Upcoming Workshops & Webinars

This is a conference session of the national Grant Professionals Association’s Annual Conference held virtually November 4-6, 2020

What Does It Really Take to Make It as a Grants Consultant?

Becoming a grants consultant seems like the ideal life! The thought of freedom without prescribed work hours or a boss looking over your shoulder is extremely appealing. You can set your own hours and choose your work assignments as an independent contractor. Thanks in part to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the advances in technology it brings, becoming a member of the gig economy is even easier.

Independent contractors of any type must be prepared for shifts to their lifestyle, income levels, and time. One minute you are flying high meeting deadlines and others pondering what will you do when you don’t have any assignments in the pipeline. In this session, we will discuss the realities of being self-employed, the ebb and flow of seeking and obtaining assignments, hiring sub-contractors, keeping clients, and marketing.

Three senior grants consultants who operate their own single-woman, home-based businesses for more than 25 years each will help you understand what it takes to make it. While this session does not focus on the mechanics of starting a business such as filing for an LLC or DBA and contract language, it will concentrate on what it takes to be a successful consultant. Attendees will learn the following:

• Discovering then capitalizing on your entrepreneurial spirit
• Developing business skills to lead rather than follow
• Obtaining clients and keeping them
• Dealing with the inconsistency of assignments and unpredictable income
• Hiring sub-contractors instead of employees
• Marketing your services that will eventually lead to word-of-mouth recommendations

Those in attendance will benefit as follows:

• Identifying key traits of successful consultants
• Selecting and managing clients
• Determining your niche
• Exceeding client expectations

This is a fun, dynamic session that combines lecture and discussion. You will learn the ins and outs of starting then maintaining a grant-consulting business as a sole practitioner. The handouts provided will be a welcomed resource to help you on your journey.

Presenters:

Diane Gedeon-Martin has over 27 years of experience as a grants consultant. Since launching her firm in 1993, she has singly helped 286 nonprofit organizations in 26 states and Washington, DC, win grants to further their missions. Her background as a marketing director for Fortune 500 companies combined with years of journalism experience gives her a unique skill set; she has a strong, corporate work ethic and a writing style that gets to the point quickly while connecting with reviewers. Diane also sat on the other side of the table reviewing grant requests for a corporate giving program in her role as a regional marketing director. She is a nationally recognized speaker and certified Association of Fundraising Professional (AFP) Master Trainer. For 14 years, she was a faculty member of The Fund Raising School at Indiana University where she not only taught but also co-authored the curriculum for their Grant Proposals course. Diane is a GPA Legacy Member.

Linda Gatten Butler, MSW, ACSW, LISW-S, began Butler Consulting in 1994. Since that time, she helped 200+ nonprofits nationwide seek grants. She has assisted and/or founded several nonprofits, is a former member of the National Board of GPA, and a current board member of three Planned Parenthood locations. Linda has 45+ years of clinical, administrative, and fundraising experience, primarily serving Ohio’s Miami Valley. She feels blessed to have successfully assisted organizations from her home-based business where she enjoys her family, productivity, creatures, and freedom! Linda has co-authored several publications and taught social work and/or fundraising classes at several local universities. Her extensive trainings include 30+ topics offered locally, regionally, and nationally.

Jana Jane Hexter, GPC, has over 25 years in the grants field and the author of Grant Writing Revealed: 25 Experts Share Their Art, Science, and Secrets. She served on the National Board of GPA and taught grant writing at New York University’s George H. Heyman Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising. She is the founder of Grants Champion and has written well over 150 successful proposals and raised more than $80 million for her clients throughout the U.S. She is a captivating teacher and several of her presentations for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, National GPA Conference, and CharityChannel were ranked highest in attendance and/or audience approval. She also served as a Subject Matter Expert for the Grant Professionals Certification Institute (GPCI) to develop the Grant Professionals Certificate exam.

Register for the entire conference or just one-day at the Grant Professionals Association website.

Learn the basics of preparing successful grant proposals from the comfort of your office! Securing grants for your nonprofit organization requires a sound proposal. This workshop is for those who are new to seeking grants as well as those that want to sharpen their intermediate skills through a step-by-step approach to the process.

From developing the proposal idea to completing the details of the budget, this workshop provides an outline to use to prepare clear, concise, comprehensive, and competitive proposals. Participants will be introduced to logic models to help them develop measurable project goals, objectives, and outcomes required in every proposal. They will also learn to develop meaningful content for full proposals, letters of intent/inquiry, and online grant applications as well a post-award reporting.

The topics covered in this workshop are as follows:

• Grants as part of the fundraising plan
• Preparing the proposal idea including SMART goals and objectives
• Outlines for full grant proposals and letters of intent/inquiry
• Examining reasons for proposal rejection
• Exploring rules of grant management

This webinar provides learning opportunities for novice and intermediate (2 to 3 years) grant seekers.

Register online at Philanthropy Massachusetts.

Online grant applications are here to stay! They are frustrating, exasperating, and daunting. Still, how do you convey your case for support when your need statement and project description sections can only be 2,000 characters or roughly 350 words in length?

Although brevity is key, grantmakers still want engaging narratives that state the issue or problem succinctly while providing evidence that your organization will achieve the proposed outcomes. Knowing what to say and how to say it in a short grant application is the focus of this session.

Writing tight or to the point while getting the attention of the grant reviewer has never been more crucial. Learn how to position your case for support using deductive writing techniques that help you get to your point quicker. Eliminate superlatives from your writing and just say it.

This interactive session will ask the question, how do you approach the process of preparing an online grant application? The methods discussed will help you design successful paper and paperless proposal narratives including those to the different levels of government as well as foundation and corporations.

The learning objectives are as follows:

• Identify key elements that will grab the attention of grant reviewers
• Use simple, direct language to make your point
• Eliminate passive voice from your narratives
• Edit your proposals for strong content

Those in attendance will benefit as follows:

• Identify key components to include in specific sections when faced with a limited number of characters
• Learn techniques they can use immediately after the session ends
• Understand the nature of online grant proposals from the reviewer’s point-of-view
• Improve their approach to preparing online grant proposals

This is a fun, dynamic session that combines lecture, discussion, and hands-on exercises. Attendees will be able to use the slides in the handout as a guide to help them prepare grant proposals in the future.

Register for this webinar at the Grant Professionals Association website.