The National Endowment for the Arts (or “NEA”, for short) is the Federal funding agency for arts and culture organizations in the United States. They have several grant opportunities each year and most arts nonprofits usually want a piece of that pie. Of course, whether or not you actually get a piece depends on…
This week I’m doing something a little different. A “Throwback Tuesday” post to one of my most popular grant writing guides. Yeah, yeah, I know “Throwback Tuesday” isn’t a thing, but this week Thursday is also Thanksgiving. That’s a cruddy day to release a blog post so I’m switching things up a bit and doing…
My new book, Writing With a Mission: How to Create a Successful Career as a Grant Writer” will be available in just a few short days (September 9th). This book is the book that Bruce (my co-author) and I wish we had when we were at the beginning of our careers as grant writers and…
During the Coronavirus quarantine, I’ve lost track of how many Skype calls and Zoom webinars I’ve participated in, but let’s just say it’s a lot. Some have been client calls. Some have been calls with colleagues. And some have been webinars from grantmakers and other grant pros. The latter calls have actually been the…
Candid’s Foundation Directory Online (often called ‘FDO’, for short) is one of the many available options for conducting online grants research and creating a grant strategy. However, in order to use it you must have a subscription and that, of course, costs money. So I often hear from many of my readers and subscribers…
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…
Grant writing case statements are a beautiful thing. If you’ve never used one for grant writing before, it’s time you started and this blog post is going to show you how useful they are and exactly how to incorporate them into your grant writing for maximum success. First, a little primer for anyone…
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…
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…
“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…