Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson
United Way of Westchester and Putnam is a 2023 GPLH Gold Sponsor. We are pleased to share their mission with you.
United Way of Westchester and Putnam (UWWP) mobilizes strategic partnerships and leverages resources to create a more equitable community by advancing education, financial stability, and health initiatives.
These include the 211 Helpline, the Ride United Last Mile food delivery program, the Education United After School program, the United2Read early literacy program for preschoolers, the Essential Goods for Basic Needs program (which donates $5-$6 million in new in-kind goods), and of course, grants and other investments in support of the programs offered by its nonprofit partners.
All of these efforts are designed to support the 40 percent of Westchester and Putnam households living in poverty or paycheck to paycheck, what we call ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). Our work positively impacts hundreds of thousands of individuals every year.
To learn about becoming a GPLH Sponsor, download our sponsorship form.
The best way to understand the value of being a GPLH member is through the stories of members who have benefited from what we have to offer. So, we asked Molly Gibeau-Griffin, LMSW, Foundation Director at Jawonio, to share her personal perspective about what you gain as a GPLH member: “When you join GPLH, you receive many different benefits. In addition to gaining timely and useful knowledge about grants and grant resources, you also become part of a supportive community of professionals who freely share their expertise, which help you to grow into the grant professional you strive to become. I have been a part of GPLH on and off for over 10 years, spanning two different organizations I worked for: first as a grants consultant, then as a Director of Development and now as a Foundation Director. GPLH has helped me find vital resources to help support my work in grant writing, and has also helped me form invaluable and supportive relationships with other grant professionals in the field. Grant writing can be very isolating; this community experience has helped me to thrive and grow. Even though I have been writing grants for over 20 years, I continue to learn thanks to GPLH.”
If you'd like to share your personal perspective on the benefits of GPLH membership, we'd love to hear from you! Send us a note at info.gplh@gmail.com.
No matter how long you’ve been working as a grant writer, there can be times when experience teaches you a lesson about something you didn’t know. Maybe it was a situation you never encountered before. Maybe an innocent mistake taught you a lesson the hard way. One of the benefits of GPLH membership is that we can share these lessons learned along the way with one another. In this blog feature, we aim to share lessons and advice based on experience, things you could easily miss. If you have a “lesson learned” story to add, please send it to us at info.gplh@gmail.com.
Lesson Learned: Budgets for Federal and State Grants For federal and state grants, check to see if the agency provides a budget template before you submit grants to them. If not, those budget pages may count toward their page limit. Agencies are strict on page limits and will disqualify your grant if you go over the limit. A grant writer we know attached a budget supplied by the organization CFO to the federal grant they were submitting. The form looked very official and in fact had come from a different federal agency. The grant writer was unaware that the form did not come from the agency they were applying to, and mistakenly thought the agency had supplied a budget template. The agency the grant application was for does not count their forms toward the page limit, but the grant writer did not know the form they were using was not theirs. While the grant writer was diligent in counting pages, the application exceeded the page limit because the budget was not their form. Therefore, the application was disqualified. The grant writer will never make that mistake again and would like everyone to be aware of this scenario.
The GPLH Board of Directors is a talented, dedicated group of professionals who volunteer their time to ensure that GPLH is a vibrant and effective organization that brings benefits and enrichment to our members.
We are proud to announce our 2023 GPLH Board of Directors (* = new to the Board this year):
Executive Committee:
Board members:
Immediate Past President: Nancy Keane
Learn more about our Board members here.
There’s always room for more talented and dedicated people! If you have interest in learning more about serving on the GPLH Board, or if you’d like to volunteer your time and talents to help as a committee member, we’d love to hear from you. To learn more, send an email to info.gplh@gmail.com.
One of our key missions at GPLH is to provide educational information, for grant writers interested in enhancing their skills, and for aspiring grant writers looking to learn more about the profession. Towards that goal, we offer numerous educational programs, resources on our website, one-on-one mentoring, and plenty of opportunities to network with and learn from experienced, successful grant writers.
John Scuderi, a member of the GPLH Board since 2021, made use of all of these resources when he decided to enter the grant writing field. In this article, he shares how beneficial all of these tools were to him as he launched his new career:
Since May 2, I have been the grant writer at Cristo Rey New York High School in East Harlem. My school, which opened in 2004, is one of 38 Catholic, college-prep schools in a coast-to-coast network that shares the same social-justice mission: to provide opportunities for students from low-income backgrounds to go to college, build careers, and climb out of poverty. Our school has been tremendously successful at getting our students to college, and our students have been tremendously successful at earning their bachelors’ degrees once they get there.
In my six months on the job, the school has secured $695,000 in grants. Most of these are renewals with funders who have been supporting the school for several years, but one is an $80,000, two-year grant that our school won in a competition against other Cristo Rey Network schools. The Director of Admissions and I collaborated on our school’s proposal, which was one of six chosen in a network-wide effort to boost enrollment. I also have submitted proposals for another $429,500 in renewals – all of which my boss expects will be approved. If my boss is correct, then my work will have yielded $1.1 million for the school in just half a year!
Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson is a major reason why I have been able to reach this point. The guidance, support, and professional development I received from the people at GPLH prepared me for success as a grant writer at Cristo Rey. Alison Paul, Joanne Stewart, and Lisa Keogh all deserve special thanks, but many others in the organization were patient with me and generous with their time, and their expertise contributed to my growth as a grant writer.
When I joined GPLH in 2020, my career was in transition. After more than 25 years as a sports reporter and copy editor at the Gannett-owned daily newspapers in Westchester, I was looking for a new role that would put my journalism skill set to good use. I was able to land a variety of freelance assignments, so my work was getting published in books, in newspapers, in a local magazine, and online. But it was always in the “gig economy.” I wanted something more sustainable, a second career that hopefully would carry me to a happy retirement.
Several unsuccessful job interviews went by as I continued searching for a full-time staff position. The passing years and repeated rejections took a bite out of my confidence. But after many, many discussions – with my career coach, a cousin who worked as a grant writer in New Jersey, and numerous professional contacts – I decided that grant writing might be the right fit. Unlike the journalism field, grant writing offered several professional organizations that presented numerous opportunities for networking. Still, I wasn’t fully convinced that I really belonged in the grant-writing world. We work in a fast-paced, tech-driven economy, and as a middle-aged person, I worried that a career change might not be a realistic goal for me.
In GPLH, I found a collaborative group of like-minded professionals who welcomed me as their peer. My age and lack of grant-writing experience didn’t seem to matter. Almost immediately after becoming a GPLH member, I was encouraged to join the Board as a way to gain contacts and increase my level of involvement. Alison Paul’s online grant-writing course (offered through Westchester Community College) strengthened the foundation I had started to build through seminars and webinars. Some GPLH contacts shared the stories of the paths their careers had taken. Others served as mentors and connected me to opportunities to apply for grants as a consultant.
With the help of GPLH, I grew to the point where last spring, Cristo Rey New York High School could see that I was the right candidate to fill its vacated position of grant writer. To all my good friends at GPLH, I send my sincerest thanks!
At the “Meet the Experts” event held on 10/12/22 by the Association of Development Officers, GPLH was represented by two of our board members, Deborah Brown and Maureen Fox. There was a great turnout and the event was a huge success.
The topic presented by Deborah and Maureen, “Three Things to Make Your Grant Proposal Shine,” was very popular with those in attendance. And, during one of the sessions, some of GPLH’s current members and board members joined the conversation. Each group of participants was unique and the questions varied, including where to look for grant opportunities, how to get started and how to make your grant stand out.
Many attendees seemed to be new to grant writing. The presentation and handout helped explain some of the nuances associated with knowing your audience and making your application stand out.
The discussion focused on many factors that go into crafting an excellent proposal, with special attention to these top three basics:
To view the handout with all of the tips and ideas from the workshop, click here.
A key take-away from the day – read the directions!
For more grant writing tips and resources, visit the Grant Writing Education page on our website.
Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson is hosting a writing support session via ZOOM to discuss the mechanics and actual writing of the Initial Proposal for Impact100 Westchester's 2022 application. Initial Proposals are due 1/13/23.
GPLH is providing the session as a free community service to Westchester County nonprofits. Part of our mission is to help increase the likelihood of grants being funded. The session is being held independently of Impact100 Westchester. The session is not “mandatory” and participation will not influence Impact100 Westchester’s review of your application.
The workshop will be held via ZOOM and will be led by Joanne Stewart, Owner/President of goodworks Advisory Group, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in Grant Writing, Marketing and Communications, and Board Development for nonprofit organizations. Joanne is currently GPLH Secretary, and is also a GPLH founding Board Member and Past President.
Many GPLH members who have utilized this program have gone on to established careers in grant writing. Here are personal testimonials from two recent program participants:
“Working with a GPLH mentor was an excellent decision, as it helped me to gain some of the skills needed for grants research, writing LOIs, and even writing select grant proposal responses. My mentor was patient, always available to answer questions, and gave me real work experience. When we were awarded a grant that I helped to write, it was extremely satisfying. I then had the confidence I needed to look for a grant writing job.” Laura Kaplow-Goldman “The Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson provides mentees with hands on experience to learn the skills and techniques of grant writing. Receiving a mentorship through GPLH has given me the confidence to assist with raising over $500,000 worth of grant funds for programs at multiple organizations. I am thankful to gain this knowledge from one of GPLH's dedicated educators to serve communities in need.” Jorel Lonesome
“Working with a GPLH mentor was an excellent decision, as it helped me to gain some of the skills needed for grants research, writing LOIs, and even writing select grant proposal responses. My mentor was patient, always available to answer questions, and gave me real work experience. When we were awarded a grant that I helped to write, it was extremely satisfying. I then had the confidence I needed to look for a grant writing job.” Laura Kaplow-Goldman
“The Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson provides mentees with hands on experience to learn the skills and techniques of grant writing. Receiving a mentorship through GPLH has given me the confidence to assist with raising over $500,000 worth of grant funds for programs at multiple organizations. I am thankful to gain this knowledge from one of GPLH's dedicated educators to serve communities in need.” Jorel Lonesome
To learn more about receiving mentoring, or about becoming a mentor, contact us: info.gplh@gmail.com
We are proud to announce our 2022 GPLH Board of Directors:
Starting with our Executive Committee, all of whom are returning Board members:
We are grateful to the following returning Board members:
We welcome the following individuals who are new to our Board this year:
Many thanks to this year’s outgoing Board members who generously gave their time and talents while they served on the Board: Barbara Cervoni; Steve Densmore; Brian Kane; Terri Eberle Katz.
Special thanks to Lydia Howie, GPLH Founding President, who has stepped down from Board service this year. In October of 2008, Lydia convened a meeting with a group of local grant writing professionals to discuss ways in which they could support each other and the grant writing profession. Out of that meeting, GPLH was born. Lydia’s contributions to our organization over the past 14 years are immeasurable. We are indebted to Lydia for her incredible dedication and service, and are grateful that, while not on the Board, she will continue to be an active member of GPLH going forward.
There’s always room for more talented and dedicated people! If you have interest in learning more about serving on the GPLH Board, or if you’d like to volunteer your time and talents in any way, we’d love to hear from you. To learn more, send an email to info.gplh@gmail.com.
Grant Professionals of Lower Hudson is hosting workshops to improve your understanding of how to write an effective Letter of Inquiry to apply for funding from Impact100 Westchester. The deadline to submit an LOI to Impact100Westchester is 1/14/22.
GPLH is providing these workshops as a free community service. Part of our mission is to help increase the likelihood of grants being funded. These sessions are being held independently of Impact100 Westchester.
The workshops will be held via ZOOM and will be led by Joanne Stewart, Owner/President of goodworks Advisory Group, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in Grant Writing, Marketing and Communications, and Board Development for nonprofit organizations. Joanne is currently GPLH Secretary, and is also a GPLH founding Board Member and Past President.
You can choose one of two session dates:
To register:
Email Joanne Stewart at jstewart@goodworksadvisorygroup.com. Please include your name, agency, email address and the session you plan to participate in.
The ZOOM link and a copy of the application questions will be sent to you prior to the session.
CONTACT US:
info.GPLH@gmail.com
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