13 Nov

Posted at 17:18h in Competency Seven, Leah Hyman, Professional Development, Professionalism, Whitney Gray, GPC

Last week, I (Whitney) had the opportunity to attend the Grant Professionals Association’s national conference in Seattle, Washington. This is my 9th national GPA conference. I’m a GPC, a GPA Approved Trainer, and I’ve presented at multiple national GPA conferences on the topic of grantsmanship...

10 Nov

Posted at 14:25h in Capital Campaigns, Competency Eight, Competency Five, Competency One, Competency Seven, Competency Two, Course Industries, Courses, Education, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Higher Education, IHE Series, Whitney Gray

  IHE Grant Series: Grants and Capital Campaigns at IHEs Session 5 of the IHE Starting an Office of Sponsored Research Series It is typical for colleges and universities to use multi-year comprehensive capital campaigns as major fundraising initiatives. Grants for bricks and mortar projects, program development, and capacity-building...

08 Nov

Posted at 09:34h in Competency Seven, Competency Two, Course Industries, Courses, Education, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Higher Education, IHE Series, Planning, Strategic Plans, Whitney Gray

  IHE Grant Series - Aligning Grants to the Institution's Strategic Plan Session 4 of the IHE Starting an Office of Sponsored Research Series When an organization sets out to develop a new strategic plan, the grant professional can often be left out of important conversations and planning sessions....

25 Oct

Posted at 19:49h in Competency Seven, Inspiration, Julie Assel, GPC, Professional Development, Professionalism
When I was a kid, I loved Halloween. I loved dressing up and pretending to be someone else - someone that was better, stronger, and more capable than I felt I would ever be. Fast forward through the decades and I recognize there are times when I want to pretend to be someone else - someone who is better, stronger, and more capable than I sometimes feel. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized what I was feeling was imposter syndrome. During my tenure with the Grant Professionals Certification Institute board of directors, I started to see that many grant professionals feel the same way.

14 Sep

Posted at 10:38h in Competency Seven, Competency Three, Courses, GPCI Competencies, Grant Management, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, Grants 301, How-To, Uncategorized

    Advanced Grant Practices: Managing Up Session 5 of the Advanced Grant Practices Series One of the greatest challenges we face as grant professionals is getting the information and resources needed to craft project ideas and develop competitive proposals. This information is often spread across multiple people and departments…from...

05 Sep

Posted at 19:00h in Competency Four, Competency Seven, Grant Reporting, Grants Management, Organizational Development, Program Development, Thomas Assel, GPC, Tracey Diefenbach, GPC
Are you laboring too much over grants? Grants are great to have, and they’re often crucial to an organization’s mission, but there are only so many hours in the day to apply for and manage those grants. Grant professionals are susceptible to burn out from the heavy responsibility and high-pressure, deadline-driven work, which continues day in and day out in our profession. Grant applications and management can even get in the way of your organization’s mission. I was recently on a call with a client who was looking for help managing their grant portfolio. When I asked why they were seeking support, the client shared a striking comment: “We are so busy trying to get the money that we struggle to actually carry out the work.” I understood completely because I’ve seen this state of affairs before.

12 Aug

Posted at 22:17h in Competency Four, Competency Seven, Course Industries, Courses, Education, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Higher Education, IHE Series, Whitney Gray

Starting Small and Dreaming Big: Developing Collaborative Grantsmanship at Small Universities Session 2 of the IHE Starting an Office of Sponsored Research Series Starting Small and Dreaming Big will offer key considerations and practical advice for developing a collaborative culture of grantsmanship at small to medium-sized organizations....

15 Jul

Posted at 10:05h in Competency Four, Competency Seven, Course Industries, Courses, Education, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Higher Education, IHE Series, Whitney Gray

Building a Career as a Grant Professional in an Institution of Higher Education Session 1 of the IHE Starting an Office of Sponsored Research Series In Building a Career as a Grant Professional in an Institution of Higher Education, the presenter will describe her personal career trajectory that...

06 Jun

Posted at 20:39h in Competency Eight, Competency Seven, Julie Assel, GPC, Professional Development, Professionalism, Relationships
I am a grant professional for whom the written word is a more comfortable form of communication than face-to-face communication. Once I understood the concepts and intent of grant proposal writing, I fell in love with it. The majority of my time is spent alone in my office writing or in one-on-one conversations with program, financial, and executive leadership staff. Given that my learning style is also visual text, reading RFPs, gathering the information needed, and conducting the research is all easy for me to understand. Recently though, I have needed to be involved in meetings with program officers. These are not my favorite activity. Oh, I love hearing all the things funders have to say about their organization that help me better understand their mission. I also love to hear all the things about the program that my organizations say to the funder that I have not heard before in quite the same way. (Haven’t we all been here?) If my only task was to listen, these meetings would be easy, but these were conversations in which I was the lead for a significant portion of the conversation.

27 May

Posted at 12:44h in Competency Four, Competency Seven, Courses, Cultural Competency, GPCI Competencies, Grant Training Series, Grant Writing, Grants 301, How-To, Uncategorized

  Advanced Grant Practices: Cultural Competency - The Power of the Pen Session 3 of the Advanced Grant Practices Series Proposal narratives must reflect the deep social responsibilities of grant professionals to tell the stories of the target population, not just the story of the organization. Words have power,...