Navigating the Grant Landscape for Assisted Living Facilities
Jun 17, 2024
Navigating the complex terrain of securing grants for assisted living facilities can be daunting. However, with the right approach and resources, it is entirely feasible. In this blog, we'll explore the insights shared by Brandon Gustafson, an experienced professional in the nonprofit and assisted living sector who has successfully secured multiple grants for his facilities. Whether you are just starting out or looking to expand your existing facility, these insights can guide you in tapping into grant opportunities effectively.
Watch the video here:
Understanding the Basics
Securing an assisted living facility grant, especially if you are a nonprofit, can significantly enhance your operational capabilities. However, it is essential to acknowledge the complexity and competition inherent in the grant application process. Grants usually require meticulous documentation and a clear demonstration of how the funds will be utilized to improve services.
Success Stories from Colorado
Brandon’s experiences in Colorado offer a practical perspective on how assisted living facilities can benefit from grants. Under the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act), his facilities received grants to enhance technological infrastructure and remodel to improve resident experiences. One notable grant, "Dollars to Digitize," enabled the transition from paper-based systems to a comprehensive Electronic Healthcare Record system, thereby optimizing administrative and healthcare processes while also allowing for significant upgrades, such as acquiring new tech equipment, including iPads and laptops, enhancing staff efficiency and resident engagement.
Another grant is designed to help transform the facility from dual to single occupancy rooms, improving residents' living environment and autonomy.
Key Considerations for Grant Applicants
-
Start Early: Given that grant funds, such as those from ARPA, may not be available indefinitely, starting your grant application process as soon as possible is crucial.
-
Eligibility and Requirements: Clearly understand each grant's eligibility criteria and specific requirements. This includes the nature of allowable expenses and the outcomes expected by the grantors.
-
Detailed Planning: Be precise about how the funds will be used. Detailed planning strengthens your application and ensures effective implementation once the grant is secured.
-
Flexibility and Compliance: While adhering to the stipulated use of funds, maintaining flexibility in your plans can be beneficial as things will inevitably change.
Engaging With Resources
For those interested in exploring grant opportunities for assisted living facilities, Brandon suggests several avenues:
- State Programs: Many states offer grants similar to ARPA, tailored to improving healthcare facilities. It’s crucial to keep abreast of such opportunities in your state.
- Consulting and Networking: Engaging with consultants or networking in forums can provide insights and lead to potential grant sources.
- Educational Resources: At Assisted Living Investing, we offer resources like the grant writing template and the Success System, which is an invaluable resource for beginners looking to start their assisted living business.
Conclusion
While securing grants for assisted living facilities can be challenging, the potential benefits of enhanced facilities, improved care, and operational efficiency are immense. By preparing thoroughly, seeking the right resources, and learning from the experiences of industry peers like Brandon, facility operators can significantly enhance their chances of grant success.
If you find these insights valuable and wish to delve deeper into assisted living investments, subscribe to our newsletter below for further guidance and resources tailored to this sector.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
have you ever wondered if it's possible for you to get a grant when working with Assisted Living I have actually received two different grants and wanted to share the process that I've gone through to get those grants in place and share with you that it is possible to get a grant if you're interested make sure you stick around we'll get into that hey everybody it's Brandon Gustafson and welcome back to Assisted Living investing happy to have you with me here today today I'm going to get into a
00:00:33
topic that I see quite frequently in different forums and things like that it is around getting grants to start a facility now getting a grant to start a facility is it can be difficult uh I think there are opportunities out there but I've worked in the nonprofit world for uh a little over 10 years now and have a pretty good understanding of what that looks like and how grants work and so getting a grant to start your facility is it's going to be a little bit difficult if you're a nonprofit U
00:01:03
you're going to have a little bit better chance uh but there's there's just so many different Hoops that you have to jump through as you go through that process to get a grant to start a facility it's not that it's impossible you just have to find the right place to go to get it uh if you're interested in learning more about it make sure you comment down below I have done some Grant Consulting with people in the past and have a few resources that I could give you to help you kind of get down
00:01:28
the path for for where you could go and and find grants that might help for starting a facility uh but just no going into it it's it's not an easy process and uh you're going to have a much better chance if you're already a nonprofit um so that's something to keep in mind with all that said it is still possible to get grants even if you are not a nonprofit entity so in our Colorado facility through arpa which is a program that came up through the co era of Grants and things at a federal
00:02:02
level um the state of Colorado decided that they wanted to put grants out there for facilities to use the money how they saw fit now there were a few different um parameters that they had that were buckets uh given to them by the federal government a lot of the states had these types of opportunities uh and so one of them could be improving the facilities one could be technology one could be um uh Power backup uh just a bunch of different things that are more specific to facil ities that are going to help
00:02:31
them get to the point that that they're helping them a lot of states have used arpa to beef up their Medicaid numbers um and and things like that so there's look at your state there's a lot of different things out there from arpa that could be a benefit to you in getting your facility up and running and maybe give you a little bit of extra money uh the money is probably going to dry up here by 2025 I would say so I would definitely have those conversations early and uh if you're
00:03:03
already operating an existing facility jump on it uh because it's a great opportunity for us in Colorado we were able to obtain two grants and uh working on a third one which is exciting so the first one that we received is around technology it is around uh kind of shift is called dollars to digitize and what we're tasked with doing in this grant is working through and and making sure everything had on paper in the past or was maybe a little disorganized in a Google drive folder or something like
00:03:36
that that we're shifting it over to a specific system an EHR electronic Healthcare record that's going to allow us to put that information in and that could be resident information Med management could be Staffing um updates and HR type of files and things like that that you need when you're working with with staff uh policies and procedures uh even billing um some of these software will do will do uh billing with them and so we're working with a vendor as we go through this process uh and we're paying them through
00:04:09
the grant funds and they are working directly with us to implement A system that is personal for us it's very individualized for our assisted living facility uh what they really liked actually about us is that we operate in different states and they would love to get into Idaho and and potentially Utah cuz they're right now only in Colorado so they'd like to learn a little bit from us so they're willing to give us a little bit of a a deal and a kickback right now we're very focused on getting
00:04:36
the Colorado stuff up and running but we're going to shift over and start having conversations about Idaho and how they could help us out there as well which is really fun and exciting and addition to that we were able to get Grant funds that will allow us to purchase new equipment for the facility so um iPads and uh Chromebooks and laptops and um printers of fax machines and uh routers to help out with our internet and things like that just a a bunch of money that is dedicated to that which really helps us out we would we've
00:05:09
been wanting to get those types of uh that type of equipment and get it to our residents to help them out but it's just not feasible for us to do it but with this the funding of this grant we're able to now do that get our administrator a new laptop we'll have a staff laptop for all the staff that they they need something they can go to it and then we'll have laptops and iPads that residents can check out if they uh want to do an online course um through like udemy or uh corsera or the local
00:05:38
community community college even um they'll be able to do those things or if they just wanted to watch a video on an iPad in their room by themselves they could check it out for that reason we'll have policies and procedures written around what how long a person can have one uh how that works what happens if they break it um those types of things and we'll develop a process for checking those out log for it so there's going to be a process there that we'll need to implement but having the technology and
00:06:06
being able to share that with our residence is really fun and exciting so we're we're excited to to be able to do that our second grant that we've been able to obtain is a grant that is called single occupancy which uh for us frankly is kind of scary um it is moving things from a dual occupancy uh house over to single occupancy uh with the intent of uh creating a better atmosphere for our residents and the reason that's scary for us is uh it's going to turn our census from 16 beds down to something
00:06:40
that's more like 12 beds uh but in the process of doing that it is a large renovation on the house uh which is fun and also scary and exciting um but we're we're going to use those funds and upgrade things I think I've mentioned this before about our Colorado facility it's old it was built in the 1890s it's an an old really cool house has a really cool story with it it used to be in downtown Colorado Springs and they moved it in the 1950s I think over to Old Colorado City uh so we have pictures of
00:07:12
it on a truck which is really kind of cool um it's exciting uh so uh we we were able to obtain this Grant and what we're going to be able to do with it is upgrade things like the electrical and the plumbing and I'm meeting with an architect from uh tomorrow actually to go over and see some of the things that we could do at the facility can we add rooms here structurally we're going to have an engineer there as well structurally can we add um some things like rooms or could we shift some
00:07:41
bathrooms around what can we do at the house it's it's old uh we we need to maintain the Integrity of the house but we also want to make this a really fun and cool exciting place for our residents to live uh we're hoping we can do something in the kitchen CU right now our kitchen's really tiny as you can imagine with a house that was built in the 1890s um it's a very tiny space uh building uh a good med room that has like glass walls on it for our staff to be in there and feel safe and secure
00:08:10
while also being able to see the rest of the house and see what's going on and be able to interact with the rest of the residents uh when we're doing that um something that I found out through this process is uh and this is not a surprise uh government uh departments and agencies don't talk to each other so we are getting the funding the arpa funding from uh a group called hick puff and then um our license is through cdph and they don't talk to each other they're just kind of off in their own
00:08:40
silos and so we're going to get the money here but as we go through the process to do all the things and the changes to the house we need to involve cdph and make sure that they are understanding uh the changes that we're making to the house and how that might impact our ability to maintain our license um we want to keep our license at 16 beds we want to keep keep our classification as an alternative Care Facility uh keep our Medicaid uh our Medicaid waivers in place that we have to serve the residents that we serve so
00:09:10
we don't want to mess anything up but we do want to start shifting things over and the way that grants work the way that you want to write your grants is still give yourself a little bit of flexibility in how you are administr administering those those grants so specifically for us in this situation what I decided to do is uh put a a little stipulation in there that is we are fullon intending to move forward with changing this to a single occupancy house that's what we want to do but if
00:09:42
we can't do that and be remain a viable business we will look at potentially changing the classification of the house and becoming uh something that's you know maybe a little more independent living or transitional housing or something like that but still Falls underneath the umbrella of the health department department and uh if that doesn't work then we will slowly start going back up to dual occupancy rooms uh because as much as we would love to create this atmosphere where everybody
00:10:10
has their own room and uh everybody has the autonomy to do what they would like to do uh if we can't run the business then then there's no value in that and so that's something that we wanted to to make sure that we put in there and it was accepted so I'm working right now on getting the funding uh for that if you're interested in learning more about GR and kind of the process that I'm going through as I go through that make sure you comment down below and I will uh kind of create a a series of videos
00:10:37
that I gives updates on how we're doing with the the grant the administration of the Grant and how it's going as we kind of get things in place there so if you're interested in that make sure you comment down below and let me know the third one that we're actually looking for is is quite a bit different it is around power um so like if if the power goes out um can we get like generators and so so arpa in Colorado has put this out and we'll be I think we'll be able to do this I'm going to work on
00:11:06
applications for it here in the next uh week or two uh with the hope of being able to get a few generators to help out with our uh we have like a a little refrigerator for uh our our meds that need to be refrigerated and uh I think we have a few different pieces of equipment at the house uh life-saving equipment that needs to have backup power in the event the power goes out and we need to have access to that so uh a slightly different piece of a grant that one is very specific to you know you buy this
00:11:38
thing you don't really do a plan but if we're able to to get a few of those generators it's going to be a really good benefit to our facility which is really exciting so those are some of the opportunities that I've been able to come across uh your state probably has some there might be federal grants out there you just kind of need to get out there and and look for them if you're interested in learning more about it make sure you comment down below I want to make sure that I'm giving you useful
00:12:03
information rather than just throwing stuff out there that I think is interesting uh so if you find it interesting and useful make sure you comment down below let me know uh I'd love to also see you over at Assisted Living investing. net you can sign up I have a free underwriting calculator over on the website so you can get that as you're going through the process to start your facility you're going to want to know how much things cost and what your expenses are and the underwriting
00:12:28
calculator has a really overview of that I've compiled a few different um deals from things that I've seen from the facilities I purchased and other ones that I've looked at purchasing and I've kind of created a a good Baseline of What expenses might look like for you so if you're interested in that make sure you head over to Assisted Living investing. net and download that calculator you'll get on an email list and I will be sending out a newsletter and I have a 12we process that gives you
00:12:56
quick tips and tricks for you to uh also uh just kind of learn how to get into a facility so make sure you're doing that and uh I'm also working on my course that we'll have out there so if you get on that email list you'll be on a waiting list for when that course launches and excited to kind of Mentor you through the process of doing this I'm going to put it at a very affordable price so that you can get in there and actually work through uh through that does residential Assisted Living sound
00:13:24
interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing we're here to help you through the process every step of the way start to finish I'm excited to work with you and uh hope hope this information is helpful and useful to you and uh thanks for watching and have a great [Music] day
Download Your FREE Calculator
Stay connected with news and updates!
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.