If you’re not writing grant proposals for stimulus dollars, you’re leaving money on the table; it’s as simple as that.

Communities across the U.S. stand to lose significant money when it comes to building a broadband infrastructure. There is no national game plan, which means regions must craft their own – and the regions that strike first are likely to win.

Here’s what’s at stake: $7 billion in stimulus funding earmarked for broadband expansion.

And that is not counting other initiatives that could affect broadband projects. Business interests such as Intel, Google and Qwest are planning accordingly. Public interests should do no less.

Partnerships are critical.  Communities working in tandem have a much greater chance of success versus individual cities and villages within the same region submitting their own proposals.  Ultimately, it will be up to government leaders to organize key players in committees, and proactively write grant applications for stimulus funding.  If you don’t have an experienced grant writer on staff, you may need to hire one.

In some cases, grant money will be awarded for projects already in the planning stages that are “shovel-ready” for schools, hospitals, libraries and other sectors of your community.  Take this example from Cleveland: Two years ago, regional leaders helped hospitals coordinate a quest for federal funding to digitize health care records. Today, those same players, now well into the project, are positioned to leverage opportunities for stimulus money. This is an example of how a key sector – health care – can benefit.

In other cases, money will be awarded for the construction of new broadband networks, or extension of existing ones. With building broadband infrastructure one must keep in mind the many layers of work involved, relating to construction, adoption, community programs, computer centers and skills training.  An effective strategy is one that leverages broadband to benefit a community, such as through health care or government services, ultimately resulting in social and economic benefits. (SEE KOREA article).

Don’t want to leave money on the table? Here is what you need to do:

1.    Organize community leaders to meet and share information about potential projects.
2.    Create a list of projects already in the planning or “shovel-ready” stage, and check the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (PDF) to see if they may be eligible.
3.    Think hard about the end game.  What are your goals?  What is the potential impact?
4.    Plan for education and implementation. Broadband is not a Field of Dreams.  If you build it, they might not necessarily come.  You need to have an awareness/adoption strategy at the ready.

If you have questions, we at the Knight Center of Digital Excellence can help.

• E-mail with your questions to kcode_mkt@knightcenter.org.

• Call (330) 761-2550.

• Subscribe to the Knight Center of Digital Excellence newsletter, Community Connection.

• Visit some helpful websites listed below:

A quick overview of grants and other benefits (requires Flash player): Tutorial

House funding reports

Grants

Grant applications

Grant tutorials

Tags: bandwidth, broadband, digital, grant money, infrastructure, Internet, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Obama, president, recovery.gov, stimulus, utilities