7 GPC Scholarships Awarded

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Seven Grant Professionals Certification (GPC) Scholarships were awarded through joint support from the Grant Professionals Foundation (GPF) and Grant Professionals Certification Institute (GPCI). Congratulations to our new scholars!

  • Erin Leigh Birch, Gallatin, TN
  • Dale Braden, Milwaukie, OR
  • Arthur Davis, Portland, OR
  • Amy Knudsen, Des Moines, IA
  • Anna Kraxner, Kansas City, MO
  • Cydney Peters, Houston, TX
  • Nicole Sibilski, Nashville, TN

The GPF is grateful to our donors, and volunteers who make all our scholarships possible!

Welcome new board members!

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The Grant Professionals Foundation is pleased to introduce and welcome our new board members:

  • Judy Riffle, Ed.D.
  • Nicole Sibilski, GPC
  • Fayre Crossley, MBA, GPC
  • Ericka Harney, ABD, CAE, CFRE, GPC, CVA
  • Margit Brazda Poirier, GPC, MS

Thank you for you volunteering your time, talent, and resources to advancing the grants profession!

Thank you GPA Chapters!

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Thank you, GPA Chapters!

2016 Every Chapter Challenge was a grand success. You contributed over $8,000 to advance the grant profession. Our goal for 2017 is $10,000!

The Every Chapter Challenge is a national campaign to raise funds for the grant profession. The Grant Professionals Foundation relies upon the philanthropic and competitive spirit of GPA chapters and members to fund programs to advance the grants profession. Funds raised through the Every Chapter Challenge not only provide funds for scholarships, but also help GPA chapters to acknowledge, retain, and recruit their leaders and members.

Stay tuned for how you can participate in the 2017 Every Chapter Campaign. Can’t wait? Email us at info@grantprofessionalsfoundation.org today!

GPF Silent Auction Team Hits a Home Run

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By Becky Jascoviak, GPF Silent Auction Team Coach

Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

The individual “parts” that make up the Grants Professional Foundation are pretty incredible on their own, but put a group of passionate, service-oriented, step-up-to-the-challenge grant pros together on a team and you get a whole lot more “whole” to the individual “parts”.

That is what I witnessed as the GPF Silent Auction Team Coach, as I dubbed myself. I dislike the term committee because “nothing ever gets out of committee”, and task force just seems overused. So I opted to call our group a team, and just as the coach leads and guides and trains, but doesn’t get to play – I was challenged to do the same. After taking the reigns as team lead, I found out I wouldn’t be able to attend the GPA National Conference. What to do? “Should I stay or should I go now?”

I believed in our team and I let go of a bit of control (hard for some of us control-freaks to do :-)). We met via conference call monthly because our team members were based in Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, and Georgia – that’s a whole lot of time zones to work across.

But this coach couldn’t be more proud of the team!

And just like the grant isn’t wholly dependent on the grant writer, but relies on the programs, directors, and beneficiaries, so did our team. They relied on each of you. You donated items and experiences. You made connections to partners and other organizations. You bid and bought and donated at the Silent Auction directly. You, each of you, made the 2016 Silent Auction the most successful fundraising event the Grant Professionals Foundation has ever had!

The Silent Auction raised more than $8,100 to support scholarships for GPA membership, GPC exam fees, and attendance at the conference as well as regional conference scholarships. The money raised from the event provides:

  • Memberships in GPA for 40 grant professionals to learn, network, and hone their craft.
  • Exam fees for 15 grant professionals to sit for the Grant Professionals Certification exam.
  • Registrations for 9 grant professionals to attend the annual GPA conference.
  • Sponsorships for 8 regional GPA conferences for grant professionals to connect locally.

A grant writer’s work is not done when the grant is submitted, there comes planning and program evaluations and so much more. And our team’s work must continue as well. We are already gathering our team for the 2017 GPF Silent Auction at the conference in San Diego next November. How would you like to be part of this highly successful silent auction team? Contact Heather Stombaugh, GPF President, to join today.

If you weren’t able to attend the conference but would still like to support your fellow grant professionals you can give directly to the work of the Grant Professionals Foundation at www.grantprofessionalsfoundation.org/give-now.

Thank you team! Thank you volunteers! Thank you donors! Thank you bidders!

Thank you all for all you do as part of the worldwide grants team – Together, we’re making the world a better place, one grant at a time.

 

How My GPA Membership Scholarship Advanced My Professional Development Goals

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By Carolyn Caldwell, GPC; Raising Awareness, Raising Funds, LLC
2016 Membership Scholar

We all write proposals and complete applications as part of our daily work, so what makes applying for a scholarship from the Grant Professionals Foundation different from the rest? In my case, completing the application for a membership scholarship from GPF required me to think hard about my time with GPA, back to the beginning. It forced me to take stock of what GPA has meant to me in the past.

When I first joined GPA in 2010, my career path wasn’t so certain. I started in grant writing with enthusiasm, but success wasn’t a foregone conclusion, or sudden, by any stretch. I needed experience, I needed a mentor, and I needed to learn the “hard and fast,” as well as “soft,” rules of the road. I have a tenacious nature, and I can say I’m glad I stuck with it. GPA was with me the entire way.

Being a GPA member opened doors for me that otherwise would have stayed closed. When I think about my time in GPA, I think about the colleagues and friends I have made along the way, I think about the advice they have given me, and the chances they have taken with me. It has all paid off. I feel like a knowledgeable professional, I can offer my clients sound advice, and I can genuinely call myself a grant professional.

Answering the scholarship application questions required me to write about my commitment to the grants field, which made me think back through all the years I have been with GPA. I felt like I could finally answer that question, not just with the naive enthusiasm I had back in 2010, but truly as a grants professional who has committed to the profession. I recalled all the frustration and doubt I felt in the early years, when it wasn’t completely certain I would succeed. What a difference my involvement in GPA has made! I have not only gained in knowledge, and understanding of best practices, but I now have a highly-tuned radar for ethical land mines.

Every day in our work, we ask for money, and tell our prospective funders how deserving our organizations are. I had to think about what my story was, what was unique about my circumstances, and what about my application was compelling. But it was difficult to tell why I should receive a scholarship because it meant remembering a time when there were more questions than answers. I thought back to the missteps I made, and to all the things I did to advance my career that didn’t pay off. What did pay off was my membership in GPA.

If you took all the monthly sessions my chapter offers, the GPA webinars, and sessions at the 2011-2016 conferences I attended,  and laid them end to end, I am SURE there’s a master’s degree in there (or at least a bachelor’s). Between all the educational opportunities GPA affords me, I can say that I have an advanced degree in grantsmanship! Add to that the mentor I met through GPA, and we may be able to say I have a PhD!

This past year was even more fruitful because I studied for, and took, my GPC exam. Testament to how much I’ve learned over the years is the fact that I passed! To me, that was proof positive that I’ve absorbed everything I’ve been exposed to through GPA.

I have so much to be thankful for through the years with GPA. I appreciate the Grant Professional Foundation awarding me this membership scholarship. It guarantees another year of professional advancement for me, and another year of growth as a grants professional.