Grant Writing Confidential

3 responses so far ↓

• 1 sahammonds // May 19, 2009 at 4:02 am

  Thanks for analyzing why grant writing workshops (particularly very expensive ones) may or may not be a good idea.

  In the end it all comes down to old fashion ….work, work and more work.

• 2 Grant Writer 101 // Aug 6, 2009 at 9:15 am

  I’m confused. It sounds like you’re actually suggesting that unlike surgery, carpentry, running a cashier at Costco, riding a motorcycle or brushing your teeth, that grant writing is a skill that be obtained and honed without any instruction or interaction with peers. lol

  I will confess. I am mostly self taught. But before I began teaching grant writing classes I decided to take a few (two be exact) and I found them to be very helpful. In fact I took what was missing and put those in the classes that I would eventually go on to teach years later.

  So am I running a scam? I certainly don’t think so. I have people walking up to me saying “I am doing much better now that I took your class.” In fact, one guy told me “I’ve secured every grant I’ve applied for since taking your class. Before then my success rate was 0%.” Now I’m no idiot, he won’t maintain that success rate or anything near it. But I know what kind of impact I’ve made. There is something to be said for him spending a day or two with me, a guy that that not only routinely secures federal, state and local gov’t grants, but also does pretty with foundation. Oh, am I am foundation and federal grant reviewer. So I’ve got plenty to share with attendees.

  Do I offer certificates? No. But my class is endorsed by a local community college after several impromptu observations and they offer continuing education hours to my participants. Mind you, I never asked for that or had it as a goal. I don’t even mention it until the end of the course.

  I’d love to post my real name and location, but you seem a little brazen, almost reckless with how you critique your peers, so better safe than sorry..right? lol

  In any case, I will give you this: for every good class, there are four really bad ones. Of that four, at least two are facilitated by crooks (people that intend to steal your money).

  Irony? I found your blog while searching online for a competitive rate to charge faith based organizations for a half day workshop. lol Talk about stumbling into the wrong bathroom.

• 3 kim // Jul 19, 2010 at 9:33 am

  I am about to be sent to one of these courses to assist in grant writing for a local non-profit organization. I was intentionally looking for complaints to possibly discredit this company as you do get a certificate of completion but you are not certified, however, this was the only area that I could find a complaint. I read the entire complaint and not only did you disparage this program (which you didn’t even take yourself) but you gave no examples of failure from former students. This class is intended to help you understand and to improve your chances at providing the information that is needed to succeed in writing a grant, not a guarantee of getting the grant. I will definately bear in mind the skeptical site of it but in the truth of the matter they are not stating you will be a certified grant writer after this course. In order for that to be the case you need a degree. BTW even if they were community college educators you can still get a degree from those facilities so that would give you that little boost you need.

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