Making Grants Ours: Decolonizing Grant Writing Strategies and Tactics

Join Food System 6 and our partner DAISA Enterprises for an interactive learning session about how to navigate grant funding to accelerate your food system innovation!

This past year has shown, more than ever, the need for alternative business solutions to the challenges faced by our planet and our communities. Grant funding is a non-dilutive capital tool for creative entrepreneurs, but it comes with a catch: finding, writing, and stewarding grant funding can be time consuming and overwhelming. Our community of food system entrepreneurs has spoken - there is a need to share skills, learnings, and best practices for navigating this landscape and we are bringing in some experts to help!

In this session, you will hear from FS6 grant writing partner, DAISA, as well as our in-house expert, Kim Karris, on how to write a great proposal, how to find the right grants, when you should bring on external support, and more! Join us for an hour of learning, followed by 30 minutes of open discussion and Q&A to get your questions answered.

REGISTER FREE HERE

Speakers

Kim Karris

Head of Strategic Development
Food System 6

S. Maham Rizvi

Food Systems Associate
DAISA Enterprises

Daniel Ross

Partner and CEO
DAISA Enterprises
Kim Karris: As both a career fundraiser and philanthropic funder, Kim has spent the last 15 years developing creative strategies to raise millions for nonprofits and direct catalytic capital to social, environmental, and food justice movements. Most recently, Kim served as the Executive Director of Food Well Alliance where she mobilized a regional coalition of policymakers, funders, farmers and community food entrepreneurs that worked together to change policies, invest in solutions and amplify the role of local, sustainable agriculture in improving the health of communities across metro Atlanta. As a member of the start-up team, she helped raise over $10 million in capital, built a devoted network of local supporters and developed the organization’s formative grantmaking and capacity building program, including the “Food Innovation Fellowship” -- a business accelerator for Atlanta’s community food entrepreneurs. Under Kim’s leadership, nearly $5 million was invested directly in 200 urban farmers and food entrepreneurs to build their collective power as they work toward a sovereign, regenerative and equitable food system.
Maham Rizvi (she/they) has more than 10 years experience in the food industry in the U.S. and abroad spent cooking in restaurants, working on farms, with social enterprises and NGO's, and through grassroots organization.  She leads strategy assistance with community based organization clients, and has managed team processes to develop partnerships and secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in USDA grants for clients.  In her prior roles she has worked as Program and Sponsorship Coordinator at the MIT Enterprise Forum and as a Program Director with Slow Foods International in Italy.  Maham has an education in journalism and gastronomic sciences with a focus on agroecology and identity, and a BA in Gastronomy from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy
Daniel Ross: As Partner and CEO of DAISA Enterprises LLC, Daniel specializes in supporting development of food & environmental enterprises and innovative programs in underserved communities.  Works with entrepreneurs to strengthen business plans as well as the mission-driven investors and funders wanting to maximize their impact across health, community development and social equity. Daniel has extensive experience working with diverse communities, able to bridge community perspectives to national level strategy and systems change. Daniel is recognized as a leading social entrepreneur with a lifetime fellowship from Ashoka – Innovators for the Public Good.

Daniel has helped businesses and nonprofits secure millions of dollars in funding through the preparation of successful business plans, pro forma and dozens of applications to prominent foundations and federal agencies, ranging from HHS & EDA to EPA & USDA (including Community Food Projects, Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Program, Risk Management Agency & Risk Management Education, Farmers’ Market Promotion Program, Beginning/Immigrant Farmer Initiatives, Specialty Crops and USDA/EDA Innovation Clusters). He has led initiatives with health foundation clients such as Kresge, Robert Wood Johnson and Rockefeller.