Grant Writing Trainings

Our training team is made up of dedicated GPA approved trainers, and is excited to help your organization by strengthening your grant readiness and enhancing your grant writing skills and practices to increase your chances of securing grant funding.

We offer a variation of ALL listed topics as  1-hour or 90-minute webinars, ½ or full day in-person workshops, and multi-day mastermind classes.

To get started, select one of our topics or schedule a time to discuss customizing a topic of your choice.

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Professionals Trained since 2014

Upcoming Beginner Sessions

Participating in “Mastering the Critical 1st Step for Grants: Letter of Inquiry (LOI)” will give you the basic steps necessary to successfully write a compelling letter of inquiry whether in a limited online form, two-page hard copy letter, or anything in between.

Join this nonprofit training on how to write grants for nonprofits, and learn the tools to write the best LOI you can write, so you can take your nonprofit organization on the right way of the application process for nonprofit grants!

Register here 

Webinar Description: 

Learn how to use storytelling in grants beyond a simple quotation from a client. We guide you step-by-step through multiple examples with different storytelling approaches to use in your own grant applications.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Use engaging stories in foundation grant applications;
  2. Balance client and organizational stories with statistics;
  3. Effectively integrate stories in government grant applications; and
  4. Ensure your story is consistent across all grant application elements and attachments

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Participating in “How to Write a Grant Budget That Tells (and Sells!) Your Application’s Story” will walk you through, step-by-step, how to write a grant application that tells and sells the story of your proposal and will help get the grant award. Whether working on grant budgets for private foundations or for state and federal agencies, writing a bulletproof grant budget is a critical component of being awarded a grant. 

In this live, interactive nonprofit training course, we will look at the steps necessary to write a grant budget that regardless of the form provided will tell the complete story of your grant proposal. During the webinar, we will walk through each step of creating a budget. We will look at numerous budget form examples to discuss how the specific form helps tell your application’s story.

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Upcoming Intermediate Sessions

This in-depth, easy to understand, grant training gives you a broad overview of the grant process, including assessing grant readiness, conducting federal grant research, collaborating with partners, and developing budgets and work plans.

Learn More About Grant Writing Boot Camp

Participating in “Federal Grants 201: Feeling Confident and Competitive as You Click Submit ” will give you an increased level of ability and confidence with an effective grant writing course to teach you how to approach a federal grant proposal so your final proposal is as competitive as possible.

By following the best practices you will learn a lot through this nonprofit webinar, and your organization will be on the path to achieving your desired grant funding success through federal grants. This is the CharityHowTo approach to ‘grant writing made easy’.

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In this workshop, we will teach you how to facilitate a process that can be used to support any grant application process but is FANTASTIC for large grants (whether foundation or government) or six figures (or more!) so that your actual writing work in grant applications is as competitive as possible.

During This Nonprofit Workshop, You Will Create:

  • A grant calendar for the large opportunities to preplan for 
  • A cross-functional team specific to a large grant application 
  • Logic Model draft of program design with SMART objectives
  • Preliminary Project Budget 
  • Work Plan of Key Activities

During This Nonprofit Workshop, You Will Learn:

  • How to create a  grant calendar for the large opportunities to preplan for 
  • How to create and facilitate a cross-functional team, that is inclusive of project partners, specific to a large grant application 
  • How to develop SMART objectives that will support your program design
  • How to develop a Preliminary Project Budget that will align with the anticipated amount of funding 
  • How to develop a Work Plan of key activities that align with the project budget and determine the activities of stakeholders and project partners 

Register here

In this live, interactive workshop, we will guide you through creating a program design blueprint (a logic model) that you can use to write all of your grants, whether foundation or government. We will look at specific successful examples to provide you with a variety of ways to present your organization’s programs and projects, and their impact, in a clear and concise logic model.

During This Nonprofit Workshop, You Will Learn:

  • How to create a needs statement; 
  • How to determine what change you intend to create;
  • How to gain confidence in developing your logic model;
  • How to work with a team to develop your logic model;
  • How to use your logic model to guide your ability to effect change;
  • How to understand goals and objectives within a logic model;
  • How to adapt your logic model into specific grantmaker forms and narrative responses; and
  • How to identify and avoid common errors in program logic models.

Register here

Look for the “Earn My Certificate” on the CharityHowTo website and earn a certificate of competency by completing trainings with our team.

Upcoming Free Webinars

Participating in 10 Tips for a Successful Grant Seeking Strategy will provide you with insider knowledge about what funders are looking for and some specific tips you can use when reaching out to funders and crafting nonprofit grant applications. Having served as a Program Officer for a statewide public foundation, Diane is uniquely qualified to help you best translate and understand the materials put out by funders.

In this live webinar, we will go through ten tips that all grant professionals can use to help implement a successful grant-seeking strategy in their organization. We will look at specific examples of how these tips can and have been successfully used so you can consider how to best utilize the information within your own organization.

Register here

What is all the hype about relationships with grantmakers?

Why isn’t a well-written proposal *enough* to get the grant award?!

Participating in “Why Build Relationships With Grantmakers” – a FREE nonprofit course – will strengthen your relationship-building efforts and grant writing results in your grant-seeking strategy.

In this live webinar, we talk briefly about *why* relationships with grantmakers are important. We will share ways to learn if a grantmaker has the capacity to have relationships with potential grantees prior to submitting an award versus what their preference is for communication prior to an award.

We will also address the key role that your colleagues should play in the grant relationship outreach process and how to get them excited and engaged to help look for connections and make introductions to grantmakers.

Register here

On Demand Webinars

In this one-hour recorded webinar, you will learn the basics of grant writing including what the life cycle of the grant seeking process is. Dig in and strengthen your understanding of grant writing with this brand-new webinar.

You will learn about:

  • Grant Readiness,
  • Grant research,
  • Grantmaker relationships,
  • Grant wRiting, and
  • Reporting
"Great webinar! Diane was extremely knowledgeable about Federal grants and presented the information with clear, easy to understand visuals."
Federal Grants 101
Securing Millions for Your Organization
"While I have submitted scores of private grant proposals over 10 years in the non-profit field and more local government proposals recently, federal opportunities still give me pause. I have only submitted one myself. This webinar has given me more confidence and tools to use in my next opportunity."
Federal Grants 201
How to Feel Confident and Competitive as You Click Submit
"Diane led a terrific custom webinar, "Grant Budgets that Tell a Story" for our Grant Professional of Lower Hudson members. The information presented was thorough and covered many different grant application budget formats and budget topics. Diane provided useful tips about how to design a budget that will lead to grant success. We especially liked Diane's references to actual organizations and how their budgets were constructed. Diane is a warm and engaging speaker and we would love to have her back again soon!"
Joanne Stewart, GPLH
Consultant for Nonprofits, Foundations and Corporate Citizenship programs at goodworks advisory group, llc
"As someone who teaches part-time, I recognize a natural born instructor when I see one. Diane is such an amazing instructor--a gift that not many possess. She is very knowledgeable, welcomes questions ( seamlessly working them into her lessons) and prepares a flexible curriculum that allows her to switch to topics relevant to her audience/class. However, the best thing about Diane is her passion for her work and her very dynamic nature. Her energy and attitude are contagious and, she makes you think about grants differently. I have taken Basic and Intermediate courses with Diane and she has a consistent teaching style across courses, which I love. I hope to have another opportunity to work with Diane! I can't say enough good things about her. Thanks so much Diane for making me a better grant professional"
Rachel Davis, MPH
Project Manager, Social Determinants of Health Survey Bureau of Epidemiology Services | Surveys and Data Analysis Unit NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
"This is the most engaging webinar I have participated in yet! I really enjoyed that the content was presented in a digestible manner."
How to Master Nonprofit Grants
Strategy, Calendars. and Teams.
"The presenter does an excellent job of merging those in the starting/beginning phases of forming a grant team with those further along. The most engaging webinar I've ever participated in."
How to Master Nonprofit Grants
Strategy, Calendars. and Teams.
How to Think Like a Reviewer
Diane Leonard conducted an amazing webinar for our GPA chapter titled "Think Like a Reviewer." The material was easy to follow, but introduced new strategies that beginners and veteran grant professionals could implement almost immediately. Diane structured the presentation so it was interactive and caused the audience to think. I look forward to her presenting to our chapter again in the future.
Ashaki Sorrell
GPA Michigan, Chapter Secretary
Expanding Your Grant Seeking Strategy While Still Being Sustainable
This webinar offered incredibly practical, applicable, and realistic tools and suggestions. It addressed real challenges and provided insightful tips to addressing very important and often forgotten facets of grant writing - like avoiding burnout and achieving realistic work life balance while still meeting expectations.
Sarah Anderson
Expanding Your Grant Seeking Strategy While Still Being Sustainable
Very organized (yet felt flexible) presentation, best team approach to a webinar ever!
Cathy Alsup,
Hope Partners Hawaii
Expanding Your Grant Seeking Strategy (While Still Being Sustainable)
This was an informative session that is making me think differently about how I plan and reality check my workload. I appreciated learning something that I can actually apply to my daily work. Thank you for demonstrating the actionable steps in planning not only for the calendar, but also for organization priorities. Thank you.
How to Make Reporting to Your Funder a Snap Based on Your Application
I love the way DH Leonard Consulting gives back to the grant professional community. I always know I will get an engaging and relevant topic that makes me think about my grant work in new ways. Thank you!
Kathy Hatfield, Kathy Hatfield LLC
How to Make Reporting to Your Funder a Snap Based on Your Application
I really liked the way that they approached evaluation. It allowed me to rethink what we do and how to communicate our need to take evaluation beyond the "good" level. I'm excited to begin to implement some of the ideas.
Laura Cochran, INHP
How to Make Reporting to Your Funder a Snap Based on Your Application
Thanks to Diane, Julie, and Megan for providing such a wonderful webinar! They presented everything in a way that made it very easy to understand and their back-and-forth banter was engaging. Thanks to them, I will never be able to look at a Logic Model again without thinking of chocolate chip cookies!
Karen Hays
Central Virginia Chapter of Grants Professional Association
How to Make Reporting to Your Funder a Snap Based on Your Application
I liked the presence of two presenters PLUS a third team member who moderated the chat box. I always worry a little when there is only one presenter, and they have to juggle multiple tasks while presenting and talking.