Building Blocks: Insights From a Grant Writing and Grantmaking “Dual Citizen”

Maryn Boess incorporated her sixteen-year tenure as a grantmaking program officer into Grants Magic U, a virtual learning program that teaches new and experienced grantwriters alike how to win more funding.

“OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD I JUST GOT MY VERY FIRST GRANT!!!!”

That’s Maryn’s number one favorite kind of email.

It includes a “zillion” exclamation points, comes from someone she calls a “Highly Motivated Total Grants Newbie,” and precedes a student sharing they’ve earned anywhere from $1,000 to $140,000 (usually) or even $300,000 on their first successful grant application. 

A close second? It goes something like:

“I’ve been writing grants for 20 years and thought I knew everything there was to know, but what you taught me today completely blew my mind.”

She clearly knows her stuff, but she reserves the credit for her students.

“Honestly, what matters more to me than getting the grant,” she begins, “is that these students didn’t just accidentally win. They internalized a profound understanding of rock-solid project design and planning that they’ll be able to apply again and again over a long and successful grantwriting career.”

A Grants Professional With “Dual Citizenship”

“If there’s a job to be done in GrantsWorld, I’ve probably done it. From backing into a grantwriting job in Phoenix in 1985, to sixteen years as a grantmaking officer transferring up to $2 million a year in Federal education funds, if there’s a mistake to be made, I’ve surely made it at least once.”

She views her experience as her greatest credential — after learning the hard lessons firsthand, she distilled that wisdom into trainings and classes built for nonprofit professionals all over the world.

After many years as a grant writer, she shifted to training in 2004 and traveled frequently to deliver workshops in person. But that all changed in 2012.

“I fell in love with the very new field of online expert training. The technology was pretty crude, but the possibilities were exciting, and GrantsMagic U was born.” 

She has a big heart for small, scrappy, under-resourced nonprofits who have a hard time accessing resources. And since many of them are rural, the distance-learning model was a fantastic fit for her values and goals. 

“I created GrantsMagic U with intent to create a community of learning and practice that was accessible anywhere 24/7, affordable, and always fun.”

Over a decade after starting GrantsMagic U, her trainings have reached tens of thousands of students from every state in the country, and even 35 non-US countries, helping everyone from mom-and-pop nonprofits to national organizations with staff, leadership teams, and household names. 

How Does GrantsMagic U Work?

“We have a reputation for breaking complex or intimidating topics into clean, clear, easy-to-follow building blocks,” she says, “as well as step by step fill-in-the-blank templates that people are able to learn, practice, and find success with—often to their complete amazement!”

Prices range anywhere from free to $25 to $200 per training and cover topics from networking with funders, to an inside look at the grantmaking process, to budget-building frameworks, and more.

Quick Tips

Plan first, write last.

Not only does she believe you’re more likely to succeed this way, but by generating an independent planning document, any future proposal, for any grantmaker, gets easier to write down the line.

Grantwriting can be intimidating, too. Maryn advises her students to “see grantmakers as real people, just like they are, not gods on Olympus dispensing random favors, but real people working hard to do a good job with the funds they’ve been entrusted with.”

With this mindset in tow, it’s possible to be the bold, passionate, and unafraid grant writer that overcomes roadblocks and amplifies the resources you win for your organization.