I have a love-hate relationship with this season. No, not winter. Professionally, as the director of a nonprofit program, this is my grant-writing season. Mid-January through the end of March is a dizzying dance of RFAs (requests for applications), budgets, project proposals, logic models, and research…into RFAs, budgets, projects…you get the idea. 

I save large blocks of calendar time to think, create, and refine applications that mean the existence of meaningful programs. I can’t say I look forward to this season. I can’t say I dread it, either. This time of the year gives me an opportunity to create – to sketch the outlines of a program that in one to two years will be rich with vibrant colors and deep shadows. What once never imagined becomes lightbulbs, scribblings, spreadsheets, and meeting topics. One of the things I love most about leading (and managing) is watching a project develop from “Oh my goodness, it would be awesome if we could do that,” to “Holy moly. We did it!” And this – grant writing – is one of those first moments in that often long process. If the grant is funded.

Oh, yes, there’s that small detail. Hours upon hours of work for a small percentage chance that the idea, which must be crystal clear, resonates with a peer-review study section, trustee group, or organizational giving committee. Much like nursing, it is both a science and an art. I do believe that is why nursing has prepared me so well to write grants. Other grant-writing lessons I’ve learned from nursing:

• What seems insignificant is often an integral part of the puzzle.
• My efforts mean life or death…to people and to programs that serve people.
• It takes time and practice to hone the necessary skills.
• Listen to the people around you.
• Let others help you.
• Write things down. You will forget.
• The nursing process rules the world. Assess. Diagnose. Plan. Implement. Evaluate.
• Know who you’re talking to, and give them the information they need and want.
• It’s all about the money.
• It’s not about the money at all. (Tasks and programs are important, but always remember the goal, the vision. People are not numbers. Numbers are not people. Care.)
• Life goes on.

And so the season begins. Nursing and business, art and science, collide yet again. Lets hope (and plan for) the yellows, whites, and blues of this season to turn to shades of green in the next.