April 15, 2025
Have You Played a Part- Yet?
From the beginning, local agents played crucial roles in grant writing workshops.
In 2016, we tested the model by teaching our agents in regional workshops. The workshops grew as local agents hosted and provided registration, marketing, and hospitality in local communities across the state. The pandemic made us redesign an online workshop that we piloted again with 53 agents who gave valuable feedback.
Now, agents play the role of online co-hosts and marketing. To date, we’ve hosted 80 in-person workshops and co-hosted 32 online workshops serving more than 3300 Kansans!
In 2022, we realized we offered at least five grant-writing support services and decided to advertise them. Our ability to research grant sources was especially valued by Kansans. We learned what type of projects they are seeking funding for, the estimated amount of funds, and their timeline.
Using this information, searches are conducted using maps and grant databases available to Kansas State University staff. Grant seekers were polled several months after receiving their results, and reported from 2023 through 2024 that they had received nearly $1.5 million in grants from the sources provided.
When K-State took on a microcredential effort, agents and specialists took the class and gained microcredentials in Grant Writing Basics, or told others about it.
Beginning in Melvern in November 2023, after Kansas made a concerted effort to empower communities to receive bipartisan infrastructure funding, K-State Research and Extension began partnering with experienced infrastructure grant writers. Now, local participants get to be in the same room with Kansas HUB and Office of Rural Prosperity specialists.
Participants are surveyed at the end of the workshop to measure confidence and self-efficacy; 96% reported greater confidence. A follow-up Qualtrics survey 9-18 months after the workshop measures if participants are writing grants and how successful they were.
The results? Through December 2024, 34% of the grant writers reported writing $52 million of successful grants. Our most recent survey shows that with the addition of infrastructure grant writing, grant writers reported $55 million in successful grants, doubling our 7-year total.
Would you like to be involved in bringing new resources to your communities? You can:
• Advertise each grant workshop in your social media and newsletters; we’ll provide the jpg files.
• Host an in-person workshop in your community or co-host an online workshop.
• Refer your clients to us to find grant sources or learn to do grant research. We’ll train you.
Thank you for the important roles you’ve served and will serve again.