Well-known grantwriter and teacher Rebecca (Becki) Vermillion Shawver recently passed away, and I wanted to be sure to share her story and some articles she wrote for CharityChannel. I only worked with Becki a few times but quickly saw that she was obviously a true professional in the field; she will be missed!

Rebecca Vermillion Shawver was the Director of Grant Administration at Brazosport College. She was an active member of the Grant Professionals Association and earned her GPC. Additionally, she was a member of the Council for Resource Development (CRD) for community college fund development professionals. Rebecca was a past CRD Director for Region VI and a past member of the CRD National Board. She presented numerous workshops at multiple regional and national CRD conferences.

A native-born Hoosier, Rebecca continued to serve as a consultant for agencies located in the State of Indiana. Additionally, she was the author of What Funders Want: Developing Evaluation Plans to Support Your K-12 Grant Applications (LRP Publications).

Rebecca was a dedicated volunteer working with the AFS Intercultural Programs. As the Volunteer Chair for the AFS Cradle of Texas Team, she was responsible for implementing and coordinating the AFS high school exchange program in part of Harris and all of Brazoria County, Texas. She hosted 22 exchange students over the past 25 years!

I want to share a few of Rebecca’s outstanding articles, which are among the dozens she authored for CharityChannel:

• “You Need a Grant Team!”: When teaching webinars or in-person workshops, we frequently ask participants, “How many of you have a grant team, either formal or informal?” Typically, far fewer than half of their hands go up. However, when we ask, “How many of you feel like a grant team of one?” That’s when the rest of the hands go up—far more than the first group’s.
• “We Can’t Give What We Don’t Have”: Have you ever thought about how your attitude and perceptions as a grant writer impact your organization’s development and implementation of grant-funded programs? If not, I invite you to think about it today.
• “What Makes a Winning Foundation Proposal?” I recently ran across an interesting video that was posted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. It featured short summary statements from five foundation executives about what makes a winning foundation proposal.
• “NEWS FLASH – Grantwriters Aren’t Perfect”: Yes, it’s true. Grantwriters aren’t perfect and I’m definitely one of the imperfect ones.
• “Nonprofit Partnerships: Saving Grace?”: Let’s talk about nonprofit partnerships, or “collaborative grant development” as they are formally known.