Your Grant Authority

Rhodes and I have traveled this week to visit Granmama and Grandaddy in Alabama (hence my “git'er done” reference – sorry, I just had to!) Contrary to popular belief, my family in no way perpetuates the myths that seem to plague folks born and raised in the South. I can proudly say that no one in my family has ever married a cousin, we have all of our teeth and we even have indoor plumbing! What we do not have, in my parent's home at least, is internet capability. My mom still thinks it's frivolous and sees absolutely no purpose in it. Sigh. So here I sit at a local coffee shop drinking bottomless cups of stale coffee and trying to avoid the stares of the baristas probably wondering why anyone would still be at the same table after five hours. Let them wonder! 

Anyway, this appalling lack of convenience in my parent's home got me to thinking about all of the wonderful resources that the internet dutifully brings me each day as a grant writer. But – if you don't know about them, you can't take advantage of them. Of course, being from the South, it is ingrained in us to be polite and to share. So, allow me then to share some of my favorites with you:

Remember the game “Where’s Waldo?” The object is to find a nerdy looking little fella with a red cap and glasses amidst a sea of images tightly crammed together. You look and you look and then….maybe…you find him.

After years of searching for grant funders that give to a nonprofit I’m assisting, I’m reminded of “Where’s Waldo?”

I don’t care what the calendar says – it’s Summer! Where I have been enjoying writing compelling grant applications on the deck bathed in sunshine, this is no longer the case. Mosquitoes and scorching heat have driven me inside to cooler temperatures and a scratch-free zone.

For a lot of nonprofits, summer can be a time for planning an upcoming fiscal year. I highly suggest that you do this from the comfort of an air-conditioned space. I also suggest that you think about how you plan on adding grants to your income. If you’re not writing grant applications, you’re missing out on huge potential funding.

So often, people ask me how I started grant writing. Quite literally I fell into it by accident. My Bachelor’s degree is in Secondary Education so I’ve always had a fondness for teaching but my first “real” job just happened to be with a nonprofit foundation. I was funded through a grant and I worked trying to get more funding which was in my best interest since I wanted to keep my job! I had no earthly idea at the time why I was being asked to do the things that I was told would help keep our funders happy, but it was at this ground level that I got my basic training.