Danny Blitch, MPA, GPC

Grants Manager, City of Roswell, Georgia

dblitch@roswellgov.com

February, 2015

Grant funding is important to most nonprofit organizations and government agencies, as it makes achieving missions easier. It is one of the ways organizations pay for the services they provide. Grants, combined with fundraising, program income and direct client service fees, generate the revenues organizations need to sustain themselves. In short, grants help nonprofits serve more people everywhere.

Many grant professionals do not do their work for the paycheck, the recognition or for accolades from our employers. Rather, almost universally, they are grant professionals because they like to help others. They find comfort in being able to take a mountain of information and condense/develop it into a successful grant proposal.

The Grant Professionals Association has partnered with the Grant Professionals Foundation and the Grant Professionals Certification Institute to recognize grant professionals for their work. Whether full-time or part-time, grant professionals are the heavy lifters who work with grants in one form or another: they are grant seekers, grant developers, grant makers, and grant managers. They may also be executive directors, professors, city clerks, researchers, county managers, program staff or volunteers. They may wear one hat—or twenty. Regardless, grant professionals are important, and their contributions are vital.

We’re planning activities for each day starting March 16 through March 20. Each activity is designed to recognize the grant profession and the importance of our credential, creating world-wide awareness of the life-changing work we do every day. Want to know how you can be involved? Whether you’re a grant professional, member of a GPA chapter, or part of a nonprofit organization, government agency, or business, you can join us by taking a moment to recognize the grant professional(s) you know. You don’t have to shout from the roof tops or buy us lunch… although both would be okay. But, taking the time to send a quick note, a heartfelt thank you or give a friendly pat on the back will mean the world to us.

So on March 20, 2015, I invite you to pause and recognize the specialized work of grant professionals everywhere who are so deadline driven they often schedule their vacations and the births of their children around the “federal silly season.”

International Grant Professionals Week 2015 ends March 20th with Grant Professionals Day. Don’t miss the opportunity to wish your favorite grant professional a “Happy… Grant Professionals Day!”