Manager ‘grants’ city wishes

Two steak dinners, seven trips to the movie theater or a digital camera, these are just a few items each citizen of Maricopa could be treated to if the $3.1 million in grant funding that has been secured by the city’s grant manager was equally divided among the city’s population.

However, these funds have a purpose and are going to pay for sidewalks, undercover police cruisers, public safety equipment, youth services and more.

Each year, typically six months before adoption of the fiscal budget, city department heads fill out a project-planning worksheet detailing potential projects, what those projects will benefit and their goals.

Hundreds of these project sheets are then handed over to grants manager Mary Witkofski, who identifies possible grant sources and writes the money into the coming fiscal year’s budget.

“When I first started with the city I had to do things the difficult way, searching multiple state agencies, browsing periodicals and even making trips to the Chandler library in quest of information,” Witkofski said.

Witkofski said the city put in place an electronic database in late 2006 that searches for available grants based on specific criteria. It makes finding grants much easier, she added.

The reason grants are identified nearly six months in advance is because of the need to write them into the budget so they can be accepted if awarded.

“A grant is not just free money,” said city manager Kevin Evans. “Grants typically have strings tied to them, and a city has to ensure that grants it takes on forward the goals and objectives of both parties.

“Mary is great at finding those types of grants and securing them for the city,” Evans added. “She is a high quality person and a high quality producer.”

Witkofski began working for the city of Maricopa nearly five years ago after moving from Wisconsin where she was employed in the prison system for eight years as a detention officer, parole officer and classification specialist.

When she and her husband first moved to Maricopa, Witkofski worked as a victim’s advocate and as a long-term care provider, but lost her job when the company shut its doors. She started at the city with little experience in grant writing but was able to close eight of the 10 grants she wrote that first year, including one for $775,000 from the Heritage Fund to help build Pacana Park. “It is one of the grants I am most proud of,” she said.

During the next several years, the number of grants Witkofski wrote would balloon. As the only employee in the grant department, she wrote 42 grants last fiscal year alone, securing $2.2 million in funding. “A good grant writer gets one in four; last year I closed 60 percent,” she said.

She says the secret behind her success it to develop a great relationship with the funders. “I call the places we are applying to and ask them questions and let them know who we are in Maricopa long before they receive our grant application,” Witkofski said.

The grants she writes can be as simple as a paragraph and as long as 261 pages.

Witkofski says the grant proposal typically focuses on how the city will use the money, how it will measure success, a timeline for implementation, who will benefit and how it will be sustained once grant money is exhausted.

In the economic crisis being experienced by cities across the state, grants have become more important, and Witkofski said she has seen as many as 7,000 applications for one grant. However, she is not one to brag or be boastful about her accomplishments.

“I like to sit behind closed doors and just help the community to my best ability.”

Photo by Michael K. Rich