Becoming a Grant Writing Consultant

Learn from a national grant consulting veteran how you can use a basic knowledge of grant and proposal writing to become an expert grant consultant. This course will provide easy-to-follow instructions on starting your own grant consulting business and reaching thousands of people with your work.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

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Learning method

Self-Guided

$190

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$175

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Starting April 16 | May 14

Details + Objectives

Course code: gwc

Good grant writing consultants are always in demand. Learn how you can use a basic knowledge of grant or proposal writing to become an expert in the red-hot grant consulting field.

The course will provide you with easy-to-follow instructions that you can use to start your own home-based business. You'll learn what services to offer, how to find clients, and how to set your fees. This is one field where your creative writing skills can literally touch thousands of people and make a true difference in their quality of life.

What you will learn

Understand how to start your own home-based business
Learn what services to offer and how to set your fees
Discover how to find clients

How you will benefit

Gain the skills you need to become an effective grant writing consultant who knows what services to provide and how to find clients
Open the door to new opportunities as a self-employed grant writing consultant

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

In this lesson, you'll learn about the credentials and skills needed to become a successful grant writing consultant. You'll also learn how to use your grant writing skills in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors to generate cash flow for your new business. Step-by-step, this lesson teaches you what business structures and services to consider as you develop your grant writing consulting business.

This lesson will talk about how to choose the office resources you need to succeed as a grant writing consultant. You'll learn how to find training to sharpen your skills and explore top reference materials used by leading grant writing consultants. You'll also learn how to keep your new business afloat by carefully allocating your funds for the right tools of the trade.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to set up an efficient work area and plan your first day as a paid grant writing consultant. You'll also learn how to turn a living or storage area of your home into productive workspace. It's important to have an organized area where you can manage your revenue-producing projects from start to finish, and this lesson will show you how to get it set up.

In this lesson, you'll begin to assess your grant writing experience, knowledge, and skills. You'll learn how to use your job experience to target clients and how to expand your services beyond writing proposals. This lesson is about linking your experience with paying projects-making money for what you love to do, day after day.

This is perhaps the most important lesson. You are well on your way to becoming a successful grant writing consultant-managing your own business. This lesson will teach you how to set marketable fees for each of the services you offer so you'll make money as a grant writing consultant-regardless of where you live or the state of the economy. You'll learn how to set your fees based on your costs, expertise, and project type and learn when to adjust your fees so you still make a profit. Most importantly, you'll see where to draw the line and just say no to a prospective client.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to market and promote your grant writing consulting business. You'll also learn how to take some critical pre-marketing steps, including writing a marketing plan.

This lesson will teach you how to search for and develop consulting opportunities. You'll learn how to use the Internet and newspapers to find new clients, and how to present your services so effectively that clients will hire you sight unseen.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to write contractual agreements. You'll review basic contract language and the different types of contractual agreements to help you understand the purpose and limitations of a written contract. Most importantly, you'll learn how to create a contract template so you can quickly draft a contractual services agreement ready for signatories.

This lesson will show you how to make cash start flowing into your new business within the first 90 days. It'll talk about how to differentiate between piece of cake projects and "like pulling teeth" projects. You'll learn which types of projects bring in quick money and how to discern between projects that are best for novices to take on at business start-up and those best handled by veteran grant writers.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to build a reputation as an expert grant writing consultant. You'll explore Internet resources that will help you keep abreast of emerging trends. Most importantly, you'll learn how to implement a three-step plan that will help you to (1) expand your knowledge, (2) exceed your clients' expectations, and (3) make your skills and services visible.

At this point, you are nearing the finish line for Becoming a Grant Writing Consultant. In this lesson, you'll learn how to manage more than one project at a time so you can become more profitable. This lesson covers it all: How to ask yourself the right questions to accurately calculate project timeframes; how to organize and prioritize your projects; even how to develop work habits that will help you meet deadlines when you're working on multiple projects.

This last lesson will teach you how to recognize the signs of business growth and the steps to take before planning for business expansion. You'll learn some strategic planning steps that will help you stay on top of small business trends, as well as stay on top of your competitors.

Instructors & Support

Dr. Beverly A. Browning

Dr. Beverly A. Browning is a grant writing consultant and visionary who uses thought leadership to work with nonprofit organizations struggling with the woes of revenue stream imbalances. She has been researching grant funding, grantmaking trends, and board-related barriers to nonprofit capacity building for over 40 years. Together she and her team have helped her clients win over $750 million in grant awards.

Dr. Browning is the founder and director of the Grant Writing Training Foundation and Bev Browning, LLC. She is the author of 44 grant writing publications, including six editions of Grant Writing for Dummies and the 6th edition of Nonprofit Kit for Dummies (to be published in 2021).

Dr. Browning holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in organizational development, public administration, and business administration. She is also a Certified Strategic Planning Facilitator (CSPF), has a McNellis Compression Planning Institute Facilitation Training distinction, and is an Approved Trainer for the Grant Professionals Association (GPA), the Certified Fund Raising Executive International (CFRE, and the Grant Professionals Certification Institute (GPCI).

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

A basic understanding of the grant writing process.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

I have learned a ton so far, and I'm looking forward to this grant-consultancy course! When I first signed up for these classes, I was looking for a career change and wanted to use my extensive writing experience in some way, so this online program was a way to explore grant writing as a career. And, it has been a great experience! Now, I have since relocated and have a full-time job teaching and managing a university writing center, so my career plans have solidified, but I remain interested in expanding my horizons. Perhaps, grant writing will become a larger part of my life in the future. I'm glad I'm going to have these three course as a foundation for potential work in the future.

The course provided a wealth of knowledge that applies to not just consulting but business practices in general. Excellent resource information for continued study.

Kudos for landing a national expert for the instructor--what she provides her students is very valuable, and I enjoyed having her as my instructor.

I enjoyed the course, and was amazed at the depth and quality of information Dr. Bev had assembled for us. I'll be back for more of her courses!

I am extremely pleased with this course format. I have shared the knowledge about this class with several friends. Thank You, I am so inspired. I plan to take more courses.

This is the best course I have ever taken. It gives you everything you need to succeed. I think it is wonderful for the instructor to give not only her knowledge but her secrets as well. It seems she is pulling everyone to succeed. I would recommend this course to anyone who is interested in starting any kind of business not just granting writing.

I have enjoyed this class tremendously. I did not expect to get the wealth of information received. I've attended several grant writing workshops, and it seemed, only received some ingredients for the pie....but in this class, you give us the whole pie! Awesome! You have given us the foundation from which we can build to be successful grant writers and consultants. This class has well exceeded my expectations. I feel confident starting my own business in grant writing. I thank you for being so forth coming with the information shared in class. It has been helpful and impactful. I have learned a lot!

I loved this class. I had a pretty good start as a grant consultant, but the course helped build my confidence and tap into some excellent resources. I appreciated that you vetted the websites and other materials so that I didn't have to plow through many to find the best ones. I appreciate you sharing your wealth of experience and common-sense approach. I look forward to "seeing" you in the advanced proposal writing class!

I enjoyed taking this course. The attributes of seeing the grant seeking process from the writer's and funder's perspective was interesting and thought provoking to say the least. I much rather learn by doing and with hands on. The assignments for each lesson gave me the opportunity to do that...The knowledge given in this course gave me a different outlook as to how valuable the internet and the newspaper can be in obtaining access to free research resources. As a novice grant writer, I now know what the best searching resources have to offer me in becoming a grant writing expert! I appreciate all the material and books offered to further my craft.

I have a Bachelors degree and spent a career in clinical research. I took this class to begin learning the steps of creating a consulting business. My expectations were exceeded. Dr. Bev is clearly an expert in her field and I appreciate her willingness to share detailed, real-life experience, with applicable resources. She was very timely in answering questions and the friendly atmosphere she presented in the lessons and discussion areas made this a very enjoyable experience. I plan to take further courses to expand my grant writing skills.

The course provided a wealth of knowledge that applies to not just consulting but business practices in general. Excellent resource information for continued study.

Kudos for landing a national expert for the instructor--what she provides her students is very valuable, and I enjoyed having her as my instructor.

I enjoyed the course, and was amazed at the depth and quality of information Dr. Bev had assembled for us. I'll be back for more of her courses!

I am extremely pleased with this course format. I have shared the knowledge about this class with several friends. Thank You, I am so inspired. I plan to take more courses.

Becoming a Grant Writing Consultant

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