Proposal and Development Writing

Collaborated with institutional leadership to develop proposals and solicitations

• Wrote personalized solicitations for endowed chair position in memory of esteemed former head of trauma surgery
• Wrote Annual Fund, Student Scholarship Fund, Alumni Giving and Memorial Scholarship campaign solicitations.
• Assisted in planning, writing and packaging grant proposals and budgets for foundations and other funding sources.
• Helped with preparation and submission of proposals in accordance with funder policies, legal requirements, and deadlines

Grant Writing

Worked with executive and program staff to identify program needs and craft winning proposals.

• Identified and qualified private foundation prospects using industry-standard grant research tools to evaluate appropriateness for organization.
• Served as a liaison between the Development team and the Program Services team to maintain open communication, clarity about services provided and the population demographics of the clients served at each location, and insure that each proposal accurately reflected each program.
• Researched and compiled data on demographics, economic status and other issues affecting North Texas relevant to program and service needs.
• Wrote compelling proposals and overviews of human service programs and organization history.
• Assisted in managing grant development process to raise funds to expand and sustain social service programs.
• Cultivated and stewarded relationships with donors and program staff at private foundations.
• Wrote meeting and presentation preparation materials for the CEOs including information about donor preferences and funding interests as well as complete presentations for foundation boards during the proposal process.

Educational Writing

Wrote English/Language Arts practice exams for students in grades 3-12 based upon each state’s board of education-approved standards.

• Researched state standards, created outlines of products needed to properly prepare students for standardized testing, and built new products based on each state’s assessment standards.
• Peer-reviewed a variety of question formats for clarity, grammar, tone, age-appropriateness, and ability to accurately assess the skills and information needed for state exams.
• Planned project scope, timelines, and execution for each state’s new products as the standards were updated.
• Used basic HTML code to format lessons, questions, and graphics in a custom content management system

Editorial Writing

• Interviewed subjects for lifestyles features, including supermodel Beverly Johnson, boxer Sugar Shane Mosley, media mogul Terrance J, and fine artists Tamara Natalie Madden, and Wayne Headley.
• Wrote health blurbs, money pointers, travel sidebars, and food feature articles for publication.
• Wrote full-length feature, cover, and human-interest stories.
• Frequently wrote reviews on local restaurants and interviewed owners and patrons.

Human Resource Communications Consulting

Wrote human resource communications to include quarterly newsletters, brochures, postcards, posters, enrollment guides, and video scripts.

• Developed letters from department heads and CEOs to communicate complex changes in employee compensation plans and retirement benefits.
• Composed letters, emails, and other communication for directors of Human Resources and company executives to address their employees as part of the annual open enrollment
• Worked with an outside vendor to develop a novel, highly sophisticated, interactive project that allowed employees to use a virtual environment platform to learn about and sign up for voluntary benefit options.
• Conducted employee focus groups at client locations around the country to help Human Resources departments collect unbiased feedback for executive consideration.
• Customized online solutions such as mobile wallet cards, widgets, decision tools, and splash pages.

Project Management

Fulfilled assigned contracted grant writing agreements

• Managed relationships with Business Development team, external clients, subject matter experts, and grant writers
• Facilitated outreach to governmental program advisors and all other external project stakeholders
• Analyzed and synthesized Notice of Funding Opportunity guidelines for federal state, and local government grant programs and foundation opportunities
• Developed training materials and qualification questions for Business Development and Account Management teams
• Assigned grant writers and researchers to projects based on professional background, skill set, and project suitability
• Utilized JIRA project management platform and SalesForce to keep track of project management process and all pertinent client contact and information
• Scheduled strategy meetings with grant writers and department representatives to discuss projects, needs, funding opportunity requirements, and project next steps
• Reviewed, edited, and refined project narratives received from grant writers prior to delivering them to clients for review and approval
• Managed project budgets, including grant contractor time approval

Donor Stewardship 

Ensured that individual and private foundation donors received impact reports

• Maintained the Donor Report Log, a comprehensive list of all the gifts of more than $25,000, so that each individual donor or foundation received a stewardship report.
• Lead bi-weekly update meetings with director, vice president, assistant vice president, and frontline fundraisers to discuss donor stewardship strategies.
• Wrote personalized covers letters from president or vice president for each proposal and donor report.
• Actively worked with researchers and scientists to develop lay-friendly scientific reports for donors who did not have a background in scientific research or medicine.
• Edited scientific reports for style, formatting, grammar, and readability