Diane H. Leonard, GPC developed the Grant Readiness Assessment Strategy Prep (GRASP) Tool (www.dhleonardconsulting.com/services/grasp- tool/) utilizing ten years of professional experience and data. The GRASP Tool was beta tested and validated by numerous independent grant professionals before being launched in November of 2015. The data trends related to formal grant readiness metric scores for an organization overall versus readiness for an individual application or specific Grantmaker are a proving to be a strong indicator of strengths and areas for improvements among grant seeking organizations.
As with any metric, there is a range of acceptable scores and each organization, even when deemed grant ready, will look different. Organizations may be successful in some grant seeking situations with a low grant readiness score. What the data from the GRASP tool shows is that the higher an organization’s grant readiness score, the more competitive an organization is in EACH grant seeking situation they pursue. The higher the grant readiness score for an organization, the stronger the indicator that the grant seeking strategy is consistent and likely to be successful.
During this session, I will share the trends learned through the grant seeking organizations that have taken the GRASP Tool to date, looking at averages, successes, strengths and areas for improvement. I will highlight three specific organization case studies, made anonymous for the publication, to highlight the ways that different scores and areas of strength shown through the GRASP tool are indicators of grant seeking success.
Presenter:
Diane H. Leonard, GPC founded DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, LLC in 2006 after beginning her career as a program officer for a foundation. She and her team have secured more than $35 million to date in competitive grant funds for its clients from government agencies and private foundations.
Diane loves talking about #grants, #grantwriting, #grantreadiness, #nonprofits, #1000Islands, #Running & #Coffee.
Skill Level:
Early-Career
Mid-Career
Advanced-Career
Learning Track:
Other: Organizational Development
GPC Competencies:
Organizational development as it pertains to grant seeking
Practices and services that raise the level of professionalism of grant developers
Grant Readiness Score: Case Studies, Averages, and Lessons Learned through the GRASP Tool
Content Types: 
What does your grant readiness score mean? How does it compare to other organizations? Learn about common strengths and weaknesses seen amongst grant seeking organizations and how to address them.