Grant Writing

Fundraising HayDay’s annual “Ripped from the Headlines” is one of my favorite podcast episodes to record. Not because I relish the mistakes of others, but rather it is a reminder that failings in grant management come with a price, and sometimes that price is a steep...

Public comments for the proposed changes to Uniform Guidance (2 CFR, Part 200) were due July 13, 2026. Sure, that date has come and gone, but the fight is far from over. In a typical year, the next step would be for staff at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)...

If I had a dollar for every board member or executive director who told me, "we're a nonprofit, we can't do advocacy," I could fund a small foundation myself. Here's the short version: advocacy and lobbying are not the same thing. Advocacy is a broad effort to support...

I was recently lamenting on LinkedIn about a string of federal grant opportunities that went live on July 2 with a 30-day window between then and the deadline. 30 days is already a tight window when developing large federal grant proposals, but when you drop the...

If you touch federal grants in any way—direct recipient, subrecipient, or pass-through entity—I need you to put down your coffee, because OMB just proposed a major overhaul of 2 CFR Part 200, the Uniform Guidance. This is the rulebook governing how we apply for,...

It’s a tale as old as time. You’ve got a grant to write, but you don’t have the information needed to complete the application. You’ve emailed, you’ve called, you’ve begged, and you’ve pleaded. There’s got to be a better way. Good news – there is! Kimberly and I...

For better or worse, grant applications with character and word counts instead of page limits are the new norm for most online proposals. And yes, I have been writing grants long enough to remember white-knuckled trips to the post office, emergency toner runs, and...

Audit season. Isn’t that everyone’s favorite time of year? Whether your fiscal year ends June 30, September 30, December 31, or some other date, it’s the time of year when an organization’s accountants, budget officers, finance staff, leadership, and grant...

Back in my day (yes, I’m officially old enough to start stories with this fun phrase), writing a college paper was an ordeal. Research took days with the card catalogues at the library. First, and sometime second, drafts were written by hand. Once I finally had the...

When I first landed in a grant writing role where capital campaigns were part of the job description, I was equal parts excited and terrified. It was giving major figure it out energy. Sound familiar? So, when Amanda and I got to interview Steven Shattuck, Director of...