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PEAK Grantmaking

Member of the Moment: Amy Hall

GMN regularly features members on our blog to demonstrate the diversity of our association and expand opportunities for connections. Want to be featured? Email Leah Farmer (lfarmer@peakgrantmaking.org). 

 

Meet Amy Hall, Grants Manager at The Foundation for a Healthy High Point

Q. How did you get into grants management?

While I was working on my undergraduate degree, I uncovered a passion for volunteering and working with non-profits. With teachers and mentors who helped me channel this passion into a career, along with my ability to wear “multiple hats”, I’ve had the opportunities to develop my technical and analytical skills, imperative for grants management and program evaluation. My career in philanthropy started at Healthcare Georgia Foundation in a program assistant role and evolved to a programmatic role while also allowing me to assist in both grant application processing and review.

After 7 years at HGF, serving lastly in a programmatic role and assisting with application reviews, I was able to transition into a grants management role at the Foundation for a Healthy High Point. The opportunity to start from scratch and custom build our processes, all the while refining my own skills, has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Q. What’s your background (education and work)?

I have a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and a certification in Nonprofit Management from Georgia College & State University. I worked briefly at a Children’s Museum in Atlanta before joining Healthcare Georgia Foundation. I began with The Foundation for a Healthy High Point in 2015, and I am currently part of the Southeast Chapter of Grant Managers Network leadership team.

Q. What’s your favorite part of the grants management job?

I’m a curious person, and I really enjoy learning news things, problem solving, and using lessons learned to improve operations and processes. Whether it’s relief in a grantee’s voice after an issue is resolved, or gratitude in colleagues’ voices after they obtain the information they need to make informed decisions, I take pride in being able to help them get there.

Q. What frustrates you about your job?

I heard a colleague once say that when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. I took that to heart and try to use that as a lens in my ever-growing tasks list. While this can be a good thing to get the priority tasks done first, it does cut into time for big-picture problem solving and other large-scale projects that I would like to focus on more. Like most philanthropy professionals, I wish for more time, greater efficiency, and a clean desk!

Q. What do you wish your colleagues and coworkers knew about what you do?

It’s more in-depth and exciting than it sounds! Sure, grant managers have a lot of paperwork and legal considerations to factor into the process, but we also have the opportunity to dig into data and provide a perspective to the grant review process that can aid to further refinement and successful projects.

Q. What do you wish every grants manager knew about their job?

Even though we may work solo in some of our daily tasks, we are rarely siloed. I have learned so much from my GMN colleagues, and I don’t know what I would have done without the education and resources shared throughout the community while FHHP was setting up various systems and processes. Every grants manager should know that no matter the situation you have at hand, there is someone else out there who has dealt with it before and has wisdom (or a template!) to share.