Where I Get My Grant News (and everything else)

I just read 3 Steps to Using Twitter to Gather Nonprofit News by Joe Waters.  Like Joe, this Jo gets the same question, “Where do you get all of this stuff?”   My answer is the same as Joe’s answer, Twitter.  Because I love Joe’s post so much,  I am using his format and adding my personal recommendations for grant news.

I have written about grant writers using twitter before here. Now we will go through some steps to help you get great information – fast.

Here are the steps you can take to streamline your Grant and Philanthropy reading in 2013:

1. Follow These Twitter Handles

Remember, as a grant professional and coach I’m focused on grants, productivity, and leadership and the tweeps I follow reflect this. I work hard for my followers. I follow these twitter handles because they work hard to provide excellent content and inspire me!

@joewaters –  Of course! He is the inspiration for this post. Check out Selfish Giving and his Pintrest boards.

@JoanneFritz  She is a great source for nonprofit advice and tips  on About.com (and she is super nice and accessible!)

 @razoo Razzo has a great blog – that is where I found Joe’s post!

@Philanthropy  The twitter handle for the Chronicle of Philanthropy dispensing news, advice and commentary about the nonprofit world.

@pndblog  brought to you by Philanthropy News Digest and the Foundation Center

@grantdoctor Dr. Bev Browning  is the Grant Writing for Dummies author and very active in promoting the grant profession.

@heatherJWS  Heather is EVERYWHERE! And now she is sharing her wisdom and connecting folks on Twitter.

@grantspace is the Foundation Center social sector learning community and tweets about grant opportunities, workshops, webinars and much more!

@dgriesmann  I have never met Don but I love him.  His twitter profile states that he is a ‘virtual volunteer writer about grants, nongovernmental, community and faith-based organizations.” He pushes out great content like nobody’s business!

@Pegfitzpatrick – because …she is totally AWESOME.  Peg shares all kinds of amazing and valuable content that helps me every day.

2. Use Twitter Search

Great! Now that you have some awesome people to follow, you can step it up with a Twitter  search.

1. Grants
2. Philanthropy
3. #grant
4. #leadership

Searching for keywords like #nonprofit will help you monitor a broad topic. If you want specific information you can search by a specific organization like #HUD, #CDC or #DOE.  You can search by issue such as ‘homeless’, ‘housing’, ‘education’, or `aging’.  And, like Joe, we have found that #nptech is an excellent hashtag to follow.  One of my favorite places to get leadership news and inspiration is with #leadfromwithin.

By the way, did you know  ‘hashtag’ is the 2012 Word of the Year?

3. Mark Your Favorites

After you have started to follow some awesome Tweeps and you have searched Twitter for your keywords, you will find that you are getting a lot of great information in 140 characters or less. In fact, you probably won’t be able to read them all when they get posted. Don’t worry, just  ‘favorite’ the tweet and you can read it later, retweet with added value, and keep it for reference.

 Bonus Step: Lists

Joe offered 3 steps and I want to give you one more as a bonus: Lists! 

If you find that you are following a lot of great people who post on a variety of topics you can easily make a list to organize Tweeps by specialty.  If I want to find out what all my best Grant Pro Tweeps are posting without getting distracted by other topics I can simply visit my Grant Pro list. (To make it even easier, you can subscribe to my Grant Pro list!)

 If you aren’t sure about Twitter yet, you can sign up for the Daily Grant Gear where I share many of the top stories and resources from my twitter feed and other feeds. For quick access to a topic, you can use Topics drop down at the top of the page to make navigating quick!

So, now you know how I get (and share) news on grants and leadership and how Joe gets his news and information on Cause Marketing. How do you get your news and information? What are your best sources of inspiration?  We can all learn from each other and I would love to hear from you!

 By Jo Miller, GPC of JM Grants