The Unlock-Grants course — developed for all those new to grants — is useful to so many in (and serving) the nonprofit sector, both grant seekers, as well as grantmakers. Today, we’ll explore a pivotal point in the pipeline of grantseeking agencies: who hires the grant staff! Yes, for you in the hiring seat, Unlock-Grants can help you, too!
Finding qualified candidates and hiring new development staff is a real challenge these days. The applicants you get are either over-qualified and you can’t afford them, or they’re underqualified and you don’t have the bandwidth to train them. You schedule interviews with promising candidates, and they never show up. Finally, you think you’ve found the perfect contender for the job, and then they ghost you on Day One. Or they come in for a few days and then make an excuse and never come back.
It’s tough, and it’s gotten tougher. The power dynamic has shifted and it’s a buyer’s market. But the need is greater with the Silver Tsunami. And there’s a culture change with the generation coming up.
What can you do? How can you turn the tide, at least at your own agency?
One way to tip the scales in your favor in your struggle to hire is to have the Unlock-Grants course in your HR tool belt. Why? Having Unlock-Grants means:
- A WIDER POOL OF CANDIDATES. You can widen your pool of applicants for a development position because you don’t have to include “grant writing experience required” in the job description. That little phrase probably knocks out a lot of otherwise decent candidates. Not needing grant writing experience means your stack of qualified resumes is much higher. Because…
- AN INCENTIVE FOR NEW-HIRES. You can offer new-hires the course as an incentive — a great professional development perk for them, and a skill-building tool for you and your development department. The course jumpstarts their knowledge, skill, and confidence, and you end up with an appreciative staffer.
- LESS BURDEN ON SENIOR STAFF. You can ease the strain on your senior development staff because the course includes a year of live group calls to field the learner’s questions and review their draft proposals. The rest of the grants team wouldn’t have to mentor the new-hire – Unlock-Grants would! For a year!
Unlock-Grants could be a seamless part of onboarding, a turnkey way to attract and retain new staff, build their skills relatively quickly, while not burdening your senior staff.
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So, you can see how the Unlock-Grants course can really fill a niche for grantmakers, grantseekers, those looking to attract and hire grantseekers, and those looking to retain the development team they have. Contact me to explore what options we can come up with that work for your situation.
In tomorrow’s installment, I will show how the Unlock-Grants course is great for yet another segment of the nonprofit industry and those that serve it.
