. And I haven't mentioned it yet, but please do not exceed the 100-page limit. If that happens, your application will be redacted, and we're not sure which pages would be excluded, and that could impact the success of your application.
For file three, we do recommend you uploading your OWP as a Microsoft Word or PDF. There have been issues navigating grants.gov and submitting through the system where you can get timed out, it may not save certain information, so we do recommend uploading your OWP as file three in your attachments. However, if you do recommend using the online form within grants.gov, you'll have the option to upload your OWP.
Okay, so lastly, we're going to talk about your project summary. The project summary can also be seen as like an abstract of sorts. It is a one-page, single-spaced document that is a very concise summary of your project plan, including the needs to be addressed, the proposed services, and the population to be served. This is not included in the page limit. We do recommend including it in your file one attachment, and that way it stays in order and it keeps everything organized. In your abstract, please do not reference other parts of your application in the abstract. Keep it very concise and high level.
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Up next

Video 17: Submitting the Application to ANA

Submitting the Application to ANA

Training episodes

Video 1: Overview of ANA and the Funding Opportunities

Video 2: Project Introduction

Video 3: Current Community Condition

Video 4: Project Goals

Video 5: Objectives

Video 6: Project Implementation Plan

Video 7: Community Based Strategy

Video 8: Population to be Served

Video 9: Outcomes

Video 10: Objective Work Plan

Video 11: Data Management Plan

Video 12: Staffing Plan

Video 13: Partnerships and Consultants

Video 14: Oversight Plan

Video 15: Line Item Budget and Budget Narrative

Video 16: Preparing your ANA Application

Video 17: Submitting the Application to ANA

Video 18: Conclusion

Video 16: Preparing your ANA Application

Preparing your ANA Application

Up next

Video 17: Submitting the Application to ANA

Training episodes

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