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When Inefficiency Becomes a Business Model: Why States Must Break the “Tacit Knowledge” Cycle in Grants
November 4, 2025
There’s a quiet, costly problem in the grants ecosystem: some consultants (and intermediaries) profit precisely because state grant information is fragmented, inconsistent, and hard to understand. When pre-award notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) and post-award compliance guidance are scattered across agency sites, PDF bulletins, and email lists—with jargon that varies program to program—a cottage industry emerges to “broker access.” The product isn’t strategy or outcomes; it’s tacit knowledge of where things are posted and how to navigate opaque processes.Let’s be honest: that’s not value creation—it’s value extraction. And it persists because inefficiency pays.
Why this is a problem
- Access becomes a privilege, not a policy. Communities with fewer connections or staff capacity end up behind the starting line.
- Costs inflate while outcomes stagnate. Budgets get siphoned to gatekeeping rather than program design, delivery, and results.
- Public trust erodes. Residents see consultants doing well, while vital programs struggle to launch or report.
- Institutional learning stalls. When “know-how” lives with vendors, not the state or local organizations, every cycle feels like starting from scratch.
How we got here
- Decentralized publishing. NOFOs and guidance are spread across agencies and formats, often without search, filters, or APIs.
- Inconsistent language. Different templates, timelines, systems, and definitions force applicants to relearn the basics for each program.
- PDFs as a “system.” Critical updates posted as static documents with no structured data.
- Lack of “single source of truth.” A lack of a one-stop resource for grant program opportunities, deadlines, FAQs, and changes.
1) Stand up a single-entry point for grant applications. A statewide grants portal that lists all state-administered and pass-through federal opportunities with:
- searchable database and filters (entity type, geography, match, deadline);
- plain-language summaries;
- standardized application kits;
- email/SMS alerts and an open API for third-party reuse.
3) Turn PDFs into data. Require machine-readable fields for deadlines, eligibility, and reporting cadences. Provide open datasets and auto-generated calendars/feeds, so applicants aren’t chasing posts.
4) Standardize templates and timelines. Templatize common forms (budget, narratives, conflict disclosures), common definitions, common procurement/monitoring exhibits. The result: speed + fewer errors.
5) Offer office hours and pre-recorded micro-trainings. Create short videos that answer common applicant questions such as: “How to read a NOFO,” “What is allowability,” “How to build a basic performance plan,” “Subrecipient vs. contractor.” Publish FAQs, expected application and review processes, and decision trees.
6) Measure—and publish—performance. Track and display: time from NOFO to award, % applications deemed ineligible (and why), % on-time reports, average days to pay subrecipients, and geographic distribution of awards. Data shines sunlight on bottlenecks.
7) Build internal capacity. Stand up a Grants Management Office (or strengthen the one you have): governance, standards, data, training, and a help desk. Consultants should be an extension of this capacity, not replace it.
“But consultants help us find money.” Good—keep that. Change the terms.
There is real value in expertise: aligning funding to strategy, designing competitive projects, engineering internal controls, building data pipelines, developing training guides, and delivering results. Keep—and reward—that work. What must end is the monetization of fragmentation. States control the publishing layer; fix that, and consultants will compete on craft and impact, not on who knows which hidden page to refresh. Remove the “transactional wins” mentality of consulting and shift towards building capacity and sustainability.
The payoff
- Broader access, better competition. More qualified applications from more sources.
- Lower total cost of administration. Fewer hours wasted on what should be standard and basic information
- Faster awards, cleaner audits. Standardization reduces error and rework.
- Reusable knowledge. Templates, FAQs, guides, resources, and data stay with the state.
- Public trust. Residents can see where money is being spent, what is available, who applied, who won, and why.
States should say, plainly: “Public opportunities belong in public.” We will publish in one place, in plain language, as structured data. We will hold ourselves—and our partners—to standards that reward results, not opacity.
When states treat grant information as shared public infrastructure, they not only reduce administrative friction but also expand opportunity. Every open dataset, standardized form, and plain-language summary becomes civic capacity: knowledge that stays local, scales across programs, and strengthens trust. The ROI of transparency is measurable: every hour not spent decoding process is an hour spent delivering outcomes.
Break the tacit knowledge cycle. Make grants findable, understandable, and repeatable—and let every dollar work harder for the people it’s meant to serve.
Managing grants efficiently, without compromising compliance and integrity, can be a challenging task. If your organization is navigating the complexities of grant management, we can help you enhance oversight, streamline processes, ensure outcomes and reduce the risks of waste, fraud, and abuse. Reach out today to learn how our expertise in grants management can ensure your programs meet their goals, stay compliant, and make the best use of taxpayer dollars.
Authored by:
Matthew Hanson, CGMS, GPC
Managing Director, Government Advisory Services
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