We talk about things happening in the industry - nonprofit toxicity, inequity pay, etc. and how grant writers have /are being treated unjustly.
For our students, we also provide mindset coaching and are courageous to give them hard coaching. We lean into this messaging when pitching to get on podcasts, talk about on our own podcasts/social/emails, and coach on this in our programs.
Holly digs down into who she is to make big courageous business decisions that even though they might not feel 'comfy' they are needed. She also trust my business coaches on their advice.
We are honest with our story and also honest in how we interact with students. We also promote an awareness around the validity of how our students feel as they go through changes as entrepreneurs and in their identity.
We fully believe that this process of shifting identities from 'employee' to owner has students peel back layers of money trauma and old story-telling. What we see is that the students shift into this identity feeling supported and shine as who they actually are and don't have to 'become' someone else.
So instead of going into a sales call with old 'self-protecting' beliefs they go into Sales Calls and writing grants with confidence of who they really are, shoulders up straight. What this looks like and how it shows up in our programs/ business: We talk about things happening in the industry - nonprofit toxicity, inequity pay, etc. and how grant writers have /are being treated unjustly.
For our students, we also provide mindset coaching and are courageous to give them hard coaching. We lean into this messaging when pitching to get on podcasts, talk about on our own podcasts/social/emails, and coach on this in our programs.
We believe in relationships being important for real connection for changemakers in our programs, but also how they operate with funders in their businesses.
This shows up in the interaction in our Slack channel and sharing in coaching. We try to be aware as possible about what's happening in the industry and social changes that impacts people. We provide a safe place where changemakers of all different races, ages, and gender representation, etc. belong and have a voice.
Making sure we hire people with diverse backgrounds in our business and having diverse vendors, we want folks in our programs to be represented. We believe that we, from diverse backgrounds, have much to teach each other.
We believe in quality being important, but sometimes speed to market is equally important. We look at creative ways to get students resources, feedback, and connections that they need, when they need it.
Just because something has always been done a certain way doesn't mean it's always right. We are disrupters in this space because we are completely looking at the way that grant writers have been treated for DECADES and changing up the narrative and beliefs around this. We think creatively and provide language and vocabulary to support folks as they change their pricing, confront urban myths about grant writing, etc.
What this looks like and how it shows up in our programs/business: We believe in relationships being important for real connection for changemakers in our programs, but also how they operate with funders in their businesses. This shows up in the interaction in our Slack channel and sharing in coaching. We try to be aware as possible about what's happening in the industry and social changes that impacts people.
We provide a safe place where changemakers of all different races, ages, and gender representation, etc. belong and have a voice. From being intentional with small things like having pictures of different people in our marketing to making sure we hire people with diverse backgrounds in our business, we want folks in our programs to be represented. We believe that we, from diverse backgrounds, have much to teach each other.
What I noticed was that I ALWAYS been able to utilize my grant writing skills to either
a) get a job,
b) get a promotion in a job, or
c) earn extra money writing grants on the side, and finally
d) as a freelance grant writer making more money than ever before.
However, 10 years after that, and after working in nonprofits for a long time, I realized that they are toxic workplaces for grant writer, and especially women.
In 2004, I took a community development job in Indonesia after the Asian Tsunami in 2004. I started linking community members and writing proposals for them with the big UN orgs and didn't even realize what I was doing had a name "i.e. grant writing" but ended loving it and moving outside DC and working for a grant writing agency. I was able to live around the world doing different jobs while freelancing on the side.
Overall, grant writers are hard to pay inside a nonprofit, so they end up getting hired for other roles, but also have the responsibility of writing grants. they end up having to work two jobs but only get paid for one.
I landed in grant writing work - like SO many others - just because of a situation.
I also was asked how I became a grant writer from SO many people that I became coaching others in 2014! And I realized that all the work I did to figure out pricing, services, and nonprofit sales worked for others, too! I have created a movement for grant writers and now coach hundreds of people every week inside our group coaching programs to replace their full-time incomes, on flexible hours, writing grants from home.
I opened my own business so was able to charge a higher rate, create boundaries in my time/scope of work, and focus on writing grants instead of 'other duties as necessary'. This changed from me being able to earn a 6-figure income on less hours.
The Grant Writing & Funding podcast is the #1 top-ranked grant writing podcast in the world! We have been around since 2017, coaching and bringing on expert guests to help aspiring and experienced grant writers replace their full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or anywhere they want to live or travel in the world).
Every week, thousands of people tune in to hear about grant writing leading trends, how to navigate the changing nonprofit sector as a freelance grant writer, and how to build a successful business as a freelance grant writer.