“In my 20 years of leading non-profit organizations, this has been the best grant writing workshop ever, with the best handout I’ve ever seen.” Janet Siller, Funding Director, Friday Night Live, Yolo County, California, February 17, 2010.

“By the way, I enjoyed the “Reality Grantmaking” project you worked on. Thanks.” Fred Teichert, Executive Director, The Teichert Foundation, Sacramento, California, October 26, 2009.

“The grant writing workshop yesterday was just amazing! It was so helpful and interesting, simple to understand, and I left feeling I won’t be afraid of proposals.” Liz Jackson, Special Projects, Citizen Voice, October 15, 2009.

“Thanks so much – your Budgeting for Grant Proposals workshop on April 21, 2009 answered all my questions!” Harriet Saeck, Director of Finance and Business Operations, Sacramento Zoological Society.

“Thank you again for the great seminar last week on grant writing. You had such a lot of great knowledge to share and I applaud you for sharing it with the regional nonprofit community. You’re a great instructor!” Elizabeth Marlow, March 2, 2009.

“Miriam, I credit all the success I’ve had in raising grant funding to the basic instructions and discussions I’ve had with you over the past four years.” Joyce Beeman, Volunteer, A Touch Of Understanding, Inc., January 15, 2009.

“I really appreciated your thoroughness in both of the training workshops I attended. I have a really clear picture of what I need.” Jen Borgen, November 2008.

I presented a training workshop for California’s Capital Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals on March 16th, 2007. One of the attendees sent this e-mail: “Thank you for your delightful presentation of the grant making process. It was clear, memorable and filled with very practical applications. You firmly impressed upon me the importance of constantly being good stewards, keeping the reader in mind, inviting team participation and, of course, STARTING EARLY!”

Remember that the most common reason for rejection or non-funding is “FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!” Why go to all that trouble and not submit your proposal EXACTLY as the funder requires? After all, it’s their money and they can ask for information any way they want. Make yourself focus on THEIR questions and answer them directly and concisely, and present those answers exactly as directed. It will make funders happy. March 2010.

Always be specific when talking about the number of people you help now and have helped in the past. When you’re describing the number of people you’ve helped with current and past services, always be specific. Give numbers of those you’ve served and, where possible, show how many visits and/or hours of service each one received. Also state whether these are “duplicated” numbers of people (that you’ve counted more than once because they received services on more than one occasion), or “unduplicated” numbers of people (only counted once).

For example, “Each year, XXXXX Agency has provides counseling services for 250 unduplicated adults and 40 children. Each participant receives between 10 and 15 hours of counseling services. This is 15% more than in the past year.”

What I see most often is something vague, such as: “We served 15% more people this year than last.” This doesn’t tell a potential funder HOW many more people this is or how many hours of service they received. February 2010.

“Your help in working with us for an entire day to edit and refine our Federal proposal made the difference!” Maurine Huang, Chief Executive Officer, Opening Doors, Inc., Sacramento, California, February 2009.

“Wow! This is an absolutely fabulous grant proposal!” Elizabeth Miller, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, University of California, Davis School of Medicine, December 2008.

“You so very simply de-mystified this complicated process.” July 2008.

Feedback from presentations in Portland, Oregon in April 2008:

“One of the best presentations of the conference. Thank you.”
“Great information – very useful and the presenter was great!”
“Excellent session – it was wonderful.”
“Great information; great speaker!”
“Very excellent.”
“Great class – wish it had been longer.”

“Your budgeting workshop was excellent – It opened my eyes to a lot of things that need to happen during the preparation proccess.” Susan Swift, Administrative and Program Coordinator, Sacramento Area Congregations Together, March 26, 2008.

“I have a clear understanding of the task and practical tools to get the job accomplished.” Renee Burkhalter, Rocklin, California, March 27, 2008.

“Thank you for presenting your excellent workshop at the Meet the Funders workshop in Grass Valley, and for sharing your insight and knowledge.” Alison Lehman, Director, Nevada County Department of Social Services, February 19, 2008.

“I do appreciate your graciousness and ability to roll with a different group than we had planned for.” Maurine Huang, Chief Executive Officer, Opening Doors, Inc., November 9, 2007.