FAQ
Q: What can I expect from this material?
A: Expert tips and radical honesty - i.e. everything I wish I'd known in my twenties when I first started writing grants about how to turn it into an actual career, preserve my soul in a capitalist hellscape, and make my corner of the world a little bit better by helping organizations I care about do their work.
Q: Do I have to be based in Oregon?
A: Nope! Though Oregon folks are encouraged to join, since I'll have a lot more experience myself with the grants you're writing.
Q: When will the first newsletter go out?
September!
Q: When will information be available on how to sign up for workshops and classes?
A: Soon! I'm expecting the first to take place in November.
Q: Do you know how much they will cost?
A: The quarterly three-hour professional development workshops with guest speakers will be $200 for the general public, as well as members at the High Desert and Multnomah Falls levels. Members at the Haystack Rock level will be able to sign up for $150. Members at the South Sister and Mount Hood levels will be able to sign up for $100 and bring a guest for free. All members who can't attend live on that day will be able to download a recording of the workshop afterwards at a discounted rate of $50. Workshops with special guests will generally be priced at a higher level to ensure they're fully compensated for their time and expertise. They will also have attendance caps and may sell out quickly.
Other offerings are in development, and I'm eager to hear everyone's ideas for what kinds of programming, training and classes might be most useful to your organization. If it's outside my wheelhouse and not something I can teach you, I'll try to find someone who can.
Q: How much prior grants experience is required?
A: None. I anticipate a broad spectrum from absolute beginners to current working professionals and everything in between. My goal is always to make these tools accessible to the people for whom hiring a professional consultant is financially out of their reach, which means many folks who are starting at the ground floor and working their way up. Hopefully, even if a post or a workshop contains information that's familiar to you, it can be a useful refresher or a new way to look at it.
Q: For the South Sister tier, do I have to show proof that I belong to one of those priority populations before I sign up?
A: No. All you have to do is sign up at that tier. I'm not carding anyone at the door or grilling them for personal information on the kind of discrimination they experience. We are operating strictly on the honor system - as well on as my expectation that the kind of person who would pretend to be marginalized just to get a discount will eventually reveal themselves somehow and get busted anyway.
Q: How much do you charge for your one-on-one work with clients?
A: $100 an hour, which is deliberately very low. I only raise my rates about every ten years. I like working with smaller organizations and I don't want to price them out of the running. But each tier is getting a bargain on Claire time, for sure!
Q: Please tell me this isn't an astrology-themed grantwriting course.
A: Of course not. I'm a Virgo. We would never do that.
Q: Why are the tiers named after Oregon's natural landmarks when you canonically hate hiking or going outside?
I moved last year into a new home where I can see Mount Hood every single day as I'm working, and I genuinely feel like it has altered my soul in some new way where I am even more deeply From Oregon than I was before. I sit down with my coffee and I say "hey girl" to the mountain, and then I get to work. Strongly recommend, if you have to work at a computer all day, try if at all possible to look at a mountain while you are doing it.
Cover photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash.