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.