One of my best friends is on the board of directors of a local no-kill animal shelter. She is really passionate about providing a high quality of life for all the dogs, cats, rabbits, and other unwanted pets that end up at her shelter, and that passion is contagious. Because of her enthusiasm, I've been volunteering there every weekend for the past few months. Now I'm in love with the animals as well, and have a desire to do even more to help them out.

Being a writer by trade, I figured I could donate my professional skills towards providing content for the shelter's website and newsletter, as well as any fundraising solicitations that need to go out. But when I told my friend about my idea, she surprised me by saying that if I really wanted to help, I would look for good grant writing classes instead. It turns out that while newsletters and websites are nice tools to have, they don't bring in nearly as much money as private and government grants do. But since the competition for the funds is so fierce and because the process is so specialized, I would have to take grant writing classes to learn how to get things done the right way.

I decided to go for it, since any skills learned in a grant writing class would serve to boost my resume anyway. I first checked the local community college to see if they had any grant writing classes scheduled for the upcoming quarter. This is usually a good option, as sessions would be held in the evenings or on weekends so as not to conflict with work schedules. Moreover, tuition at community colleges is usually far more affordable than at other places, which is definitely a major consideration for me. Unfortunately, none of the local schools I checked had anything available, so I had to keep looking.

I next checked the Internet, and am happy to report that it didn't take long to find a wide range of online grant writing classes available for every skill level out there. As a beginner, I was obviously interested in all the entry-level courses that assumed no prior knowledge of how to obtain grants and funds from corporate, government, or individual donors. But I was pleased to see that there were lots of intermediate and advanced grant writing classes to choose from as well as courses and workshops, because I will definitely want to learn as much as possible about this field. After all, the more I know, the better my chances of penning winning proposals that secure the funds I want.

You could also check into Courses and Workshops for Grant Writing, if you want to get maximum results. I've already signed up for two grant writing classes for beginners and will start my coursework in just a couple of weeks. I'm excited about this opportunity to learn the ins and outs of obtaining grants, and hope to prove useful to my friend's animal shelter in this regard. And who knows -- perhaps this will turn into a full-time career for me!

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