Grant Station tour reveals selling points as a fundraising resource
At last week’s webinar hosted by TechSoup featuring a tour of GrantStation, I learned what Grant Station is (a website offering tools and resources to identify and secure grants, including government and private). I also saw some of the cool stuff it offers thanks to a thorough tour of the site: resources (tips for what to say when you get a funder on the phone, for example) in addition to a search function for grants by geography, sector, funder name, and type of support. All this is yours either 1) for only $99 for a year membership through TechSoup’s promotion this week on August 17 and 18, a savings of $300 off TechSoup’s usual rate, or 2) for free with a visit to a library with a public account, such as the King County Library’s Nonprofit & Philanthropy Resource Center in Redmond.
Some key selling points I noted for GrantStation:
- Current information: Weekly “Spotlights” change every Monday and are approved and reviewed by grantmakers. Corrections by the grantmakers to contact information and due dates and funding areas are incorporated in to the database listings to keep things fresh and accurate.
- GrantStation adds a personal touch: Cynthia M. Adams and the crew at GrantStation offer research support free with your membership. So you can email them to request help identifying potential funders for your funky niche mission or special need.
- Real categories: The “search by type of support” feature in the grants database includes real live categories that I can relate to for NPower and for our customers, such as advocacy, infrastructure, grassroots, and capacity building, to name a few.
Those are big selling points for me, and I’m ready to sign up at TechSoup or make a trip to the library. How about you? Any words of wisdom or cautions from GrantStation users out there?

For two days last week, the leadership team at NPower dug in deep to build our team and expand our leadership skills. We were fortunate to be facilitated by the always on point Amanda Madorno of Roam Consulting. It was a terrific couple of days capped off with good food (we love the Meydenbauer Center), great conversation and of course a team of people who are dedicated to making NPower a success.
Why did you go to work today? What keeps you going back? I was having one of those very Monday mornings this morning and my motivation for heading to the office was low. Not for any particular reason or anything to do with NPower. Just because for a moment I lost track of my passion for what we create in the world and my contribution to the collective effort. The low point came as I watched my daughter head off for her first day of jump roping camp and suddenly I wanted to go and watch her tackle the challenges of double dutch. I juxtaposed that with an image of me sitting in front of my computer screen culling through my inbox and all of a sudden the world of work seemed so…monotonous, irksome.
As a continuation to
WithinReach
