What Is A Grant Writing Certification and What Does It Mean To Be Certified?

The road to getting a Grant Writing Certification doesn't have to be hard or confusing. I've made this video transcription easy to navigate by adding a table of content for you.

• Understanding Grant Writing Certifications
• What Is A Grant Writing Certification Infographics
• Choose A Certification That's Right For You
• Old Way Vs. New Way To Learning Grant Writing
• Questions To Ask A Grant Writing Training Company
• Ask Yourself The Most Important Question...

Hey guys, Rodney Walker here, Grant Central, USA, Grant Writers Association and Get Funded with Rodney. I want to talk to you today because a lot of people come my way and they ask me questions like Rodney, “what is a grant writing certification” and “is it required?” And they ask me questions such as, you know, where do I go to get this and all that?

And I want to make some videos to address some of these questions to make it easy for you to be able to understand this whole thing so that it won't be as fuzzy and cloudy as it is. So let's do this. Let's grab a seat, because I can talk to you about a number of these things. And the first thing I want to talk to you about as we look at this is what is a grant writing certification? 

Understanding Grant Writing Certifications 

Well, I think for us to really do this well and to really understand it, it's going to be important for you to first know what does it mean to be certified? You know, what is it?

What is a certification?  

A certification involves a number of different things, but at the root of what it means to be certified is the word certification. Now, think about it this way.

Certification comes from a word that is a Latin word, which is "Certus". And "Certus" is really to be certain, okay?

So when you talk about any type of certification, whether that's grant writing or certification to become a plumber, certification to become a lawyer or whatever, any type of certification is basically the person stamp of approval saying, in essence, that you have been a certain that you have the qualified skills and that you've been certified to do what you're doing, or that you've been certified that you've gone through a particular type of training. 

So that's the essence of what we're talking about when we're talking about certified. 

Now a part of what you've got to do when you're looking at possibly becoming certified is ask yourself, "You know, what type of certification is important to me and why am I looking to do this?" because if you get that answers right, it will answer a lot of other questions that you may have. 

It will answer questions like which certification is right for you, which certification is not right for you. So you want to answer all of those questions. You want to think through this. You don't want to just make a quick judgment.

Choose A Certification That's Right For You

You want to look and pull up the hood and ask a lot of really good questions, because that certification that you get from wherever, whether this grant writing certification from this institution or this institution really is backed by that institution and the people that are doing this certifying, okay?

Which means that you've got to have a sense of the quality of the work and the quality of the program. And there's a number of different things you can do to kind of investigate that and check it out. 

So I want to share some insight with you about that. Now, as it relates to a grant writing certification, here's the thing.

A grant writing certification is certifying you in the aspects in this case of grant writing, because that's what you're being certified for. So what are some of the things that are going to be really important for you to know as you are looking for a certification in this area? Again, first, you want to check out the institution that's doing the validation. 

You want to check out what is the criteria?

What's the curriculum, okay? Because every organization that teaches something about grant writing, they have a different way of approaching it. And some of the approaches are more current. Some of the approaches may not be as current.

Old Way vs. New Way To Learning Grant Writing

That's what you kind of got to find out. I know you're asking like, "Rodney, how do I find out? I don't even know about grant writing. That is a great question. Well, let me share with you some things that you should be looking at that would be important. 

First, you want to ask the questions such as who's teaching, okay? Who's teaching? What's their qualification? What's their experience? And some things that I would like to add on to that when you start talking about what's their experience, there's one thing to have information and you can get information online. There's tons of information, there's a lot.

But you want to ask yourself "What is that person's work experience in this area?" Because, again, you want to get the knowledge, but you also want to have the experience because the experience helps to add to your overall knowledge that you will gain. 

Questions To Ask A Grant Writing Training Company

So if you can gain both, get insight from someone that has both experience as well as education. That becomes pretty powerful. But when you just have one or the other, it's not as powerful as it can be. So that's what you want to do when you're asking these tough questions from the governing institution that's either providing that grant writing certification to see what they say. 

Ask Yourself The Most Important Question...

Now, there's so many different places that you can go and get certified and you can learn about grant writing. But again, you want to ask yourself "Why am I doing this?

And "what's the goal?"

That's a good thing to look at. What is my ultimate goal and based upon whatever the ultimate goal is, is going to really influence which institution that you should probably ideally go to and which ones you should maybe ideally not go to.

I'm going to do some other videos that's going to talk to this issue a little bit more.

Here's a sneak peak at what's coming...

• What Is A Grant Writing Certification?
• Do Clients Ask If You Are A Certified Grant Writer Or If You Have A Grant Writing Certification?
• How Can You Become A Certified Grant Writer? Classes, Internship, Mentorship, Apprentices
• What’s The Difference Between A Grant Writing Training Vs. A Grant Writing Certification?
• Top Advice & Recommendation For Becoming A Certified Grant Writer - Grant Writing Certification
• Are You Required To Become A Certified Grant Writer To Do Online Grant Writing For Nonprofit Organizations?
• How Can You Benefit From A Grant Writing Certification And Is It Really Important To These Days?

But for now, just know that what it means to be certified is to be certain, okay? And the institution that you're getting your grant writing certification from is certifying that, yes, this person has learned the basic knowledge or maybe even that advanced knowledge that they need in order to do a proficient job in this area. 

Stay tuned and take a look at some of the other videos, and it'll help you as well to learn more about this whole certification thing. All right. Remember, be brave, be bold and always be brilliant. Take charge. 

Rodney Walker is today’s leading expert in Grant Development Systems™ and President of Grant Central USA - Grant Writers Association. Learn more about his online grant writing courses today.