Margaret Bishop
Grant Professional + Sociology, Community Development M.S.
My Ethos
My aim is to support grassroots initiatives, nonprofits and businesses to find and secure appropriate grant funding for projects and programs that create more equitable, sustainable, and resilient communities. I believe those that are the most impacted by and on the frontlines of the complex social and environmental crises we face today should be resourced to exercise self-determination in creating the solutions that best serve them in their contexts, utilizing their community members’ unique knowledge and strengths. Grant funding for these types of grassroots efforts can foster community autonomy, strengthen local economies and social bonds, and create coalitions with like-minded communities to build larger movements.
I am excited to take on grant writing support for a wide variety of initiatives, projects and programs that align with this ethos. My background is in small-scale ecological farming, food security projects and food systems education, but I am open to working within many issue areas.
For me, the more grassroots the project or initiative, the better. Bonus points if you have already consulted with your community on the project idea, have data that shows local support for it, and/or have a participative planning process set up to design it. If you would like assistance in creating a plan to do this, I am happy to help!
My Experience
I hold an M.S. in Sociology with a focus in Community Development from South Dakota State University and B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. My background and experience is in advancing equitable, sustainable and resilient food and farming systems. I have worked on small ecological farms for eight years. In my role as Basic Needs Coordinator at the UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology, I created and sustained access channels to fresh, local, organic produce to address student food insecurity, and facilitated a myriad of hands-on educational food systems programs. This work, which I was involved in from my undergraduate career and onward, is where I gained skills in applied community development, including grant writing, grant administration and grantmaking.
In 2024, I secured over $250k in California State grant funds for Fogdog Farm, a small organic farm in El Dorado County, CA. Beginning in 2025, I have been working with Sierra Harvest’s Farm Institute as a grant coach to support small farmers in my region in finding and applying for grant opportunities. Outside of grant writing, some of my skills include qualitative social research and program evaluation, community engagement, group facilitation, co-curricular and experiential education for adults, and strategic planning.