Grant Coaching: My ‘WHY’ Story

Sometimes life brings you full-circle.

Almost 20 years ago I decided to strike out as an independent grant writer after making a conscious decision to leave the international development world which had launched my career in Washington, DC.  While still living in the DC metro area, I reckoned with myself that working on large-scale multi-million dollar development initiatives just did not bring me joy.

So, I went in the opposite direction—I went looking for small, local community-focused nonprofits who could benefit from my grant development skills.  In fact one of my earliest nonprofit partners/clients came from my own Long Branch neighborhood in Takoma Park, MD. Another came from a DC nonprofit serving people without homes. It was immensely satisfying to witness what we could accomplish with grants of $5k, 10k and 50k; meals, showers and job-support; health-care enrollment navigation.  I loved it!

Two decades later, I had picked up a few tips and tricks that you can only learn through experience---unless someone sits with you and talks it through with you.  While I would often informally mentor my grant writing clients, I had a deep desire to share what I had learned in a more structured way.

Fast forward to 2025, I decided to launch my 1:1 grant coaching practice.

Towards the end of the year, I was approached by Krista Zimmerman from Georgetown University, asking whether I’d be interested to provide grant coaching to executive students in their Women Faith Leaders Fellowship from the African continent.  No answer but ‘yes!’ to an opportunity like that!

We spent the first 30 minutes of each coaching session with a deep dive, so I could understand the context that each student was operating in. I asked questions to understand their personal skill-level and experience with developing grants, as well as to understand their organization’s capacity and internal support structures.

We laughed as we role played, switching between roles of grantee and grantor, as we stepped back to look at not just the written grant application, but also how relationships and reputation impact how your application is received. It was gratifying to see the ‘aha’ moments as we talked about grant strategy and setting yourself up for grant success.

I was constantly amazed and impressed by these exceptionally capable and dedicated women community leaders. Literal movers and shakers in their communities and wonderful, kind human beings.

The end of each session left me feeling pumped up, as it affirmed that this personalized, mentor-style training is exactly why I launched my virtual 1:1 grant coaching program. To meet each person where they are at, and walk alongside them on their grant journey.

So while I left the large-scale US-funded international development practice, (which has now received devastating blows), 2026 marks the year that re-connected me with the Global South—except this time, it DID fulfill my desire to stay connected with local community-focused nonprofits.

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Are you curious about grant coaching?

• Schedule a free 20-minute call or send me a message. I’m happy to answer your questions!

• More details on my coaching page

Secret Ingredients to Grant Success (Part 1): Awareness

I’ve been having interesting conversations with several nonprofit leaders through my 1:1 grant coaching sessions, and I’ve observed one common thread:

Everyone wants to know how to write that amazing grant that will convince funders to give.

Convince being the operative word. Write being the other.

It’s almost like there IS a magic formula for grant success.

So I invited each of these coaching clients to a role play, where they played the role of the funder; I asked each of my clients to tell me what would compel them to give:

“It would need to be someone with a good reputation, someone I had confidence in..”

“I would want to know if they can do the work they say they can do. Have they done it before? Do they have good systems?”

“I’m interested to know how their work is related to ours and why they are doing this work.”

Translation: They would fund based on

 (1) Credibility/Reputation

(2) Past Performance + Capacity

(3) Mission Fit/Alignment/Shared Values + Priorities

Not one person said “an amazing grant proposal.”

Every single one of these coaching clients were seasoned nonprofit leaders looking for grant support, because they felt their applications were missing something important.

They just needed a moment to step back and find some perspective—and see what they already knew.

Writing a solid grant application IS important to grant success. But getting to a ‘yes’ from a funder rarely takes place in a vacuum.  

There are fundamentals that need to be in place that inspire funder confidence; actions you can take and systems which need to be in place.

Translate these actions and systems into a clear, evidence-based narrative and realistic budget and you are now ahead of the pack.

I’ll be writing more about this over the next few weeks.

None of this is rocket science. All of it takes time, patience, and commitment to the long-game.

Overwriting and Editing Struggles: A Simple Strategy That Works

I am an over-writer by nature. I like to go beyond stating facts. I like my descriptions to have color.   

As a grant writer, I often deal with stringent word and character count limits—which are in direct opposition to my overwriting tendency. My writing process is never linear. I know that my first draft is not going to come out pithy and clean while my brain is sprouting out five different facts, three anecdotes and two quotes—all in the same sentence.

I worry that I won’t remember the edit I made to a sentence that I’m ‘attached’ to. Then I start the mental deliberations—should I edit this sentence or should I cut out the last line from the previous paragraph?  Enter writer’s block. Now I’m stumped.

Has this happened to you? If it has….here’s my very simple, low-tech solution.

Every time I find myself in an over-writing dilemma, I open a new document which I label ‘extra words.’ Now, whenever I make an editorial cut to my draft that I think might add back later, I just copy it over into my extra words document. Now I have a safe space for all my ideas to live, and I know I can go back to it at any time.

The funny thing is, I rarely resurrect any of the content from my ‘extra words’ document. And if I do, it’s fairly minimal. But it makes my writing process more effective, and gives me peace of mind.

 What simple tips and tricks to you use to help your writing process? Share your thoughts below!

What does Empathy have to do with Grant Writing?

As I step back to reflect, I believe all grant writing should be grounded in empathy; the ability to listen with curiosity, reflect, and see things from multiple perspectives can make the difference between a ‘good enough’ proposal and a compelling one.

There are multiple ‘stakeholders’ in the grant development process;

--The main grant writer and editor

-- The content contributors

-- The person or people signing-off on the application

-- The grantors aka your funders

As a grant writer, your job is to bring together the narrative, data, finances and supporting documents in a cohesive story WHILE balancing the perspectives of each of the people engaged in your grant development process.

Let’s take a moment to think about that.

Imagine you are writing your first grant proposal to raise funds for a program that helps young people who have aged out of foster care transition to independent living.

 If you simply want to describe the program and activities offered, my guess is that you will find existing language on the organization’s website and other communications. Existing template materials are timesaving and provide valuable context and framing. They can also be outdated.

But what if you took the time to talk to the program coordinator who works directly with the young people, and asked “tell me how the young people are doing?” you might hear how Angela who didn’t want to interact with anyone at first, is now thriving in pottery class; how the youth in group therapy are now supporting each other outside of therapy sessions.

If you talk to the executive director, she might tell you about their partnership with the local community center which offers so many free enrichment activities which have been a lifeline to the youth, while relieving financial pressure on the organization’s budget; and how a conversation with a local furniture store owner transformed a bare office room into a welcoming group therapy space.

If you have the opportunity to speak with Angela herself (and this conversation needs to be handled with great care for privacy) you may have the privilege of gaining a deeper understanding of how much relationships and kindness matter in creating safety-nets which prevent young people from falling through the cracks.

And if you take time to delve into the funder’s giving history (priorities and dollar amounts) and ideally have a conversation about their current goals and priorities, that’s when you find figure out where the intersection of both your goals and priorities lie—this is the center point of your proposal narrative.  

At this point, ask yourself; what is my pitch? And how do I make it in a way that respects the dignity of everyone involved?

Compelling grant writing guided by empathy takes time and intent.

It allows others the space to speak, and share what is important to them.

It stops to ask questions and delve deeper.

And sometimes it requires you to step away from your own preconceived notions of how things work.   

Strategies for Connecting with Invite-Only Funders

I’m thrilled to hear that so many of you found the spreadsheet of 40+ social impact funders committed to upholding justice helpful. I hope you can continue to use this information to keep pushing forward as you serve your communities in this incredibly difficult time. I see you and I hear you.

However, I found something troubling in the spreadsheet, and you probably did too—I’m sure you noticed that that the application process for a large number of these funding institutions was some variation of “invitation-only.”

This is problematic for many reasons— starting with if the FUNDER does not “discover” you, and THEY do not choose to connect with you, even if you’re work is a 100% aligned, your pathway to connecting with them is as clear as mud.

To me, this is an issue of equity and access.

If you find yourself in that situation, here are a few strategies and resources to try to crack that door open.

1.      Find a Way to Connect

If the funder has published their email and phone number or provides a ‘connect with us link’ your first step is done.

If there’s no visible way to get in touch (or even if you’ve got that covered), time to do some detective work:

• Check out their social media: Can you find their social media profiles on LinkedIn, Face Book, and Instagram etc.? Can you identify a staff or board member to potentially connect with?

• Look for recent press releases and news articles.

• Sign-up to receive the organization’s updates and newsletters—these can be give you valuable insights into the institution.

•  No luck? Check out their 990 and find their listed contacts.

2.      Find your Synergies

      Assuming you’ve been able to find a personal contact and have some intel.,  take some time to write up a short synergy report on areas of alignment;

• Which of your programs/activities are a great fit based on the funder’s stated priorities and recent giving history?

• Take time to create a short pitch-intro that represents your authentic work and voice:

  Version 1: A few talking points for a phone call

  Version 2: A 1-2 paragraph written introduction.

  Remember, you will need to tweak and customize this for each funder.

• Be clear on your ask to connect. Be ready to answer questions.

 3.      Reach Out

Barring any requests for **privacy, try to connect directly with a program contact or decision maker. Depending on your individual situation, plan out your outreach approach:

• Telephone call or email intro? Follow-up plan? No pushy messages. Respectful request to connect.

• Consider having a mutual contact or affiliated colleague make an introduction on your behalf.

• Evaluate whether a short direct messaging via the organization’s public social media with request to connect would further your case.

** ONLY use publicly and officially listed contact information. Do not contact people via their personal emails or phone numbers found on the internet. Also, if the entity specifically requests not to be contacted at all, or requests not to be contacted via a specific method i.e. no phone calls, respecting that request is key.

 If you’d like to dive deeper into this topic, check out these resources:

1. How to Engage with Invitation-Only Funders: from https://fundingforgood.org/how-to-engage-with-invitation-only-funding-foundations/

2. How To Have Conversations with Foundation Program Officers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0YmTZkbkTE&list=PL7KMjiEftADzyVpEkrucjWNLYIrDquGlj&index=5

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Are you a social-justice focused or community-serving nonprofit looking for grant support? Let’s Connect! Schedule your free grant consultation.