Don't Let Grants Stress You Out.

Let Our Team Help Build Your Grant Seeking Capacity

View our notable grant awards since 2006

At DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, LLC, we believe, and have witnessed, that grants are more than just funding; they’re life-altering catalysts for change for our communities. We partner with organizations like yours to secure the resources you need to transform your carefully crafted visions into inspiring reality, making a difference everyone can feel throughout your community. Our successful grant acquisitions have empowered our clients to:

  • Expand Programs & Services: Reach more people and deliver high-quality support for them.
  • Innovate & Grow: Launch new initiatives, research client-centered solutions, and scale operations to offer enhanced support.
  • Strengthen Capacity: Invest in essential staffing, current technology, and robust infrastructure—to serve even more capably.
  • Achieve Sustainability: Secure collaborative long-term funding, ensuring service and impact for years to come.

Your success in fulfilling your mission is our ultimate goal.
Let us help you.

Our Services:

Let our research team help you develop and/or expand your grant calendar by doing your grantmaker research for you!

As part of the grantmaker research process our team will:

  • Search for corporate, family, public, private and corporate grantmakers on the local, regional and national level. We use our in-house records, subscription-based databases including The Foundation Directory Online and GrantStation, as well as other sources in conducting the research.
  • Review and assess your current grantmaker relationships to understand current funding relationships and opportunities pursued.
  • Prepare a comprehensive report of potential funders that align with the client’s strategic plan and goals to grow grant revenue. The report will include due dates, appropriate request amounts, and application procedures/timelines for any funding sources identified.
  • Present recommendations on funders to approach first and strategies for approaching prioritized funders.
  • Present funding search materials in a user-friendly electronic format (typically Google Drive, but we are flexible based on your technology needs!) which can be used as an ongoing reference source when pursuing future funding.
  • Work with the client to finalize your grant calendar for the next year.
  • Finalize a plan for approaching the identified funders/applications and establishing timelines for applying to the identified funders/applications.

As part of the grant writing and editing process, you can expect our team to complete the following activities as appropriate to your organization’s internal staff capacity and needs:

  • Gather detailed information about your organization’s programs and activities.
  • Work from existing logic models and program plan documents to develop grant proposals.
  • Conduct research as needed in order to strengthen your grant proposal.
  • Provide support and consultation for any special requirements of the funder.
  • Write and tailor letter of inquiry and grant proposal(s) to each grantmaker’s specific requirements.
  • Provide editing suggestions and proposal critiques to assist your staff in strengthening proposals and increasing chances for success.

Instead of wondering how your proposal will fare against the review process, you can increase the competitiveness of your application by having your application go through a mock grant review prior to finalizing the application for submission. This process is a proven way to increase your competitiveness in state and federal grant applications.

As part of the mock grant review process, you can expect our team to complete the following activities as appropriate to your organization’s needs:

  • Convene team to review your completed grant application, prior to formal submission, following the scoring rubric of the grantmaker.
  • Provide content edits and scoring feedback specific to the scoring rubric of the grantmaker.
  • Provide a summary of edits and comments based on the scoring rubric of the grantmaker.
  • Provide a second review of the completed grant application, if requested, prior to submission.
  • If a member of our team was also the lead writer for the application being mock reviewed, the team assembled for the process will not include the lead grant consultant or supportive junior grant consultant who wrote or edited the application.

Our team will help you establish or expand your grant team. We will also help you create a shared grant calendar and strategy to become successful.

Here are some of the activities included in this package:

  • Create an annual grant calendar based on your existing relationships and additional research conducted by our team;
  • Creation of new or review of existing grant policies and procedures review; and
  • Grant team meeting facilitation coaching.

Continued Education 

Our team will make sure your team is continuously improving with continued education and support of utilizing and implementing industry best practices.

Continued Support  

Our team will make sure you are supported throughout the launch until you and your grant team feel comfortable in the framework

Continued Success  

Our team will make sure you succeed in launching and establishing your grant team.

Our mission is to assist nonprofits in increasing their capacity to seek and manage grant funds in as a competitive manner as possible. To achieve this mission, our team of Grant Professionals Association Approved Trainers offer grant writing workshops and webinars to nonprofit organizations.

These grant writing workshops are offered both in person and via webinar and are typically structured so they:

  • Are small group or classroom-size workshops designed to enhance the grant writing skills of the participants.
  • Provide participants with information about what foundations are looking for in proposals/programs.
  • Provide participants with handouts and materials, including case studies.

Agile in Nonprofits strives to support nonprofit organizations with an emphasis on grant seeking organizations, that are looking to achieve greater impacts in their communities faster than they ever have before.

Agile in Nonprofits can help you with:

  • Training – in person or live webinar
  • Consulting
  • Free resources

Learn More

Our team is passionate about working with grantmaking organizations to strengthen the grant readiness and enhance the grant writing skills and practices of their grantees and partners.

Want a second opinion on strategy, not sure if a grant is a good fit, or just looking for grant writing advice? 

Schedule a one time call. No contract needed!

Have a question you would like to ask our team? In this anonymous service, you can submit your grant questions and have them answered by one of our grant pros.

Connect with Our Team

Our Grant-Writing Process: Your Stress-Free Path to Funding

Grant writing can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Our team of expert grant writers can step in and work alongside you. We’ve developed a streamlined, collaborative process to alleviate your stress and maximize your chances of success so that you can fulfill your mission.

We guide you through every step:

  1. Initial Consultation & Needs Assessment: We start by listening. We’ll delve into your organization’s mission, community, programs, specific funding needs, and long-term aspirations. This helps us gauge your grant readiness and pinpoint potential funding opportunities that align ideally with your vital objectives.
  2. Strategic Grant Research & Prospecting: Leveraging our extensive resources, we identify suitable grant opportunities from a diverse range of sources—foundations, corporations, and government agencies. We meticulously evaluate eligibility, funding priorities, and competitiveness to create a highly targeted list of prospects just for you.
  3. Collaborative Information Gathering: We work hand n hand with your team to collect all necessary information, from program details and budgets to key client data and relevant documents. Our structured approach results in an efficient collection of materials, saving you valuable time and effort.
  4. Expert Grant Writing & Development: Our skilled writers then craft compelling and flawlessly written grant narratives. We transform your organization’s impact and your community’s needs into clear, concise, and funder-centric language, carefully addressing every proposal requirement. We also develop sound, logical budgets that align fully with grant guidelines.
  5. Thorough Review & Editing: Every single grant application undergoes a rigorous internal review. We check for accuracy, completeness, and strict adherence to all guidelines. This intensive process ensures that your application stands out and presents the strongest possible case for funding.
  6. Submission & Follow-Up Support: We assist with the submission process so that all deadlines are met and applications are submitted correctly. 

Ready to secure funding to support your deserving community?

Interested in learning more about how our customized services can assist you in meeting your grant seeking goals?

Schedule Your Free Consultation Here!

Free Resources

Click here to take advantage of our free resources such as pre-recorded webinars and ebooks

Testimonials

"It is a great pleasure to recommend Diane and her exceptional team at DH Leonard Consulting. With her firm's assistance, North Carolina New Schools was successful in securing a $20 million i3 scale up grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This was an incredibly complex and challenging proposal; with their help, what seemed impossible became possible. Her expertise, strategic and thoughtful approaches, great communication, and flexibility were tremendous assets in this process. They are adept with program development, proposal writing, budget development, logic models and much more. I highly recommend Diane and DH Leonard Consulting and am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with them."
Sylvia DuRant
Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations at Elon University
"Diane, and her team at DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, are true specialists in helping organizations further their mission. Besides their critical research skills in finding the right grant to match the organization's mission, they achieve a substantial grant acquisition rate, in large part, due to their grant readiness strategy! If your organization is serious about securing grants, DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services is a must have."
Jackie Nagel
Business Coach, President at Synnovatia, Community Strategist at Eureka
"Thanks to Diane's guidance and expertise as a consultant to Save The River over the past few years, the organization significantly increased the number of grants received in support of our programs. From providing valuable strategic advice for our annual planning to handling the nitty gritty of application details, Diane was a positive and knowledgeable partner as we pursued our goals of increasing annual grant funding. She has a strong ability to quickly grasp and articulate in writing the details of an organization's vision and programs and an eye for matching potential grant opportunities with the organization's program needs. Diane is also very organized and clear in her expectations for each project she pursues. Diane consistently went above and beyond my expectations each time I worked with her. I highly recommend her services"
Jennifer Caddick
Public Relations Strategy , Social Impact, Public Affairs, Media Relations
"DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services has completely changed the nonprofit ecosystem by holistically addressing each organizations functional areas: revenue generation abilities, increasing capacity through meaningful growth, creating and sustaining an agile culture, and maximizing operational performance and financial efficiency. There’s no one better!"
Jamie Cox
Director, United Way of Northern NY
"It is my great pleasure to serve as a reference for the DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, LLC and to enthusiastically recommend the company's outstanding expertise with editing and grant writing services. In all respects, including knowledge, expertise in guiding the grant writing process from an early phase to completion, integrity, and commitment to her client's success, I can highly recommend the company to you - and am confident the staff, led by Diane H. Leonard, GPC will be an ideal partner in the collaborative process of grant writing"
Joan M. Lakoski
PhD. Director, Proposal Development West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute WVCSTI - WVU Health Sciences
Diane. You and your group are the most impressive group of grant writing professionals I’ve worked with in my 40+ years. We are very fortunate to be working with you.
John Peach
Board President, Save The River
"Thank you to you and Diane for yesterday's presentation. While I'm very inexperienced at grant writing, Diane left me with more confidence that I could actually take a stab at it. I've been to these kinds of workshops before and they felt more like the presenter's perspective was a "I'll give you some information, but not enough so that you'll need to call me for future grant writing efforts." Thank you for giving us great tools, too!"
Terri Morse
Director Essex County Mental Health and Essex County Director Community Services