Don't Let Grants Stress You Out
Writing an Effective Demographic Statement for a Grant: How to Use Data to Tell Your Story When I served as a reviewer on a federal grant panel, the vast majority of the applications I read were from communities I knew nothing about. The demographic statement was the opportunity for me to get to know the unique challenges and assets that the applicant community had and…
How many times do you read the RFP when preparing a grant application? I read the RFP (also known as the RFA, NOFA or FOA) at least twice: initially, to learn about the grant opportunity, and a second time after the client confirms that they will apply, to reinforce my understanding of the program and extract all of the information needed set up the…
When we plan vacations in our family two of us are planners and two of us are fly by the seat of your pants travelers. Over the years we’ve adjusted to half our family’s “need to know where they are going to sleep and find food” with “hey, you never know what great adventure you’ll stumble upon” for the other half. We have learned to…
If there is any grant that crushes the myth that “grants are free money,” it is the capital grant. Capital grants are used for physical infrastructure, such as constructing a new building or installing an HVAC system, and are not as prevalent as program grants. Applying for a capital grant, especially from a government funder, typically requires significant planning and expense. If you are…
Shark Week’s thirtieth anniversary on the Discovery Channel was completed in 2018 from July 22-29. In 2016, I wrote about Shark Week and Serving on a Nonprofit Board. This year, I want to revisit Shark Week and show some grantitude for all my fellow grant professionals. Sharks continue to fascinate me, and I think they are beautiful, magical creatures, although I wouldn’t swim with them…
“What are its chances?” “Do you think it has a chance?” I was asked these questions recently at the end of an intense, compressed application process for a competitive state grant. Undoubtedly, these questions are ruminating in grant team members’ minds often; whether or not, or how, they express them. This particular application involved a request for $500,000 and required 70 hours of…
Are you new to grant writing? Are you considering a career as a grant professional? Are you a board member interested in learning more about grants so that you can help your organization? I wanted to put some of our key “basic” information about getting started and some definitions of industry jargon in one place for you. If you’re still looking for more, you can…
Grant Writer (#LifeasaGrantWriter) versus Grant Pro or Grant Professional (#LifeasaGrantPro)…what is the difference you might ask? Both are chronicling the daily office lives and downtime/self-care of grant writers and grant professionals. It comes back to the big title debate in our field…Grant Writer or Grant Professional? One generalization about the choice between the titles is that those who identify their career as that of a…
When you are out and about on life adventures or even day to day excursions, there are often relatable lessons to our professional work – in the case of zip lining with friends, I walked away with fun analogies about grant writing best practices. I’ve had some thoughtful moments about grants when out digging for clams along the coast of Maine and some deep personal…
We are a few days past the halfway mark for the calendar year, so I stopped to assess some of the metrics our team looks at when doing planning for the next quarter compared to our goals – client success percentage, dollars awarded to clients, the number of blog post hits and shares, etc. When in the midst of so many competing grant deadlines, and…