December 30, 2016

If you want to find a job as a grant writer, you could begin your search on Indeed.com or Monster.com. A search on a traditional job site like Indeed.com can generate a long list of potential jobs, which can be a good thing. The challenge is that, while the quantity is certainly there in terms of the sheer number of jobs to review, the quality is not. Most of the hits you'll get on a general job site are not going to be for the nonprofit sector. 

A job search on websites catering to the nonprofit industry, on the other hand, yields better results for less effort.

Below are five websites that frequently post job announcements for grant writers, proposal managers, and resource development staff. All of the sites focus on positions based at nonprofit organizations and academic institutions:

Association of Fundraising Professionals: The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) is a professional organization with a global membership of 30,000 members. The organization holds annual conferences and administers a certification program. AFP’s career site is accessible to non-members and includes an option to receive job alerts based on your search.

Chronicle of Philanthropy: The Chronicle of Philanthropy is a news organization that provides information on and about fundraising, grant making, and the nonprofit sector. While most of the Chronicle content requires a paid subscription to access, the job board can be viewed for free. Postings can be sorted by position type, location, keywords, and categories such as grant seeking, donor relations, and grant administration.

Idealist: Idealist is an excellent resource for finding nonprofit work, including grant writing and other development-related positions. The site posts U.S.-based and international job openings and is a resource for information about nonprofit organizations, the nonprofit sector, and volunteer opportunities. Idealist is a free resource. It is possible to browse the job postings without creating an account, but you will need to create an account if you want to save your job search or have job alerts emailed to you.

InsideNGO: InsideNGO (now Humentum) is a member organization that works to strengthen the operational and management capacity of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). InsideNGO has a job board that is accessible to nonmembers. It also sponsors workshops on several topics including the federal grant process. The workshops are open to nonmembers and offered throughout the year.

Philanthropy News Digest: The Philanthropy News Digest (PND) is a service of the Foundation Center. The site posts current, full-time jobs at U.S.-based foundations and non-profit organizations. The PND site allows you to set up alerts for jobs, news, and RFPs of interest. The alert service is free, but you’ll need to register for an account.

For those of you interested in working in international development, two more resources to add to your list are Devex and Devnetjobs.org.

Devex has both free and paid content. There is a free job board that anyone can view, and a subscription-based service that provides access to exclusive content (30% more job postings than the free version). Devex offers subscriptions at monthly and annual rates ($19/month or $114/year).

Devnetjobs also offers free and paid content. Devnet's free weekly job newsletter lists open jobs. However, to unlock all of the job postings and set up customized job searches, you'll need to purchase a membership (two levels are offered, $48/3 months and a higher tier of services for $88/3 months).

To supplement job boards, another strategy is to make a list of state or local professional associations, nonprofits, and academic institutions of interest to you and create a schedule to view their websites on a weekly basis to catch the latest job postings.