John Drew

I met Dr. Drew at one of his Grant Writing Fundamentals workshops at Rio Hondo College in 2004. I can report he was an inspirational and motivational teacher who understands the secrets of winning grant proposals. Ironically, however, the biggest impact he had on me during this class was inspiring me to finish my M.A. in Archaeology, a project which had been stalled for five grueling years due to poor relations with my committee and my frustration with the archaic rules regarding an M.A. thesis.

Thanks to Dr. Drew's coaching, I reduced the scope of my thesis to manageable levels consistent with the requirements of California State University ? Los Angeles. Although he is trained as a political scientist, he quickly grasped the received literature in my field and helped me zero in on the most significant and dramatic elements of my research ? the neglected role of sacred landscape in studies of Southwest Archaeology.

I'm particularly grateful for how Dr. Drew worked with me to understand the objections voiced by my committee members and coached me on how to be responsive to their concerns in both my thesis and my thesis defense meetings. It is hard to explain the difference this made in my life. I can only add that I was so energized by working with Dr. Drew that I actually increased the length of my M.A. thesis and added many more highly relevant photographs, captions, and field measurements to the study. I felt confident adding a lot of new, fresh material from later excavations at the site because Dr. Drew was so good at setting up an automatically updated table of contents and at applying citation rules.

Like many graduate students, I was not sure I was going to outlive the completion of my thesis. I'm pleased Dr. Drew stuck with me through the difficult times and worked extra hours so that my thesis was accepted in time for Christmas 2006. As I like to say, whenever a bell rings, another graduate student wins their Master's degree.

I have known Dr. Drew since when he started his grant writing consulting business in 2002. I was one of his first five customers. Thanks to Dr. Drew's assistance, I was able to win $350,000 in federal funding per year for three years for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence ? Orange County. This money was used to support our Juvenile Alcohol Drug Enforcement (JADE) program in collaboration with the Orange County Sherriff's Department.

Dr. Drew has also donated his time to help win $20,000 in funding from the United Way of Orange County on behalf of The First Step House of Orange Co., Inc. This is a non-profit organization that oversees the operations of Charle Street and McMillen House, two beloved institutions that facilitate social model recovery for indigent alcoholic men.

Later, I recommended Dr. Drew's services to the Reach Foundation of Newport Beach ? where I am a board member ? and I'm pleased to report that he helped them win $10,000 from the Allergan Foundation and $20,000 from the Marisla Foundation to assist women in need of sober living scholarships. Later, he also helped Serna Academy win its first competitive grant from Marisla Foundation for the establishment of Orange County's first non-profit sober high school.

Dr. Drew has a winning touch when it comes to creating compelling grant applications that produce results. Most recently, he broke new ground for Orange Coast College (OCC) when he helped them win their first $220,000 grant from the Orange County Health Care Agency for a breakthrough program in alcohol prevention services among college students.

I can report that Dr. Drew is professional, conscientious, imaginative and hard-working when it comes to implementing a grant writing campaign. He is a careful reader of the RFP. He is skilled at crafting programs that meet the needs of both the funder and the non-profit agency. As a specialist in the field of alcohol and drug prevention services, I believe Dr. Drew's grant writing has made a difference for thousands of people in the Orange County area. I recommend him to you without reservation.

I've known Dr. Drew since 2004 when I hired him as an instructor in the community services program at Rio Hondo College. His is a speaker, trainer and consultant in the field of grant research, grant writing and grant administration. Later, the college turned to him for assistance in saving a $2.4 million Title V grant which had experienced extensive delays and unusual management problems. Under Dr. Drew's leadership, Rio Hondo College received the full amount of its federal grant award when it qualified for a special one-year extension arranged by Dr. Drew.
Dr. Drew has a simple and practical way of communicating the essentials of grant writing including conformity to the standards of the funding initiative, careful reading of the source documents, and the development of programs that are powerful solutions to objective needs. Dr. Drew saves time by producing a quick first draft which provides faculty members and senior administrators like myself with plenty of time to provide their edits and comments. Dr. Drew and his staff then polish up the document so that it is error-free and highly engaging to read. Surprisingly, Dr. Drew's techniques bring tremendous emotional resonance to the usually dull, bureaucratic narrative of the grant application.

I recommend Dr. Drew's services to non-profit charities and educational institutions seeking an experienced grant writer with a remarkable knack for winning government grants.