Blog

Hello. I’ve written a few blogs here, mostly about subjects like the labor market or government policy. What I haven’t told anyone is what I do at my day job. I’m actually the Senior Grants Specialist here at National Able Network, which means that I’m involved in (and I sometimes lead) the process of designing service programming that fits the needs of grantmaking organizations whose missions match ours. My title is specific to our agency’s staff structure, but the work that I do uses skills common to nonprofits across the country. So for anyone who’s ever wondered what goes on in a nonprofit Development department, or wanted to know what it is a grant writer does (and I know you’re out there), let me walk you through the process.

If we skip past the relatively new concept of social enterprise, there are two major sources of fund development for a service nonprofit. The first is individual donations, which are tax-deductible when giving to 501(c)3 corporations like National Able Network. Unfortunately, every nonprofit looking to gather individual donations has to compete for a limited pool of funding that doesn’t ever seem to get bigger (historically, Americans consistently give about 2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product), and the employment assistance work that we do often seems to “lose out” in donator’s minds. Luckily, I’m a Grants Specialist, so none of that is my worry.

Instead, I reach out to two main types of supporters, private foundations and government agencies, by responding to their requests for proposals to serve people in need. Many times, these funding organizations will have a problem in mind that they would like to address or solve, whether that’s long-term unemployment or homelessness among veterans. Instead of hiring employees to figure out how to solve these problems, they ask for competitive bids – much like a land developer might ask architects and construction companies for a building design – to allow the market to offer the highest quality, most efficient solution.

As an agency, we respond to requests like these by presenting a service plan, involving programs we already offer or programs we can build. Often, even if we already offer services similar to what a funding agency might request, we’ll have to adjust them or plan where we can increase capacity. This means that, before I put pencil to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and write about the program we’d like to propose, I participate in actually designing or refining that program. Grant writing, it turns out, isn’t only writing, but also involves a good deal of strategic planning and collaboration with both program staff and financial staff, in order to reach a perfect balance of quality services and affordability. Many times I’m a project manager, a designer, and a writer all wrapped into one job! The broad reach of my responsibilities means it’s my job to know the big picture when it comes to offering our services as an agency – which means I have plenty of news and information collected to share right here on the blog. So stay tuned, and cheer on your friendly neighborhood grant writer and the rest of us here at Able as we work to prepare our communities to meet all of tomorrow’s challenges!