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Krista Kurlinkus

Krista Kurlinkus, LLC.

 

Member profile details

First Name
Krista
Last Name
Kurlinkus
Organization
Krista Kurlinkus, LLC.
Title
Founder & Principal
Address Line 1
13333 White School Rd
City
Roscoe
County
Winnebago
State/Province
IL
Zip Code
61073
Headshot
 

Website / Social Platforms

 

Organization Profile

Organization Overview
At Krista Kurlinkus, LLC, we are leaders in securing grant funding at the vital intersection of Human Rights & Services and Workforce & Economic Development. Our deep expertise in these interconnected areas positions us as the go-to partner for organizations looking to create lasting, systemic change. We understand that economic development forms the foundation for sustainable human rights, and without one, the other cannot thrive.

Our track record speaks for itself. We’ve helped our clients secure tens of millions in grants from the United Nations, foreign embassies, U.S. State Department, Department of Labor, Economic Development Administration, Appalachian Regional Commission, U.S. state governments, and prominent private, community, and corporate foundations.
Organization Logo
Services
Grant writing, Education, Strategy
Practice Areas (select top 3)
  • Capacity Building
  • Development/Fundraising
  • Grant Writing/Research
  • Information Systems (Including Software, Database Support, Data Analytics)
  • Strategic planning
  • Writing/Editing
Testimonial 1
“We are so thrilled to be working with Krista Kurlinkus on our grant process. We have worked with other grant writers before, but Krista has made the process easy and professional. Krista has helped us get international grants from 5 different governments and multiple U.N. grants to help fight human trafficking in Southern Africa. She is a delight, incredibly smart, and easy to work with!
I highly recommend Krista!”

-Jennifer Crow, Executive Director, Beautiful Dream Society, Client of 5 years
Testimonial 2
“We were in the process of starting a grant application and quickly realized it was an impossible experiment without guidance from someone experienced…. Once we were introduced to Krista we developed a comfort level that she was the person to help us…Krista was always helpful and very good at follow-up…. Krista is a very warm and understanding individual. She was a pleasure to work with and helped us better understand the system.”

-Thomas Stose, Pierpont Community and Technical College
Awarded $1.7 million from the ARC and EDA
 

Publications & Articles

Article 1
““Coal Keeps the Lights On”: Rhetorics of Nostalgia for and in Appalachia. ” College English 81.2. (2018): 87-109. Print.
 

Speaker's Bureau Information

Speaker Bio
Dr. Krista Kurlinkus, founder of Grant Writing Made Easy and CEO of Krista Kurlinkus, LLC, has an impressive background as a Ph.D. in English-Rhetoric, Composition & Literacy Studies. Her ten years in grant writing consulting and education have established her as a nationally recognized expert in the field of grant writing. She is also a GPA-approved grant writing trainer.

Through her groundbreaking online course, Grant Writing Made Easy, Dr. Kurlinkus has revolutionized grant writing education, equipping over 10,000 students with the skills to effectively articulate their organizations' mission and programs, secure crucial funding, and bring their transformative projects to life.


Dr. Kurlinkus has written winning multi-million dollar federal grants; global development grants; state grants; multiple six-figure research grants; and corporate, private, and community foundation grants for over 100 nonprofit, government, and academic clients.

As a sought-after educator and consultant, she continues to be at the forefront of grant writing and technology, providing aspiring grant writers with the tools they need to succeed.
Topic 1
Advanced AI Techniques for Grant Seeking:
Enhancing Search and Assessment
Topic 1 Description
As grant professionals, we are constantly searching for ways to streamline processes while enhancing the quality of our work. This session will focus on how grantseekers can use AI to critically evaluate grant search results for alignment, feasibility, and potential impact.

What Attendees Will Learn

Finding Grant Opportunities with AI
Learn to generate a list of high-quality, targeted grant opportunities using strategic AI prompts—whether or not they have access to paid databases. The training will cover how to guide ChatGPT in identifying aligned funders, summarizing eligibility criteria, and surfacing relevant information from funder websites, IRS Form 990s, and public directories. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how to prompt, refine, and iterate searches for the most accurate and useful results.

Assessing Grant Results with AI
Discover how to use AI-driven tools to evaluate grant opportunities beyond surface-level criteria. This includes analyzing the requirements, funding trends, and historical giving patterns of grantmakers to determine their likelihood of funding your proposal. We'll explore how advance reasoning models of AI can summarize grant guidelines, highlight critical details, and flag potential red flags like eligibility issues or misaligned goals based on the real giving data.

AI for Comparative Analysis
Learn how AI can be used to compare multiple grant opportunities side by side, ranking them based on custom criteria such as funding amount, application timeline, and organizational capacity. This approach helps grant seekers prioritize opportunities with the highest ROI potential.

Practical Tools and Demonstrations
See practical demonstrations of how to process grant search results from databases like GrantStation and Instrumentl with AI. We'll explore specific prompts and workflows for improving search results and ensuring that the opportunities chosen are a good fit for the organization's mission.

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