Send in the application via the Internet.  Have your answers ready and worded exactly the way you want
them before filling out the electronic form.  Either print out a copy of the electronic form so you can
practice filling out the answers and proof read them or save a copy electronically. 

If you are having problems with filling out the online application or have questions about the information
needed you can email or call AFGP or contact us at:  Action Training Systems Grant Forum

 1-800-755-1440 ext. 6 or email grants@action-training.com. We have a grant writer on staff who can

offer FREE help with your application.

It is always a good idea to work on your narrative offline before putting it into the online application. For
example, you can type out your answers and narratives in a Word document.  Once you are satisfied
that they say exactly what you want you can cut and paste them into the electronic form.  Keep in mind
the spacing used between paragraphs in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word does
not always hold up when you paste into the online form.

Last year many people ended up with one long paragraph when they pasted in their narrative. One
thing that seemed to help was using "hard returns":  holding down the SHIFT key whenever you hit the
ENTER key to put a space in your Word document.

       This advice about working with your narrative online came from Robin Yonash with  

       the Colfax Volunteer Fire Department:

“I used the following work-around in the Narrative section to force it to break the document into
paragraphs:
Use shift-enter instead of enter. In an existing Word document, search for ^p and replace with ^l before
copying into the online form. Use 5 spaces instead of tab to indent the first line of each paragraph. To
replace tabs in Word, search for ^t and replace with 5 spaces.”

Being sloppy or failing to proof read is not good strategy.   Remember, contrary to what one application
said, it is Fire Chief not Fire Chef.

Make sure that all applicable blanks are filled out.  Have someone who is not with the fire department
read your narrative before you send it.  It is best that this person does not have any fire service
experience. A schoolteacher or librarian is a good choice.  Make sure they can understand what you
are trying to convey.  If they don’t fully understand, neither will the grant reviewers.

Be on time. Complete all parts of the form. Have the grant completed and submitted at the time it is
required.  Failing to do so will be cause for rejection. If any part of the form is incomplete that can be
cause for rejection.