[OKC] Grant Prospecting and Selection: Choosing the Right Opportunities


Thursday, June 18, 2026
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM (CDT)
Register Now
50 Seats Remaining
50 Seats Remaining
Category: 3-hour Professional Development Courses

Not every grant opportunity is the right opportunity. Chasing the wrong grants wastes precious time and sets you up for rejection, while missing the right ones leaves funding on the table. Strategic grant prospecting is about working smarter, not harder; identifying opportunities where your organization has a genuine competitive advantage and saying no to long shots that don't align with your mission or capacity. This course teaches you systematic approaches to finding, evaluating, and prioritizing grant opportunities. You'll learn to research funders effectively, assess organizational fit, calculate your odds of success, and build a sustainable grant pipeline that maximizes your return on effort.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:

  • Use grant databases, funder websites, and networking strategies to identify potential funding opportunities.
  • Analyze funder priorities, giving patterns, and requirements to determine organizational fit.
  • Assess organizational capacity and readiness to pursue specific grant opportunities successfully.
  • Develop scoring criteria to prioritize opportunities based on likelihood of success and potential impact.
  • Build relationships with program officers and foundation staff to increase funding competitiveness
  • Create grant calendars and pipelines that ensure steady funding flow and manageable workload.
  • Make strategic go/no-go decisions about pursuing grants that balance opportunity against organizational resources.

Registration Options

Credits Price
Member Ticket
Registration Ends 6/17/26 at 12:00 PM CDT
$90.00
Nonember Ticket
Registration Ends 6/17/26 at 12:00 PM CDT
$180.00
Julie Ann Ward, PhD

ABOUT JULIE ANN WARD

Julie Ann Ward, PhD, is a grant writing consultant who transforms nonprofit missions into funded realities. With over $1.34M secured in 2024 alone for workforce development, reentry programs, and education initiatives, she specializes in helping organizations navigate funding uncertainty through strategic, data-driven proposals.​

Her unique expertise stems from a blend of academic rigor and creative storytelling. A PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from UC Berkeley honed her ability to distill complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives—a skill she now applies to grant writing. As Norman, Oklahoma’s inaugural Poet Laureate and a published literary translator, she crafts proposals that resonate emotionally with funders while grounding them in logic and evidence.​

Whether you’re pivoting from unstable government funding or scaling proven programs, Julie Ann offers the expertise to secure sustainable support. Let’s turn challenges into opportunities—one compelling proposal at a time.

Register Now
50 Seats Remaining
50 Seats Remaining

For More Information:

Adam Soltani

Adam Soltani

Chief Programs Officer