About Us

• The Official Story
• The Unofficial Story
• GrantsChampion Values

The Official Story

Jane Hexter, President of Grants Champion has written well over 50 successful proposals and raised over $22 million for her clients in the last few years alone. Her clients include school districts, higher education institutions, and human service agencies throughout the U.S..

Jane is a captivating teacher. Grants Champion has helped dedicated people raise money for programs and businesses that really make a difference. Click here to see testimonials from our clients or see a list of successful proposals.
She has spoken at the American Association of Grant Professionals National Conferences and AFP Finger Lakes Conferences. Her “Presentation on Presentation” at the National AAGP conference was given the highest ranking by conference attendees.

Jane served on the National Board of the American Association of Grant Professionals and is a former chapter board member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Finger Lakes. Jane also served as a Subject Matter Expert for the Grant Professionals Certification Institute (GPCI) to develop the Grant Professionals Certificate exam. In addition, she has served on peer review panels for New York State and the United States Department of Education.

Before starting her consulting business, she worked for seven years at Cornell University as a grants administrator and grant writer. She served as Assistant Program Leader of the Local Government Program and most recently as the Assistant Director of Development at the Boyce Thompson Institute.

She was born and raised in Nottingham, England. After moving to the United States, she earned her BA cum Laude in Government/Slavic and East European Studies from Cornell University in 1995. Her course work included a graduate course in program evaluation and the opportunity to conduct research in Eastern Europe as a Ford Foundation Clusters Scholar.

Jane’s Unofficial Story

 

Trying to create good started early. Here’s a picture of me at age 10 when a couple of friends and I organized a tag sale for charity. That's me, grinning on the left (and that’s  my mum is on the far right holding one of the neighborhood kids)

Here is a short video that tells you the unofficial story behind Grants Champion. Like a lot of people, I want to help make the world a better place. I believe that everyone on this planet has the right to food, shelter, clean water, a decent education, and economic opportunities regardless of anything. And, that we need to ensure our long-term viability on this planet to boot.

Grants Champion is an important manifestation of the change that I am creating in the world. I am driven by the knowledge that today millions of women around the world have no options. And, their powerlessness is magnified when they can’t educate their kids for the sake of a school uniform, small fee, or school supplies. As an educated woman living in the richest country in the world, I am acutely aware that I have the luxury of choice. And I choose to use it to help those who don’t.

When I’m not trying to make the world a little more liveable, I love to hike in the beautiful state parks that are just minutes from my home in the New York Finger Lakes Region, swim in the lakes during summer, and whiz down ski slopes at breakneck speeds in winter. Best of all, I like to hang out with my two kids and my black lab – throw in a little dark chocolate and life couldn’t be better.

GrantsChampion Values

My vision through Grants Champion is to partner with you to create change in three ways.

1. Grants Champion nurtures and supports the people who take our classes or contract with us and they in turn nurture their communities.

Through our work, we empower people who are committed to their clients/kids/programs/environment to get money for organizations and businesses that really make a difference in our world. Using internet-based videoconferencing ensures that even folks with no travel budget can get high-quality training and we cut down on a some gas-guzzling transportation. You, in turn, nurture your community by bringing great programs and businesses to life.

2. Grants Champion nurtures and supports its employees, contractors, and vendors.

Whenever possible we buy from vendors who share our social mission. For example, I intend to ship products via a non-profit organization that provides employment to adults with developmental disabilities. Sure, it’s a little more expensive and sometimes there are glitches. But we are dedicated to working them out so that you receive great service and our supplier provides opportunities to people who have few.

3. Grants Champion directly supports others who are less fortunate through direct contributions.

We donate 10% of our profits to organizations that give women power. This year, we’ve made donations to Heifer International, the National Resources Defense Council, sponsored a woman in Africa through Women for Women International. We’ve also been fortunate enough to make small business loans to women around the world through Kiva. Please visit our Kiva.org page and consider joining us. My vision is to enable every Grants Champion class to sponsor a woman through Women for Women International for a year and for Grants Champion to buy an ark of animals through Heifer International and make over 1000 loans through Kiva.

I love to hear from other folks who are out in the grant writing trenches: drop me a line!