GPCI is dedicated to the public good and so believes that it is imperative that as the field emerges, it does so with the consumer situated front and center. It believes that it is essential for the nonprofit community, as well as the community-at-large, to understand the role grant professionals play in the overall health and/or benefit of the organization, and the power it has over the outcomes of its fund seeking.
Private and public sector administrators/board members will have the knowledge and tools to better assess an individual’s knowledge-base, performance abilities, integrity and ethical standards as they relate to the grant development process make informed decisions regarding the relevance of funding opportunities to programming and the actual needs of their constituents have an enhanced capacity to identify, develop, implement, accomplish, evaluate and report on its goals make optimum utilization of grantsmanship to further their organizations’ mission.
The funding community will be better assured that the goals and programming put forth by grant seekers are indeed in alignment with the funders’ goals, attainable and responsive to the needs of the program beneficiaries see the relationship between funder, grant seeker and grant developer strengthened.
Grant writers and grant developers will have a better understanding of the role they play within an organization or entity and the programmatic skills and ethical standards required to be a grant professional.
The grant development and management fields will be a nationally recognized credential attesting to experience and qualification, affording it with the same benefits that the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential affords the fund raising field. It will also be recognized as a distinct accountable profession with its own skill sets and knowledge base and be positioned to guide the direction government takes toward regulation.
Beneficiaries of philanthropy will have programs and services that more accurately reflect their needs.
Job marketability – Through certification, employers can be more secure in their hiring practices. Established standards can be used by grants professionals to educate employers. Job descriptions will better reflect the true work we do. And equitable compensation will follow. Employers and funders will be more efficiently served by qualified grant developers rather than unqualified grant writers who may waste time and money producing unrealistic programs that do not meet funder goals. Certification offers a way to make this distinction.
Government Regulation – In addition to the myriad of benefits to us as individuals and to the beneficiaries whose lives we affect, certification is important as we track the movement by government to regulate and/or license the grants profession. With almost half of our nation’s states already requiring some form of registration, the tenor of regulation is resonating louder each day. The question becomes “should the grants profession influence government by providing them with valid information and mechanisms that we, as grants professionals, have produced or should government take the lead and define our profession?” Certification should not be viewed as a policing agent or gatekeeper, and it should not be thought of as a noose around our necks. Certification allows us to stand out as a profession, increase our stature among other professions and influence authority.
Independently established credibility stands as one of the main benefits of a nationally-recognized certification/credential. For fields such as ours where there is no recognized academic degree, certification is the only authoritative, independent measure available by which to determine a person’s experience, skill and knowledge base as defined by our peers.