Beverly “Nicki” Bentley-Colthart, MSW, new owner of The Grant Advantage, is an experienced grant writer with over 20 years of researching, drafting, and submitting awarded proposals to local, state, and Federal sources.  Nicki has a track record of receiving 70% of grant proposals submitted - securing $28 million dollars in grant funding for nonprofits and higher education institutions in West Virginia since 2000.

 

Ms. Bentley-Colthart holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work from West Virginia University.  She has honed her grant writing skills over 27 years as a social worker employed in various West Virginia social/human services agencies and as a grant administrator for two institutions of higher education (West Virginia State University and West Virginia Wesleyan College).  She has developed and delivered training workshops on grant writing basics, partnership development, budget planning, program evaluation, as well as served as an adjunct instructor at West Virginia Wesleyan College – teaching courses on grant writing and nonprofit management at the undergraduate and graduate level. 

 

Nicki has lived experience not only writing grant proposals, but managing grant awarded projects as a program director. This allows Ms. Bentley-Colthart to prepare proposals with a sensitivity to the needs of an organization’s staff to manage, implement, assess and report on grant activities after the award is made.