I had planned to write this blog post on becoming a grant consultant long before the COVID-19 crisis hit, but now this topic seems even more timely than it did a month ago. Last year my business partner, Bruce Ripley, and I wrote the book Granted: How to Break Into Freelance Grant Writing and…
Things are incredibly strange and scary right now. Everything seems uncertain, our routines, have been upended, and on top of it all most of us are worried about the wellbeing of our organizations as well. As you probably know, most of my clients and readers come from nonprofits in the arts and culture…
In January, most of us are full of optimism and plans for the year ahead. That’s great, but as the year rolls along and builds up steam most of us start to be pulled in lots of different directions. You have needs, your family has needs, and you still have goals you need to…
Say goodbye to 2019 and hello to 2020. This year promises to bring big things in a variety of arenas – politics, science, and technology, just to name a few. But I also hope that it will usher in great successes and milestones for YOU personally and professionally as well as for the organization…
2019 has flown by, hasn’t it? As the year comes to a close I’ve been engaged in tracking my progress, my goals, and my stats from 2019 as well as looking ahead to determine what I want to accomplish and what I want to offer my readers and clients in 2020. You’ve most likely…
Have you ever watched the TV show “Doomsday Preppers”? It was on the National Geographic channel from 2011 -2014 and showcased American families who believed that Doomsday (or at least hard times) were coming and were preparing accordingly by building fallout shelters, water filtration systems, and stockpiling supplies and gold. The larger prepper movement…
As a nonprofit pro, you’re probably interested in making sure that your grants, social media, and marketing strategies are as effective as possible. Luckily, there’s one secret to getting all of them right. Mastering this one thing will align your marketing, funding, and social strategies and have them working together like well-oiled machinery. So…
Preparation is vital in grant writing. Fail to plan and you’ve virtually guaranteed that something important will fall through the cracks. In my time as a grant writer, consultant, and mentor I’ve seen otherwise competent and well-meaning professionals miss deadlines, not make enough copies, fail to submit all of the required documents, forgo providing…
This is the second episode of my Program Notes series, where I interview professionals working in arts and culture nonprofits from across the United States. These are dedicated pros who are actually working in the field and have their fingers on the pulse of current challenges, opportunities, and issues facing the nonprofit world and the…
“Grant Readiness” refers to how competitive a nonprofit organization is for grant awards as well as how ready they are to manage a grant award should they get one. It’s a really broad topic which touches on almost every aspect of nonprofit work in some way, shape, or fashion. And I’m constantly harping on…