Don't Let Grants Stress You Out
Note from Diane: Julie hit the nail on the head this week by talking about how to get through any doldrums you might be feeling in the summer…especially if your scheduled vacation for the summer hasn’t yet arrived or has long since passed! No matter how much work there is to do, there’s seasonal doldrums in grant writing. Every July and August some remain…
Can you believe that $600 billion is awarded each year in federal grants?? The new OMB Uniform Guidance Administrative Requirements place tremendous emphasis on grantee internal controls. So, what are they? Why should you care? How do they impact your grants and your organization? According to Section 200.303 Internal Controls are crucial to the grants management world because: They safeguard funds, property, and other assets against fraud,…
Note from Diane: You may remember, but I had the opportunity to swim with nurse sharks and rays this winter. I shared my reflections on what it means to lead a creative life and how challenging ourselves in new experiences can improve our work. Little did I know that colleague and today’s guest blogger, Dr. Judy Riffle, had a fascination with sharks! So we’re sharing a…
*Note from Diane: Grammar might not seem like the coolest topic to address, or the most viral of topics for a grant writing blog, but it is a critical part of our work as grant professionals for creating compelling applications. Julie does a great job in today’s post of outlining the value of the semicolon in creating a concise and clear piece for a grant…
The sun is shining, the temperatures are soaring, school is out for the summer, and grant professionals across the country are carefully analyzing their grant calendars to see how or if they need to modify their vacation plans. Sound familiar? In New York, the Consolidated Funding Application deadlines have been a summer deadline each of the past four years. This year, with a July 29th…
I recently served on my first state grant review panel. It was for large, multi-year operating support to arts organizations (orgs). The orgs varied in annual revenue of $200,000 to over $50 mil. The experience was inspiring and exhausting. I found joy in reading about arts orgs doing amazing creative work. I faced fatigue as I read long narratives, multiple financial sheets, audit reports, Cultural…
**Note from Diane: I am excited to welcome Jasmine Markanday as an author and subcontractor for the DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services team. She is a grant budget guru! Planning is an essential part of grant seeking, grant writing, and submitting proposals. Grant writers often work on deadlines–be it for a letter of intent, submitting proposals, and submitting reports. You need to write…
**Note from Diane: I would like to welcome Zoe Garvin, one of our new subcontractors, to our blog as an author. You will begin to see pieces from Zoe each quarter about her work and experiences. To let everyone get a chance to know Zoe, we are continuing with our series of “Grant Funding in Action” where each member of the DH Leonard Consulting team…
Why Serving as a Federal Grant Reviewer Is One of the Best Career Moves You Can Make Ever wondered how to find federal grant review opportunities? As discussed in Ten Tips I Learned From Being a Federal Grant Reviewer and explored in depth in our post on the Benefits of Serving as a Grant Reviewer, serving as a reviewer is one of the most valuable…
One of the questions that comes up most often when teaching grant writing workshops is: “How many of you have a grant team, either formal or informal?” Typically, far less than half of the hands go up. Then comes the follow-up: “How many of you feel like a grant team of one?” — and the rest of the hands go up. Grant professionals can secure…