What I love About Grant Writing…

One thing that really stands out to me when you get into the non-profit world and grantwriting is that you aren’t getting into grant writing just to make money. You’re doing it because you want to help organizations fulfill their mission.

My purpose isn’t writing grants. My purpose is to help Christian organizations secure the funding they need to expand their impact. Grant writing is simply the tool that helps accomplish that mission.

My mentor recently said to me: “Lead with your purpose, and your passion will naturally attract the right clients.”

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I’ve spent the last 25 years in ministry, starting with mission work and youth ministry work back in my twenties, long before I ever thought about grant writing or marketing. Along the way I picked up a B.A. and M.A. in Languages and Preaching from Lipscomb University, and have preached in Churches of Christ for the last 25 years, the last 5 of which have been in Snyder, Texas.

For the last three years, I’ve had the honor to serve as President of the Scurry County Ministerial Alliance. That role put me shoulder to shoulder with 35+ churches running our county’s food pantry, kitchen, and free store, and it eventually grew into Kingdom Gathering, an annual all-church worship event that highlights what churches can do when they work together instead as One Body for Christ.

Somewhere in the middle of all that ministry work, I also spent years running a marketing company, helping organizations get found and get funded through websites, SEO, social media, and lead generation.

It was good, practical work, and it turned out to be more useful to ministry than I expected. Because here’s the thing I kept running into, year after year in ministry: the churches and nonprofits doing the most good were often the ones running on fumes, not because they lacked heart or vision, but because nobody on staff had the time or the training to go after the funding that was sitting right there waiting for them.

So I went and got a grant-writing certificate through Purdue University, and I’ve been mentored along the way by some incredible grant writers to help me learn the craft for real.

Missionward is what came out of putting all of that together, the ministry background, the marketing skill set, and now the grant writing itself, so I can walk alongside nonprofits and ministries and help them go after the funding that lets them do more of what they’re already called to do.

None of this happens without my family behind me. Tiffany, my wife of 25 years, and I have served side by side in ministry for over two decades now, through every move, every ministry role, and every new venture I’ve dragged us into. We have five kids, and together we lead a small home church fellowship here in Snyder called The Way. They’re the reason I do any of this, and they’re who I’m most grateful for at the end of every day.