Diane H. Leonard, GPC, ST is an experienced and highly respected grant professional who has provided grant development counsel to nonprofit organizations of varying size and scope for more than a decade. Clients she serves include health care providers, advocacy organizations, social services agencies, elementary and secondary schools, and municipal corporations. In addition, Diane is an in-demand speaker on the topics of grant writing and grants management and regularly provides her expertise to audiences ranging from national conferences to boards of directors for small nonprofit entities.
Diane H. Leonard, GPC founded DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, LLC in 2006 and has secured more than $65.1 million dollars to date in competitive grant funds for its clients from the federal government, state and local governments, and private foundations. Diane founded DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, LLC in order to focus on increasing nonprofit capacity related to grant seeking and grant management. Her passion for providing customized technical assistance and capacity building support to nonprofits was supported in her role as a Program Officer at the Michigan Women’s Foundation, a statewide public foundation, early in her career. That passion is what fuels Diane’s approach to customizing each client’s scope and service arrangement to best meet and support their current internal grant seeking and grant management capacity.
Diane’s focus on nonprofit capacity has also led to a strong focus on increasing individual grant professional capacity within grant seeking organizations as well as within the freelance field. As a result, Diane founded #grantchat, a weekly Twitter chat for grant professionals, with her co-moderator Jo Miller, GPC, CSMS of JM Grants in April of 2013. Diane and Jo have since also founded SmartEGrants, which focuses on providing coaching, mentoring, and learning to grant professionals as well as grant seeking organizations in order to serve as a bridge between the two interests and strengthen the work of nonprofits as it relates to their grant seeking efforts.
She is an active member of the Grant Professionals Association serving on both their Social Media Committee and Grant News Committee. Diane is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York with a Bachelor’s of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations. Diane became a Grant Professional Certified through the Grant Professionals Certification Institute in April 2013.