“Providing the grandeur of the forest depths in the dim seclusion of which you may wander musingly for hours.”

— Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect, describing his design for Iroquois Park in Louisville, Kentucky, in “Louisville’s Olmstedian Legacy” written by Clark Kramer (source: Wikipedia).

          I jogged around a curve in the steep path. A small, black-furred dog let out a screeching bark and flashed its teeth at me from its cozy spot in a woman’s lap. Moments later, a guy on a dirt bike buzzed by me and zoomed around a metal gate with an attached sign that read “No Vehicles Beyond this Point.”

This was Iroquois Park at the south end of the city. It was not what I planned, pictured, or prepared for. It was something better.

          If you came to read an essay about my experience at the 2022 Grants Professionals Association Conference, you’re in the right place.

          So why am I sharing details about my attempted run at an unfamiliar place? My brief visit to that park served as a living example of what I learned during my time in Louisville.

Lesson One: Planning can sure go south in a heartbeat

          My planning for that evening’s run was minimal. I discovered the park on Louisville Running Company’s website, which suggested a 3.1 mile route that made “one loop around the bottom of the park.” It looked simple in 2D—a red line making a circle around the perimeter. But once my shoes hit the ground, the lay of the land confused me and knocked me off course.

          In contrast to my run prep, I did extensive planning in advance of the conference. I read through each session’s description and looked into the backgrounds of presenters. I must have switched up my pre-scheduled agenda a dozen times in the days leading up to my journey to Kentucky.

          When I stepped into the reality of the conference things looked different than what I’d pictured. I found myself making last-minute adjustments to my schedule. Instead of attending Surveying the Post Stimulus K-12 Federal Funding Landscape, for example, I sat in on We all Win: Tips for Grant Writer-Evaluator Collaboration. I also focused less on personal growth, as originally planned, and more on grant budgets.

          Even though my run in the park and my conference schedule did not go as planned they were both beneficial in unexpected ways.

Lesson Two: It’s okay to slowdown (a little)

          Since I usually run on flat sidewalks, when I ventured up a slope my evening jog quickly turned into a walk. It would have helped if I’d paid closer attention to Louisville Running Company’s description of Iroquois Park as “one of the hillier locations in the city.”

          My baseline goal when running is to not stop running once I’ve started. But when I began gasping for air and seeing tiny specks of light I knew it was time to switch gears and walk.

          Traveling to the conference as a scholarship recipient also gave me an excuse to slow things down. The daily swell of emails, proposal deadlines, and reports was set aside for a few days, and replaced with time to listen, absorb, and grow.

          This would often happen between scheduled sessions. Like chatting with other grant pros during a jog along the Ohio River, sharing hometown stories and business cards over coffee, or simply gazing out a wall of windows at the Omni Hotel as the sunrise turned the sky into a wild blend of peach, cotton candy pink, and gray.

          Sometimes a run becomes a walk and sometimes the busy day-to-day stuff gets put on pause. And that’s okay!

Lesson Three: The climb up the hill is always worth it

          I opened this essay describing the start of my run at Iroquois Park. The rest of the story went as follows.

          After catching my breath and deciding to walk, I made my way up a path that led to an overlook. Here, the road ended in a paved area, framed by a short, semicircle-shaped brick wall.

          Near the cliff’s edge, treetops swayed in a breeze. At the base of the hill, factories and houses and churches were woven into waves of trees. Rush hour traffic hummed away, hidden beneath green, brown, and yellow foliage. Brick buildings climbed above the lower structures and the glass skyscrapers of downtown huddled together. To the west, rolling hills seemed to blend together into a mass of shadows that met the robin egg blue sky.

          I almost chose not head to Iroquois Park that Friday evening (between you and me, I skipped a 4:15pm session). After seeing the view from the top, I was so happy I made the effort to go someplace new.

          If you’re still reading—thanks, this is getting up there in character count. I bet you can guess where I’m going next.

          Yep, attending the conference was like climbing a hill to someplace new. The vantage point I walked away with was invaluable. My climb up the foothills of the grant profession is just getting started, and being able to connect with a whole world of grant pros (this term was new to me) is a scene I deeply appreciated getting to take part in.

          In running and in grants, nobody is truly alone. The climb to the top is a team effort and the view up there makes it worth the effort.

I was honored to be chosen as a Grant Professionals Association Conference Scholar. It has made such a positive impact on myself as well as my nonprofit organization.

I work for a statewide nonprofit as the Vice President of Community Development. I oversee Resource Development and Marketing Departments, as well as our volunteer centers that are located in three regions of South Dakota.  Much of the funding for our organization’s programs comes from grants. I have been involved with grant for over 10 years. Through my work, I have written, receiving, and managed community foundations grants, private family grants, United Way grants as well as Federal grants through Americops Seniors. 

By receiving a GPA Conference Scholarship, I was able to further my knowledge, access resources and network with others in the grant field. I am always looking for ways to challenge myself and grow personally and professionally. By being able to dedicate several days to attending the GPA Conference, I was able to continue to develop myself and my organization. The conference was so refreshing and a great opportunity to become uplifted and regenerated. 

I was able to attend the conference virtually, which was a wonderful experience and I feel that GPA did a fantastic job with involving those that were virtual and allowed us to communicate and build relationships with other virtual attendees. I so appreciated being able to meet and learn from similar minded professionals who want to further themselves and their organizations.

With my busy schedule, I wasn’t sure I would be able to take the time to be there in person, but attending online was a perfect solution.  I knew there is more that I needed to know about the grant writing profession and by attending the GPA Annual Conference I feel I am on the right track to continue to help my organization grow.

I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity to learn and grow professionally and connect with other professionals with a love for office supplies. 

It’s been about two weeks since the 2022 Annual Grant Professionals Association Conference finished. In these weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to tell my peers about my experience and to reflect upon what I learned and experienced during my few days in Louisville, Kentucky.

My biggest takeaway was that the Grants Industry is much more robust than I had ever imagined. I learned so much from all of the wonderful presenters and practitioners that were in attendance. I’m grateful for the opportunity to gather information about the realm of consulting and to connect with my peers on topics such as ethics, client relationships, proposal development, and grant management. As the Senior Manager of Programs for the Alaska Native Heritage Center I am continuously engaged with all aspects of the grant lifecycle, stewarding funds from federal, foundational, and corporate entities. The conference allowed me to expand my understanding of topics such as the federal appropriations process and the production of charts for data visualization.

The scholarship from the Grants Professional Foundation was critically important for me to attend the conference. The organization I work for does not have an allocated budget for things like this, and we can only attend if funding is available based on our social enterprise activities. The scholarship made it so that this was accessible for me, as COVID had negatively impacted our organization’s revenue streams.

The GPA conference is such an important professional development opportunity for those who engage in the craft of grants. This conference is so valuable because it helps individuals grow through the improvement of skills and deepening of knowledge surrounding the field. By the end of the conference, I had made several new connections, found someone from my local community who I aim to collaborate with, and so many documents, presentations, and hand outs that will advance my ability to fundraise for my organization.

I found it particularly interesting to see how individuals responded to my contributions in conversations. I work for an Indigenous institution that focuses on the advancement and preservation of culture, and part of our mission is focused on advocacy. Wearing the advocate hat is a part of my everyday job, so when I was able to participate in conversations by contributing information about cultural responsiveness, awareness of backgrounds and identities, and the systemic inequities which are a part of the systems of government and philanthropy, it was received very positively. This was heartening, as many individuals in the field are not very aware of the unique circumstances which may impact individuals who do not fit comfortably into the American cultural landscape.

I can’t wait for next year, and I’m hopeful to remain engaged with the Grants Professional Association throughout the next twelve months to learn from this incredible group of peers.