Relationships > Contracts: A Manifesto for the importance of podcasts in grantmaking

When you won a grant it was so exciting, right? But then, after a few weeks of back and forth by email, you were summoned to the grantors office to sign the contract. The Grant Manager was too busy so it was left with the receptionist. It was a 115 page document. You're a busy entrepreneur and had to get back to work. You didn't expect to have to read War and Peace all in one sitting. So you quickly flipped through it, said, "Well, I hope I'm not signing my life away" and signed on the dotted line. Anticlimactic, right?

This happened to me as an entrepreneur when we won a $350k grant for my biogas company in Kenya. It felt like a missed opportunity. We won this money and that was great but there could have been a great relationship with the grantor. Not that I was blameless in the matter; I didn't go out of my way to build a relationship with the grantor either.

What if there was a way for entrepreneurs and grantors to have a stronger connection than just legalese? What if they had a relationship the way entrepreneurs and VCs (venture capitalists) in Silicon Valley do where it's a two way street of mentoring and information sharing? What if there was a podcast where entrepreneurs and grantors could connect?

I wish there was. I wish that we could build relationships to solve the biggest problems of our time. I hope this podcast can be an icebreaker to jumpstart some of these relationships. If I knew then what I know now I would have done things differently. I wish that you have an easier time as an entrepreneur, as a grant writer and even as a grantor than I did. I wish you the best. May all your Wishes be Granted.