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.

Professionals Trained since 2014
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Upcoming Beginner Sessions

Participating in “How to Successfully Tell Your Story in Your Grant Application” will teach you how to craft a compelling story in your grant application using all required elements of the grant application. From the abstract to the budget and all narrative elements in between, we will walk through how to create a consistent and competitive story.

Register here

Participating in “Grantmaker Relationships 101: How to Get Started” will teach you how to establish relationships with new grantmakers *BEFORE* submitting an application. Relationships are as critical a component of the grant-seeking process as they are with individual donors, but are often overlooked due to time constraints or due to discomfort with a grant maker’s preference or capacity for communication. 

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In this webinar we will teach you how to take an Agile approach to managing your grant applications for your organization to significantly improve the grant seeking process. The Scrum framework is a proven way for grant writing teams to increase the efficiency of application design and to manage the iterations of applications and numerous players that have a stake in successful grant applications. 

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Upcoming Intermediate Sessions

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

Yes, small and medium-sized nonprofits go after large grants of six figures or more all the time, but unfortunately, they are often denied despite the hard work and effort that the awesome organizations put into them. The most common reason regardless of the organization or funder being applied to that they are not awarded is most because they lack the preparation that is needed to craft a highly competitive application. Rather, with the best of intentions, the organization “just” dives right into the writing overlooking key steps to complete before starting the grant application itself.

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.

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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 “Start Your 2025 Grant Seeking Off Right!” will provide you with a strong understanding of your success in 2024 and how to set goals for 2025 that will help expand your grant-seeking strategy and revenue.  We will also discuss how to increase the engagement of your colleagues in being part of the grant planning process to further increase your success.

Register here

Interested In Talking to Our Team About a Training?

"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.