"Effective Grantsmanship" Program Offers
Series of Seminars, Practical Experience

Bryn Mawr students are known for their desire to make a meaningful contribution to the world. How can they translate that desire into action? This fall, the Civic Engagement Office will offer solid, nuts-and-bolts instruction in a skill that is critical to success in many areas of public service: obtaining grant funding. The CEO will offer 10-15 students a series of eight seminars given by an experienced grantwriter between late September and early November; practical work with local community organizations will complement the instruction. Applications to the program, titled “Effective Grantsmanship,” are due next Friday, Sept. 15. The CEO will hold an open information session about the program tonight, Sept. 7, from 6 to 7 p.m. in Room 200 of the Campus Center.

“The program is a response to requests from students that we offer more concrete, skills-based workshops,” says Ellie Esmond, the CEO's training and program coordinator. “Our instructor, Margie DuBrow, conducted a similar program at Swarthmore last year, and she has tailored this one to our students' needs.”

Much of the program will take place over Fall Break, Esmond says. Each student will be assigned to a local agency that works with Bryn Mawr students through the College's Community Partnership in Action program. Students will work with these agencies to complete a key part of a grant proposal. Esmond stresses that no student will be responsible for an entire grant proposal, but each will undertake a single component such as a needs statement, a background statement, or basic research.

DuBrow, who will conduct the seminars and review students' work with partner agencies, is the principal consultant in Creative Management Strategies, Inc., a firm that specializes in community planning and building the institutional capacity of nonprofit organizations. For more than 20 years, she has conducted training programs and technical assistance in strategic planning, organizational management, and grantsmanship with staff across multiple sectors. She has successfully raised major grants to support healthy families, juvenile delinquency prevention, emergency response in the schools, and health and social services for older adults.

Interested students can download an application at www.brynmawr.edu/ceo/

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