Each year, the staff of the Youth Investment Program conducts grant workshops to help guide prospective grantseekers in their applications to the Stewardship Council. The workshops will provide background information on how the grant guidelines were created and tips and advice on how applicants can create strong applications. In January, we will conduct seven workshops throughout Northern and Central California. These workshops are scheduled to take place prior to the deadline for the first round of program grant applications (February 12, 2010), and thus will focus on the Catalyst and Impact Funds. Grant workshops will last approximately one hour. Following the general workshop, we will host an additional meeting for organizations that are interested in applying for the Initiative Fund. While all are welcome to stay for this discussion, the meeting will focus on the specific strategy and application process that is unique to the Initiative Fund (to learn more about the different grant funds, please see the Stewardship Council website.) Please be aware that the focus of these workshops is on program and project grants; prior to the summer application deadline, staff will conduct workshops that focus on the Infrastructure Fund.

Prospective applicants are not required to attend a grant workshop to apply for or to receive a grant from the Stewardship Council. However, the workshops are an opportunity to hear directly from staff about the focus of the 2010 grant funds and our insights on what will make a strong proposal for funding. The grant workshops will also be a good opportunity to network with others in your region.

In addition to these in-person meetings, we will be scheduling teleconference workshops for those who cannot make it to a grant workshop. We will post information about these calls on our website as soon as they have been confirmed. Following our first workshops, we will also post our 2010 Grant Workshop PowerPoint. Grantseekers should also be aware that there are many grant resources available on our website to help address common questions and concerns about our grant application and award process.