Courageous Grant Development
By · CommentsRight now, the circumstances that you and your clients are facing might be pretty daunting. You could be looking at severe budget cuts, layoffs, decreased giving, and increasing demand from clients. Courage in the face of it all might be pretty helpful, so I’m going to write about what it takes to be a courageous grant writer in this climate.
What is courage?
Merriam-Webster defines courage as the “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” But when I think of courage, I like to remember that the word is derived from the French and Latin words for heart – Coeur or Cor. That means that our ability to be courageous and act despite ours fear or the dangers in front of us is directly linked to our ability to follow our hearts rather than allowing our minds to scare us half to death.
Read More→
DO YOU MANAGE TIME OR DOES IT MANAGE YOU?
By · CommentsI’m guessing that right now you are swamped. There is a lot of RFP’s coming out related to ARRA and organizations are pushing to respond. That means, as grant writers, we’re being pushed to pull rabbits out the hat and make time to juggle five projects instead of three. Sound familiar? What if you could manage all the projects with a little more ease and, dare I say, a dash of fun?
Fun, ya say? Read More→
Summer in upstate New York is gorgeous. Last night, I hung out at the lake and enjoyed good company, great wine and a spectacular sunset. At such moments, it’s hard to remember the pain in our world – everything seems perfectly idyllic. When I mentioned that to a friend she said “that’s what summers are for – to remind us of the beauty in our world.”
In that vein, I’ve chosen to spread a little good to our grantschampion community. Above you’ll find a short video from me and instructions on how to access a database of ARRA grant opportunities that I’ve put together. It has over 260 entries in it. I’m distributing it so that you can use the sort and filter features and get as much use out of it as possible. To access the database simply fill out the information to the left of the video.
I’m wishing that you are managing to find some time in the flurry of grant deadlines to drink in a little summer wherever you are.
Recovery Act Grants Webinar
By · CommentsAre you feeling a little overwhelmed by the slew of information coming out about the Recovery Act and left wondering just how to figure it all out so that your agency doesn’t miss out? If so, you’re not alone. This time of year is busy enough as it is and many of us simply don’t have time to keep up to date on what’s happening with the stimulus money.
That’s why I’m offering a 2 hour Recovery Act Grants Webinar on Tuesday June 16th designed to help clarify the morass and give you the information that you need to take action and win stimulus funding for your organization.
For more information please visit
http://www.grantschampion.com/recovery-act.htm -
And don’t worry if you can’t make the actual times on the 16th – it will be recorded and ready for download after the session.
My Favorite Links about the Recovery Act/ARRA/Stimulus
By · CommentsSo, the blog has been a little quiet for a couple of months. I’ve been doing a lot of presentations about the Recovery Act around the Northeast. So, in lieu of an article, this blog is a list of links of my favorite sources of information about the Recovery Act. I’ll be offering a webinar on the Recovery Act on June 16th – the details will be posted in a few days.
General
Council on Foundation Stimulus Reports
http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/stimulus
State Councils of NonProfits
http://www.nycon.org/ – they are also offering some free webinars on distinct topics within the stimulus
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – Stimulus Watch Series of Reports
http://www.cbpp.org/
For a detailed list of spending see
http://www.propublica.org/special/the-stimulus-plan-a-detailed-list-of-spending#stim_education
and http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/STIMULUS_FINAL_0217.html
Some great links are included in this article
http://www.idealist.org/if/i/en/h/blog/how-your-nonprofit-can-access-stimulus-funding
State Information
Council of State Governments: http://www.staterecovery.org
This includes overview of how each state is managing the stimulus and articles from the media. You can also view progress by subject area i.e. all energy initiatives by state.
This page gives a list of deadlines that states need to adhere to http://www.staterecovery.org/key-deadlines
The foundation center has a nice site of best resources by state http://maps.foundationcenter.org/economic_crisis/stimulus/shell.php?state=new_york
The National Conference of State Legislatures also has an excellent site with information about ARRA and it’s implementation.
http://www.ncsl.org/statefed/2009economicstimulus.htm
Many elected officials have created excellent handbooks, for example
Senator Gillibrand in NY
Congresswoman Castor in FL
Read More→
