Planning Grants and Feasibility Studies: Getting Funded Before the Big Ask

What Are Planning Grants and Why Do They Matter?

Planning grants are a category of funding designed to support the preparatory work that must happen before a full-scale program or research initiative can be launched. Rather than funding direct service delivery or implementation, planning grants pay for needs assessments, community engagement, partnership development, feasibility studies, and program design. They represent an often-overlooked entry point into the funding pipeline, particularly for organizations that are not yet ready to submit a comprehensive implementation proposal.

Federal agencies, state governments, and private foundations all offer planning grants, though they may use different terminology. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration regularly funds planning grants for community behavioral health initiatives. The Department of Education offers planning grants through programs like the Comprehensive Centers. Many private foundations provide exploratory or seed-phase funding that functions identically to a planning grant even if it is not labeled as such.

When to Pursue a Planning Grant

Not every organization needs a planning grant, but several common situations make them an ideal strategic choice:

• You lack sufficient data to support a full proposal. If you know there is a problem in your community but do not yet have the local data to document its scope and causes, a planning grant can fund the needs assessment work that will strengthen a future implementation proposal.
• You need to develop or formalize partnerships. Many large grants require multi-organization collaborations with signed memoranda of understanding, shared governance structures, and coordinated work plans. Planning grants provide time and resources to build these partnerships intentionally.
• The program model is untested in your context. A feasibility study funded through a planning grant lets you assess whether an evidence-based model can be adapted to your population, geography, or organizational capacity before committing to full-scale implementation.
• Your organization is building capacity. If you need to hire staff, develop data systems, or establish community advisory boards before launching a program, a planning grant provides the runway to get ready.

Understanding the depth and specificity required in defining the problem you want to address is essential when writing any planning grant. Our guide on defining the problem and need statement provides the framework for articulating the issues your planning process will investigate.

Designing a Feasibility Study

A feasibility study is one of the most common deliverables in a planning grant. It systematically assesses whether a proposed program or initiative is viable given the available resources, community context, and organizational capacity. A well-designed feasibility study answers several core questions.

Core Feasibility Questions

• Is there documented need? What does the data say about the problem's prevalence, severity, and trajectory in the target community?
• Is the proposed model appropriate? Does the evidence base support this intervention for the specific population and context you intend to serve?
• Do you have the organizational capacity? Can your organization recruit qualified staff, secure appropriate facilities, and manage the administrative demands of the proposed program?
• Is there community support? Have community members, partner organizations, and other stakeholders expressed genuine interest and willingness to participate?
• Is it financially sustainable? Beyond the initial grant period, are there realistic revenue sources to continue the work?

Structuring a Planning Grant Proposal

Planning grant proposals follow a slightly different structure than implementation proposals. Instead of describing a fully designed program, you are describing a process for designing that program. The key sections typically include:

Problem Statement and Rationale

Even though you are requesting planning funds, you must still demonstrate that a significant problem exists and that planning is the appropriate next step. Use available data to establish the need while acknowledging the gaps that the planning process will fill.

Planning Activities and Timeline

This is the heart of your proposal. Describe each planning activity in detail, including who will be involved, what methods you will use, and what deliverables each activity will produce. Common planning activities include community forums, focus groups, asset mapping, literature reviews, site visits to model programs, and stakeholder interviews.

Expected Outcomes of the Planning Process

Planning grants still require measurable outcomes. Your outcomes should describe the tangible products of the planning process, such as a completed needs assessment report, a finalized program design document, signed partnership agreements, or a submitted implementation grant application. A logic model can help you map planning inputs to planning outcomes with the same rigor you would apply to a service delivery program. See our guide on logic models and theories of change for a detailed walkthrough of this framework.

Positioning Your Planning Grant for Implementation Funding

The strategic value of a planning grant extends far beyond the planning period itself. A well-executed planning grant produces the data, partnerships, and program designs that make your next implementation proposal dramatically stronger. Treat every planning grant as the first phase of a multi-phase funding strategy.

To maximize this positioning, document everything during the planning phase. Record meeting minutes from community forums. Compile data from your needs assessment into a formal report. Develop your program design with enough detail that it can be directly inserted into a future proposal. When the implementation funding opportunity opens, you will have a complete evidence package ready to deploy.

Finding Planning Grant Opportunities

Planning grants require the same prospecting discipline as any other funding opportunity. Search Grants.gov for opportunities that include terms like planning, feasibility, capacity building, or exploratory. Review foundation guidelines for language about seed funding or developmental grants. Many funders who offer large implementation grants also offer smaller planning grants specifically designed to prepare organizations for the larger competition. For a systematic approach to identifying the right opportunities, consult our guide on strategic grant research and prospecting methods.

Learn more about grant writing strategies at Subthesis.

Take the First Step Toward Strategic Funding

Planning grants are one of the smartest investments an organization can make in its funding future. If you want to learn how to identify, apply for, and leverage planning grants as part of a comprehensive funding strategy, The Complete Grant Architect course walks you through every stage of the grant development process from initial prospecting through post-award management.