Don't Let Grants Stress You Out
I was having a moment of nostalgia this week… I grew up in the 90’s, which means that I grew up playing games like Tetris and Mario Brothers (we won’t talk about what my bangs looked like back then!). My daughter’s who are both teenagers have both recently gotten into a Mario Kart and Tetris 99 streak as a stress reliever during final…
Dear experienced grant writer, I want to write a grant proposal for education to prepare to start a business is this ok? Thanks, Eager learner Dear eager learner, Great question! If you are looking for education for yourself to prepare to be a business owner, I would recommend reaching out to your local Small Business Development Center to see what…
Dear Experienced Grant Writer: I’ve been developing my grant writing business for about a year and a half. I still have challenges with clients not getting information to me on time, resulting in some last-minute panic. You seem like someone who has worked out a solution for this. I’m wondering if you have a resource you can pass along? Thanks so much! Patient…
19 YEARS! Our team is so excited to be celebrating 19 years of supporting incredible nonprofits that are creating tremendous impact in their communities. Since 2006, we have helped secure over $121M in grant awards and trained over 86,863 professionals. WOW! To help celebrate 19 years, our team put together 19 of our favorite grant resources/things we use every day to help with our grant…
Our team comprises of book lovers who read books from all genres. This year, we decided to hold a Secret Santa book exchange and it was a lot of fun sending books to each other. As we begin 2024, we realized that we needed a list of must-read books and decided to ask for your recommendations. We were not disappointed with the suggestions we received….
We’re so excited to announce the 2024 Top Grant Writing Blogs to Follow. 2024 Top Blogs to Follow based on what we were reading from them in 2023. It is the goal of DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services to assist nonprofit organizations with competitively researching, applying for, and receiving grant funding to best serve our clients and have a significant impact in their…
Over more than 25 years of researching, prioritizing, writing, developing objectives, creating evaluation plans, and tangling with logic models, I never spent much time measuring a crucial aspect of work that affects all those tasks and more—my happiness. I am not saying that I expected every day to be a Disney cartoon of winsome talking animals that burst into song and happy endings. The singing…
For a long time, I struggled with my work as a grant professional. Don’t get me wrong. I loved tackling a challenging federal grant proposal. And I loved it even more when we got an award letter. Managing federal grants was my jam – I loved putting my organizational skills to work and totally geeked out about a well-put-together 3-ring binder. So, what was…
Imagine you are standing on the starting line of a running race. The race official says when my arm drops and the gun goes off, you all get to start. Then they point at you and say, BUT, before I do that, YOU get to start NOW before the rest of the field. After you get over the surprise of the unexpected head start, off…
Having raised more than $101 million “the hard way” through 90% private foundation and individual fundraising over the last 20+ years, I have experienced my share of rejections. What I mean is that this total represents dozens, if not hundreds, of proposals with request amounts ranging between $10,000 and $200,000 for every $1million+ ask. Why so many? The truth is, it’s a competitive process, and…