There truly is a day for everything, and today is International Grant Professionals Day! I'm not typically a braggart (Wordle victories aside...) but since there's a day for it, here goes. My career is a bit of a menagerie of many different things, but grant writing is a big piece of it. I've been doing grant writing here and there for many years, and more intensely over the past 6 years. My running, 6-year total is just under $6 million raised for all kinds of great causes like children's literacy, wilderness stewardship, healthcare for the underserved, community mental health and wellness, homeless youth, and education.
I look at this work as a combination of matchmaker, author and dreamer. It is at times hugely rewarding, and at times breathtakingly disappointing. The most deserving projects often get overlooked. There is never enough money to go around. You can pour your soul into a grant application for weeks only to have it rejected for reasons you may never understand.
On the other hand there are the victories. There are free books for kids that need them. There's new technology for local classrooms. There are programs offering health, hope and healing for people nearly destroyed by war, trauma, violence, or disease. There's affordable housing for people who desperately need it.
I have come to understand this work as more art than science. Sometimes the results don't add up. Every funder is different in how they evaluate grant applications and what values and priorities they hold sacred. Sometimes success is more about who you know than what you know. The financial reward is often not proportional to the effort needed for a successful application. There are variables and strategies and timing to consider on top of the very basics of crafting the actual grant application.
It's a bit of a tricky business.
I often think that this kind of job wouldn't exist in a perfect world. Wouldn't it be great if all the important causes didn't need to jump through complicated hoops to get the funding they need to make the world a better place? But, until that day, I'll be slinging words and weaving stories in this heartbreaking/heart-filling hustle.
