Welcome to another episode of “Grant Writing & Funding” with your host, Holly Rustick. In this week’s episode, we have a special guest joining us: Yvonne White-Morey, a successful grant writer with a thriving freelance grant writing business.
During our conversation, we will delve into the impact the mentorship program has had on Yvonne’s business, as well as the valuable tips and insights she has to offer for grant writers looking to start or grow their own freelance grant writing businesses. We are excited to hear Yvonne’s personal story and discover how she got started in the world of grant writing.
Yvonne addresses the importance of handling grant rejection in the grant writing world and offers strategies for turning rejection into opportunities for growth and improvement.
Additionally, she will touch on the significant role of artificial intelligence in the grant proposal process, and explore both the positive advantages and potential challenges it presents.
Join us as we connect with Yvonne White-Morey to learn more about her journey in grant writing and the valuable insights she has to offer.
Plus, we will reveal how you can connect with Yvonne and the resources she provides. So grab your headphones and get ready for another informative and inspiring episode of “Grant Writing & Funding” with Holly Rustick.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- How the Grant Professional Mentorship has been beneficial Yvonne’s grant writing business
- The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Grant Proposal Process
- Positive and negative implications of AI and large language models in grant writing
- Handling Rejection and Building Relationships in Grant Seeking
- – The tendency to feel discouraged after a grant proposal rejection
- The importance of evaluating the fit between the proposal and funder’s values
- Embracing rejection as an opportunity to demonstrate organizational integrity
- Grant writing as part of the revenue stream and flow for organizations
- Building a sustainable funding model for organizations
- Considering the overall funding picture and incorporating grants into the organization’s strategy
- The challenge of low scores on grant proposals with minimal feedback
About Yvonne White-Morey
Yvonne White-Morey, RSM is CEO & Principal Grant Strategist at GrantStream Consulting LLC, bridging the gap between mission and impact, through stress-free grant seeking and management, so that people who help people can afford to make a difference. GrantStream’s clientele include growing small-mid sized nonprofits and small businesses helped to secure more than $14 million in funding.
Yvonne brings expertise working in government, nonprofit and the private sector; with faith-based groups and community-led organizations, celebrating the opportunity of assisting others to do great work creating a more just and humane world.
In addition to extensive grant training, Yvonne holds a Masters of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary; earned a BS in Psychology and BA in Speech and Drama from DePaul University and, Certificates in Litigation and Employee Benefit Plans from the ABA Approved Lawyers’ Assistant Program at Roosevelt University; and is credentialed by Scrum, Inc. as a Register Scrum Master (RSM). Each of these areas of professional development helped her to hone skills in research, writing and project management.
Yvonne is a proud member of the Grant Professionals Association (GPA), currently serving as a board member and Programs Co-Chair of the GPA Chicago Area Chapter, and member of the GPA Great Lakes Virtual Chapter. An active member of the Association of Consultants to Nonprofits; a Chicago Conservation Corps leader since 2010, as well as a Climate Reality Project Leader, Chicago Metro Chapter and trained as a public engagement interpreter of the Chicago Academy of Sciences Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Yvonne is part of an extensive network of environmental and environmental justice organizations.
When not absorbed with grants, nonprofit consulting, proposal development and character counts, she enjoys the brilliant and colorful Midwestern change of seasons, especially in Autumn/Winter, where you will most likely find her tucked in with a cup of hot tea, a cozy mystery and in the company of either an exuberant Hurricane Maria rescue dog named Rico or a frolicking feline called Selina Kyle (aka Cat Woman) her Co-Directors of Work/Life Balance.
Connect with Yvonne:
Quotables:
- Dealing with Grant Rejection: “Just because it didn’t get funded doesn’t mean that one can’t be funded somewhere else. If it’s a solid program, it can be rewritten and reworked so that it does meet the needs of the organization and a particular funder… See it as an opportunity to build relationships and demonstrate the integrity of the organization.”
- The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Grant Funding: “Two things along that line. One is actually the newer invention with everyone talking about artificial intelligence and large language models. That’s a two sided coin.”
- The Importance of Grant Strategy: “So if seeking grants are going to be a major revenue stream for your organization, then how to build out that strategy? I think we get this sense that grants are just like raining down from heaven, and you just put your bucket out and the water will come in, and then you take it. And there’s really no need for that kind of plan.”
- The Benefits of Joining the Mentorship: “The Grant Professional Mentorship has been phenomenal… I love Book Club because we read two books a quarter and I found most of the books to be not only interesting, but actionable.”
- Finding Success in Business: “Being in the Grant Professional Mentorship gives me the confidence that I can reach out to areas outside of my comfort zone and still be able to bring in clients.”
GrantStream Consulting LLC Services:
- Pre-Award Wellness & Readiness Assessments preparing for private & public funding
- Brand Audit & Analysis of community and funder awareness of your public & online branding
- Grant Strategy to help your organization determine how grants impact sustainability
- Prospect Research to discover multiple mission-aligned funding sources
- Proposal Development to present a well-crafted competitive proposal or LOl
- Proposal Review & Editing to provide an additional pair of eyes for error-free submissions
- Post-Submission Audits to debrief and reconstruct past submission for stronger future use
- Post Award Management Planning for stress-free grant management
- Nonprofit Training in Board Development, Grant-Writing Basics and Funder Relationships
Resources mentioned in this episode:
OTHER RESOURCES:
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW THE PODCAST
Favor, please? If you love this podcast, would you please do me a favor and leave a review on iTunes or your podcast listener?
This helps others find the podcast and I read each and every review!
“Every time I listen to Holly’s show, I learn something” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show!
Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the Grant Writing & Funding podcast to get grant and freelance grant writing proven strategies and conversations in your podcast player every single week.
Thanks for listening!
Warmly,
Holly Rustick
Leading the $1 Billion for Good Movement: By 2030, aspiring and seasoned grant writers inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy & Grant Professional Mentorship will 1) WIN $1 Billion in Grants, and 2) MAKE $30 Million in their Grant Writing Businesses. We are on our way already.
What is Grant Writing & Funding?
Quit your toxic nonprofit job and replace your full-time income while writing grants part-time, from home! Join our students in the Freelance Grant Writer Academy to create Financial Stability and Flexibility through writing grants for causes you are passionate about: https://grantwritingandfunding.com/freelance-grant-writer-academy
World-renowned grant writing expert and Amazon bestselling author Holly Rustick provides coaching that helps new and experienced grant writers replace their full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or anywhere they want to live or travel in the world).
She coaches changemakers to master grant writing and start to grow 6-figure+ grant writing businesses on part-time hours via her signature group program, “Freelance Grant Writer Academy."
As an unapologetic feminist, Holly’s work in coaching female grant writers to master grant writing, find their cause-area niche, and navigate value-based pricing and nonprofit sales is breaking glass ceilings for women all over the world.
Every week, she coaches thousands of people through the top-ranking podcast, Grant Writing & Funding, books on grant writing, and inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy.
Holly has 20 years of experience in grant writing, and began her freelance grant writing journey back in 2005. While teaching in Kuwait and Indonesia, and then earning a Master’s Degree in International Political Economy in Belgium, Holly saw the light of setting up a virtual-based business in grant writing back in the mid-2000s. Having secured more than $45 million of dollars for nonprofit organizations, and then setting up a multi 6-figure freelance business, Holly has a mission to help female grant writers break out of toxic nonprofit J-O-B-S and create high-level income while freelance grant writing.
Inside the Freelance Grant Writer Academy, students have secured more than $225+ million in grant funding and $4+ million in revenue in their grant writing businesses within two years.
To amplify this work, she is past-president of the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce and was appointed to the Guam Business Advisory Task Force as an advisor to the first female governor of Guam. Holly lives on the island of Guam with her beautiful daughter, Isabella.
If you are interested in replacing your full-time income while writing grants part-time from home (or from anywhere in the world!) join the Freelance Grant Writer Academy!
www.grantwritingandfunding.com.