Blogging myself out of a job....?

Some time ago, I was approached by an acquaintance who was looking for a job. She was asking for contacts, ideas, advice, I’m not sure what all, but anyway, the thing I remember is when she asked what I did and I told her I was a grantwriter, she said (cheerfully, and in my opinion, cluelessly) “Oh, a grantwriter, that sounds really easy, I bet anyone could do that!”

OK. I was kind of offended. I shook it off pretty easily, because let’s face it, this woman wasn’t the most socially literate type of person and I knew that from other brief run-ins with her, but still. I’ve thought about it on occasion since then. Because I actually do sometime wonder, can anyone, or at least anyone who can follow funders’ directions and write coherently, be a grantwriter? And if so, do we even really need professional grantwriters like me?

The answer to both questions in my opinion is yes. A qualified yes at least.

Most organizations get by just fine without a dedicated professional grantwriter. Maybe they have a development person who does grantwriting along with everything else, or they have program staff who write occasional proposals to supplement their program budgets, or they don’t go for grants at all but instead rely on other funding sources.

Out of these options, the one that appeals to me the most is not lumping grantwriting in with all the other development, as it is most commonly done, but instead encouraging program staff to write proposals, with oversight from development—or administration if there is not specific development department or director—for quality control and to ensure that the message is consistent and different programs aren’t working at cross-purposes.

Program people are the most in touch with what the organization is actually doing, what the clients really need, what their capacity is for additions or changes, and what measurable outcomes are actually realistic. This is why I always emphasize that they should be involved with the proposal process, even if there is a grantwriter on staff to bring it all together. Too often I feel that development staff are isolated from program staff and this hurts grantwriting especially, and all fundraising in general. I have a lot more to say on that, but I’ll save it for another time.

Of course, program staff have jobs to do besides grantwriting, even if it ends up under their purview just because someone’s got to do it. This is where I believe there is still a use for professional grantwriters even within organizations who can’t afford to have them on staff or retainer all the time.

As a consultant, I can certainly come in and just plain write grants for an organization. I can even manage an entire grants program for an org so that they can take that off their development staff’s hands and free them up to focus on other tasks. But what I really like to do is set up systems (such as submission schedules, filing systems, ticklers, etc.) and leave behind tools (boilerplate source documents, e.g.) accompanied with training to enable the org’s regular staff, preferably either program staff or development staff in close collaboration with program staff, to continue with grantsmanship on their own.

It’s best to do this with occasional ongoing support from the consultant in my opinion, but overall this approach seems to make my annoying jobhunting acquaintance right after all: With a good system, useful tools, and proper support almost anyone really can be a grantwriter.