So you want to become a professional non-profit grant writer, eh?
Grant writing can be a really rewarding job where you get to use your writing skills to
help lots of causes that you might care about. If you are thinking about grant writing - perhaps as
a career -but you have no experience, or maybe you just want to get involved in grant writing,
get really good at it to help out a non-profit that you're involved with,
this is the video for you. In this video I'm going to talk you through the steps
that you can take starting from zero experience to become an effective non-profit grant writer.
Welcome or welcome back to my channel! My name is Amber Melanie Smith and I make these videos
here on YouTube to help people who want to make an impact in the world and are figuring out how they
want to do that whether that's through starting a non-profit or socially conscious business or
social enterprise or being a grant writer I really want to help people find their path to
create a positive difference in the world so I hope that you find this video helpful and useful
don't forget to give it a like And subscribe to my channel for more content like this if
you are in the process of starting a non-profit or developing a sustainable fundraising plan for
a non-profit organization be sure to check out some of the online courses at my website founder
to fulltime.com that are covering those topics and could possibly help you out all right let's
get into this topic imagine sitting in a coffee shop or perhaps in your home office sipping your
favorite cup of tea or coffee while typing away at a grant proposal to help a wonderful social
cause raise the money that they need to change the world non-profit grant writing can be an
appealing profession or even a hobby for lots of people commanding a decent salary in the United
States of about 60 to 90 000 per year according to ZipRecruiter of course if you enjoy writing
and want to get really good at writing non-profit grants specifically you've got to start somewhere
so here are the steps that will take you from little toe experience in grant writing to becoming
an effective non-profit grant writer okay step number one is learn about grants you want to
learn about how they work their basic structure and some of the basic rules surrounding how to
write them and successfully obtain them there are so many different kinds of Grants so you want to
start with a solid understanding of all of the different kinds because they each have their sort
of own different rules that apply to them you've got your private Foundation grants you've got your
Community Foundation grants you've got your local state or federal government grants you've got
private family Foundation grants I think that's kind of redundant to private Foundation anyway
you've got your corporate Foundation grants um there's there's just so many I have another video
all about different types of Grants called something like six different types of Grants
check that out for sure that is a great guide to get you started on those I will say though there
are many different kinds of Grants you will see some common questions being asked on most types
of Grant applications whether it's government corporate Foundation or private Foundation
um so start getting familiar with these types of questions I also did another video on the common
types of questions or sections you would find in a Grant application that can help talk you
through what you might expect and what funders are looking for in each of those that you can
check out so learn those key components of a grant uh proposal everything from the executive summary
to the statement of need to your budget Etc it also wouldn't hurt at this early stage to invest
in some learning resources for yourself take some online courses read some books read some articles
do some practicing really start to just absorb everything you can about what grants are how they
work and what types of organizations and projects and programs are typically eligible for them
because it's not all of them okay so step number two is another learning step and it is to gain now
knowledge about non-profit management because you have to know your customer if you're going
to write grants for non-profits specifically if you're not already part of the non-profit
world there's quite a bit to learn because there can be a lot of nuances in how organizations are
structured and how they run so you really want to do your reading and learn about these things
organizational structure and governance who's leading them how do they lead these
organizations financial management how programs that deliver on the mission of the nonprofit are
designed and then implemented in the community budgeting processes leadership challenges Etc
all of these things will help you gain valuable insights into not just how nonprofits work but
what some are of the challenges that they face might be that could be something you would want
to explain or articulate in a Grant application one of the most important parts of a non-profit
that you really need to have have a strong handle on to Be an Effective non-profit grant writer
is the budget and this could be either or both the organization's annual budget or the budget
specific to a program or project that is being funded through the grant so you want to really
understand what are the different types of costs that go into running a non-profit into executing
on a specific program most Grant applications are going to ask for a budget in the Grant application
and some will also go so far as to ask for an explanation of each line in the budget
explaining what the money is being spent on and why for practice you can find lots of examples of
non-profit budgets online you can also look for a non-profits 990 or annual tax return which has to
list its top expenses and income sources as well you can get copies of non-profits tax returns on
websites like guidestar.org if you are familiar with the nonprofit or have a relationship with
a non-profit you might also go so far as to ask if you can see a copy of their budget and maybe
they'd even spend time with you explaining how like what's in their budget and how would what
the how it would work that'd be a great real-life way to start to orient yourself around budgets
step number three is to volunteer or get some intern experience with a non-profit if you can
in addition to learning on paper it's really really really helpful to see Hands-On what the
experience of running a non-profit and running programs for a non-profit looks like behind the
scenes understanding their challenges are like why do they need this type of equipment to execute on
their program instead of this kind even though this one costs more you know understanding those
things will help you be able to explain it to Grant funders down the line in a way that is
compelling and helps them understand the situation so you want to volunteer with organizations and
then once you've built some trust perhaps There's an opportunity there for you to ask
the non-profit if you could practice writing a Grant application for them now for beginning
grant writers sometimes this isn't always going to be a yes and here's why it takes a lot of
time and work to compile all of the materials needed to be able to equip a grant writer with
what they need in order to write a grant so sometimes they might not have the capacity or
bandwidth at that particular moment to be able to get everything together for you so I just
say this so that you know to be patient and know that it's probably nothing personal they just are
stretched thin and are doing the best that they can step four is to build your Grant portfolio
if you are doing some pro bono Grant applications for non-profits that you have a relationship with
this is a great way to get this started but you want to really compile that professional portfolio
of your different grant writing samples it could be letters of inquiry which is kind of like a mini
short Grant application that comes before real Grant application could be full Grant applications
it could be hopefully some examples of successful Grant applications that you've uh participated in
um so once you start to build up that portfolio especially if you do get some success stories
some successfully funded grants analyze what made those grants more successful than grants that were
not funded grants that were not selected this will help you through your learning process as well but
that portfolio is going to be really important either to help you get hired by some kind of
firm who does grant writing or if you want to go solo it will help you build trust and credibility
with future customers in the non-profit space who might hire you to write grants okay so for
step five you are starting to build a network of personal connections that might become customers
or could connect you to customers one day so to recap at this point you've learned about the
basics of Grants their structure and the different types you have learned about non-profits and how
they work and understand their challenges you have gotten some hands-on experience with non-profits
and grant writing hopefully and start started to build a little bit of a portfolio now it's time
to seek your customer is out so networking events where you can meet other non-profit professionals
or even other grant writers is a great way to start building that contacts list some of the
more experienced grant writers will be able to point you in the direction of where and how they
got some of their customers and if you're going to a non-profit networking event you will have the
chance to meet so many different non-profits who might be needing your expertise as well
these types of events are also really great for continued learning you'll have access to workshops
at these events or resources books etc where you can just continue to hone your grant writing
skills as you're attending just a logistical Point make sure that you have some kind of mechanism for
collecting people's contact information and sharing yours because the saddest thing in
the world is when you meet someone awesome at a networking event and then you forget their name
a week later you could stop at steps one through five and get a decent start on becoming a Prof
National grant writer but if you want to take your professional non-profit grant writing to
the next level here are two more steps that you might consider taking step number six would be
developing a professional brand just like you would for any other business that you're starting
a brand will help you stand out as a legitimate business and perhaps even highlight a specific
Niche that you're in perhaps you really just love writing grants for animal related causes
for example then maybe that's your specialty and that's okay that's like a marketing Niche that you
have but building a brand for your grant writing business or career could involve steps like making
sure you have a grant writing website perhaps where you're showcasing parts of your portfolio
or success stories or customer testimonials building a social media or Outreach strategy
to help maybe attract more clients um you know having professional email I'll address things
like that so uh just building your personal brand to add a sense of legitimacy to your grant writing
step number seven that can add just even more credibility and help you stand out to potential
customers is to get a couple of professional certifications those little initials after your
name that relate to fundraising and grant writing so two specifically our cfre that's the certified
fundraising executive and then the GPC which is the grant professional certified certifications so
you can find Opportunities through chapters of AFP which is Association of fundraising Professionals
in your area there might be some online courses that offer an ability to do this but you might
consider getting some of these certifications and then being able to Showcase your certifications
on your website or in your LinkedIn profile or or some such and that will add that extra level of
professionalism to help you attract your grant writing clients so I'd love to hear from you
at this point does being a professional or at least really good grant writer sound like your
cup of tea or if you already are a grant writer I love to hear what your day-to-day looks like does
expectation meet reality and so forth uh share that in the comments below as I mentioned before
if you are starting a non-profit or developing a sustainable fundraising plan check out my online
courses at foundertofulltime.com they might be able to help you out I also have a newsletter that
I send out about monthly for change makers and non-profit leaders and maybe even grant writers
all around the world with tips and strategies and sometimes even grant opportunities in that
newsletter you can find the link to subscribe to that below this video and of course opt out
anytime that you need finally I have a group on Facebook called Change the World or Bust - we
have about 4 000 people in that group from all around the world who are all trying to make an
impact in their own way and are having some great conversations around how to do that, so come on
over and join us there, and I hope to see you. That's all I have for today thank you so much for
watching and like I said if you found this useful don't forget to give it a like and subscribe
to my channel for more content like this once again I'm Amber Melanie Smith see you next time