FIRE and ICE: How Effective Grant Professionals Collaborate with their Fundraising Counterparts

As grant professionals we are highly aware of the distinct difference between grantsmanship and traditional fundraising like FIRE and ICE.  It’s the primary reason for AAGP’s existence to further expand and grow the field of grantsmanship. We also know the application tools and skills to develop grant proposals are significantly different from developing individual proposals.  In addition, in many cases as professionals we are the only individuals our office that craft and develop grant proposals.

Therefore, how do we close the divide when working in collaboration with our fundraising counterparts and still manage our distinct image as grant professionals?  How can we best manage our needs as grant professionals in comparison to those of traditionalists and further how do we work together to reduce barriers to successful fundraising? The marriage between to two is surprising.

The purpose of this class is to define the relationship between grantsmanship and traditional fundraising and give grant professionals strategies and techniques to best work with their fundraising counterparts in an environment primarily focused on individual, major gifts, annual fund, planned giving, and special event fundraising. This class is intended for grant professionals working in organizations, in which they work directly or in collaboration with traditional fundraisers including development, planned giving, annual fund, and special event staff persons also dedicated to raising funds for the organization.   The class will place an special emphasis on individuals working in “supporting organizations” in the healthcare or higher education environment. 

Instructor: Arvetta L. Jideonwo

 Recovering Your Fair Share of Federal Stimulus Funding

Are you wondering just how to respond to the Recovery Act/Stimulus bill? The federal government will disburse $787 billion into the economy. Of that, $463 billion are spending initiatives. The spending is in a bewildering array of aid, block grants, discretionary grants, and loans. This course reviews the grant initiatives in the Recovery Act and discusses what you need to do to prepare to submit proposals for your organization. We will spend some time focusing directly on the impact on K12 education – a major beneficiary of these funds. The presentation is based on accurate, up-to-date information that will help you understand the big picture and position you to win.

Instructors: Jane Hexter and Frank Mandley

This class was recorded Thursday, April 2. You can listen to it in its recorded, streaming format in the convenience of your office or home.

Battling the Grantwriter's Conundrum: When the Grantwriter Has to (Help) Plan Programs 

As grants professionals we have a job that we do very well: obtaining and administering grants. We also have valuable knowledge and skills we can contribute to program planning. But the "grantwriter's conundrum" is how to balance these demands. On the one hand, we wish to avoid becoming a program manager or doing our co-workers’ job for them. On the other hand, we want to ensure that the program is fundable.

Hit by a Bus: Writing a budget that tells a story long after you’re gone! 

You will be guided in program-based budget development — detailed, professional budget writing that's as simple as making a grocery list. Specifically, your instructor will:

• Walk participants through a project-focused budget design.
• Share tools for working with multiple stakeholders (and money grabbers).
• Provide a paper-and-pencil approach to budgeting — that easily moves to high-tech.
• Give session members tools they can use quickly and easily, including templates, budget-writing guides, etc.
• Include practical steps for calculating unknown costs.
• And much more.

Instructor: Johna Rodgers

Organizational Development: Are You Grant-Ready?

This class offers the essential tools and techniques to prepare your organization in getting started, building capacity and becoming grant-ready by addressing:

• the "3Rs of grant seeking" as fundraising;

• a "CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESS" that provides a process to engage prospects/organizations, and offers results-oriented products;

• a strategic planning approach to involve staff and board; and

• a process, tips and steps to deal with infrastructure issues such as information gathering, budget development and funding research.

 Instructor: Linda Gatten Butler, MSW, ACSW, LISW 

Writing Tight: Preparing Successful Online Grant Applications 

Writing tight or to the point and still get the attention of the grant reviewer has never been more crucial. This session provides an outline to use to prepare clear, concise, comprehensive, and competitive proposals. The techniques discussed will help you in crafting successful paper and paperless proposal narratives including those to the different levels of government as well as foundation and corporations.

Instructor: Diane Gedeon-Martin

Advanced Collaboration

Advanced Collaboration is for anyone who has to collaborate in their job, who likes or hates to collaborate in their job, who puts collaborations together for grants, who wants to transform the world or some part of it, or who needs to sustain and document collaboration. Course participants should be interested in effective collaboration — building and sustaining collaboration that creates forward movement, incubates great thoughts, or motivates.

Instructor: Kristin Lundgren

A Presentation on Presentation

Do you find proof-reading a bore, editing a chore, and formatting a headache? If so, then this presentation might be just right for you. This class gives and overview of all major topics surrounding proposal presentation from margins to models and from table of contents to timelines. The materials include plenty of examples provided by AAGP members. Our goal is to give you an improved understanding of formatting techniques for grant proposals and some fresh ideas to boot.

Instructor: Jane Hexter

Do You Have What it Takes to Become a Grant Writing Consultant?

This session will provide you as a grant writer with an understanding of what it takes to start your own grant writing consulting business; the various ways to fund your new business; dynamics of aligning contract opportunities with professional ethics; the difference between contracted services and virtual employment offers and how to weigh the benefits of both revenue streams.

Instructor: Beverly Browning 

The Who, What, Why, When and Wherefores of Grant Reviewing

Grant reviewing is sometimes thought of as a mystical process that involves the reviewer holding your grant application against his or her forehead, closing their eyes and saying “Feels fundable to me.” You write what you believe is a Grade A grant application only to have it picked apart at best and at worse, receive no comments at all, other than a one sentence letter telling you it wasn’t funded. These were the experiences that drove me to enter the world of grant reviewing. Four years and countless reviewed grant applications later the mystery has been solved for me.

Instructor: Susan Kemp 

Hit by a Bus: Writing a budget that tells a story long after you’re gone!

You will be guided in program-based budget development — detailed, professional budget writing that's as simple as making a grocery list. Specifically, your instructor will:

•  Walk participants through a project-focused budget design.

•  Share tools for working with multiple stakeholders (and money grabbers).

•  Provide a paper-and-pencil approach to budgeting — that easily moves to high-tech.

•  Give session members tools they can use quickly and easily, including templates, budget-writing guides, etc.

•  Include practical steps for calculating unknown costs.

•  And much more

Instructor: Johna Rodgers