About Grants Northwest and Michael Wells
Grants Northwest is the business name for professional grantwriter Michael Wells. Michael has been consulting on grants since 1987, helping over 100 nonprofit organizations as well as local governments, American Indian tribes and colleges to raise over $100 million. Clients have included organizations in the arts, aging, alcohol and drug services, community action, the environment, healthcare, housing, women’s services, youth and minority services. On occasion, Grants Northwest will utilize the services of other seasoned grantwriters for special projects or to handle extra projects when it is in the interest of the client.
Michael has a Masters Degree in Humanities and is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and Grant Professional Certified. He has taught Grantwriting at Portland State University since 1992 and provides workshops for community groups. He has been a presenter at national conferences for the American Association of Grant Professionals (several years), the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Council for Nonprofit Innovation. In the Pacific Northwest he has presented or trained for Technical Assistance for Community Services (TACS), Willamette Valley Development Officers (WVDO), Puget Sound Grantwriter’s Association, CNRG and the Nonprofit Network of Southwest Washington as well as others.
On a national level, Michael is a former board member of the American Association of Grant Professionals (AAGP) where he was Treasurer for 4 years and chaired the 2002 national conference in Portland. He is a past board member and president of the Grant Professionals Certification Institute (GPCI) where he was heavily involved in developing the GPC certification process. He is currently Treasurer of the new Oregon AAGP chapter.
In other writing, Michael is the author of the Grantwriting Beyond the Basics series of books: Proven Strategies Professionals Use to Make Their Proposals Work; Understanding Nonprofit Finances; and Successful Program Evaluation which are for sale on this site. He was editor of Charity Channel’s online Grants and Foundation Review for seven years and is still a contributor, to see some of his articles click this link. Michael is also a regular contributor to the Creative Class blog.
Michael loves to travel with his wonderful wife Julie — favorite destinations have included India, Bali, Machu Picchu, Europe and the Galapagos Islands as well as several places in the US, Canada and Mexico. Julie is Oregon’s premier yoga teacher. Besides travel, they love spending time with family and grandkids, dancing and going to theater and dance performances. They live in Northwest Portland with their cats Pouncer and Kelsey.
Michael has been a runner, dogged if not fast, for over 25 years (his Hood to Coast team was the Running Dogs). He is a compulsive reader and generally has 2 or more books going. He also works out, does some yoga and meditates.
Linked In bio & contact info
http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkwells
About our affiliations
Those logos across the bottom of each page are outstanding organizations Michael belongs to, or which have granted him certification.
is the national membership organization of grantwriters.
is the membership organization of fundraising professionals in the Greater Portland area.
is an internationally recognized certification of competency in fundraising.
is the national certification of grantwriters.
