Building Bridges: Five Nonprofit Grant Writers Reflect on Learning the profession

This presentation features results of an online focus group conversation among five nonprofit proposal writers (also colloquially known as "grant writers") in the early to mid-stages of their careers, reflecting on the roles that job training, mentorship, professional organizations, and a course in nonprofit proposal writing have had on their career knowledge and success. The study found that historical and cultural knowledge of the community, the organization, and the project being funded seemed to be of equal importance to experiences in training or mentoring. The paper shares the experiences of learning these skills within a university level grant writing course and the participants provide recommendations for new grant professionals.