Category Archives: grant writer

Grant Writer on Vacation

Derek is on vacation, but before he went on vacation, he wrote about it.  I (Veronica) want you to know that my vacations are nothing like his. I think I could learn a thing or two from his philosophy about really getting away from it all for a few days.

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You may wonder – or not – what a grant writer does on vacation? Do they tow their editor along with them? Are staff instructed to send out urgent messages about new RFA’s? Do they splurge on buying a dozen grant samples to read poolside whilst sipping umbrella-drinks?

While all of that sounds reasonable (unappealing) and must be considered (not for a second), the answer for this grant writer is NOT. No editor, no grant samples, no rfa’s or rfp’s, no laptop either (the only exception would be an umbrella drink).

For my Vac’s and Hol’s (Canadian lingo for vacation) I’m going to the mountains, to camp, in the wilderness, near a stream, in a valley, where coyotes howl and night and where Native Americans long ago lived and dropped the odd arrowhead to be found.

I am always a writer, so I will be taking along my latest Moleskines to write and sketch in, and books to read, “Elements of Style” (still trying to develop one) and perhaps a recreational book or two I am in the middle of reading. Of course I will bring a cooler with some cold beer, dry ice and food, sunscreen, a hat that I can only wear with dignity in such a solitary landscape, and several changes of clothes.

The high mountains in August are cool, clear, and the peacefulness of the environment is good for a writer’s soul. Days with no television or radio, the only human intrusion is the occasional truck going up the road and the odd jet flying overhead somewhere with angry flight attendants. They should really try soaking up what they’re zooming over sometime, just not when I am there please.

Yes, my batteries are going into the shop for recharging on my Vac’s and Hol’s. My brain will not be in neutral, it will shift into another gear less burdened by the cares of the world and more open to inspiration, listening for the spirit of the Creator in a place still fresh from His hand.

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What is a Grant Writer?

Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, answers the question “What is a Grant Writer?” in his own unique way:

So many times, in response to the standard “guy” question, “So, what do you do?” I get this deer in the headlights response to my answer, “I’m a grant writer.”  The predictable follow-up question is, “Really?  What’s a grant writer?” 

Most people (not all) have heard of grants but most people think it’s a gift-wrapped gold bar that Uncle Sam sends out to undeserving people who make obscene artwork.  So I explain what a grant is first.
What is a grant?

Basically, a grant is an effort on the part of the government to solve a problem, improve a condition, demonstrate the validity of an idea, and sometimes – it’s true (I wish it weren’t) – pay back a political favor. 
The government goes about this by organizing a grant competition.  This competition is assigned a budget and the size of the grants is usually pre-determined, and so the budget allocated to the program determines the number of grants to be given out.  Applications are developed and made available, deadlines for submission of applications are set, and criteria for scoring the applications are created. 
When all of the applications come in, they are sorted and checked to make sure the writers followed all the rules, those that did not are tossed into the trash can and the rest are scored.  The highest scores win the dough, everyone else gets zilch and has to wait for another round of competition.
What is a grant writer?

After I get the person to understand what a grant is, then they often must be helped to understand what the application entails.  This is when in the conversation they glaze over and their minds stray off into “I like pizza” mode.  So I usually cut it short with “A grant writer writes the applications for grants,” which is really all they wanted to know and more than they wanted to know all at the same time.
Guys usually ask you what you do because they’re trying to gauge your level of success to see if you’re someone they can relate to, aspire to be like or perhaps give a dollar to.  But being told that someone is a grant writer is impossible to quantify. 
Being a doctor or a lawyer implies one is making a substantial income but a grant writer is such an unknown that people who care about that stuff – and guys often do – really have a hard time wrapping their head around what it means.
I like that part of being an inscrutable grant writer, apparently savvy about the mysterious inner-workings of government, apparently owning the ability to help others access a trickle of the government wealth, and having an occupation with no common point of reference with which to determine my income level. 
I am a Grant Writer. With this title, I can remain somewhat of a social-class enigma at events and social functions (at least until I go out to the parking lot and fire up my ’97 Honda Civic).

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Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

What is a Grant Writer?

Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, answers the question “What is a Grant Writer?” in his own unique way:

So many times, in response to the standard “guy” question, “So, what do you do?” I get this deer in the headlights response to my answer, “I’m a grant writer.”  The predictable follow-up question is, “Really?  What’s a grant writer?” 

Most people (not all) have heard of grants but most people think it’s a gift-wrapped gold bar that Uncle Sam sends out to undeserving people who make obscene artwork.  So I explain what a grant is first.
What is a grant?
Basically, a grant is an effort on the part of the government to solve a problem, improve a condition, demonstrate the validity of an idea, and sometimes – it’s true (I wish it weren’t) – pay back a political favor. 
The government goes about this by organizing a grant competition.  This competition is assigned a budget and the size of the grants is usually pre-determined, and so the budget allocated to the program determines the number of grants to be given out.  Applications are developed and made available, deadlines for submission of applications are set, and criteria for scoring the applications are created. 
When all of the applications come in, they are sorted and checked to make sure the writers followed all the rules, those that did not are tossed into the trash can and the rest are scored.  The highest scores win the dough, everyone else gets zilch and has to wait for another round of competition.
What is a grant writer?
After I get the person to understand what a grant is, then they often must be helped to understand what the application entails.  This is when in the conversation they glaze over and their minds stray off into “I like pizza” mode.  So I usually cut it short with “A grant writer writes the applications for grants,” which is really all they wanted to know and more than they wanted to know all at the same time.
Guys usually ask you what you do because they’re trying to gauge your level of success to see if you’re someone they can relate to, aspire to be like or perhaps give a dollar to.  But being told that someone is a grant writer is impossible to quantify. 
Being a doctor or a lawyer implies one is making a substantial income but a grant writer is such an unknown that people who care about that stuff – and guys often do – really have a hard time wrapping their head around what it means.
I like that part of being an inscrutable grant writer, apparently savvy about the mysterious inner-workings of government, apparently owning the ability to help others access a trickle of the government wealth, and having an occupation with no common point of reference with which to determine my income level. 
I am a Grant Writer. With this title, I can remain somewhat of a social-class enigma at events and social functions (at least until I go out to the parking lot and fire up my ’97 Honda Civic).

—————————————–

Free Letter of Inquiry Outline

Free webinar on Writing Good Letters of Support for Grants

To Do Lists Keep This Grant Writer on Task…Sometimes

Making a list of things to do at the beginning of the day is usually a useful exercise for me, especially when I am extremely busy like now with web work, or when I am in the middle of grant writing.

If I don’t make myself a list, I find myself blundering about chasing windmills and perhaps not finishing something important or failing to finish something from the day before.

I like my lists and I draw a blue line through finished tasks with a highlighter as I complete each one. It makes me feel more competent to finish things and be able to cross them out throughout the day.

Of course there are days like today when things not on my list intrude and rudely insert themselves into my neatly ordered agenda for the day. I have fourteen things on the list today and I’ve only crossed off two of them. And besides my walk I have worked steadily. I’m not sure what all I did or why it was so important, but I got it done and it’s not on the list and now I am a little panicked that I haven’t made nearly as much progress on what I decided was important at the start of the day.

What to do, what to do? I could refocus and begin a new eight hour shift working into the night, but I’ve already eaten the last piece of fruit in my lunchbox and the rest of my provisions are far away in my kitchen.

So I’ll probably have to start with the same list (-3 now, this blog post is another item HA!) tomorrow that I am finishing with today. I don’t feel as competent as I do on days when there is only one leftover task.

But that’s life isn’t it? Sometimes things just go the way they’re expected, sometimes good planning is interrupted by new realities, and sometimes, work simply has to end in order to answer the call of the grumbling stomach and drive home for some chips and salsa.

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This post was contributed by Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link.

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Online Seminar!  Secrets of Successful Grant Writers

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

To Do Lists Keep This Grant Writer on Task…Sometimes

Making a list of things to do at the beginning of the day is usually a useful exercise for me, especially when I am extremely busy like now with web work, or when I am in the middle of grant writing.

If I don’t make myself a list, I find myself blundering about chasing windmills and perhaps not finishing something important or failing to finish something from the day before.

I like my lists and I draw a blue line through finished tasks with a highlighter as I complete each one. It makes me feel more competent to finish things and be able to cross them out throughout the day.

Of course there are days like today when things not on my list intrude and rudely insert themselves into my neatly ordered agenda for the day. I have fourteen things on the list today and I’ve only crossed off two of them. And besides my walk I have worked steadily. I’m not sure what all I did or why it was so important, but I got it done and it’s not on the list and now I am a little panicked that I haven’t made nearly as much progress on what I decided was important at the start of the day.

What to do, what to do? I could refocus and begin a new eight hour shift working into the night, but I’ve already eaten the last piece of fruit in my lunchbox and the rest of my provisions are far away in my kitchen.

So I’ll probably have to start with the same list (-3 now, this blog post is another item HA!) tomorrow that I am finishing with today. I don’t feel as competent as I do on days when there is only one leftover task.

But that’s life isn’t it? Sometimes things just go the way they’re expected, sometimes good planning is interrupted by new realities, and sometimes, work simply has to end in order to answer the call of the grumbling stomach and drive home for some chips and salsa.

———————
This post was contributed by Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link.

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Free e-book —Using Social Media to Increase Your Business

Online Seminar!  Secrets of Successful Grant Writers

Help! Grant Writer Drowning in Paper!

This post was written by Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, but I must admit that his desk looks quite tidy compared to mine. The issue he struggles with is the same one I struggle with, except that the piles of paper on my desk are threatening to take over. This is how it always is at the end of the grant writing season.  Now I have the joy of cleaning it up. Enjoy Derek’s thoughts.  Can you relate?

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It’s hard not to get buried in an avalanche of paperwork as a grant writer. Sometimes my desk starts to look like a paper recycling operation. I collect so many pieces of information necessary to the work, grant samples, a grant outline, pieces of research, books, booklets, digital disks, notes, charts, graphs, tables – some of it hard to find, and some of it needed once for one sentence, and then never used again.

The trouble is that when I do some research and toil away to find some precious piece of information for a grant, I tend to place a value that piece of paper that it may not merit. After all, if I can find it once, I can find it again, so why am I in angst about throwing it away? The truth is that my filing skills are not going to make it any easier to find in a file cabinet anyway. I’d be much better off doing another Google search or creating a bookmark for the location.

I’m afraid that my computer desktop looks a lot like my physical desktop much of the time. I place things there that I am working on and then before I get them filed away neatly and logically where I can find them the next time I need them, I am on to the next task and these files sit there sullenly until I get annoyed at the clutter and throw them in the virtual trash can.

I know I should be more organized and diligent about keeping order in my papers and megabytes but I don’t often have the motivation to do those things. I used to have a secretary to hand things off to. I’d say to her, “File this please”, and she would, and when I needed it again, she would know where to find it. It was magical.

But alas, for many years now I have been my own secretary and on Secretary’s Day I am not tempted to treat myself for my excellent work. In fact, if I could find a stack of pink slips, I’d give my inner secretary one.

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Don’t make these 5 grant writing errors!

Download this free Budget Detail Worksheet to help you with your grant budget development.

New grant samples are now available on GrantSample.com. Take a look. Sometimes, seeing a sample of a successful grant can give you the ideas you need to succeed!

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Help! Grant Writer Drowning in Paper!

This post was written by Non-Profit Consultant and Expert Grant Writer, Derek Link, but I must admit that his desk looks quite tidy compared to mine. The issue he struggles with is the same one I struggle with, except that the piles of paper on my desk are threatening to take over. This is how it always is at the end of the grant writing season.  Now I have the joy of cleaning it up. Enjoy Derek’s thoughts.  Can you relate?

——————

It’s hard not to get buried in an avalanche of paperwork as a grant writer. Sometimes my desk starts to look like a paper recycling operation. I collect so many pieces of information necessary to the work, grant samples, a grant outline, pieces of research, books, booklets, digital disks, notes, charts, graphs, tables – some of it hard to find, and some of it needed once for one sentence, and then never used again.

The trouble is that when I do some research and toil away to find some precious piece of information for a grant, I tend to place a value that piece of paper that it may not merit. After all, if I can find it once, I can find it again, so why am I in angst about throwing it away? The truth is that my filing skills are not going to make it any easier to find in a file cabinet anyway. I’d be much better off doing another Google search or creating a bookmark for the location.

I’m afraid that my computer desktop looks a lot like my physical desktop much of the time. I place things there that I am working on and then before I get them filed away neatly and logically where I can find them the next time I need them, I am on to the next task and these files sit there sullenly until I get annoyed at the clutter and throw them in the virtual trash can.

I know I should be more organized and diligent about keeping order in my papers and megabytes but I don’t often have the motivation to do those things. I used to have a secretary to hand things off to. I’d say to her, “File this please”, and she would, and when I needed it again, she would know where to find it. It was magical.

But alas, for many years now I have been my own secretary and on Secretary’s Day I am not tempted to treat myself for my excellent work. In fact, if I could find a stack of pink slips, I’d give my inner secretary one.

———————————-

Don’t make these 5 grant writing errors!

Download this free Budget Detail Worksheet to help you with your grant budget development.

New grant samples are now available on GrantSample.com. Take a look. Sometimes, seeing a sample of a successful grant can give you the ideas you need to succeed!

Rantings of an Opinionated Grant Writer

I try to keep the posts of this blog positive and informative, and I do my best to keep my whining to a minimum, but today I have a few rants to put out there in the world.  Maybe someone will be able to learn from them.

Every now and then someone tells me, “Veronica, maybe you shouldn’t be so outspoken about your opinions.  Won’t you risk losing business?”  Maybe, but I like to remember what Bill Cosby said — “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.”

So, here are the rants running through my mind today:

  1. Why do the people doing the best work in the community seem to have the hardest time to getting money to fund their work?  I see it over and over again. Small non-profits that are really doing amazing work who struggle to stay afloat while large organizations with tremendous waste seem to have more cash than they can use. Of course, I know the answer to the question.  There is much more to the funding equation than just doing good work. And never forget the other explanation:  Life isn’t fair.
  2. Speaking of tremendous waste.  I have a client (a public agency) that is giving $700,000 back to the federal government at the end of a four year grant period because they have a lousy fiscal accounting system and they didn’t spend all of the $6 million grant they were awarded.  It’s not that they couldn’t use it or that there isn’t plenty of need in their community, but the combination of poor accounting, poor communication among administrators, and incompetence has essentially stolen almost three quarters of a million dollars from folks who desperately need the support.  As the grant writer and evaluator for that program, I’m disgusted.
  3. Speaking of being disgusted, I’m currently working with a school district that seems to be doing everything it can to keep the public away.  One day they say they want parents more involved, and the next day they take actions to make it harder (sometimes nearly impossible) for parents to be involved. Then we loop back full circle to their finger pointing at parents for not being involved.  Enough already!
  4. I was at a meeting yesterday discussing some pretty significant changes to a local school for students who have been expelled from their regular public schools.  We were discussing incentives for students and I had the wild and crazy idea to ask the students what incentives would inspire them. I got that condescending, “awwww, the poor woman doesn’t understand the real world” look from one of the school administrators present.

OK, I’d better stop now.  I think I’ve been reading Cranky Blog too much.

Now I’ll get back to my regularly scheduled positive and uplifting posts……

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Don’t make these 5 grant writing errors.

Take a look at what’s new at GrantGoddess.com!

Rantings of an Opinionated Grant Writer

I try to keep the posts of this blog positive and informative, and I do my best to keep my whining to a minimum, but today I have a few rants to put out there in the world.  Maybe someone will be able to learn from them.

Every now and then someone tells me, “Veronica, maybe you shouldn’t be so outspoken about your opinions.  Won’t you risk losing business?”  Maybe, but I like to remember what Bill Cosby said — “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.”

So, here are the rants running through my mind today:

  1. Why do the people doing the best work in the community seem to have the hardest time to getting money to fund their work?  I see it over and over again. Small non-profits that are really doing amazing work who struggle to stay afloat while large organizations with tremendous waste seem to have more cash than they can use. Of course, I know the answer to the question.  There is much more to the funding equation than just doing good work. And never forget the other explanation:  Life isn’t fair.
  2. Speaking of tremendous waste.  I have a client (a public agency) that is giving $700,000 back to the federal government at the end of a four year grant period because they have a lousy fiscal accounting system and they didn’t spend all of the $6 million grant they were awarded.  It’s not that they couldn’t use it or that there isn’t plenty of need in their community, but the combination of poor accounting, poor communication among administrators, and incompetence has essentially stolen almost three quarters of a million dollars from folks who desperately need the support.  As the grant writer and evaluator for that program, I’m disgusted.
  3. Speaking of being disgusted, I’m currently working with a school district that seems to be doing everything it can to keep the public away.  One day they say they want parents more involved, and the next day they take actions to make it harder (sometimes nearly impossible) for parents to be involved. Then we loop back full circle to their finger pointing at parents for not being involved.  Enough already!
  4. I was at a meeting yesterday discussing some pretty significant changes to a local school for students who have been expelled from their regular public schools.  We were discussing incentives for students and I had the wild and crazy idea to ask the students what incentives would inspire them. I got that condescending, “awwww, the poor woman doesn’t understand the real world” look from one of the school administrators present.

OK, I’d better stop now.  I think I’ve been reading Cranky Blog too much.

Now I’ll get back to my regularly scheduled positive and uplifting posts……

————————————-

Don’t make these 5 grant writing errors.

Take a look at what’s new at GrantGoddess.com!

Published by Creative Resources & Research http://grantgoddess.com

Four Grant Writing Ethical No-No’s

There are actually many ethical issues involved in grant writing, many more than I expected when I first began my journey as a professional grant writer. Here are four of the most common ethical issues you need to avoid if you are a professional grant writer:

  1. Lying in a proposal.  I have to admit that I have always assumed that everyone would know that lying in a grant proposal is ethically wrong, but you’d be surprised how many times I have heard people try to justify it. Don’t try to exaggerate your need for the grant or include program activities that you don’t intend on implementing. Just tell the truth.
  2. Reusing narrative written for another client. It’s very tempting, especially when you’re overworked and tired, to just lift some narrative that you wrote for another client for the same grant last year to put in someone else’s narrative this year. Don’t do it.  If you get caught (especially by a reader scoring the grant), you risk not being funded, but it’s just plain wrong anyway. If you are being paid for original narrative, write original narrative.  If you can’t think of another way to say what you need to say, don’t take the job.
  3. Poaching funding sources.  I heard this horror story when I met with a local non-profit administrator last week. A private funding source had invited the non-profit to submit a proposal.  This particular funding source does not accept unsolicited proposals.  The non-profit asked its grant writer (an outside consultant) to write a proposal to this funding source.  The grant writer wrote a proposal and submitted it. A couple of weeks later, the non-profit administrator got a phone call from the funding source saying that the grant writer had actually submitted several proposals – the one the funding source had requested as well as proposals on behalf of several other organizations the grant writer worked with.  None of these other proposals were part of the solicitation.  The grant writer had just taken it on herself to try to squeeze in some of her other clients in competition with the client making the original request.  I’m sure she assumed they would not know or find out.  To make matters worse, the representative from the funding source told the non-profit administrator that of the several proposals submitted by that grant writer, the weakest one from from the original agency requesting the work. The non-profit organization that originally asked the grant writer to submit the proposal was ultimately not funded.
  4. Telling a client that they can pay for grant writing services out of the grant when they can’t. There is some debate in the field about whether charging a contingency fee for grant writing services is ethical or not.  Some people insist that contingency fees are unethical, but then call it a “bonus” for getting funded and call that ethical. The real issue, though, is not whether or not it’s a contingency fee, but where that fee comes from. If you tell someone they can pay the fee out of the grant when they can’t, you have essentially lied to them. Very few funding sources allow you to pay for grant writing services out of a grant itself (there are, however, some that do). 

The bottom line is that integrity matters. Trying to cut ethical corners may seem like a profitable decision at the time, but in the end it is not the way to build a successful grant writing career.

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