Why I left a job I loved to start my own business.

Aug 16

Starting your own business at any time is a risk, let alone when the economy is skittish. So why do it?

I've never been in a job for more than four years. That's not surprising to many of the younger crew out there. But for me, and those like me for whom a retirement plan, aging parents, and kids in college are all driving financial decisions, leaving job stability, benefits, and the comfort of a regular paycheck, is either a bold or a careless move. Depending on how you view it, of course.

Seeking grant funds for Resident Services.

Most recently, I spent almost 10 years at a regional nonprofit developer of affordable housing in Arlington, Virginia. There, I found a metaphorical home to accompany the physical homes built to provide shelter, community and opportunity for people from low-income households trying to get by in the extraordinarily expensive metro DC area.

I focused on raising grant funds for the organization’s Resident Services program or onsite services for residents. I learned a lot about best practices in the delivery of onsite services and the reality of how that differs by neighborhood, city, county, and state.

Financing for affordable housing is complicated.

As my position evolved, I learned about (and wrote grants for) complex deal structuring to turn sophisticated architectural plans into beautiful, livable apartment communities. I learned how Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) drive the nonprofit affordable housing sector. With the expert help of Friedman Associates, I coordinated a massive effort that resulted in AHC’s first winning proposal to the Capital Magnet Fund.

I also wrote proposals to analyze building typography and the structural challenges of trying to bring low-cost or no-cost broadband to families living in affordable housing. See the press release and resulting report with policy recommendations, Building Digital Equity in Affordable Housing in Arlington, VA. The report is a tool for counties and states given the growing recognition that broadband access is a basic need to thrive in today’s society.

My colleagues became close friends and confidantes, united in so much more than a professional mission.

And yet, I still made the difficult decision to leave. Why?

Flexibility to meet my family’s needs.
The ability to work with a variety of organizations at the same time.
A desire to exercise my proposal writing muscles with more national foundations and a wider circle of government agencies and program areas.
A growing interest in exploring the other side of the funding equation: working with grantmakers.

Do I know how all of this is going to play out? Definitely not! But I’m excited about the possibilities and willing to rest in the uncertainty while I build what I hope becomes a thriving consulting practice that can serve me for the next phase of my professional journey.

Circling back to how I got started in grants…

To be fair, my job hopping earlier in my career was driven more by my husband’s career with the United States Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. I went from graduating college with degrees in English, Spanish, and Latin American studies (“But Niki, why not use your brains to become a doctor or an engineer?” said my dad) to living on my own in Cuenca, Ecuador, while my long-term boyfriend (now husband) attended graduate school for International Relations…in Kentucky of all places.

I knew then that we would probably get married. I also knew that when we did, that part of the deal was for him (Dan) to join the Foreign Service. Other parts of the package deal were to become a Denver Broncos fan and learn how to ski the Colorado slopes. But I digress…

Dan finished grad school, I returned to the States, and we married five months later at our alma mater in the middle of a January snowstorm. We knew he would be hired by the Foreign Service eventually since we were told he was at the top of the hire list. Nine months later, he was offered a position, and we moved from Rockford, Illinois (close to where my parents lived at the time) to Washington, DC, then Damascus (Syria) and Tegucigalpa (Honduras), where I got my start with writing grants.

Grants consulting means the ability to share what I’ve learned.

Twenty-five years later, I’m still writing grants. And I’m constantly learning. Which, for me, is part of the fun and the intrigue of grant writing. It’s a career that’s well suited for a consultancy.

Contact me if you’d like to explore the possibility of working together. I look forward to meeting you!