RFP 2025-26-01 Grant Writing Expertise Pool.pdf

EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY – REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Experienced Grant Writers for Federal Grants 2026-2029

RFP # 2025-26-01

Eastern Oregon University (EOU) is a small, rural, state university offering bachelor’s degrees grounded in liberal-arts essential skills for job readiness, professional-technical undergraduate degrees in business, education, fire services administration, agriculture entrepreneurship, and cyber security, as well selected professional master’s degrees in Accounting, Business, Education, Fine Arts, Social Work and Mental Health Counseling.

EOU was awarded a U.S. Department of Education Title III Strengthening Institutions Grant (October 1, 2021) and Rural Post-Secondary Economic Development Grant (awarded June 2022, effective October 1, 2022) to serve under-served and under-prepared college-going students and training needs in rural eastern Oregon.

The economic vitality of the eastern Oregon region depends upon livable and sustainable rural communities supported by EOU’s entanglements with business, industry, and public agencies in the areas of sciences, arts and humanities, agriculture entrepreneurship, business, education, fire services, emergency medical services, rural public and behavioral health and welfare, natural resource ecology and policy, and human services. EOU is inviting proposals from experienced grant writers in the following federal grant areas:

• Department of Education grants addressing teacher shortages

• Department of Labor Workforce Development Grants addressing rural economic development

• USDA Grants addressing rural agriculture business and industry

• NSF STEM Grants

• TRiO and Related Grants (CAMP, SSS, Gear-Up) to serve an increasingly diverse demographic population

• FEMA Grants in the area of fire-fighter training and training center development in the areas of wildland and structural fire containment

• NEH Grants to support the interdisciplinary integration of the arts and humanities with rural communities as well as business and industry

• NIH Grants in the area of Emergency Medical Services

Expert grant writers in one or more of the federal grant areas delineated above must be able to demonstrate a record of successful grants at the federal level that advance the mission of Eastern Oregon University and our commitment to serving the economic success of the tri-state rural regions of eastern Oregon, western Idaho, and southern Washington.

Proposals will be evaluated based on the selection criteria below in order for EOU to develop a pool of experts to develop specific grant proposals with EOU’s in-house stakeholder teams. over the next three fiscal years.

SOLICITATION PROCEDURES

General RFP provisions and EOU's General Terms and Conditions at Eastern Oregon University are available at:

https://www.eou.edu/busserv/purchasing/ It is the proposer’s responsibility to review the provisions and terms & conditions before providing a response.

It will be the responsibility of potential proposers to refer daily to the Oregon Public Universities Shared Resources website (www.orpu.org) or the Oregon Buys website https://oregonbuys.gov/bso/ to check for any available addenda, response to clarifying questions, cancellations or other information pertaining to this Request for Proposals (“RFP"). In anticipation that grant-writers may have expertise in multiple federal grant types, there will be a scoring process to identify the pool of grant-writers who may be called upon to contract with EOU to write specific grants over the next three years. Once the pool is identified, EOU will contact successful pool candidates and arrange a timetable for contract documents for specific grants to be developed and executed.

https://www.eou.edu/busserv/purchasing/ http://www.orpu.org/ https://oregonbuys.gov/bso/

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

All proposals must be received or postmarked on or before noon Pacific Time on Friday, September 30, 2025.

Proposals must be submitted using the following method: Electronic Copy Submission – One original of the proposal response attached (one PDF document) E-mail subject line must be “Response to RFP #2025-26-01.” Proposals delayed or lost by email system filtering or failures may be considered at EOU’s sole discretion. It is the responsibility of the Proposer to ensure that Proposals arrive by the closing date and time. NO LATE PROPOSALS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

The pool of grant-specific experts will be established based on evaluation of proposals through a criteria-based selection process.

ISSUING OFFICE

All correspondence regarding proposals should be in writing to the contact person below, they are the sole point of contact regarding this RFP:

Peter Geissinger, Provost and Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs Eastern Oregon University pgeissinger@eou.edu

(541) 962-3511 Eastern Oregon University Inlow Hall, #206 One University Blvd La Grande, OR 97850

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

September 2, 2025 Issue Date September 9, 2025 Notice of Interest Due September 16, 2025 Clarifying Questions Due September 30, 2025 - 3pm (PST) Closing /Submission Date

PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS

Include Proposer’s Federal tax identification number and Secretary of State Corporation Division Business Registry number. Provide an explanation if Proposer is not required to be registered with the Business Registry in Oregon. This information can be submitted by completing EOU’s Bidder/Proposer Tax Laws and Non-discrimination Certification Form (Exhibit A) and submitting a copy with your proposal.

PROJECT SCOPE, SPECIFICATIONS, EXPECTATIONS

SCOPE OF WORK

Grant-writer applicants shall develop an expertise matrix to become part of EOU’s pool of grant writers for specific grants and should include in the expertise matrix 1) identification of specific grant expertise, 2) successful grants written for whom, 3) when last awarded, 4) contact information for reference, 5) availability—within the next three years--to write such a grant for EOU (2025-2029), and 6) optimal duration for grant-writing activity (how many hours over how many weeks to allow ample writing time and touchpoints with EOU stakeholder groups), After the committee has evaluated and scored the proposals, each grant-specific expert selected to remain in the pool will be contacted by EOU to arrange the timetable of availability for EOU to issue a contract to write a specific grant for EOU as a “Contractor,” in accordance with the requirements, terms, specifications, conditions, and provisions contained in a final contract agreement negotiated between the parties that is in compliance with Internal Revenue Service, Revenue Procedure 97- 13 as described in section 5.03(4) thereof (contemplating a fixed fee arrangement). The prospective Contractor shall provide EOU with the services usually expected of a top-quality grant writer or grant-writing service.

mailto:pgeissinger@eou.edu

In order to achieve the goal of securing federal grant funding for EOU in the designated grant areas listed in the RFP Scope below, the successful applicant should provide evidence of a 1 in 2 success rate in securing such grants for other institutions over the past five years. A proven record of success will be among the factors EOU will consider in determining whether an applicant remains in the pool and when a contract may be extended. The objectives over the next three years are for EOU to contract with expert grant writers for specific large federal grants--at least two-three per year--from the list identified below:

• Department of Education grants addressing teacher shortages

• Department of Labor Workforce Development Grants addressing rural economic development

• USDA Grants addressing rural agriculture business and industry

• NSF and SS-NSF STEM Grants

• TRiO and Related Grants (CAMP, SSS, Gear-Up) to serve an increasingly diverse demographic population

• FEMA Grants in the area of fire-fighter training and training center development in the areas of wildland and structural fire containment

• NEH Grants to support the interdisciplinary integration of the arts and humanities with rural communities as well as business and industry

• NIH Grants in the area of Emergency Medical Services

Proposals must address all of the following specifications:

• An expertise matrix (see template Exhibit B)

• An awareness of the opportunities, trends, policies, cycles and awards available for each grant for which you have expertise, as well as elaboration of your record of success

• Knowledge of specific federal grants, their activity requirements, narrative elements, and budget parameters

• Ability to work with a team of institutional stakeholders to craft a compelling narrative and synthesize data and research into an evidence-based argument

• Familiarity with the post-secondary public regional context

• A passion for intersecting the mission of post-secondary institutions to a rural economic ecosystem

• A commitment to serving underserved populations with extraordinary transformational educational opportunities

• Detailed estimated costs or fees for services (hourly rate is preferred for estimate)

EVALUATION AND SELECTION CRITERIA – TOTAL POINTS 100

The following selection criteria will be used to evaluate applicants according to expertise in writing specific federal grants. Scoring is based on a scoring method per specific grant, each totaling 100 points. If your response to this solicitation to be part of a grant-writing pool includes expertise in multiple grants, your expertise in each grant will be scored separately and you will be informed by EOU which grant(s) you have been identified to write.

1) Success rate and knowledge of grant requirements for a specific federal grant (25 points)

2) Approach to working with a team of institutional stakeholders to acquire the necessary materials for writing the grant (20 points)

3) Demonstrated familiarity with post-secondary regional contexts and federal legislative initiatives (25 points)

4) Awareness of how rural economic contexts intersect with educational opportunity shortages and demographic shifts (20 points)

5) Cost Summary (10)

BIDDER/PRORPOSOR TAX LAWS AND NON-

DISCRIMINATION CERTIFICATION

I, the undersigned, have read all of the terms and conditions of this Request for Bid, and I understand that if awarded the contract, I and the firm represented herein shall be bound by its terms and conditions and representations made in this response. I certify that Proposer has not discriminated against minority, women or emerging small business enterprises in obtaining any required subcontracts.

Business Designation (check one):

□ Corporation ☐ Partnership

□ Sole Proprietorship ☐ Governmental/Non-Profit

□ Limited Partnership ☐ Limited Liability Partnership

□ Limited Liability Company

MWESB Certification For statistical purposes only, please indicate if your firm is certified in Oregon as one of the following:

□ Emerging Small Business (ESB)

□ Minority-owned Business Enterprise (MBE)

□ Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE)

□ Service-Disabled Veteran-owned Small Business (SDV)

□ Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE or ACDBE)

Certificate of Compliance with Tax Laws I, the undersigned, (check one)

□ hereby certify under penalty of perjury that I am not in violation of any Oregon Tax laws,

□ hereby certify under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of Contractor and, to the best of my knowledge, Contractor is not in violation of any Oregon tax laws.

For purposes of this certification, “Oregon Tax Laws” means a state tax imposed by ORS 320.005 to 320.150 and 403.200 to 403.250, ORS Chapters 118, 314, 316, 317, 318, 321 and 323; the elderly rental assistance program under ORS 310.630 to 310.706; and local taxes administered by the Oregon Department of Revenue under

ORS 305.620

Signature: Date:

Name: Title:

Firm:

Address:

City/State/Zip: Phone: ( )

Email: Fax:

EXHIBIT A

Proposer Name:

Expertise Matrix-Exhibit B

Identification of specific grant expertise Expertise (Y/N) Name of Entity Grants

Written for Contact Information Date Propsal Written

(Year) Successful (Y/N) Duration for activity (# hours, # weeks) Department of Education SEED Grants addressing teacher shortages Department of Labor Workforce Development Grants addressing rural economic development USDA Grants addressing rural agriculture business and industry NSF and SS-NSF STEM Grants TRiO and Related Grants (CAMP, SSS, Gear-Up) to serve an increasingly diverse demographic population Title III AANAPISI Grant to support EOU’s increasing Asian American, Native American, & Pacific Islander populations FEMA Grants in the area of fire-fighter training and training center development in the areas of wildland and structural fire containment NEH Grants to support the interdisciplinary integration of the arts and humanities with rural communities as well as business and industry NIH Grants in the area of Emergency Medical Services

EOU’s Proposer Tax Laws and Non-discrimination Certification Form.pdf