Getting Started as a Grant Writer

Here are a few tips I have learned in my first few weeks of being a grant writer.

• Make 12 folders, one for each month of the year, and keep the details of grants the need to be submitted or looked into for that month.
• I'm writing grants for three different places, but one thing that could be helpful is to gather legal name, address, phone number, tax ID numbers, DUNS number, and other identifying numbers and put it onto a card then keep it close!  That will save you from having to look that information every time you start a grant.
• Encourage the organization to have a web site!  I ran across a grant today that I couldn't even try to apply for it since we don't have a web site address!!  So tomorrows adventure is to invent a web site!
• Don't be afraid to e-mail people to ask for help!  I e-mailed the UCM Music Dept. to see if they would help teach one of our volunteers to play the pacharo.  They unfortunately don't know anyone who plays that, but they do know how to play other guitars so we could make this work.

Stay tuned for more things that I will learn!

I went to a Sedalia Inter-Agency Meeting, this is where all of the non-profit agencies get together and tell each other what they are doing, like fundraisers, projects, or issues they need help solving.  I found this information very useful!  This meeting happens only once a month, so I think it could be worked into my busy schedule.