Cover Letter Final

Greetings Hiring Team!

I am writing to express my enthusiastic interest in the open Grants Manager position with Intersection for the Arts. In a previous interview, Jae Tioseco provided a fantastic introduction to the organization’s mission, history, and culture and I am very much aligned with everything the Intersection stands for.

Elevating those who offer direct-service and creativity to the community has been a prime motivator for me in my 10+ years of work experience across artistic, business, and nonprofit contexts. I would be eager to contribute my proven talents for process design, project management, grant writing education, and financial reporting to your very capable and deeply caring team.

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Business Operations and Project Management

Developing operations based on design-thinking principles has become a passion of mine and has been the key to delivering repeatable, reliable results for stakeholders and clients throughout my career.

This is how, during my time with O2 Corporation, I was able to accurately and transparently orchestrate a multi-million dollar supply chain of parts and products in the highly-regulated aerospace industry.

In my four years of various digital marketing work, I have built dozens of multi-stage execution plans to steward projects from ideation to on-deadline delivery. I have administered workflows for both my solo projects as well as teams of up to 16 contributors utilizing project management software like Asana, Clickup, Notion, and Basecamp.

I brought these concepts with me as a marketing coordinator at bay-area housing nonprofits BOSS and St Vincent de Paul. In both cases, I was able to increase overall content output, reduce publishing turnaround times, and improve internal clarity by introducing worktools such as: master content/event calendars, fundraising campaign trackers, and automated email sequences to help onboard volunteers.

As it turns out, bringing creative dreams to life usually depends on a well-designed spreadsheet and a great checklist! ...A surprising discovery for me as a former performing artist!

Financial Competencies

The financial capabilities have evolved from experiences in a variety of fields—including nonprofit, manufacturing, and restaurant management.

The bulk of my experience with Quickbooks comes from my time at O2 Corporation. While wearing my office manager hat, I was responsible for tracking sales pipelines, quotes, invoicing, and reconciling data between Quickbooks and Fishbowl inventory management software.

My foundations in financial planning and budgeting come from owning profit-and-loss performance during my tenure as restaurant manager for Panera Bread as well as developing financial models for my ongoing personal entrepreneurship projects.

For me, focusing on performance and the accomplishment of financial goals keeps bookkeeping tasks from feeling like a burden but more like a zen practice.

Grant Writing Education

Most recently at St Vincent de Paul, I leveraged program data from Salesforce NonProfit Success Pack and funding history from Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge to contribute reporting for a $250k workforce training grant. In the process, I also gained exposure to grant prospecting with the Candid/Guidestar foundation database.

At Wichita State University, completed my BA in Performing Arts with an eye on arts management graduate programs, so I was sure to incorporate elective studies in economics, business calculus, entrepreneurship, and business systems management. However, my most valuable learning experiences came from cultivating one-on-one mentorships with local arts funding experts.

I learned the Americans for the Arts framework for grant writing in an ad-hoc internship with Justin Rorabaugh, WSU Director of Grants and Scholarship Administration for the WSU School of Fine Arts. I also spent time with John D’Angelo, former Director of Arts and Cultural Services for the City of Wichita, to learn the mechanisms (and politics) of how funding is distributed as well as how to measure and communicate program impact.

With Intersection, I would embrace the opportunity to grow my grant writing capabilities while reconnecting with my arts management roots!

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Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the possibility of contributing to Intersection for the Arts' legacy in San Francisco. Please feel free to contact me at 443-851-8512 or dkellam44@gmail.com to schedule an interview.

Sincerely,

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