PGWM - Professional Grant Writing Minor

Ideas transform the world, but funding makes those ideas come to life. Without funding, too many community-changing or world-shaping ideas have been quietly folded into a notebook and tucked away for another time. The Professional Grant Writing minor seeks to bring those ideas to life by developing talented professionals who understand how to locate funding opportunities through state and federal governments, private foundations, public charities, and venture philanthropists and how to use storytelling and rhetorical techniques paired with human-centered programmatic design to open the door to the funding necessary to transform communities, industries, and the world.

This program is built on a foundation in the humanities that develops ethical storytellers, integrating coursework in ethics, rhetoric, narrative, and analytical reading and writing to support success in the grant writing sector. That foundation is paired with interdisciplinary coursework in psychology, offering a richer understanding of the communities to be served and the needs and motivations of individual community members; business ethics, offering insight on ethical business programs that create measurable value in their communities; research methodologies, deepening students’ ability to locate opportunities, analyze the funding organization, and align their project with that organization’s core mission; and organizational finance, helping students develop cost-effective budgets that will assure funders of their fiscal responsibility.

Students will conclude the program with internships that allow them opportunities to create successful grants, a capstone project that showcases their course of impact throughout their program, and preparation for the Grant Professionals Certification through the GPCI. Once fully prepared, trained, and certified through this specialization, graduates can work as independent grant writing professionals; in roles like Development Coordinator, Development Director, or Chief Development Officer for a nonprofit or NGO; or in the for-profit sector in roles like Director of Grants and Proposals or Program Director.