Who is The GRANTBUILDER?

LaQuetta M. Shamblee, M.B.A.

I stumbled into grant writing in the mid 1990’s when asked to complete two grant proposals for the first time on my own for my employer at the time. Two months after submitting the proposals I found out one of the proposals had been funded for the full $50,000 requested, I knew then that I had found my niche. 

With over 25 years of experience as a nonprofit administrator I have worked for many nonprofits from grassroots organizations to large government agencies and brought in millions of dollars in grant awards. Some of the projects I have worked on with Los Angeles County include:

• As a consultant to design and conduct the initial review and share management responsibility for the oversight of the largest single contract awarded by LA County’s First 5 LA. The contract was a $584M state funded LA County contract for the largest Early Childhood Education program in the U.S.   
• As one of two Master Instructors in Southern CA for the $43M Outreach and Education Initiative that awarded grants to nonprofits for Covered CA to implement the Affordable Care Act; As a Senior Grants Manager for this project, I was assigned oversight of a portfolio of $3.5M in grants.
• Designing and coordinating Request for Proposal (RFP)’s, including a $500K Pediatric Oral Health Initiative for LA Care (largest public health insurer in the U.S.). I wrote the RFP for $160K for a federally funded workforce development program and coordinated the grant review, grantee selection and the implementation and management of the program.

Along with writing and managing grants I have served on numerous grant review panels for health, education, and arts programs. I have served on:

• Three panels for California Arts Council, including being selected for two consecutive years in 2017 and 2018.
• The Arizona Governor’s Office of Youth, Faith, and Family in 2020. This experience includes reviewing health, arts and human services grants for LA County, City of LA, City of Pasadena, City of Long Beach, First 5 LA, LA Care and other funders.  

This experience has equipped me with a well-rounded perspective about funder expectations.

As a professional educator I have:

• Taught a 10-week grant proposal writing course for UCLA Extension in the Nonprofit Leadership & Management Certificate Program using the workbook I created, The Grantbuilder Step-By-Step Guide to Grant Writing. 
• Designed and instructed a 5-week Federal Grants Management Program for the Port of Long Beach, one of UCLA Extension’s organizational clients. 
• Conducted a Grantbuilder Workshop during an annual retreat for the full faculty at Woodbury University in Burbank CA. 
• Taught Accounting and Finance courses at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix AZ, and business courses at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster CA. 
• Conducted more than 30 community workshops at public libraries and other community organizations to teach the Grantbuilder system to more than 2,000 individuals in LA County, San Diego, Orange County, Phoenix AZ, and Dallas TX.

Presentations of Grantbuilder workshops to nonprofit professionals have included:

• The Center for Nonprofit Management in Los Angeles, 
• Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Los Angeles Chapter monthly meeting, 
• AFP Annual Conference (LA Chapter), and 
• the Annual Nonprofit Conference hosted by Lodestar Nonprofit Center at Arizona State University.

With my passion and experience with nonprofit organizations and grant writing I created this course to simplify the grant writing process by introducing a 5-step process, using 10 basic building blocks of information.  My goal is to make it as easy as possible for individuals to capture their ideas and visions into a written form that can be packaged to pursue and secure grants to support their ideas and visions.

My simple 5 step, 10 building block approach has proven effective in equipping individuals with the knowledge, tools and skills to become successful in the art of grant writing.  I also developed the “Ask The Grantbuilder'' mentoring program to provide additional support and guidance  that all new grant writers need to gain confidence and momentum as they learn, practice and master the fundamentals.  By making myself accessible for live group sessions and individual consultations, I am able to respond to questions about the nonprofit sector, budget development, grants management and other important information that has to be factored into the grant writing process. 

The proprietary Grantbuilder worksheets that I have developed make it easy to gather, document and organize all categories of information and documents that funders require in a grant application.  In addition, the Grantbuilder’s multi-page Master Grant Data Worksheet functions as a master template that can be easily updated.  When completed, this centralized, organized data set will allow anyone to write more grants faster.

My end goal is to ensure that everyone who completes the Grantbuilder program is able to prepare professional quality, highly-competitive grant proposals that get funded.