NONPROFIT/GRANT CONSULTANT (CGC)/
- As a Certified Grant Consultant, I choose to work with small 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations to help ensure an overall funding strategy.
- Verify and/or help organizations meet necessary criteria for grant funding eligibility
- Provide funding resource direction about incorporating a variety of funding resources including grant funding, fundraisers, direct mail, social media, blogging and more.
- Train staff and/or volunteers with grant writing skills and knowledge
- Grant Writing and Funding Workshops
More than 15 years ago, I made the leap. Like most newbies who enter the grant writing arena, I jumped in feet first and attempted to apply for a few grant opportunities. I was confident the funds would be received and devastated when rejected. Eventually, I discovered the key to grant writing was perseverance. I read everything I could about grant funding, enrolled in classes, attended grant writing workshops, and went back to school to obtain my Grant Consultant Certification. The more I became involved with helping raise funds for a few nonprofits, the more involved I wanted to be. Serving as a grant writer for many years, I recognized my reach was limited. As a consultant, I have the ability to help more organizations increase the likelihood of receiving grant funding. As part of the process, I always stress the importance of having a balanced stream of revenue including fundraising, individual donations, sponsorships, partnerships, direct mail, awareness campaigns, and of course grant funding.
Living from grant to grant is not sustainable!
SPEAKER
Public speaking is really just something that happened as a result of workshops, training and leadership roles held at my former 8-5 ritual. Let's just say that public speaking wasn't on the list of "what I wanted to be". In fact, my first stage appearance was a total debacle. Ironically, I felt at home on that stage. I can't explain it, but there is something about the adrenalin rush that comes from public speaking and especially when comedy becomes an added bonus. My warped sense of humor, combined with my love of audience interaction, is just fun. Laughter is healthy. I love to teach, and I love to laugh. If others laugh with me (not at me); well, that's what I call a win-win. Just like writing, my speaking style isn't locked into one category. Whether serving as lecturer on grant writing, business leadership or team motivation, to performing comedic entertainment for a fundraiser, or special event; I'm in my element.
Author
To understand the present, the past must be remembered. My stories are revealed in a soliloquy, more or less.
Growing up, I was a just a plain Jane masquerading in a Barbie doll mindset. I escaped reality through writing. Day after day, year after year, I would sit in my room for hours writing short stories, poems, and songs. As a teenager, I dreamed of being a successful writer. I thought achieving writing success would mean financial security, a magnitude of wealth, owning a California beach house, and sipping on mixed drinks with paper umbrellas. While monetary rewards are great, I have come to realize they are not the driving force behind the art.
I freely admit there were moments I wanted to throw in the proverbial towel and give up. Inevitably, each time these thoughts crossed my mind, an idea would find a way to preoccupy my thoughts. There was just something about the lonely blinking cursor on a blank page that seemed to beg me to type something………..anything! Like an addict compelled by a vice, I caved. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to quench my creative writing appetite.
I now accept that writing is simply part of my DNA. In fact, it is the very core of my being. For years I graded my ability based on feedback from others. If positive, I could somehow justify my desire to continue; if not, I needed to learn to accept reality. Both perceptions were skewed. Writing for me is personal, something intertwined deep within my soul.
Whether fiction or non-fiction, each genre has its’ own rules, nuance, and style. Through writing, one can do anything, be anyone, and/or achieve the impossible.
I’m no different than anyone else. I too, had hopes, dreams, and plans for my life. I have no doubt that somewhere along the way, my guardian angel got lost. I am convinced this navigational error was instrumental in derailing my destiny to live a debutant lifestyle. However, it is important to note that the key word here is derail, not destroy.
Throughout this fascinating journey called life, I have found that truth and reflection provide the best comedic platform for laugh-out-loud humor. Circumstances are rarely funny in the present, but often hysterical when paraphrased in the future. Life is merely a short-lived exercise of survival, humility, and learning to live beyond the happenstance of instances.
Life experiences are often very funny. (Mostly in hindsight, but nevertheless, funny.) So let your hair down, laugh a little and forget the outside world, even if it's just for a moment. While I admit the combination of age, experience and plain exhaustion has somewhat helped to tame the rebel within, make no mistake about it, my learning curve is far from complete. Suffice it to say that my life's journey has written the script.
If I were to impart a bit of wisdom, it would be this: Life's highway is short, tough and difficult to navigate at times. The hurdles are many, and we think we have to jump over all of them! We can't! Sometimes, you simply need to go under or around the hurdles. The time has come to stop focusing on the obstacles of life and embrace the possibilities that lie beyond them.
Tammie Tuley is a Nonprofit/Certified Grant Consultant (CGC), Motivation/Business Speaker, and author of
Grant Writing Bootcamp...Back to the Basics and Get Yourself Settled Lil' Girl