Pre-Conference Workshop at the Annual Conference of the Grant Professionals Association, Las Vegas, NV

With budget cuts threatening the funding of federal grant programs, it is more important than ever that your proposals are competitive and stand out from the crowd. This hands-on, half-day workshop introduces participants to the process of applying for federal grants. You will learn how to transfer your existing skills to proposal-writing for government agencies. Through a mix of lecture, discussion and small group practice, you will learn how to understand federal grant guidelines, how to plan and complete large, complex application packages, and how to change your writing style to meet federal grant reviewer expectations.

Click here to register for the conference. Don't forget to add Cheryl's pre-conference workshop as an add-on to your registration!

Co-Presentation at the GPA Arkansas Annual Meeting, Little Rock, Ark.

Cheryl and her co-presenter, Barb Putman (Foundation Relations Officer at the Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, Ark.), revive this popular session that packed the house during the 2007 GPA Annual Conference in Washington, DC and was revived for the 2011 national conference.

We all do it--MSU. The deadline is pressing, and we have no idea what the plan is for Year 2 of this project we are trying to describe in our proposal. So we do what all successful grant writers do. We make it up! Of course we run the content by the program people to get their approval, but really, would they even have thought to include the formative evaluation in their timeline if we hadn't just put that in there for them?

This lively session will describe MSU and how proposal writers can use MSU to aid the grant writing process. Through stories of real projects and actual examples, we will also identify strategies to avoid MSU and enhance the proposal writer’s ability to guide the development of fundable proposals. The Presenters will discuss the importance of developing skills and techniques that will help you guide program staff into developing stronger program designs and fundable projects.

RSVP to Melanie Palmer at mpalmer@nwaws.org for the GPA Arkansas Annual Meeting and workshop to be held at Pulaski Technical Institute in Little Rock on December 9 and join us for the session on MSU.

Co-presented with Linda Gatten Bulter, president of Butler Consulting at the Grant Professionals Association Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV

Every year the GPA conference has sessions on how to start your own grantwriting consulting business. In this session, two experienced consultants with years of consulting under their belts lead an engaging discussion on topics relevant to the consultant who has been successfully operating for at least three years.

Some of these topics include changing your fees, stewarding long-term clients, making decisions about growing, new marketing strategies, and deciding whether to use contractors, hire an employee or stick it out alone.

Linda and Cheryl always earn high reviews from session participants, and together they are a powerful, inspiring force! Register today for the GPA Annual Conference and join us for this session on taking your consulting firm to the next level.

Cheryl will co-present this session at the AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) International Conference in Vancouver, BC on Monday, April 2012. Her co-presenter is Ms. Allison McElroy, CFRE, Foundation Director at Open Avenues. Open Avenues recently successfully completed a capital campaign for their new facility, and grants played an important role in meeting their campaign goal.

Kester and McElroy will discuss how the Open Avenues campaign was successful and present general principles for how you should plan on including grants in your next campaign, including how much you should expect to raise from grants, who might fund you and who will actually write those proposals!

To attend this session, you must be registered to attend the AFP International Conference. Please visit the AFP website at www.afpnet.org to register.