E-032 More Burnout in the Grant Profession-Lucy Morgan and GPC Friends
### Quick Episode Summary Grant Talks Podcast [#032]
*Intro ***.42***
*Fire Away Questions with Johna Rodgers, GPC, Bethany Planton, GPC, and Trish Bachman, GPC and Lucy Morgan CPA***4:39***
* Lessons Learned: The Impact of Burnout in the Grant Workplace***10:55***
* Stress Management Tips: Watch for the Warning Signs of Burnout ***14:46***
* Burnout and Stress: Challenges for Consultants and Employees***16:54***
* Burnout and Grants Survey: Surprising Results ***19:07***
* Best Practices for Navigating Burnout in the Grants Profession ***22:39***
* Setting Boundaries to Avoid Burnout***25:32***
* The Last Word with Johna Rodgers, GPC, Bethany Planton, GPC, and Trish Bachman, GPC and Lucy Morgan CPA ***27.24***
*Outro Audio GrantTalks Podcast with Lucy M. Morgan CPA ***33:20***
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Introducing Johna Rodgers, GPC, Bethany Planton, GPC, and Trish Bachman, GPC
Intro: 00:04
Welcome to the Grant Talks podcast with Lucy Morgan. Lucy is the CEO and director of MyFedTrainer.com, a leading provider of grant management training and templates for federal grant recipients. This show is for grant professionals looking to gain confidence managing their grants. In an age of increasing complexity, you'll hear from leading professionals on the best practices surrounding grants, what's involved in successfully managing the grants lifecycle and how to make sure your grants are managed correctly. Now here's your host Lucy Morgan.
Lucy Morgan: 00:42
Welcome back everyone to this continuing conversation with thought leaders from the grants profession, Johna Rogers, Bethany Planton, and Trish Bachman. Today's continuing conversation is on the real-world topic of burnout in the grants profession.
And I am Lucy Morgan, your host for this session. Welcome back, Johna, Bethany, and Trish.
Johna Rogers: 01:05
Thank you.
Bethany Planton: 01:05
Thanks.
Lucy Morgan: 01:05
I want to start by introducing you to our audience again. Some of you in our audience might not have heard that first session, which I'm going to put a link to and encourage you to go back and check out that first session. The three of you are really some amazing grant professionals. You know, all three of you are GPCs, Grant Professional Certified. All three of you are grant consultants. So, you're helping a variety of different organizations and types of grant recipients. All three of you are co-authors of the recent article "Burnout in the Grants Profession: An Initial Analysis" that was published in the "Journal of the Grant Professionals Association" Volume 18. And we'll put a link to that article as well, but each of you has unique grant journeys.
So, I thought I would just take a minute here and introduce some of your unique journeys into the grants profession. I know each one of us has a little bit of a different way to arrive at where we are today.
So, let's start with Johna. Johna, you have over 25 years in the grants and nonprofits world. You've been involved with over $195 million in grant awards, and you are currently a grant consultant, national trainer for Grant Writing/Management, USA, state technical assistance facilitator, and a board member and the vice president of the Grant Professionals Association or GPA. So, I'd like to welcome you to this episode.
Johna Rogers: 02:29
Thank you, Lucy. It's always fun to talk with you.
Lucy Morgan: 02:32
And next, I'd like to introduce Bethany Planton, GPC, SMS, SM, and PO. Bethany, you're the founder and CEO of BMP Consulting, a grant consulting firm located in Louisville, Kentucky. You got your start in the grants field as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. Again, that's one of those interesting journeys that sometimes we never know where that's going to go in that organization.
Since 2011, you've worked with more than 30 organizations to secure $6 million in governmental and foundation funding. And you're also a social media strategist, scrum master, scrum product owner, and a GPA-approved trainer. So, welcome back, Bethany.
Bethany Planton: 03:16
Thank you, Lucy. Glad to be here.
Lucy Morgan: 03:18
And last but not least, I want to introduce Trish Bachman, GPC. As the owner and lead grant consultant of The Write Stuff Delaware LLC, you work with nonprofits based in Delaware. You began your grant journey as a volunteer with a volunteer assignment with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and an online Grant Writing course. It sounds like humble beginnings, but big things have happened. You honed your skills working with grassroots organizations providing victim services, advocacy, public policy, volunteer management, and grants administration.
Your passion for traffic safety would continue through work with the Delaware Office of Highway Safety, where you inspired hundreds of businesses to implement traffic safety programs affecting thousands of employees statewide. In 2013, you took that passion for helping people and opened a consulting firm to assist small to medium-sized nonprofit organizations in meeting their missions through strategic grant seeking.
And you also serve on the Grant Professionals Association Program Growth and Development Committee and are a founding member and president of the GPA Delmarva Chapter, which again, thank you for explaining to me that Delmarva was a geographic region, including Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
So, welcome back, Trish.
Trish Bachman: 04:39
Thank you, Lucy.
Fire Away Questions with Johna Rodgers, GPC, Bethany Planton, GPC, and Trish Bachman, GPC and Lucy Morgan CPA:
Lucy Morgan: 04:39
And welcome to our audience for another episode of the "Grant Talks Podcast." In our last episode, we discussed an article that was published in the "Journal of the Grant Professionals Association" that our three participants had contributed to a survey of grant professionals about this whole topic about burnout in our profession.
So, I have a few fire-away questions to introduce you further to our audience. Are you ready?
Johna Rogers: 05:08
Absolutely.
Lucy Morgan: 05:08
All right. I see the heads nodding here. Johna, in our last episode, we talked about the genesis of this survey; how did it come to be? And I noticed that the idea had been percolating around since at least 2019, then what happened? Then we had this little thing called the pandemic, you know, COVID-19, more stress. Did participating in this analysis prepare you in some way for what happened in the real world with the coronavirus?
Johna Rogers: 05:40
It certainly elevated the topic, right? We were completing our draft. We had finished our core of our research. The survey was being completed, and we were beginning the whole peer-review process with the Grant Professionals Association Journal, the double-blind on and on, multiple edits coming back to us.
So, we were in the middle of all of that in the spring when everything started shutting down, when the CARES Act funding began flying through the air and when we all like had our hair on fire trying to figure out what we were doing. Some of us were thinking and were correct that we might be unemployed soon, or there might not be anything we could do. You know, if you were not dealing in food or health services immediately, you had to get a little creative about where...the arts community, in particular.
And so, as we began to roll out some of this work, we began to talk to others, and we got to help them think about not just the burdens of their regular jobs, but now the burdens of their elevated positions because they're working in funding in the middle of a funding crisis. Yes, we were doing all of this in the middle of a pandemic, and we still remind ourselves of that.
Frankly, what I'll say is to any of us who are listening, take a breath. You were doing great work in abnormal times in a pandemic, caring for others. And every day, we just need to take a step back and say, "We are doing what we can do, and it is enough." And that is probably my biggest lesson of this pandemic.
We are doing what we can do, and it is enough.
Lucy Morgan: 07:30
Thank you for that, Johna. Bethany, I'm going to ask you a related question is, as COVID-19 has really turbocharged a lot of our challenges in the grants professionally, the CARES Act, I thought the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was crazy at times, but that was just nothing by comparison to the CARES Act.
So, what's been one of your best coping strategies, and what has been just an over-the-top type of stressful year?
Bethany Planton: 07:58
And this goes back a little bit to what we talked about in the first episode in creating boundaries and having some boundaries that you always need. Even in very stressful times, we do need some boundaries because we don't know when this is going to end. If it was just three months, that'd be one thing, but it's going on and on.
So, some of those boundaries for me then was taking time away from my screen. There would be days I could not look at a screen anymore. It was just like my eyes were like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, please step away." Like, "Please step away." So, whether it was going on walks, my dog being just outside, you know, out of my apartment, too, you know, your little space, getting out of that and doing some reading. Reading is one of my favorite things, and that's a great coping mechanism for me or talking to a friend. You know, sometimes you just need to talk through everything that's going on, especially in these times.
Lucy Morgan: 08:51
That's some good advice too. I noticed I have Enya on my music channel a lot more these days than I was before. It's a lot more type of "take a deep breath" music feeding into my headset.
Well, Trish, you know, I really benefited from reading the article and knowing that we're just getting started when it comes to stressors and some of the research. And the survey found that most respondents reported more stress at work than outside of work. And I'm sure some of that, you know, is the timing with what's been going on with COVID as well.
Do you have any insights or maybe some anecdotal evidence on how the pandemic may have shifted participants' views in the last year? And I'm just going to ask if we might see a follow-up survey.
Trish Bachman: 09:42
Well, yes, you'll definitely see a follow-up survey. The thing about the data is that our survey was out before the pandemic. So, the responses are not affected by the pandemic. Some of our podcasts and things that we've been doing since have had a definite angle of the pandemic in them to help people.
But I suspect that there are more people who are suffering from the effects of stress, anxiety, and burnout now than before, because people were working in an office with other people to maybe, now they're working at home. Maybe they've had to set up a home office. Maybe they have families. Maybe they're having trouble defining that time that they're working or maybe focusing.
So, I think that is definitely going to be something that we're going to see in the coming months and years that we're working on this topic. But there's shifting news about stress in the workplace. And I think that we're definitely going to see that, and that's going to go into our next iteration of the work we're doing.
Lessons Learned: The Impact of Burnout in the Grant Workplace
Lucy Morgan: 10:55
Good. Well, I'm glad the work is continuing. I think that it's important because we, again, could never have predicted what we've been through, but certainly, our world has shifted in the last year. Johna, in our last section, we talked about the impact of burnout on grant professionals. And let's get into some of the lessons learned from this survey.
What do you think identifying common areas of workplace stress can help grant professionals navigate? You know, we have a lot of challenges in our profession. So, how do you think identifying those commonalities can help?
Johna Rogers: 11:34
Well, first, I would say that, you know, there are some simple and not so simple answers to that. And we are spending this next year learning about that, talking to grant professionals, not just those who are suffering, but also who are in a good place. We all know people who are working in an environment where they're enthused, where they are connected, where they love to go to work every day, and they feel they're doing really great things without, you know, running into the wall of burnout. So, what does that look like? What's that comparison? What are the characteristics there?
When the World Health Organization placed the onus of burnout in the workplace, that really gave us something besides our own personalities and habits to focus on. It's really not us. I mean, it's not. It helps us to not blame ourselves, and I think that's part of the challenge is not blaming ourselves. As grant professionals, we are often really good at the minutiae. Some of us are anal-retentive. I'll take that mantle myself. And those are not good things when it comes to our mental health.
So, the simple things, learn more, question more, and begin the conversation without whining, do it in a professional manner, either with a supervisor, with a colleague you trust, if you're big enough at your organization to have an HR department, that's great.
You know, don't go into HR and say, "I need you to fix this for me." Go into it with just a conversation. I'm looking for resources to help me with this so that I can be the employee that you guys need.
If I were a boss and I knew that my employee was working 60 hours a week to do the work I'd given them, I should, as the boss, know there's a problem. Does your boss know you do that? And does he know or she in constructive ways? Not again when you've completely melted down, and I have experience with that, not when you've done that, but before you get there.
The final thing I'll say is we have to model this for others. We have to begin with what we can control. And you'll hear us often say these simple, simple things, go to lunch, okay? I work from home. My husband knows that sometime between 12:00 and 12:30, I'm going to step away from the computer. I'm going to go heat up some lunch. I'm going to sit down and do a crossword puzzle. I'm going to just kind of chill for a little bit. And then I'm going to get up and go back to it. This is something that really I've been doing for the last six months. It's made a huge difference. It lets me shift in the middle of the day, right?
So, beginning those things, not answering email after hours, not answering on the weekend, quoting up an out-of-office message when it's a holiday. Very simple things that tell the rest of the world that, you know, I value myself, and I'm going to take that step for me.
Stress Management Tips: Watch for the Warning Signs of Burnout
Lucy Morgan: 14:46
Those are some great tips, and I love that there's a perspective both from an organizational responsibility side but also some of the personal responsibility that I think Bethany had alluded to earlier. So, Bethany, I know we all love these, you know, coping tips and strategies, including into the point where it's all or nothing. I'm going to throw the baby out with the bathwater, you know, and leave the profession.
What are some of the warning signs of burnouts that grant professionals should be alert to?
Bethany Planton: 15:18
So, burnout looks a little bit different for everybody, but there are some things that you should definitely be on the lookout for feeling run-down and exhausted. Now, I'm sure we've all felt that, but if you feel that often, that's a warning flag. Like, okay, why am I feeling run-down and exhausted? Are you having trouble sleeping at night? You know, is your brain racing?
So, you're thinking about the grant applications you need to submit. You're thinking about that site visit. Just all the worries are piling up, or maybe you're dreaming about grant applications. I've been hearing that more recently that people are having lots of dreams related to everything. So, that probably means you're working a lot and maybe a little too much because your subconscious is just thinking about it all the time.
Like feelings of being anxious, depressed, or angry specifically towards your work, I know right now most of us are not getting in the car to go to work, but maybe you're getting out of bed and walking to your desk, and you don't want to do that. Like, that's a pretty good sign if it's over and over and over again that you're on your way to burnout.
Also just not caring as much. So, when you first start, you feel pretty excited about the work. You may be excited about the mission of your organization and helping the people that your organization helps. And if you find that you start to go, you're getting cynical about it, or you're just not caring, another warning flag that maybe your passion is depleting. You probably should look into it -am I starting to get burnt out on this?
Burnout and Stress: Challenges for Consultants and Employees
Lucy Morgan: 16:54
That's some great advice. Really, I think hopefully help people before they get to that point where it feels like it's all or nothing.
You know, Trish, I was fascinated by the breakout of the topic between employees and then the whole realm of consultants and how that affected burnout and stress. Can you tell us a little bit more about the differences between the effect of burnout on consultants versus employees?
Trish Bachman: 17:22
So, what I can say is that employees and consultants have more in common in terms of stress and burnout than you might think. Yes, in the results, it does look like there is a little difference between the two. I think consultants have some autonomy where they can say yes or no to a program or a project or a client, where an employee might not.
But consultants also have different things that they stress about, like, are they running a small business, do they have insurance, that kind of thing. But the root of the stress and burnout is really similar in both.
So, the people who are in these roles are probably detail-oriented. It's deadline-driven work. But there are also things that contribute to employee burnout and consultant burnout that are the same. Unclear requirements, impossible requirements, high-stress times, no downturn, consequences of failure, right?
Consultants can lose their clients if they don't get the grant. Employees might just have more work to do. Lack of personal control. Lack of recognition. Huge. This is huge—lack of recognition for the work that we do.
Poor communication from the clients and the employers. Insufficient compensation. Are you getting paid for what you're worth? Are you getting paid for the hours that you put in? And poor leadership. I'm convinced that poor leadership is the root of all burnout.
Lucy Morgan: 18:54
Wow. That's a bold statement. I see a lot of heads bobbing, though. Even through to our listeners, I see some heads bobbing.
Trish Bachman: 19:06
There's much work to do.
Burnout and Grants Survey: Surprising Results
Lucy Morgan: 19:07
Yes. Johna, I know you're a consultant. In fact, all of you are consultants, but I wondered, since you've been at this probably the longest of all of us, which of these findings could you relate to or maybe you found surprising?
Johna Rogers: 19:21
Well, I think there were two or three things I really found surprising. And one of the things, as Trish said, there wasn't that much difference between the consulting and the employee. You know, there were several things we went into it, and then we said, "Oh, I bet we you see that, this." "I bet we you see that, that." And we were proven wrong.
I mean, we did not see that. We did not see, for example, a higher rate of burnout among the public service areas, for example, healthcare or where you have a really closer relationship with people who are hurting and in need than, for example, the arts. I mean, there just wasn't that much difference.
In fact, across all the dimensions, there wasn't. It was this just a constant thing. The thing we all had in common was grants. And then, so that comes into it by the type of work and the repetitive deadlines, the never-recovering.
And I really appreciated what Bethany was saying there about the recognition. As consultants, we often get less recognition than we might as an employee, and that is an issue. And so, I try to have those celebrations with clients from time to time.
So, if you're a consultant out there, you know, listening. But this week, I got a really great email from one of my clients that it's a small group. We didn't get the big piece of money that we wanted, but instead, they gave us a smaller piece, and they restricted the funding. We couldn't use it for the salary we wanted to, but we could use it for all the supplies and the stuff to run the program—a pretty good pocket of money.
Well, as we were having this conversation, she says, "Oh, I didn't tell you. A few days ago, the board committed to pay for that salary anyway." That's the best news we've had all day. "You just found the money for us to do everything else that we couldn't do." Everybody was happy. It was great.
And I'm telling you, that gave me six more months in the profession. Just that little thing. Being able to say, you know, "I did good this day." It was good. The client's happy; the little kids are getting served.
So, I guess, you know, the most surprising thing, and we've said it before, we'll keep saying it, was just the lack of knowledge that this is out there and it's happening to all of us. And we, even us who are working in it, we are daily on the prowl for our own health in trying to make sure we don't say yes too often, we still get our work done, and we are taking care of ourselves.
Now, I got one footnote to add to that. As my friends will tell you, I am not a self-care kind of person. I'm just not. When we came into this, where you said, "Johna's data, we're going to do the data." But I have learned that there is some truth in it, and that little steps, maybe that's my most surprising thing.
The little steps will help.
Lucy Morgan: 22:28
Sometimes that day, that just smacks you upside the head. Doesn't it?
Johna Rogers: 22:32
It absolutely does. It really did say that. There is something wrong here, right?
Best Practices for Navigating Burnout in the Grants Profession
Lucy Morgan: 22:39
Yeah. Well, Bethany, you know, since you said that you are the...is it the boundary queen? Is that what I heard? The boundary queen? I'm sure many of us can relate to a lot of these examples that have been shared.
What would you say to someone who sees themselves in this survey to encourage them to keep making that difference as a grant professional?
Bethany Planton: 23:00
First, I'd say, first of all, you're not alone. We have found that this is an issue. It's not just you; it's an issue in our profession. But to help make a little change now is to take care of yourself.
My favorite analogy is the oxygen mask analogy from airplanes, where you put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others. Because if you're not getting oxygen, you're no help to anybody else. You're going to be passed out, and they're going to have to help you. Same with that's used for self-care all the time, take care of yourself first, because if you're not taking care of yourself, you won't have anything left to be able to give to others.
And our field, as we had said multiple times is very much a giving field and helping others. And so, take care of yourself. In thinking through this, though, you can also think if you're kind of past the point of going, self-care is not going to do it, like, part of that self-care is not going to make this problem any better.
Think about, do you really like the mission you're working under? You know, you really want to help puppies and kittens. You really want to help children, preschool children. You love healthcare. Do you really love the organization you're at? Or if you're consulting, do you really like that?
And/or, do you really like the position you're in? So, is a grant profession really the right profession for you? Thinking through those shows, you might have some more options for what you're currently doing. So, maybe you find a different organization with that same mission. Or if you like the organization but not your position, see if there's another position open, can you move to learn a different skill?
So, there are some options if you're to the point of, "I don't want to do the job I'm in right now anymore." Like, I feel like I need to leave to really make a difference in my life. Think through those things.
Lucy Morgan: 24:53
Yeah. And I think it's so important to expand your possibilities through asking what you can do as opposed to starting with you can't. This is a tip I picked up years ago from Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote the "Rich Dad Poor Dad" series about his rich dad would not allow him to say, "I can't," but he would say, "How can I?" And I've also found that that makes a big difference in starting to release those creative juices.
You know, and I'm often talking about controlling what we can control because there's so much that we really have no control over.
Setting Boundaries to Avoid Burnout
Lucy Morgan: 25:32
So, Trish, I'm going to go to things each of us can control regarding our reaction to burnout and workplace stress, particularly in the grants profession.
Trish Bachman: 25:39
So, I love what Bethany had to say. And it's really important to be gentle with yourself, to give yourself grace, because if we are doing the work, we are surviving a pandemic right now. And how we treat ourselves, the things that we say to ourselves, really make a difference.
If we're always telling ourselves that we're tired, that we're overworked, that we're exhausted, that we don't have any other options, that really affects how we approach our problems. And the boundaries we set. Are we allowing people to send us emails on the weekend? Are we allowing them to cancel our vacation? Are we allowing other people to get into our personal space?
And so, all the things that Bethany talked about are great. They're great tips. And if you can just start with one, maybe not a lot, maybe not everything, maybe one thing. Whenever you take lunch, put your out-of-office on for that half an hour. And that way, the people are not expecting you to respond in that half an hour. Maybe you do it whenever you leave the office for the night, whatever time that is. If it's 5:00, if it's 8:00, put that out-of-office on, so nobody's expecting to hear from you until the next day and stick to it. Don't start responding during that time.
It's the little things that you can do to empower yourself.
Lucy Morgan: 27:10
And I think you raised this up earlier, too, but just as this whole idea of that what we do is important, but we are important too. So, I really appreciate some of these insights that you've shared with our audience.
The Last Word with Johna Rodgers, GPC, Bethany Planton, GPC, and Trish Bachman, GPC and Lucy Morgan CPA
Lucy Morgan: 27:24
And I always like to end with the last word, to give each of you a chance at the last word. So, Johna, I'm going to start with you. Is there something I should have asked that I did not?
Johna Rogers: 27:37
Lucy, you asked such great questions; I'm not sure that there's anything you didn't ask. But here's what I'll add. We are starting this conversation. We are learning. We are supporting each other because the first thing we have to do is just know there's an issue and know there's a problem.
Rather than just saying you are not alone, here's what I'll tell you. I thought I was alone. I worked for years by myself, going from cubby to office, to cubby to office, and always being moved around like a piece of furniture, right? That's not to cite poor pitiful me; it's to say that I thought I was alone. And I thought I had no power over my own life or my own well-being. And I was wrong.
So, as we begin this conversation, we hope to help you in a healthy way to say, "Wow, this isn't right. And there's probably something I can do with that." Look to your GPA Chapter, for those of you who are a member of the Grant Professionals Association or to whatever professional membership association you belong to find other people who are suffering in the same ways.
Or find someone else who has survived. You will be the better for it, and you will no longer be alone.
Lucy Morgan: 29:02
Thank you, Johna. And Bethany, I'm going to give you the last word. If there's a question I should've asked but didn't or something you'd like to add.
Bethany Planton: 29:11
Well, it's like Johna read my notes because it definitely was going to be; part of it was going to be, find your tribe, wherever that is. And if you are in a professional association, find the people who are like you, who, you know, you want to be friends with almost, you know? I know that the Grant Professionals Association also offers a mentor-match program, and probably other professional associations do as well. Even if, you know, you're not finding your friends there, you can have someone who can mentor you, like, Johna said, who have been there before, is a little ahead of you.
And then, on top of that, take the time to celebrate. And we've kind of mentioned this a little bit that we don't take that time. It's always more work. It seems like the joke of giving ourselves more work to celebrate. Find some rituals that are actually a way to celebrate and not just when you win the grant award, because we all know that percentage can be low, and you did your very best, but there were so many factors that affected that decision.
So, celebrate submitting the grant or submitting the report and closing it out. Celebrate building a relationship with a funder. Celebrate just things...you and your team figure out things that you can celebrate together: one idea to celebrate, a little one.
One team I run we had this little yellow bell, and we ring it together when we've done something like submit an application, submit a report. And so, together, you know, it just takes five seconds, less than five seconds to say it. But hearing all those bells ring together as a team, it gives you a little exhale of like, "Oh, look, we did something pretty large. We did it. Good job."
Lucy Morgan: 30:56
Very cool. I'm going to be out shopping after this podcast looking for a set of bells. So, that's a great suggestion.
Well, Trish, I'd like to also give you the last word. Is there something I should have asked but didn't or something that you'd like to add?
Trish Bachman: 31:13
Yes. So, while I love what my co-authors have said, we have much more work to do.
And I want to tell you that the questions that have been asked of us that we are going to continue to look into is how does burnout affect people with different cultural backgrounds? How does it look through our diversity, equity, and inclusion lens?
And, specifically for me, and something I'm very interested in is what role does leadership plays in burnout?
Lucy Morgan: 31:46
Those are great questions. I am looking forward to seeing the next study and hope to have you back on the "Grant Talks Podcast" to talk about the follow-up study as well.
Well, Johna, if people would like to get in touch with you after listening to you on the podcast, what's the best way to get in touch?
Johna Rogers: 32:05
Well, unlike my partners, I don't have a website. It's one of the boundaries I've put up now, intentionally, that sounds better than I don't have time to do one. I'm just not going to worry about it anymore. But you can find me on most of the social media platforms, typically at Johna Rogers, GPC, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
So, if you look for me, you'll find me. So, thank you.
Lucy Morgan: 32:30
Okay. Thank you. How about you, Bethany? What's the best way to get in touch with you from our audience?
Bethany Planton: 32:36
You can find me at my website, that is, BMPConsulting.org, and there you'll find links to all my social media, as well as a contact form if you want to send me an email.
Lucy Morgan: 32:47
Very good.
And Trish, how about you? What's the best way to get in touch?
Trish Bachman: 32:52
I am going to get this right this time. You can find me on Twitter @thewritestuffde. That's write, W-R-I-T-E. You can also find me on my webpage, thewritestuffdelaware.com.
Lucy Morgan: 33:05
All right. Thank you very much. And thank you all three for participating in this episode of the "Grant Talks Podcast."
Listeners, you can find all the episodes out on granttalks.com. And thank you for tuning in.
Outro: 33:20
To learn more about how MyFedTrainer.com makes grant management more manageable, visit MyFedTrainer.com. That's MyFedTrainere.com. You'll find all the Grant Talks episodes at GrantTalks.com. That's GrantTalks.com.
More About Johna Rodgers, GPC
For nearly 30 years, Johna Rodgers, GPC, has helped organizations of all sizes solve problems. For 20 years, she has worked as a full-time grant professional, bringing more than $195 million in grants to employers and clients.
With a background primarily in federal proposal development, Johna has learned to work with dozens of partners and their conflicting ideas, missions, and concerns. Johna is a longtime member of the Grant Professionals Association and serves as the national Vice President.
In addition, she is an Approved GPA Trainer and works nationally to share best practices about all things grants. For the past 5 1/2 years, she has worked as a consultant. Johna is an original GPC--grant professional certified--receiving her certification in 2008.
Johna is the co-author of Burnout in the Grants Profession: An Initial Analysis, published in the Journal of the Grant Professionals Association Volume 18.
More About Bethany Planton, GPC
Bethany Planton, GPC, SMS, SM, PO, is the Founder and CEO of BMPConsulting.org, a grant consulting firm located in Louisville, Kentucky. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications Studies from Ball State University, Bethany got her start in the grant field as an AmeriCorps VISTA member.
Since 2011, Bethany has worked with more than 30 organizations to secure six million dollars in government and foundation funds. Bethany is a Grant Professional Certified Social Media Strategist, Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, and a GPA Approved Trainer.
Bethany is the co-author of Burnout in the Grants Profession: An Initial Analysis, published in the Journal of the Grant Professionals Association Volume 18.
More About Trish Bachman, GPC
As the owner and lead grant consultant for The Write Stuff Delaware LLC, Trish Bachman works with nonprofits based in Delaware. Trish began her journey as a grant professional with a volunteer assignment with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and an online grant writing course.
Over the next few years, she would hone her skills working with the grassroots organization providing victim services, advocacy, public policy, volunteer management, and grants administration. Her passion for traffic safety would continue through work with the Delaware Office of Highway Safety. She inspired hundreds of businesses to implement traffic safety programs affecting thousands of employees statewide.
In 2013, Trish took that passion for helping people and opened a consulting firm to assist small to midsize nonprofit organizations in meeting their mission through strategic grant seeking. Trish is a Grant Professionals Certified. She serves on the Grant Professionals Association Program Growth & Development Committee and is a founding member and president of the GPA Delmarva Chapter.
More About Lucy Morgan:
Lucy M. Morgan is a CPA, MBA, GPA approved trainer, speaker, and author of 3 books including “Decoding Grant Management-The Ultimate Success Guide to the Federal Grant Regulations in 2 CFR Part 200.” As a leading authority on federal grant management for nonprofits, institutions of higher education and state, local and tribal governments she has written over 250 articles on grant management topics featured in LinkedIn, various publications and on the MyFedTrainer.com blog.
She is a sought-after presenter at national conferences sponsored by organizations such as the Grant Professional Association (GPA), National Grant Management Association (NGMA), and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Lucy is also a highly regarded trainer whose techniques and teaching style come from real-world experience. Having faced many of the same challenges her audiences have endured, Lucy understands that what looks good on paper may not always work in the real world. Because she has been there, she provides people of all professional backgrounds with practical tools to advance their careers and make a bigger difference in the world. She can be reached at [email protected].
>>Hear more about Lucy's story in Episode #004
More Resources for Grant Professionals
In this episode of Grant Talks, we talked about a subject that you may want to know more about:
- Reducing stress around your grants
So...as promised I want to share some resources that may help you on YOUR grant journey.
My husband has always been a "no-directions" type of guy.
In contrast, I find it VERY stressful to head out without my trusty GPS (OK, I'm a bit slow to adopt Google Maps in the car.)
And working with grants without a solid idea of what lays ahead stresses me out!.
So, that got me thinking…
What is the road map for grants-particularly federal grants, which is my focus?
Because let’s face it, figuring out what is critical information vs. “nice to know” is the difference between “smooth sailing” and disaster with your grant.
So, I am sharing a “sneak peek” of my Grant Management Road Map!
(I hope this ‘roadmap’ will help you avoid some of the pitfalls when it comes to getting #grantready for federal funding.)
This handy road map covers critical elements of the grant management lifecycle like:
- 4 pre-award topics that are critical to effectively manage your grants starts before you even receive the award.
- 4 areas that build a firm foundation managing your grant successfully during the period of performance.
- 6 components for grant management that help you deliver on the program objectives and stay in compliance with the regulations and more…
These resources are FREE for you, and I hope that you will find them valuable on your grant journey.
Click here to download and share
P.S. If this is helpful, you might be interested in an article I wrote for LinkedIn on ways grant writers and grant managers can work together more effectively. Read more at: https://blog.myfedtrainer.com/three-secrets-grant-writers-need-to-know-about-grant-management/
