Our department was awarded its first grant in 2003. I was tasked with taking over the responsibility of writing grants in 2005 and luckily was awarded in the first round. My next grant came late in 2008 after several rejections between the two. I had spoken with Kurt a few times informally but decided to take his Charlotte, NC class in 2009. After taking his class and totally rethinking the way I was writing grants, I was awarded a 3000 gallon tanker in round 1 of the 2009 grants and a brush/quick attack apparatus late in the 2010 awards for my department.
After the format change I went through several rejections in Ops, Fire Prevention and one S.A.F.E.R. grant until I received a partial grant in 2012. I was turned down again in 2013 and 2014. I had wanted to get back to Kurt’s class, but none were offered within several hundred miles. I had been considering the online class and after a brief discussion with my Fire Chief and Mayor I was all set to go.
The online class took me about four hours to complete and was in a very easy to understand and follow format. The class was an excellent refresher for me from the two day class I had attended a few years ago and I picked up on quite a few new ideas as well as saw a couple areas that I feel were causing my turndown notices.
As I begin to prepare and submit this year’s application in the coming days, I will be referring back to the online class section by section to make sure I am following what I learned to give our department the best possible chance of an award this year.
Kurt is very knowledgeable and highly respected in the grant writing community and has always responded to my questions, emails and phone calls very quickly. I highly recommend attending the online AFG grant class whether you are a first time grant writer or like I was, needing to freshen up on the grant process.