Capabilities for primes & agencies.
From solicitation to closeout.
The Grants Architect is a small business subcontractor offering applied social science research, program design, and independent evaluation for publicly funded programs. I join prime contractor teams and support agency program staff, delivering to your scope of work, schedule, and reporting requirements.
Your team stays focused on the rest of the proposal and on running the program. I deliver the research, design, and analysis as finished, well-documented work.
A 30-minute video call.
I'll reply within one business day.
Company data.
Legal name: The Grants Architect, LLC
Location: Dallas, TX; serves clients nationwide
SAM.gov: Active
UEI: XEFAJ2SBG5H5
CAGE code: 23AX0
Primary NAICS: 541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services · 541720 Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities
Secondary NAICS: 541618 Other Management Consulting Services · 541690 Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services · 541910 Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling
Small business status: WOSB/EDWOSB (pending) · WBE/SBE (pending)
Point of contact: April Bass, PhD, Founder & Principal · april.bass@thegrantsarchitect.com
Community need & feasibility.
Before you fund a new initiative or commit to a delivery model, find out whether the need is real, how people use current services, and what similar programs have learned.
Administrative data show who was served, not why eligible people didn't come or whether local providers can deliver what's planned.
I document need by pairing demographic and service data with published research. Then I add direct input from community residents and the frontline staff who serve them, through interviews, focus groups, and surveys.
Note: Feasibility here means community and program fit, not financial or economic feasibility.
What it covers: Community need and demand, service barriers, stakeholder input, comparable programs, program fit, and delivery capacity.
Typical deliverables: Needs assessment · Feasibility or landscape assessment report · Stakeholder findings · Comparable-program review · Recommendations
Program development.
Before you submit a response, or as a new award starts, set exactly what each partner will do, in what order, and how performance will be measured.
Program designs built under a proposal deadline often leave gaps that surface after award: unclear partner roles, timelines that don't match staffing, and measures that are hard to report against.
I join the proposal team as design lead and trace every activity from its objective through the logic model, work plan, measures, and budget. Across partners, I set shared indicators and tools, train staff to use them, and check early data quality. Federal grant work follows the Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200).
Scope: Program design, partner and subrecipient roles, shared performance measures, implementation planning, budget justification, and evaluation planning.
Typical deliverables: Program Framework (theory of change, logic model, implementation timeline, evaluation plan, and budget justification) · Performance measure matrix with definitions · Data collection tools and protocols · Subrecipient reporting templates
Independent program evaluation.
While a program is running, or at the end of the period of performance, find out whether it's being delivered as planned and producing the intended outcomes.
Many solicitations call for an evaluator from outside the delivery team. I design implementation and outcome evaluations, starting from the data the program already collects and filling gaps with interviews, focus groups, surveys, and site visits.
My evaluation work follows the American Evaluation Association's Guiding Principles for Evaluators. On any one program, I serve as design lead or independent evaluator, never both.
Scope: Implementation evaluation, outcome evaluation, fidelity to the approved model, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
Typical deliverables: Evaluation plan · Data collection tools · Annual evaluation reports · Final report and executive summary · Findings briefings
Principal.
April Bass, PhD, Founder & Principal
PhD and MA, Anthropology; MA, Russian Studies (University of Missouri) · IRB certified in human subjects research protection · Elected to full membership, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
I'm an applied anthropologist. Before founding The Grants Architect, I was grants director at a large rural healthcare nonprofit, and I led and co-led program development for competitive federal and regional proposals totaling $26.5M across higher education, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors.
Past Experience
$3.3M, U.S. Department of Education. Co-directed compliance, data verification, and fiscal performance tracking for a multi-year TRiO program serving 670+ participants a year.
$1M, USDA. Funded at the ceiling after I worked through the statute behind the funding formula.
$300K, Pennsylvania Department of Health. Funded at the ceiling, one of two organizations statewide.
$224K, USAA and the Armed Services YMCA. National initiative for military-connected families, funded in full.
New York State Department of Health. Coordinated on-time submissions for three concurrent initiatives.
Let's talk about your project.
Send an SOW or solicitation, or start with a short call. You work with me directly from scoping to the final deliverable.
I'll reply within one business day.
A 30-minute video call.