Archives 2021 - 2026
2021
2022
Writing grants is like dating. Just because something worked in one relationship, doesn’t mean it’s going to work with the next. Each relationship is unique, unpredictable, exciting, and… sometimes heartbreaking. Nonetheless, when we write grants to foundations, we have to be vulnerable while presenting our best qualities. Ready for some dating advice for foundations?
Many organizations are pursuing federal grant funding, but do not have a plan (or infrastructure) in place once the funds are received. What do organizations need to do now and in the long-term to become more grant ready and good stewards of public funding? We’ll provide some tips to consider as grant funding is pursued.
Need to find grantmakers for your organization but unsure of where to start? In this session we’ll walk through the basics of funder research and tools to help with the process.
Learn how to tell your organization’s story in the Evaluation section of grant proposals and reports. We will consider why funders ask about program results and how to answer effectively for a competitive proposal.
For grant professionals, burnout is an ongoing threat. How can we maintain the passion and drive that feeds transformative work but avoid the physical, emotional, and professional trauma of a meltdown?
When you use the five stages of story arc to write your organization’s story, the answers to most grant proposal questions amazingly reveal themselves. Using this approach, you will be able to transform a compelling story into a compelling grant proposal.
2023
As grant professionals, we do waaayyy more than write proposals. Let’s celebrate one of the many “hats” we don’t often get recognized for wearing – our post-award grant management hat. Whether you love this part of the work or hate it, grant management is a natural skill that grant professionals possess – so embrace it!
Implicit bias in grantmaking can be invisible, but its impact is visible when determining which organizations ultimately receive funding. This presentation will discuss why grant funders should use data to examine their practices and ensure equitable access to funding for organizations serving marginalized populations.
Logic models can be intimidating, but are really a simple tool for facilitating thinking AND showing off your project knowledge. This quick down-and-dirty session is all you’ll need to be a wizard at the white board, in the board meeting, or when you’re required to on-board a new grant employee. Trust us: logic models are #easypeasy.
Learn how to craft messages and stories that break through the nonprofit marketing noise. Don’t waste your time writing the same old hu hum messages. Instead, make word choices that engage both the heads and hearts of your funders so they want to give more.
In this session, we will explore the seven most common ways that data is misused in grants and how to avoid these pitfalls. We will discuss the importance of proper data management, the role of ethics in data collection and analysis, and strategies for ensuring the validity and reliability of your data.
2024
Writer’s block is something we all deal with. Sometimes the easiest questions become the ones that trip us up. Understanding key concepts to help move past the block is so important to the success of our applications. While working on this presentation, the things I learned allowed me to give myself permission to make changes in my work environment, which greatly impacted the work I do. I hope to provide a little encouragement to help others move past their writing block and be the best grant professionals they can be.
Whether your nonprofit receives a grant or not, knowing how to properly thank funders is critical. This will be a fun session discussing creative ways to show appreciation to funders – from free/easy things all the way up to “thank a thon” events. It helps organizations and consultants think outside the box to complete an important step in building/maintaining relationships with funders.
As grant professionals, we are constantly searching for ways to streamline processes while enhancing the quality of our work. AI is revolutionizing grantseeking by providing advanced tools for identifying, analyzing, and assessing funding opportunities. This session will focus on how grantseekers can use AI to critically evaluate grant search results for alignment, feasibility, and potential impact.
Key Topics Covered:
- Assessing Grant Results with AI
Discover how to use AI-driven tools to evaluate grant opportunities beyond surface-level criteria. This includes analyzing the requirements, funding trends, and historical giving patterns of grantmakers to determine their likelihood of funding your proposal. We’ll explore how natural language processing (NLP) can summarize grant guidelines, highlight critical details, and flag potential red flags like eligibility issues or misaligned goals based on the real giving data. - AI for Comparative Analysis
We’ll dive into how AI can be used to compare multiple grant opportunities side by side, ranking them based on custom criteria such as funding amount, application timeline, and organizational capacity. This approach helps grantseekers prioritize opportunities with the highest ROI potential. - Practical Tools and Demonstrations
Participants will see practical demonstrations of how to process grant search results from databases like GrantStation and Instrumentl with AI.
We’ll explore specific prompts and workflows for improving search results and ensuring that the opportunities chosen are a good fit for the organization’s mission.
- Session Takeaways:
Actionable strategies for integrating AI into your grantseeking process. - Practical techniques for analyzing and assessing grant search results.
- Guidance on how to choose tools and approaches that fit your organization’s needs, ensuring you maximize the impact of your grantseeking efforts.
- AI is not here to replace grantseekers but to amplify their expertise, providing insights and efficiencies that free up time for the essential work of building relationships and crafting compelling proposals.
Grant professionals tend to be curious folks. We savor the opportunity to research a topic deeply. We love to ask questions that foster greater understanding or break down silos. Learn how you can deploy both intellectual and interpersonal curiosity to hone your superpowers, demonstrate your value, and maximize grant outcomes.
Attendees will learn how to navigate ethical challenges while maintaining the highest standards of professional conduct. The session will also highlight key ethical principles as outlined by the Grant Professionals Association (GPA) Code of Ethics, and discuss strategies for fostering ethical practices within organizations.
Whether you’re a grant writer, consultant, administrator, or manager, this session will equip you with the tools to uphold ethical excellence in all aspects of grant work, ensuring both personal integrity and organizational success.
Key takeaways include:
1. Understanding common ethical challenges in the grants profession.
2. Practical strategies to identify and resolve ethical dilemmas.
3. Identify resources to increase knowledge and understanding of ethical principles
The evolving grants landscape offers exciting opportunities for organizations to enhance their funding preparedness. Being grant-optimized isn’t just a goal – it’s about naturally aligning your mission and goals with the right funding opportunities and creating friendly systems that keep you ready for what’s ahead. This empowering approach transforms grant-seeking from a last-minute rush into a smooth, strategic process, helping your organization consistently secure funding to create lasting change in your community.
2025
Nonprofits in the Age of AI is a webinar that explores how artificial intelligence can transform nonprofit operations and ethics. Experts provide actionable insights for integrating AI to enhance impact and efficiency
This session delves into the intricacies of grant writing, guiding attendees from the initial stages of idea generation to securing vital funding. This concise but impactful presentation is for grant writing professionals seeking to enhance their skills and bolster their success rates. Through actionable insights and practical strategies, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the grant writing process, enabling them to effectively navigate the complexities of proposal development, budgeting, funder relationships, and review processes.
In this session, we’ll discuss many aspects of Grants Management, with a particular emphasis on relationship management, both internally and externally within your organization. This webinar will help you see yourself and help others in your organization to see you as the Major Gifts Officer in the Foundations space, that you are!
The language we use in our work signals our values, assumptions, and biases. Learn guiding principles and examples for how we can shift our language to create more inclusive proposals, partnerships, and programs.
Do you struggle to say no? Are you frustrated or resentful at work? The number one driver of resentment is lack of boundaries. Learn how to put boundaries in place to help you stay in your integrity and assume the most generous intent of others- with Julie Boll, GPC, GPA Approved trainer, and Certified Dare to Lead facilitator.
2026
Clear, timely communication is an easily missed opportunity to improve our work, our teams, and our professional quality of life. Grant writers are often in the facilitator role for grant applications, but there are opportunities to use those skills beyond the application itself to make your grant team and overall organization stronger.
If you’re searching for grants but need fresh ideas beyond the usual grant research process, this session is for you. I’ll share 7 creative research strategies I’ve used as a grants director to find grants and funders. You’ll leave with out-of-the-box ideas to expand your funding search and discover grant opportunities.
Sharing an impact story in a grant application is an important part of many grant applications. However, the larger goal should be to tell impact stories across all organizational communication channels as you just never know where a grantmaker or a stakeholder connected to a grantmaker may see your impact story.
Nearly every grant application asks how the program will be sustained following the grant period or after the initial funding is exhausted. Even if it’s not a specific question, building sustainability into program design is smart business and organizational development.
Explore how organizations are utilizing community resources, third party giving, social enterprises, and inkind support to build a sustainable program plan. …. a much better answer than “”we’ll conduct additional fundraising.””
The session is built on the four key checkpoints for sustainability alongside a template sustainability statement both of which will be provided to attendees.
Receiving a rejection notification on an application you felt certain you would win is one of the hardest moments in the life of the grant professional. It is also one of the greatest opportunities for personal growth and organizational transformation. The ability for the grant professional to reframe an unexpected rejection into an unanticipated yet beneficial chance for self-reflection, reorientation, and resilience is an essential skill for the novice and the seasoned grantseeker. This session explores how tools from student development theory can help grant professionals reframe rejection from a setback into a powerful learning opportunity. Participants will leave with actionable advice and skills, including specific reflection prompts, debrief questions for individuals and teams, and team-based strategies to help utilize rejection into an opportunity for personal growth and institutional learning.
Measuring Outcomes: Measure What Matters, Keep it Simple provides tools and a framework for arriving at meaningful, measurable program outcomes. It will illustrate and provide examples of how to guide program staff to the outcomes that matter and the metrics to measure them that show a funder that your program is effective.