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| Clarify this confusing situation :)
Posted by CatherineDiane  on 3/25/2008, 10:58 pm, in reply to "Re: Recommendations for entry into grant writing as a career"
Aurelia,
I can completely understand how you are confused about my situation! For one thing, you are detail oriented. That is one of the great things about you! I have read many of your posts and couldn't help but notice how detailed you are with your responses, your recommendations and your insight!
So let me help clarify a bit. My first, and most important, job is caring for my two young sons (6 and 5). To that end, I have spent the last six years working on my own hours/terms and not allowing work to come between me and my sons.
About three years ago I began teaching for a local college in the Corporate and Continuing Education department. That works out great. I accept the courses I am willing to teach and turn down the others. Often after teaching a Corporate course, the company would want me to work for them independently and help them with many of the problems we discussed in class.
That is when I began work as a computer consultant. Often the projects I would do bled into business areas, human resources, marketing/design, etc. other areas in which I am experienced. I discovered how much I enjoy this arrangement.
This past summer, I taught the not-for-profit I am working for now. It was a great class and we really clicked. I taught one more semester, but have been exclusively working for them since our class.
We have tackled many, many projects and set up a retainer agreement good for both of us. I am on call for them for any number of areas. We have a great relationship and know we will be working together for quite a while.
The CEO knew from conversation I had taken the grant writing course in college and had a strong interest in pursuing that again. Finally we completed other projects and the timing was right for me to focus on proposals.
During these last few months I've begun to discuss with my husband that I could see myself working in this area solely. My currently agreement will always have my priority. Yet, my hands are tied by how quickly/slowly they choose to move.
For instance, I finished the initial LOI for a local corporation the end of February. They still haven't signed and sent the letter. I understand their reasoning (a link between one of our board members and one on the corporation's board). Naturally, that is worth pursuing, but in the mean time they haven't moved forward to determine who we will approach next.
I have spent the time working on the components which will likely remain consistent from one funder to another. I can't help but think though that there could be other ways to work out this set up.
This past week I decide I am going to broach the CEO with providing me a subscription to the Foundation Directory from home. Then I could search possibilities with a higher success rate for possible matches. Right now I search everything I can find, but have limited possible matches with a lot of time searching.
If I approached this local grant writing agency to work for them (naturally I would be very clear about my commitment), and reworked my agreement to be an hourly agreement to work on writing proposals only, I could be progressing in my hands-on experience with proposals much quicker!
However, I don't want to jump the gun and make changes if I the best decision would be to leave things as they are. I am happy to continue to do other projects for them as needed. But my heart is moving rapidly towards proposals only.
Does this help a little? I'm certainly not going to short change my current priority in anyway. All these possibilities are based on my speculation that this grant writing agency will want me at all - and be willing to allow me to work from home part time.
One more factor, I wouldn't make any of these changes until the fall when both my boys will be in school all day M-F. Right now I have M-Th from 9-noon without either one of them. I get a lot of work done during those hours, then during nap time and, as you can tell, at night when everyone else is asleep in my home 
In the fall, I'll have a much better schedule allowing me much more flexibility. I don't really want to increase my work load very much, just shift all this late night work into the day time.
Now that you all have made it to the end of this massive chapter in book of my life...please let me offer you some warm brownies and a glass of cold milk!
Thanks again for your input! I greatly appreciate your insight and willingness to give some of your valuable time to my floundering about trying to find my way.
Thanks again!
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others." - Pericles
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