Johanna joined the Collective trying to find her professional footing after taking some time off to be a stay-at-home mom. Since joining, she went from having a few one-off based clients to building a full consulting business with a consistent income flow ($9k months). She’s owning her identity as an entrepreneur 💰and leveraging her expertise in USAID and USDA grants for international organizations.
Feeling stuck in your consulting business? Check out this training on how to make $100k (take home pay) working 20 less hours a week. https://www.learngrantwriting.org/experienced-grant-writing-consultant/
International funding became a clear pull for Johanna when the Syrian refugee crisis began affecting those in the town where she grew up in Southern Turkey. She went back to school to get a Masters in Program Development and quickly landed in a position as program officer at an NGO following graduation.
She was working as a program officer, but life delivered some harsh blows and Johanna took some much needed time off to be a stay-at-home mom.
⚡Her return to work was as a consultant.
Johanna was working on proposals for a corporate client when something clicked. She wanted to do more, and was capable of more, than the “copy and paste” type proposals that her client was requesting. She quickly jotted down on a sticky note some tough love encouragement. 💡 “What you really want is to be a consultant in your field. So figure out how to do it.”
💡 Getting clear on what she wanted, Johanna looked at ways to build her expertise. She had a client ask her to lead a massive proposal for development, Johanna realized she needed some support in the workload. She had learned that you always need back up when you’re a singular consultant. She was also working out the details of what it meant to be an entrepreneur.
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She joined the Collective to get clarity on moving things forward with ease. She’s proud of having written and been able to move into the USAID space, but having the capacity to hire and take on more work through hiring has made her a proud entrepreneur. ♥️
Her advice, even if you’re a stand alone consultant you want to have back up if you have to hand something off. Maintaining a balance between ‘I want to make the money, I want to work the hours, and I need to maintain myself’ is important because you are your only asset.⚡
Johanna is an expert in USAID and USDA grants. We picked her brain on the top things to know about international funding. 🌍
➡️ It starts and it ends with relationships, more so than domestic funding.
➡️ Small grants aren’t usually publicly listed. It’s about relationships on the ground.
➡️ The funding requests are larger because the scope is usual a country wide initiative that takes massive amounts of resources.
➡️ Flexibility is key because things shift and move slowly.
➡️ Funding strategies are a fantastic start, but funder outreach happens on the ground, in-country.
➡️ Being an international consultant, partially means being able to say no if an organization doesn’t have all the components for a strong project.
➡️ Top tools to use include Asana (internal organizing) and then a high-level activities and outputs document, along with a wins theme summary (helping an organization highlight successes in the past or highly rated areas of work).
🦄 As she continues to grow her own consulting business, she shares her wealth of knowledge with those in the Collective.
Want to grow in this field as a grant writer without riding the struggle bus alone? Check out this training on how to make $100k (take home pay) working 20 less hours a week. https://www.learngrantwriting.org/experienced-grant-writing-consultant/
Resource Library | Work With USAID: https://www.workwithusaid.org/resource-library
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
02:00 Dreaming of more rewarding work
05:45 Resisting temp work to be a full time entrepreneur & $9k months
07:00 Bringing on a team member
08:20 Balancing the first year of business as an entrepreneur
11:49 How do you get into international grant writing?
15:00 Anything that happens internationally is relationship based
16:30 Identity shifting with maternal health “issues” and not being able to work in the field
19:00 Approaching international funding as a two way street of learning
19:58 Hiring someone to feel like a real business
21:29 What makes domestic funding different from international funding?
24:40 One thing everyone should know about international grant writing
26:00 Being able to say no when a client isn’t a good fit for a grant.
29:10 What tools are used as an international grant writer? Activities outline & Output Outline
33:37 Rapid fire questions
35:30 How do you know how to start a USAID grant?