This past spring, ROI graduated its first cohort of Grant Writing Fellows. Participants engaged in a 2-day grant writing course facilitated by Purdue Extension to begin the fellowship and then met monthly for eight virtual follow-on sessions on a variety of topics, including:
- Professional writing,
- Creating an effective logic model,
- Building a better budget,
- Finding the right grant opportunity,
- Developing partnerships,
- Program sustainability,
- Grant management, and
- Telling your story.
ROI offered fellows matching grant funding of $1,000 for up to two successful grant applications. For the inaugural cohort, ROI contributed $12,000 in match to leverage $444,404 in grant funds. Fellows secured $1,334,904 in additional grant funding that did not require a match from ROI for a total of $1,779,308 invested in the Uplands region! These grants came from governments, corporations, foundations, and other entities.
Fellows successfully secured grant funds to address a host of new opportunities including, but not limited to:
- Increasing the capacity of three fabrication labs for the Collaboration of Shoals, Mitchell, and Orleans Schools (COSMOS)
- Expanding early childhood education for White River Valley School District’s preschool program
- Strengthening substance misuse and prevention programs in Greene County
- Boosting STEM education in the Linton-Stockton School Corporation
- Marketing for economic development growth and community prosperity in Lawrence County
- Expanding broadband in Owen County
- Supporting youth correctional programming in Martin County