Grants: Tips & Tricks from the Foundation Side shares information about the grantseeking process from the perspective of foundation staff. Taught by Diane Leonard, a former program officer for a statewide public foundation, Tips & Tricks provides “insider” information to help you be more competitive in the fund seeking process with foundations and increase your success ratio. While each foundation is different in their rules, interactions, and funding processes, having a better behind the scenes understanding of the foundation grant seeking process can help increase the competiveness of future foundation proposals for funding.

This CharityUniversity webinar session will cover the following topics:

• Determining what the foundation’s structure is, staffing, and points of contact

• Key pieces of information to research about a foundation

• How to get to know the foundation staff/have them get to know your organization

• How to receive technical assistance from a foundation

• Understanding trends in foundation funding

• The importance of evaluation

• Differences in applying online instead of via paper submission

• What to do while an application is being considered

• Important steps to take if funding is awarded or if funding is rejected

• Top reasons proposals are rejected by foundations

Grants: Tips & Tricks from the Foundation Side is designed to be beneficial for the individual(s) in nonprofit organizations primarily responsible for grantwriting/foundation relations be they a grant writer, development director, or executive director. The webinar is designed to benefit all levels of experience whether writing your first proposal or your 100 th proposal. This webinar is designed to help provide an understanding for how to best position your request for funding to match a foundation’s mission and respond to a request for proposal or willingness to accept proposals on an ongoing basis. The webinar is not designed to deal with the specific sections of grant proposals, research tools, etc.

Class Format: This class is recorded from the live class. On registering, you are transported to the classroom page, where you may play the class player to view the slides and hear the class presentation and discussion. You may log in as many times as you wish for one year from the date of registration, enabling you to replay portions of the class as you wish.

How to Register: Add the class (and any others that you wish to take) to your shopping cart, then proceed through the checkout process. As soon as you have completed the payment, you will be taken to the classroom page for this class, where you will find the class player where you play the class and view the slides. You may log in to listen to the class as often as you wish for up to one year from the date of registration.

About the Instructor: Diane Leonard

Diane Leonard is the owner of DH Leonard Consulting based in Clayton, New York.  An experienced grant professional and speaker on the topic of grantwriting and grants management, she consults with nonprofit organizations of all sizes.  

DH Leonard Consulting, formed in 2006, has raised more than $5 million dollars in funds for its clients.  The services of DH Leonard Consulting include funder research and strategizing, program planning and design, proposal writing and editing, and grants management.  DH Leonard Consulting works with nonprofit organizations of all sizes, but specializes in working with grassroots organizations or organizations that have no to very little grant support in their existing budget.  The grantwriting work of DH Leonard Consulting has supported organizations with missions including women and girls, aging, home ownership counseling, local independent school districts, and environmental advocacy and conservation.  

Diane has professional grant related experience as a Program Officer for a statewide public foundation and then as Foundation and Grants Coordinator for a major voluntary health organization in a large metropolitan area.  Diane is a member of the Grantwriting Professionals Association (previously the American Association of Grantwriting Professionals).  She is a graduate of Cornell University.