Searching for a Position as a Grant Writer? 5 Websites You Need to Know About
December 30, 2016
If you want to find a job as a grant writer, you could begin your search on Indeed.com or Monster.com. A search on a traditional job site like Indeed.com can generate a long list of potential jobs, which can be helpful. The challenge is that, while the quantity is certainly there in terms of the sheer number of jobs to review, the quality is not. Most of the hits you'll get on a general job site are not going to be for the nonprofit sector.
A job search on websites catering to the nonprofit industry, on the other hand, yields better results for less effort.
Below are five websites that frequently post job announcements for grant writers, proposal managers, and resource development staff. All of the sites focus on positions based at nonprofit organizations and academic institutions:
Association of Fundraising Professionals: The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) is a global professional organization with 30,000 members. The organization holds annual conferences and administers a certification program. AFP’s career site is accessible to non-members and includes an option to receive job alerts based on your search.
Chronicle of Philanthropy: The Chronicle of Philanthropy is a news organization that provides information on and about fundraising, grant-making, and the nonprofit sector. While most Chronicle content requires a paid subscription, the job board is free to view. Postings can be sorted by position type, location, keywords, and categories such as grant seeking, donor relations, and grant administration.
Idealist: Idealist is an excellent resource for finding nonprofit work, including grant writing and other development-related positions. The site posts U.S.-based and international job openings and serves as a resource for information on nonprofit organizations, the nonprofit sector, and volunteer opportunities. Idealist is a free resource. You can browse job postings without creating an account, but you will need one to save your job search or have job alerts emailed to you.
InsideNGO: InsideNGO (now Humentum) is a member organization that strengthens the operational and management capacity of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). InsideNGO has a job board that is accessible to nonmembers. It also sponsors workshops on several topics, including the federal grant process. The workshops are open to nonmembers and offered throughout the year.
Philanthropy News Digest: The Philanthropy News Digest (PND) is a service of the Foundation Center. The site posts current full-time job openings at U.S.-based foundations and nonprofit organizations. The PND site allows you to set up alerts for jobs, news, and RFPs of interest. The alert service is free, but you’ll need to register for an account.
For those interested in working in international development, two additional resources to add to your list are Devex and Devnetjobs.org.
Devex has both free and paid content. There is a free job board that anyone can view, and a subscription-based service that provides access to exclusive content (30% more job postings than the free version). Devex offers subscriptions at monthly and annual rates ($19/month or $114/year).
Devnetjobs also offers free and paid content. Devnet's free weekly job newsletter lists open jobs. However, to unlock all job postings and set up customized job searches, you'll need to purchase a membership (two levels are available: $48 for 3 months and a higher-tier service for $88 for 3 months).
To supplement job boards, another strategy is to compile a list of state or local professional associations, nonprofits, and academic institutions that interest you, and schedule weekly visits to their websites to monitor the latest job postings.
Most grant writers have been asked at some point to “massage” unfavorable facts into preferred ones, or have seen their fact-based prose reworked by others into something that has the essence of truth but is not strictly true, or is at least less transparent. To some, this may sound like business as usual and what you need to do to win a grant. However, these little acts of truth-stretching, which can take the form of exaggerations, omissions, and misrepresentations, can exact a cost.